Whats the toughest group? [Multiple results included]

[Ceres]

Team and ranking WC-02 finals Euro-00 finals WC-98 finals
Group A
Spain - 3 Quarter finals Quarter finals 3rd in group play
Portugal - 20 3rd in group play Semi finals Didnt qualify
Russia - 30 3rd in group play Didnt qualify Didnt qualify
Greece - 34 Didnt qualify Didnt qualify Didnt qualify

It looks like a easy ride for Spain and the home team Portugal in this group, Russia only came in 2nd in their Q-group behind Switzerland and didnt look too solid in the play-off's vs. Wales either.. Greece are happy to have qualified for the Euro finals for the first time since 1980, when they came in last in the group play, though they managed getting a draw vs. the later champions Germany..




Team and ranking WC-02 finals Euro-00 finals WC-98 finals
Group B
France - 2 Last in group play Champions Champions
England - 12 Quarter finals 3rd in group play 2nd round
Croatia - 25 3rd in group play Didnt qualify Semi finals
Switzerland - 47 Didnt qualify Didnt qualify Didnt qualify

This should be fairly easy for France and England, Croatia only came in 2nd in their Q-group behind Bulgaria and they had a hard time beating Slovenia in the play-off's as well...Switzerland have only qualified for the Euro finals once before, when they came in last in the group play at the Euro 1996 finals, but getting a draw vs. England ..so perhaps ?? ;)...



Team and ranking WC-02 finals Euro-00 finals WC-98 finals
Group C
Italy - 11 2nd round Final Quarter finals
Denmark - 14 2nd round Last in group play Quarter finals
Sweden - 21 2nd round Last in group play Didnt qualify
Bulgaria - 38 Didnt qualify Didnt qualify Last in group play

A very tough group with 4 Q-group winners, Italy was in the final at Euro-00 and they look strong at the moment, so do Denmark who have only lost one away game since the defeat vs. England at the WC finals two years ago, Denmark is also the only team besides Germany who have played at all the finals the past 20 years. Even Bulgaria looks strong at the moment, though it will be only the 2nd time they have qualified for the Euro finals. In 1996 the came in 3rd in their group, beating Romania and getting a draw vs. Spain...

Sweden is actually the big ? in this group. Since they lost at home to Latvia in ther Q-group last year they have gone from one defeat to the other, only getting a lucky draw vs. Portugal and a 1-0 win vs. an England B team in a horrible poor match.. No doubt Sweden have some good players, but Swedens biggest atvantage is always their excellent teamwork, and they just dont seem to work that well as a team at the moment !... However, Italy seem to have some trouble beating Scandinavian opponents, so who knows what will happen in this group ??...




Team and ranking WC-02 finals Euro-00 finals WC-98 finals
Group D
Holland - 4 Didnt qualify Semi finals Semi finals
Germany - 9 Final Last in group play Quarter finals
Czech Rep - 10 Didnt qualify 3rd in group play Didnt qualify
Latvia - 52 Didnt qualify Didnt qualify Didnt qualify

A very unpredictable group with some big "names" and totally unknown Latvia, but though Latvia probably will do a solid preformance as a team, the question is how well the 3 big "names" will do ??...

Neither Holland or the Czech Rep. managed to qualify for the WC-02. Holland came in 3rd in their q-group behind Portugal and Ireland. The Czech Rep. came in 2nd behind Denmark and was then beaten in both their play-off games by Belgium... Both Holland and the Czech Rep. qualified for this tournament in the same group with little resistance from teams like Austria and Moldova.. and with Holland beating Scotland in the play-off's ... However, looking at the latest results, it seems that the Czech Rep. have the upper hand vs. Holland ...

Germany managed to reach the WC-02 finals, but they dont look very solid at the moment and they didnt do too well at the Euro-00 finals either... Noone expect anything from Latvia, but it's a good defending and hardworking team that should not be underestimated. Latvia beat both Sweden (away) and Turkey (home) on their way to the finals...

[DayVeeCRO]

Group B will be not be easy for France and England. Croatia will go to 1/4 finals.

[Suss]

I think Group D is the "group of death" with 3 teams that could potentially win the tournament. Latvia should be a walkover, but its the only group that is definelty sending home a powerhouse.

The other most interesting group is Group C. Italy are favorites to reach the final, but Denmark and Sweeden are both very good teams. Denmark vs Sweeden is one of the games I am most looking foward to because it will probably decide who get a place in the quaterfinal. Bulgaria are capable of coming out of the group as well.

I think Spain, Portugal, France, and England will all make it out of their groups without too much of a problem.

[Gunners11]

Group B will be not be easy for France and England. Croatia will go to 1/4 finals.

I agree. I think it would be foolish for France and England to over-look Croatia, as they showed in previous compitions, they can get it together, and play well (minus the 2002 WC). Croatia will be through to the quarters!

The toughest group has to be Group D. Three of the four teams have a shot, even if it's a long-shot to win the group and even advance to the semi's/final's. Watch out for Italy, if they play to their "potential" they could go all the way.

[Excape Goat]

The other most interesting group is Group C. Italy are favorites to reach the final, but Denmark and Sweeden are both very good teams. Denmark vs Sweeden is one of the games I am most looking foward to because it will probably decide who get a place in the quaterfinal. Bulgaria are capable of coming out of the group as well.
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Plus, it is almost exactly 10th year to the day that Sweden beat Bulgaria for third place at WC 1994. The Bulgarian FA is holding ceremony for the event. The current Bulgarians might get fired up for the event. I have not written off the Bulgarians yet, but they probably ended up the spoilers. The Swedes and the Danes have a history of doing well in one tournament and disappearing the next, or the other way around. So it seemed they are on a down cycle.

Denmark - 14 2nd round Last in group play Quarter finals
Sweden - 21 2nd round Last in group play Didnt qualify

[Ceres]

The other most interesting group is Group C. Italy are favorites to reach the final, but Denmark and Sweeden are both very good teams. Denmark vs Sweeden is one of the games I am most looking foward to because it will probably decide who get a place in the quaterfinal. Bulgaria are capable of coming out of the group as well.

Just some info about group C ...

Did you know that no "A"-match between Italy and Denmark have ever ended with a draw ?. It's also very unlikely that the game between Sweden and Denmark ends with a draw, if it does, then it would be the first time in 22 years. Bulgaria have not managed to beat Denmark the past 18 years..


Plus, it is almost exactly 10th year to the day that Sweden beat Bulgaria for third place at WC 1994. The Bulgarian FA is holding ceremony for the event. The current Bulgarians might get fired up for the event. I have not written off the Bulgarians yet, but they probably ended up the spoilers. The Swedes and the Danes have a history of doing well in one tournament and disappearing the next, or the other way around. So it seemed they are on a down cycle.

Actually Sweden didnt qualify for the WC-98 finals and didnt do well at the Euro-00 finals either, and they have only played at the Euro finals twice before, as hosts in 1992 and then in 2000 ...so I dont see much of a cycle ??

It's true that though Denmark have played at all the Euro finals the past 20 years, they have had some up's and down's, but looking at the stats, it seem Denmark do well every 20 years, by reaching the semi finals in both 1964 and 1984 ...so perhaps also 2004 ?? ;) ...

and then ofcause Denmark became champions in 1992 ...
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[Galvatron]

Group D is by far the toughest Group. Though, I am not expecting much from Germany. Theyv'e also just lost a strong midfield force - Carsten Ramelow to retirement. The Netherlands and the Czech Republic should advance.

[NoddyHoldersSideburn]

As stated above Group D is the widely regarded "Group of Death"....who will emerge from it?...Cant see past Holland and Czech Rep unfortunatly for the "Chermans"

[Ceres]

Group D is by far the toughest Group. Though, I am not expecting much from Germany. Theyv'e also just lost a strong midfield force - Carsten Ramelow to retirement. The Netherlands and the Czech Republic should advance.


Well, I'm sorry I dont share your view, but then again, I would never rate a team looking at how many great players they may have or how big a "name" ppl think they are... I only look at how well they actually do as a team and then rate them by their preformance in important games looking at the past few Tournaments...

so ther are actually 9 teams at this tournament who have done much better than the Czech Rep since the Euro-00 finals....and 10 teams if you look at the past 3 finals...I dont care about their high ranking, in my book you actually have to show your are good enough and preform to get a high rateing... and the Czech Rep. havent done that for a long time... It's not like they were unlucky not to qualify for the WC-02 finals, they were simply not as good as Denmark and they were also beaten twice by Belgium....thats a simple fact...

As you say, you dont expect much from Germany, and who expects anything from Latvia ?? ... The Czech's havent shown anything the past 3 finals, so why then should Group D be "by far" the toughest Group ??
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[IASocFan]

GROUP D is the toughest.

Czech put the Netherlands in the playoffs for Euro 04, Germany and the Netherlands are almost always tough. But then, I was one of many who picked Germany and England to come out of the group with Slovenia and Portugal in Euro2K.

[Ceres]

GROUP D is the toughest.

Czech put the Netherlands in the playoffs for Euro 04, Germany and the Netherlands are almost always tough. But then, I was one of many who picked Germany and England to come out of the group with Slovenia and Portugal in Euro2K.

so were where the "tough" Netherlands at the WC-02 finals ?? ... They never got to the finals because they were beaten by Portugal and Ireland, and that dosnt make Ireland among the favorites to win anything, so why should it make the Czech Rep. a favorite at the Euro-04 finals ?? ...

I agree, that the Netherlands and the Czech Rep. have some great players and big "names", but looking at the past few tournaments I dont see why ppl rate the Czech Rep. so high, just because the have managed to beat the Netherlands ??...
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[NoddyHoldersSideburn]

GROUP D is the toughest.

Czech put the Netherlands in the playoffs for Euro 04, Germany and the Netherlands are almost always tough. But then, I was one of many who picked Germany and England to come out of the group with Slovenia and Portugal in Euro2K.

wasnt it Romania and Portugal?

[Ceres]

wasnt it Romania and Portugal?

Yes, Portugal won the group with 9 points, Romania 4 p, England 3 p and Germany last with 1 p ...

[KanKeano's DefPosts]

I agree, that the Netherlands and the Czech Rep. have some great players and big "names", but looking at the past few tournaments I dont see why ppl rate the Czech Rep. so high, just because the have managed to beat the Netherlands ??...
so where were the french last world cup and argentina???out in the group stages. Doesn't make em bad teams does it?. Germans have been embarrassed by too many mediocre teams recently to do anything and has for the czechs it was only a couple of years ago they were beating the French in Paris 2-0.

[Ceres]

so where were the french last world cup and argentina???out in the group stages. Doesn't make em bad teams does it?. Germans have been embarrassed by too many mediocre teams recently to do anything and has for the czechs it was only a couple of years ago they were beating the French in Paris 2-0.

Okay, so tell me why the czechs should be a bigger favorite than e.g. Sweden or Denmark in group C ?? ... Both Denmark and the czechs have beaten France 2-0 , the Danes were clearly better when they beat the czechs and qualified for the WC-02 finals, and Denmark have also done much better the past 3 tournaments ..and so have Sweden, since the czechs only managed to qualify for Euro-00 ??...
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[Galvatron]

Well, I'm sorry I dont share your view, but then again, I would never rate a team looking at how many great players they may have or how big a "name" ppl think they are... I only look at how well they actually do as a team and then rate them by their preformance in important games looking at the past few Tournaments...

so ther are actually 9 teams at this tournament who have done much better than the Czech Rep since the Euro-00 finals....and 10 teams if you look at the past 3 finals...I dont care about their high ranking, in my book you actually have to show your are good enough and preform to get a high rateing... and the Czech Rep. havent done that for a long time... It's not like they were unlucky not to qualify for the WC-02 finals, they were simply not as good as Denmark and they were also beaten twice by Belgium....thats a simple fact...

As you say, you dont expect much from Germany, and who expects anything from Latvia ?? ... The Czech's havent shown anything the past 3 finals, so why then should Group D be "by far" the toughest Group ??
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Germany went to the World Cup final of 2002 thanks to the big guns getting knocked out early. Their strenth isn't reflected from their World Cup performance, but from their EURO 2000 performance. Just like 4 years ago, Germany will get knocked out in the first round. The Netherlands have far better players, in every line, and in recent friendlies the Dutch were better than the Germans.
Also Denmark's World Cup fluke shouldn't be a measuring stick of their strentgth, but rather their performance during EURO 2000. I expect those nobody's to not get the better of Italy and Sweden, and Bulgaria will probably beat them too ;)

[Ceres]

Also Denmark's World Cup fluke shouldn't be a measuring stick of their strentgth, but rather their performance during EURO 2000. I expect those nobody's to not get the better of Italy and Sweden, and Bulgaria will probably beat them too ;)


Yes, I guess your right that it was pure luck that Denmark by mistake outplayed the czechs to qualify for the WC-02 and then won their group at the finals by beating france 2-0 ;) ... I also agree that it's pure luck that only Germany and Denmark have played at all the Euro finals the past 20 years ...hehe
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[Galvatron]

Yes u were lucky, too bad youv'e got no balls to admit, that had a fully fit Zidane been playing again the amatueristic Danish team, and had Henry not been suspended, then they wouldv'e walsed over them twice, just like during EURO 2000.

Seriously, what are u expecting from a team with the likes of Henriksen, Laursen, Gronkjaer, Tomasson, and Rommedahl??? And I know Rommedahl, I get to see week in week out how crap he is. :)

[Ceres]

Yes u were lucky, too bad youv'e got no balls to admit, that had a fully fit Zidane been playing again the amatueristic Danish team, and had Henry not been suspended, then they wouldv'e walsed over them twice, just like during EURO 2000.

Perhaps you forget, that noone in Denmark actually expected that it would be easy for Denmark to qualify for the WC-02 with the rather "new/young" team. But to much surprise Denmark was clearly better than the czechs when they managed to qualify. Except for the Euro-00, France have never been able to just "walse over Denmark" in any important game, actually the stats looks quite even....

Euro-84 in France !
France 1-0 Denmark
Euro-92
Denmark 2-1 France
WC-98 in France !
France 2-1 Denmark
Euro-00
France 3-0 Denmark
WC-02
Denmark 2-0 France

Seriously, what are u expecting from a team with the likes of Henriksen, Laursen, Gronkjaer, Tomasson, and Rommedahl??? And I know Rommedahl, I get to see week in week out how crap he is.:)

The Danish key players are Thomas Gravesen (Everton), Martin Jørgensen (Udinese) and Jon Dahl Tomasson (AC Milan) ...

also Thomas Sørensen (Aston Villa), Thomas Helveg (Inter), Martin Laursen (Aston Villa), Niclas Jensen (Dortmund), Claus Jensen (Charlton) and Jesper Grønkjær (Chelsea) play a very important role...

other player who have done an excellent job lately for the NT, in the 3-2 away win vs. England and 1-0 away win vs. Turkey, are the young defender Per Krøldrup (Udinese), defender Brian Priske (Genk), midfielder Daniel Jensen (Murcia) and forward Kenneth Perez (AZ Alkmaar) ...

As for Henriksen, most danes thinks that he's "over the hill", and though it's true that for actual measured pace Dennis Rommedahl is the quickest player in the world, his crosses are horrible inaccurate. In Denmark most ppl think he's crap and not good enough for the starting 11, and neither do any of the experts or NT coach Morten Olsen, so he has not been a real part of the NT since a NT game in Copenhagen when he was buuhed all the time.... Though he was selected for the Euro-04 squad, I'm quite sure we wont see him in the starting 11...

As for Jon Dahl Tomasson...some ppl like him and some ppl dont, but he surely know how to score goals even though he only gets to play an average 41 minutes of each match for AC Milan... With that in mind, 12 goals in 26 games this season is not that bad ;) (I would say excellent !)... and lets not forget that Tomasson actually scored 4 goals in 4 games at the WC-02 finals just like Christian Vieri. If you look at the scoring rate and compair Tomasson (58 caps, 27 goals) with e.g. Henrik Larsson statistics (SWE 73 caps, 24 goals), you will find that Jon Dahl surely is Worldclass for Denmark. Also Tomasson usually always score the important goals in important games...


Seriously, what are u expecting

The Danish team is getting better and better, and has not lost more than 1 away game since the WC-02 finals 2 years ago, the defeat was a friendly in Spain, but it was actually Denmark outplaying Spain in the 1st half, with Spain scoring on one of their very few counter attacks... Then Spain were more impressive in the second-half, when they played with ther best first-team regulars and Denmark used most of their sub's ... so with that in mind, what do you think I should expect ??

http://www.soccerage.com/en/13/u1873.html
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[Galvatron]

You should expect nothing, but apparently your'e one of the few people who is blinded by these amateurs.
France didn't walse over Denmark in that EURO 2000 game? hahaha, go back to sleep. Not only did France "easily" put three goals past the overdue Schmeichel, France was by far stronger throughout the whole game, and shouldv'e scored at least 2 more goals. Also, in the first half you still did well with your 11-man defence, but in the second-half Holland walked over you nobody's too with quite some ease, and they coulv'e punished the Danish too like they did to Yugoslavia.

The players you mentioned are all seriously average, not any better than what Sweden or Bulgaria has. As I said, I can see week in week out how crap Rommedahl is, and I can also see how crap Perez is. Everybody in Holland couldn't stop laughing when it was rumoured he was going to join Ajax. :D
Jorgensen? is he still alive? once one of the biggest talents, now just a nobody with Udinese in the sub-top/mid-table range in Italy. Gronkjaer? he may have scored some lucky goals lately, but I assume you know that he's getting rightfully being put on the flea market this summer.
Laursen, Jensen, and Helveg are also, all defenders that NO striker should have any fear off, and Tomasson, as everyone knows, is nothing more than a "moment" player, a super-sub, somebody who you throw on in the last minutes and pray to god that the ball fortunately falls at his feet.

Denmark is getting better? I don't think so. You played totally crap in World Cup 98, then surprised everyone by actually producing some decent football against Nigeria and Brazil, but in World Cup 2002, your matches against Senegal and Uruguay were putting people to sleep, and against England you were simply no match for them. And England isn't exactly a world power anymore these days.