To me, it's more surprising that you think it's completly unrealistic that they could go past the quarters at best. Sweden did have a weak WC. You are German and since their performance against Germany was catastrophic from the first mins, perhaps that has something to do with your conclusion. Seeing as they are at the top of the group now, and in very good form, the WC is all in the past. I agree that it wouldn't be a shock to see Croatia go far, no big surprise if Czech went far either. There's not much difference between Croatia, Czech and upper teams such as Germany or Spain.
Seeing that they're hosting the bloody thing I'm going to go out on a whim and say the darkhorse is .... .... Switzerland?
I'd say Croatia. I'm a huge Darijo Srna fan, and I think he's one of the best in the world at his position. Mladen Petric is another player that will surprise a lot of people who've never seen him play. Also look out for Ivan Rakitic, one of my favorite rising young stars in Europe. And really they have at least 1 world class player at every position. I'd also like to throw in a vote for my Romania. Originally I was expecting this team to peak around 2009, but they've had a very strong run in their group. Our defense is as strong as ever with Chivu, Rat and Lobont among others. I'm also a big fan of the Mutu - Marica strike partnership. Dica is a very creative force in the middle and Nicolita dominates the right side of midfield. Overall a very balanced and attractive side.
Wow, your a bright fellow. I stopped reading your comment after you didn't know who Poland were. Check group A leaders if you still need some help. Oh and your idea of only France, Italy, and Germany only ones to winning the Euro are just shocking.
I think your forgetting what the meaning of Dark Horse is. The whole point that you think they won't do anything means, that when they do something good in the euro cup that makes them a dark horse, because you don't expect them to do good.
I would love to see Croatia perform well - hopefully they don't choke like WC2006: Impressive qualifying results, crap campaign (maybe the same case with Poland) However the strongest dark horse imo would be Switzerland. Kuhn has done a fantastic job leading this young team. They were unlucky to go out to Ukraine in WC06 but have kept on producing solid results since then. And who knows - maybe Greece will peak up once again at 2008. They are looking pretty good now in the qualifying campaigns.
Croatia has great prospects and they now have an excellent team that could win any other team in the World. Luca Modric, Eduardo, Niko Kranjcar, Vedran Corluca and, of course, Darijo Srna, world-class winger and one of my favorites players. All of them impressed me so much. And they all young.
I say Scotland if they can get through (i hope at the expenses of France ). Their football is not the best showing, but they got a pretty squared and solid team.