Euro 2008: Pick your deadliest Groups of Death

By: Jan | November 22nd, 2007

   

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The Euro 2008 qualifiers are over, and all but one of the traditional European football powers booked their tickets to Austria and Switzerland. This sets up a tournament with a couple of potentially lethal groups, as the strange seeding procedure completely snubs Euro or World Cup performances or FIFA World Rankings. As such World Cup runner-ups France end up in pot 4, while Greece (as defending champion) are top seeded. In detail the four pots look like the following:

Pot 1: Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Greece (holders), Netherlands
Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden
Pot 3: Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain
Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia

Now, as Mark Ledsom from the Reuters Soccer Blog suggested looking at the set up of each pot, they could have just as well gone for a completely random draw. But it also promises a fun group stage, where a lot of the big dogs could eliminate each other early on. While a group with e.g. the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France sounds mouth-watering, I’d personally probably rather pick several groups with three big names each instead. The official draw takes place on December 2nd.

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Comments  

• Jan |  November 22nd, 2007 at 8:53 am

  
  
  

  Here’s my pick:

  Group A: Switzerland, Sweden, Romania, Turkey
  Group B: Austria, Italy, Germany, France
  Group C: Greece, Croatia, Portugal, Russia
  Group D: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain, Poland

  Group A is obviously the easiest on paper, though Romania topped their group ahead of the Netherlands. But it should give Switzerland a fair chance to advance to the next round. And it’s always good for a tournament when the host stays in the competition a bit longer.

  Group B is the toughest group in order to give the Austrians a good excuse, why they didn’t advance to the next round. The rivalry match against Germany will be a bonus for them as well. Plus: Germany can take revenge for the World Cup semi-final and France can once again try and take revenge for the World Cup final.

  Group C is a potentially deadly group as well IMHO. Greece have recently returned to form, Croatia proved their worth against England and Guud Hidink has plans for Russia as well I’m sure, so Portugal could be in trouble.

  Group D is a classic group of death, though the Czech Republic are a bit of an unknown entity. They topped their group against Germany, but benefited from lacklustre displays from Germany after early qualification.

  

• Musab |  November 22nd, 2007 at 10:04 am

  
  
  

  Im looking at:
  Group A: Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Russia
  Group B: Austria, Sweden, Germany, Turkey
  Group C: Greece, Croatia, Spain, France
  Group D: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, and Poland

  

• Martha |  November 22nd, 2007 at 10:36 am

  
  
  

  It cracks me up that UEFA’s desperately elaborate numerical system results in, as you say, four buckets that look TOTALLY RANDOM.

  

• Ian |  November 22nd, 2007 at 2:41 pm

  
  
  

  That has got to be the weakest Pot 1 in the history of the Euros. Switzerland, Austria, Greece and Holland? Yikes.