[benztown]

So none of the teams out of the group of death survived the quarter finals. Was Group C not as tough as expected?
Or were it exactly those tough matches that cost Italy and Holland the semi final because they were exhausted?

[Pit-182]

RIP

Probably this is really Germany or Spain's time.

Romania was good but had bad luck and played bad against Holland
Holland after those two awesome victories lost its brain completely
Italy was a tired team... but I'm happy we defeated France
France demonstrated that until 2010 we're world champion and we deserve that title and that they are too overrated after that (only) WC in 1998.

See you all in 2010.

[DaveyGorgeous]

Originally Posted by benztown

So none of the teams out of the group of death survived the quarter finals. Was Group C not as tough as expected?
Or were it exactly those tough matches that cost Italy and Holland the semi final because they were exhausted?

I think it was the latter, especially considering that the two teams that survived the group of death went on to play 120minutes in the quarterfinals.

[sinner78]

group of death teams always burn out fast in tournaments.
Playing 3 hard group games is difficult .

in WC 2006 the group of death was probably holland ,serbia ,ivory coast and argentina.
None of those teams got past the QF.

In WC 2002 the group of death was england ,argentina ,nigeria and sweden.
again none of those teams got past the QF.

[Roland25]

in EC 1996 , group of death was Germany, Italy, Czech and Russia. Germany and Czech made the final at the end.

[glennaldo_sf]

Originally Posted by Roland25

in EC 1996 , group of death was Germany, Italy, Czech and Russia. Germany and Czech made the final at the end.

hmm.. I don't know about that... that was back in 1996. Czech Rep & Russia were competing in their first Euros as independent nations and were kind of unknown qualities. I think the real group of death there was France, Spain, Romania and Bulgaria - the latter two had just reached the QF & SF of the world cup 2 years prior.

[Detlef1961]

Originally Posted by DaveyGorgeous

I think it was the latter, especially considering that the two teams that survived the group of death went on to play 120minutes in the quarterfinals.

Except that Holland rested 9 (am I right here on the number?) of their top players during their third group game.
Claiming that the Dutch team was exhausted seems just slightly exaggerated.
If it was only that, surely the Dutch team with a rest period of a week (June 13 to June 21) would have won against a Russian team playing against Sweden on June 18?

[Suyuntuy]

I think it's simpler than that.

Your future rivals study how you play. If you're in a group of death, you have to show all your cards early.

After you have done so, winning is going to be much more difficult.

[XaviandXabi]

only two teams came out and its pretty easy to explain why they didn't go too far.

Holland pulled a Dutch

Italy was unlucky to lose Pirlo, they were then relying on a catenaccio style of play to win however they never got that goal and lost on PK which Italy usually don't win (2006 was the exception, 94 and 98 the example) not to mention Spain is a top quality side.

[UEFA2008]

All these excuses...

Whatever happened to "They were just not good enough"?