Portugal, Greece and Russia. Looks like a decent group, but anytime you are facing the host country, it's an uphill battle. Just like with almost every tournament, Spain has the talent to beat these teams, but who's to say how it will play out on the field. I'm surprised nobody else has posted this yet. Spain will have an opportunity to avenge their loss of the qualifying group to Greece by knocking them out in the actual tournament. Definitely, the match of the group will be the Iberian derby, Portugal-Spain. Probably the last hurrah for Portugal's Golden Generation.
Don't understimate the Russians and Mostovoi and of course, Greece, the reason why Spain had to go the extra games. I still think that both Spain and Portugal, are the slight favorites, in a tourney where coming on 1st or 2nd does not matter, the next round will be difficult no matter what.
If Spain has any aspirations of winning the tournament then they must beat teams such as Russia and Greece. I really think the first game, versus Russia, is going to be key. It will set the tone for the rest of the tournament. So much of Spain's problem is mental and confidence. If they play well and get a win versus Russia then they'll start to believe in themselves. One thing that always seems to be a problem is the manager. For whatever reason Spain cannot get a good one. I'm not sure if it's because it's not a high profile position or what the problem is. Look at the last three coaches, Clemente, Camacho, and Iñaki. Now they aren't bad coaches but they're not very good ones either. What have they won in their careers as coaches? Perhaps Iñaki shouldn't included as this is his real first opportunity with senior players but from what I've seen he isn't any better than Camacho. As far as the Euro group goes, if Spain does as expected and win the first two games versus Russia and Greece it will make the Portugal irrelevant (well it could determine the matchup in the next round). Too bad the Portugal-Spain game wasn't the first one.
Would have rather seen the first match to be against Portugal as well, meh. I'm glad we're in the same group as Greece again, I was hoping for the ball to have Spain in it even though the group also had Portugal, no time like the present (or rather half a year from now) to show what a fluke game Spain's home match against Greece was. They won't get so lucky two times in a row. Portugal is pretty much simmilar to Spain, has had some good teams in the past, but never doing much in the tournaments themselves. I have a good feeling about playing against them though, not that the recent 0-3 friendly game will matter much come june, it does show Spain has more than the ability to beat this team in their home country. Plus the score looks so sexy: Portugal vs Spain 0-3 Russia could be troublesome, could also be easy peasy. We'll see. Can't wait for june.
First of all:- Am really glad that we are in the same group as Greece, Revenge will be sweet! Secondly, did you guys hear the roar that Spain received when the announcer opened the card and said that Spain will be in group A? The ONLY time the audience showed any sign of life!!! Very cool, you can go to UEFA.COM and see the video there. I simply can not wait for this tournament to begin, hopefully we won’t disappoint, this is the first time we go through a lot of trouble to qualify since a long time so maybe our luck will change this time.
I have a weird feeling that Spain will win this one. 1) Spain has done well in European Championship every 20 years. 1964 Champion 1984 runnerup 2004..... 2) Raul is doing poorly this season. The star player of a championship sometimes failed to perform the season prior to the tournament.
Although his La Liga stats haven't been too good, Raul really carried the team against Norway (although an argument can be made for Valeron's importance also.) 2 goals, including that all important first away goal in Norway, really saved Spain. I think Raul will really carry the team in Portugal next summer, I just hope he's not exhausted from Real playing all of those games in La Liga and Champions.
If you look back at WC 2002, a few inches kept Portugal from tying South Korea and moving on, relagating Bruce Arena to Steve Sampson status. But since Portugal didn't score and the US went to the knockout rounds, beating Mexico and playing Germany very tough, Arena is near legend status with very few detractors. Better officiating and Spain plays a very beatable Germany in the semi-finals. A win there, who knows... Spain outplayed Greece and Northern Ireland so bad it was embarassing, but came away with only 1 point. You can say the team has to win those games, but every team has streaks like that. I don't feel Camancho or Iñaki are bad coaches and feel comfortable with them in charge of the NT. They've both made their mistakes but all in all the team has performed well for them. As for Clemente, I agree with you totally.
a win there and they move to the final to face brasil and lose against them! seriously though, something's fishy with spain and greece in the same group (the same goes for czech rep and netherlands) it makes the competition more interesting, thats for sure but.....
Sorry, Mario. I've some of our preditions over the course of La Liga, so I will stick with "who knows". I'm not a big conspiracy guy. I'll trust the pulling of the balls was legit.