Italy's selection for the first game, France leaving home Trezeguet, Mexes, and Flamini. Yes, the managers are to blame.
The relative smaller distance between the countries helps, when you have a worldcup that can take place all over the world you always have countries that aren't used to the climate, air humidity and things like that, in Europe it's all closer together and the climate is not the same everywhere at the same time but every country is used to almost every climate you find in Europe because it changes so often.
I can only interpret that as idiotic sarcasm. I was obviously referring to the fact that European teams are very close skill-wise. I hope I cleared that out in case you ACTUALLY thought I was talking about distance. Just ask any football analyst and they'll tell you that the World Cup is nicer to watch and more entertaining but the EURO is harder to win.
I know you were talking about skill, but that only part of it, because there are still countries at the EC like Poland and Russia who simply can not compete at this level, while countries like England, Scotland, Denmark which are much better are at home. It's mostly the western European countries that are close in skill, with a few exceptions, while eastern European countries are behind them on skill level, again with a few exceptions. And it just depends on how lucky countries get in qualification and some countries are simply always bad in qualification because of a variation of reasons. For example a country with a lot of players in big leagues with loads of games may have trouble in the qualifications because the players play too many games with too little time to rest. This is pretty much what happens with Holland, during qualification things always go crappy because a lot of players are playing in leagues in Spain and England and have not got enough rest because they play at big football clubs that play loads of games. By the time a tournament like this starts players will be completely fit because they had a few weeks off and just had to train, not play matches. Which can make it look like a completely different team than they were in qualification.
I agree with you. However, in the cases of England, Scotland, and Denmark, if you call yourself a good team, you have to manage to win against smaller teams and not drop points. Scotland was unlucky, too, but that 0-2 defeat (against Georgia) killed their chances. Same thing with England. Great teams manage to win even when they're not playing well. And yes, the form in the qualification does not necessarily reflect how the team will play in a major tournament.
Still, a big football country is at a disadvantage at some times in qualification, for example look at Russia, they do not have many players that play in big leagues and play loads of games, they qualified while England, a country that is quite a bit better did not since they have a lot of players that are in the main squad of their football club and play a lot of matches. Now of course England has not really had any impressive record for many years but they should still be among the 16 best countries in Europe at a tournament like this.
Two to top group? Question answered... Holland 9 pts Italy 4 points Romania 2 pts France 1 pt FORZA AZZURRI!!!
well first of all congratiolations to italy! we played badly and we didn't deserve to go on. from now on i will root for holland. i hope they will win the trophy, they deserve it. but my mind says italy will reach the final. anyway may the best team win.