Euro 2008 - Group D Review.
Group D: Spain, Greece, Sweden and Russia.
I mentioned in an earlier review that Holland were on of two sides I had backed for the Euro 2008 tournament. The other side and the one I feel will win the whole event is Spain.
For years now Spain have under performed when they have got to the final stages of a major competition and in fact you have to go back to 1964 and the old European Nations Cup competition to find their one and only success in such a competition.
However if Spain are ever to win a major tournament I believe they will not have a better chance then at this one with the current crop of players that coach Luis Aragones has. Even without the talismanic Raul in the squad he can count on the likes of Casillas, Puyol, Iniesta, Fabregas and Xavi before you even get to the forwards that have among their ranks Villa, Silva and Fernando Torres who comes into this event in superb form after his debut season at Liverpool.
The Spanish got to the finals after topping their group ahead of Sweden who they again meet, and although they lost their first 2 group games in qualifying in Northern Ireland and Sweden they won 8 of the last 9.
Greece are the defending champions from 2004 in Portugal when a display of stoic defending saw them lift the cup and made Otto Rehhagel a hero for life in Greece!
They won their group by 7 points from Turkey and though as I have mentioned previously it was not the hardest of groups you cannot take away the fact that Greece won 10 drew 1 lost 1 scored 25 goals and conceded 10 in their 12 games with the only defeat a rather surprising 4-1 home loss to the Turks, Their record was the best in qualifying and is built around a strong team spirit and work ethic. Although the Greeks do not have some of the big names that some other sides in the competition have I doubt if any will have a better team unity.
Sweden as I stated earlier qualified from Spain’s group and were solid if unspectacular in qualifying losing only twice in Spain and Northern Ireland.
The squad in pretty much the same as that which were in the same group as England in the 2006 World Cup in Germany and I feel that they will be over reliant on Ibrahimovic for creativity and goals, also the fact that veterans like Henrik Larsson, Tobias Linderoth and Anders Svensson can still command a place in the squad indicates to me that there is not much talent coming out of Sweden these days, and though Olaf Mellburg is a strong presence at the heart of the defence I do not feel he has enough quality around him.
Russia squeezed into 2nd place in their qualifying group to deprive England of a place in the tournament and were 5 points behind group winners Croatia.
However their strength was definitely at home and they only scored 18 goals in qualifying which must be a concern.
In my opinion they are another of the more dogged sides that lack flair and though they do boast Arshavin and Pogrbnyak (if vailable) the Zenit St Petersburg pair in their ranks the squad in general is average a fact highlighted when in their final group game at home to minnows Andorra they only managed a 1-0 win, and I would be very surprised to see them make the top two in their group.
So to summarise I expect Spain to top the group, but 2nd place is probably the most open of all 4 groups as all the other sides are pretty much on a par, however I feel Greece will be difficult to break down and I will be having a bet on them to QUALIFY from the group, which is at present 11/8 with Bet365 as I write.
So after reviewing all 4 groups I am going to stick my neck out and say the quarter finalists will be: Portugal, Czech Rep, Germany, Croatia, Holland, Italy, Spain and Greece.
Hopefully I will be somewhere in the right area.
Silverfox.
