I believe EURO Championship is the most presitgious tournament in the world, more than the World Cup which often submits mediocre and weak teams based upon geography or decent qualfications. The groups are packed with teams of enormous talent; esp. the hosts Portugal, Czech, France, Italy, Holland, etc. The list goes on. The best players in the world, although with some exceptions of course, will be playing in this tournament. I want to hear predictions for the semis, finals and then of course the winner. Please try give relevant and solid evidence to your claim, not just like "oh they will win cause they are the best!" kind of thing. I already know my choice for the winner, but let's open it up to discussion. Let's hear it...
france and italy in the final, i can see portugal and the netherlands being the two losing semifinal teams. Portugal because they will have the home crowd edging them on, just not enough talent to compete with france or italy imo. netherlands always has a very good team as well. France has zidane and henry, possibly the best 2 players in the world, and many others like pires, Trezeguet etc. who are world class quality players. barthez is a reliable keeper as well. Italy is also a top team. With Buffon in net who is definitely one of the top keepers in the world, and vieri, totti, del piero etc. they will be tough to beat. Tho, it could come down to whoever has the hot keeper. Germany rode Kahn in the 2002 World Cup, but his recent form has me wondering if Germany will make it past the group stage.
My pick is Spain. I know they usually fail when it comes to big tournaments, but I think this time they will come through. The core of their team will come from the Valencia team that won La Liga and the UEFA Cup (Baraja, Albelda, Vincente). The Valencia players should be able to use that winning attitude in Portugal. I think Raul will make up for his poor season by scoring the goals for his country. If Morientes gets to play, he is more than capable of scoring a few. The defense may be their weakness, but Pujol is world class and Baraja and Albelda are both great at tracking back from the midfield. Valeron will do all the playmaking. Spain will play with one striker most of the time but if they need a goal they could bring on Morientes or Torres for Albelda. Also Spain should have many supporters there since Portugal is so near by. Obviously there are up to 7 teams capable of winning the tournament, so it should be great stuff.
I also fancy a rematch of the EURO 2000 Final. Italy seems pretty strong especially in defense. The only thing I'm worried about is their creativity and attacking might but I believe it all rests in the hands of Totti who should stand out this tournament as he had a disappointing performance in WC2002. And of course France is strong on all levels of play. They will be tough to beat as many of their subs are as equal or nearly equal to their first team. It makes it a lot easier for the manager to be able to sub and not worry about exposing weakness when he does. However, this is just my pick. Portugal as hosts will be tough, as well as Spain will draw a large supporting crowd due to their proximity. I believe Czech have the ability to gain respect this tournament and could do something unprecedented. Holland looks strong, and in similar form to last EURO championship. The last of the favorities, Germany, however I do not see as a team going very far. A lot of their progress will be reflected in how well they fair against Holland in the group stage. This should be a good indication if they are to go far in the knockout stages. Besides that, I don't envision them making it past the group stage, Czech and Holland are stronger.
I heard Michel Platini predicted Italy to win the tournament, does anyone have a link to an article or more info on this? thanks.