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dlish, I guess you dont remember Zidane's penalthy in the final in that case?
Anyway - I dont think England have a God given right to be in the final, and Croatia qualified ahead of us because they outplayed us over two games... and a very bad decision and some individual errors cost us points against Russia.
I am 100% saying we didnt do enough to deserve to qualify over the course of the qualification table - BUT it has to take something away from the tournament when one of the big boys is missing.
Financially, and in football terms - Euro 2008 will suffer without England.
And as I said, Germany and Italy are both boring, well organised, defensively sound teams - I think they will both do well.
Spain have underachieved in every major final in my living memory, dont see why this one will be different, France have lost their star player and a lot of their big guns have got old at the same time, and the Dutch team, as all Dutch teams do, will likely hate each other and implode... youve got teams like Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic - who are outside bets, but its hard to look past the big boys, and Germany and Italy seem to be in best shape.
The sad thing is, if England had made it I think we would be favourites.
The "Golden generation" probably have one shot at glory left in the next world cup, before OUR stars start to get old. Becks has already decided to take early retirement in an emerging league.
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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