Russia wins!!! :D :D :D

Spain goes home :eek:

Portugal and Greece advance :thumbsup:

Spain always go home. No shocker there.

Here are Spain's results in big championships since 1990:

World Cup 1990
Lost a penalty shootout in the first round to Yugoslavia.

Euro 1992
Didn't qualify. Huge fiasco, of course.

World Cup 1994
Favored to win the Cup, but lost to Italy in the quarterfinals. Another penalty shootout.

Euro 1996
Heavily favored to win again. Lost to England in the quarterfinals in a, you guessed it, penalty shootout.

World Cup 1998
Nigeria and Paraguay were too tough and Spain failed to advance from the group. The team was crucified in the Spanish press after this debacle.

Euro 2000
Heavily favored as always, and as always they choke. They lost to France in the quarterfinals.

World Cup 2002
Here we go again, heavily favored yada yada yada. Lost to South Korea (!!!) in the quarterfinals.

Euro 2004
Failed, as we all know, to advance from the group thanks to Portugal.

And after ALL this, how the hell can Spain EVER be favored to win ANYTHING?

I mean, even I picked them to win the whole thing after they played one game. I must get my head checked.

--jaded

W A Y N E     R O O N E Y !!!!!!
England go on to play Portugal on Thursday in the 1st quarter final game. They are looking so good now and are showing such depth in their attack with so many people able to score. Rooney is now Euros' leading scorer as England have now scored 7 goals in 2 games. Owen and Beckham have still yet to have good games but everyone else seems to be clicking on all cylinders -- even scholes.

Yeah, England go through. Rooney is looking very good too. I heard that England coach Erickson said that he is the most exciting thing since Pele. I wouldnt agree with this at all, but am keen to see if more of him play. I felt a bit sorry for Owen, who seems to be in he shadows a bit lately. This next game against Portugal is gonna be huge.

I would be very surprised if Michael Owen went through the whole tournament without getting one goal at least.

I know we are only one game away from getting knocked from now until the final, but I think he's getting better. He showed a bit more bite than previous games. Chucking himself into tackles, into the keeper even (!).

He's definitely under a bit of a Rooney sized shadow at the moment, but he's been there before and it won't affect his game.

COME ON ENGLAND !!!!!!!!!!!!

Owen is cfreating all the space and room for Rooney.

Italy crash out, and Denmark and Sweden go through.

Another disappointment for the Azzuri.

Ha Ha, Italy, Ha Ha.
Sorry but you have got to laugh, the only team in the tournements history to go out in the first stage with 5 points. That will teach them to be so negative - next time score some goals lads, like England do all the time.

Italy bow out. I cant fathom it being a rigged results between the vikings though. It was a pretty exciting match.

Italy really looked terrible this tourne. They looked like they had no idea around the box. Vieri was a nightmare and Cassano had a decent tournout but still failed in comparison to his league form. Buffon had the better performance out of the whole team and it's sad when your goalie has to play better than the rest of your team. Ciao bella.

I reckon the Czech Republic will get to the final where upon they will come up against the French. France will go on to win the championships 2-1 although I would like to see the Czechs hoist the silverware.
On another note, I think Rooney is way over-rated. Yes, he is in excellent form at the moment but the event is only half-completed. I think it's too premature to say that he is Player of the Championships as many have already quipped him as being.

The only reason "they" are praising Rooney is because "they" are the English media who always tend to blow everything out of proportion.

For my money the player of the tournament is the fearless captain, Mr Zidane.

What's wrong with singing Rooney's praises when he's done so well? I fail to see how you can call the guy over-rated when he's younger than most people here, representing his country, scoring goals and making seasoned and respected veterans of the game look pale by comparison.

The guy deserves all the praise he gets, anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't seen the guy play.

Yeah but when you have people calling him "the next Pele", its just like what the hell.

We'll see how he goes against Portugal :thumbsup:

Yeah the next Pele may be a bit of an overstatement, but the guy has talent that's for sure. But who cares, right now it's all about Sweden and Denmark!!!

--jaded

I think the main reason that he is being compared to Pele because Pele was the only other 18 year old that made an impact on the international stage.

Hey forget Rooney, Ballack just scored FOR THE HUNS!!!!!! (nearly broke the net too) I hope they get through to the finals.

Buh bye Germany. If you can't beat a second string Czech side, you don't desrve to advance.

pretty cool results thus far--germany gone, italy gone...

the french still look a bit flat--let's see how the greece match goes. i still think they are in a good position to take it all, but this will probably end up reading like the earlier predictions about germany on this thread.....

Im sad about no germany in the finals. But i reckon that Czech team is gonna take some scalps.

Now the heads are rolling after the failures of certain teams ... Voller, Saez, and most probably, Trapattoni next in line.

I think those team managers/coaches that did a crap job should shoulder the blame ... but not all of it. With due respect, many of the players themselves simple didn't deliver. I mean, I have supported the Italian team for many years but frankly, they got what they deserved.

The Italian soccer assoc. are contemplating whether they should launch an official complaint to UEFA to investigate whether the Sweden-Denmark game was rigged so that they would both go through and eliminate Italy.
Here are my thoughts on this;

1. The Italians must take the responsibility of the fact that they played below par the whole tournement allowing their destiny to be put down to another final game.
2. You only have to had seen the Sweden vs Denmark game to know that it was a hard fought game and that the final score was the outcome of this alone.
3. Sure the Sweden and Denamrk players killed the game at the end but that was for the final 30 SECONDS. This was not a conspiracy it was just common sense knowing that the result as it stood would take them both through.
4. The Italians did this same tactic for 7 MINUTES 2 years ago during their World Cup match between them and Mexico - was this a conspiracy too?? No - it's just common sense that you play like that at that stage of the game.

I love the Italians but this a rather pathectic atempt on their behalf to shift the blame. They had another performance all round.
They have only won 3 games out of the last 10 games played against European teams and the teams that they beat were of a low class.
Ciao Trapattoni.

Shocking really that England loses on PK's because that never happens. I bet you couldn't recall the last time that happened. Add to that that Beckham missed a PK because that really never happens especially in the big games. Wow, what is the world coming to...................To quote Homer Simpson, "In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic!" I guess I am stuck rooting for the Czech's.

I don't want to sound like a bitter person, but I am going to anyway!

England were stuffed by a referee who lost his bottle at the crucial moments. To quote pundit Ian Wright 'the ref was a homer' and I don't mean Mr. Simpson!

It was asking a lot to protect a 1-0 lead from the 3rd minute onwards. You could always see Portugal scoring at some point, but to go that long and keep them at bay was agonising to watch. I thought it was all but over when they finally did equalise, they just looked so much stronger than us. And then for Sol Campbell to get the 'winner' in the dying minutes seemed almost too good to be true. Oh, hang on, it was too good to be true! Thanks ref!!!!

Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell had an outstanding game, Cole in particular. Beckham and Co. in the midfield were practically invisible. You can have Stevie G Mr. Abramovich if he's going to play like that!

Right I've got that off my chest, I think I'm going to root for the Czech's for the rest of the tournament!

Come on Baros....pretend you're wearing a red shirt!

uh fatboss,

the reason the goal was disallowed at the end was because one of England's players had his arms all over the goalie to prevent him from even trying to block the shot. right call by referee

*Let's see that again in Slow Motion*

It was actually John Terry that was being climbed over by Sol Campbell, the goalie was simply trying to get to the ball and not being very successful;)

I'm not bitter, really............no really I'm not :rolleyes:

Was that THE Ian Wright ?

Playing for the shootout is the stupidest thing Sven could have done.

You know that Shaun Wrigh-Philips (a gun player IMPO) and ian are related. They even played together for a very short spell possibly (i read somewhere).

I don't think for a second that the England team played for the shootout. It's obvious that they were trying to win the game on the field.
View your feelings to ward the ref here:
http://www.ursmeier.ch/referee/ref60.html

This is a cool site from the BBC that shows a computer version of the major England plays from the game;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualreplay/e...ex.shtml?25002

Beckham has now missed the last 3 penalties;
Turkey / France / Portugal. I am a huge Beckham fan but he had a hugely disappointing tournement. As mentioned before Steve Gerard had a great outing apart from the all important last game against Portugal. I wonder if England would have looked a little sharper if they had the extra days rest as Portugal had.

http://www.thomasscott.net/flash/beckham/

Unfortunately, the game appears to be pretty accurate.

france is out.
they never got on track....greece deserved the win fully. am still a little shocked. and of course was wrong in my prediction that france would repeat.

btw, allow me to complain about the television monopoly being exercized on these games in the states--20 bucks a head to watch the fucking matches in a pub--in philly, there are maybe three places..miserable situation....

I think Shaun is his son. Because I remember he nearly got into a fight with somebody at a Manchester City game because the guy was shouting racial abuse at Shaun.

Santini, deserves so much of the blame for France's exit. By not playing Henry AND Pires on the left, he broke up a duo that notched up 44 combined goals in the premiership.

Yepper, Shaun is his son.
Pretty funny web site regarding Beckham's penalty. I've had 3 Beckham related emails today only regarding his penalty taking and I'm sure there's gonna be tons more.

i've been watching the Euro Cup 2K4 from the only pub in town that bought the package for all the games (just found out about this pub, and it's the only futból centric pub in this town, and I love it!!).

My friend and I were the only ones cheering for Portugal in the Porto vs. England match, and we were only cheering for them, because Spain was out of the running.

I've been enjoying Czech's games, and their knack for putting the ball in the back of the net when they get an opportunity.

I would like to see Portugal vs Czech in the Finals, and I'll cheer for Porto all the way.

Too bad my faves Italy and Spain didn't advance :(

I do enjoy being able to watch my futból with bunches of other cheering fans, rather than having people look at me funny when I start clapping at a good play, or yell "Look at that dive!!" when someone fakes an injury. Let's hear it for REAL futból fans!!!

Gonna happen tomorrow. With the way the Czechs are playing I see them beating Greece... then Portugal to claim their Euro 2004 crown :thumbsup:

WOOOH, Go PORTO!!!

I picked Germany ha ha. they long gone. i wish i had picked Czech rep usually do good in tournaments. too late now.

It's gonna be a great game between the Czechs and the Greeks. The Greek defence is really quite something to see. They almost set up 2 defensive walls in and around their penalty area. They are extremely organized.

wow--this i would never had anticipated: portugal-greece in the finals????

damn....who are folk picking? i have the feeling it'll be greece.

I'm sticking with Portugal!