EURO 2008

France – Thiery Henry looked like he is off his prime, scuttering an easy one-on-one with the goal keeper in the previous game. The rest of the French players also looked slow and not up to the mark.

Thiery Henry looked like he is off his prime, missing a one-on-one.

Italy – Played well against Romania only to have a goal denied by the referee for off-side. Bufon saved  a penalty from Adrian Mutu to give Italy a life line.

Bufon saved a penalty by Adrian Mutu

Verdict: Both side needed a win and depends on Netherlands to beat Romania. The results won’t matter if Romania beat a relaxed Netherlands. Both sides are evenly matched in a game that can go either way.
Score: France 0-0 Italy.

Market odds: France (+0.825), Italy (-1/4, -0.9)

Netherlands - The Dutch delivered with flamboyance and entertained once again in the last outing. Already topped the group with one game to play, the Dutch will be resting players and give the reserves a go.

Celebrating Dirk Kuyt’s opener against Germany

Romania – The Italians had a lot of trouble taming the Romanians. Romania needs a win to go through. A draw may suffice if France and Italy draw in their last game.

Adrian Mutu … moment of ecstasy scoring a goal and later despair for missing a penalty.

Verdict – Netherlands looked likely to give their reserves a run out as any result for them will do. The Romanians are the beneficiary of a relaxed and weak line up of the Netherlands, they may well get the win they want. Netherlands will also prefer Romania to go through rather than France and italy, being touted as the weaker of the three.
Score: Netherlands 1 – 2 Romania

Market odds: Netherlands (-0.975), Romania (-1/4, +0.9)

Netherlands – The Dutch lived up to their expectation playing the beautiful game in a most beautiful way, by demolishing Italy 3-0. Looks likely to top Group C.

Sneijda scoring the most beautiful goal of the tournament thus far.

France – Still plague with injury problems, the French looked like they have lose their killer punch, looking tired and lacking pace. Thiery Henry and Patrick Viera look set to come off the bench.

Claude Makelele

Prediction – The flamboyance of the Dutch to outclass France. Score: 2-0.

Market odds: Netherlands (0, +0.85), France (-0.925)

Italy – The Azzurris were handled their biggest defeat in 28 years. Losing their team captain and central defender Fabio Cannavaro seems to have a greater impact then first thought. Italy thrive on defense more then attack, with their defense not up to the mark so far, it could be games over.

Italians have a lot of thinking to do.

Romania – Romania proof they are no push-over in the group of death and looked like the better half in their opener against France. They are however unable to break down the water-tight defense of France.

Chivu

Prediction – It remains to be seen if Italy can beef up their defense and whether Romania can conjure up a few trickery to get the ball pass the Bufon. It looks like a very close match, however I am going for Romania, which looks a little more pacy then Italy, to win the game. Score: Italy 1-2 Romania.

Maket odds: Italy (-3/4, -0.975), Romania (+0.9)

Netherlands – The joke is if the citizen of Poland is called Poles, why is Holland not called Holes? OK, back to business. I watched the friendlies between Netherlands and Denmark played on 29 May which ended 1-1. The Dutch, much like the Brazilians, expounded what the world refers to as ”The Beautiful Game”. They play really exciting attacking football with a lot of pace and indivdual brilliance. Somehow, they don’t score many goals to reflect their capabilities.

Italy – World champion 2006 and one of the favorites in the tournament. Topped the group in the qualifiers which included France, Scotland and Ukraine. Well known for their air-tight defence and 1-0 scoreline. Of concern, their team captain and defender Fabio Cannavaro had to be stretchered off the field after colliding with fellow defender Giorgio Chiellini and that spells the end of his Euro 2008 campaign. It remains to be seen if Italy can recover from the shock. But Italy had often thrived on adversities and came out on top.

Prediction – The Netherlands had not shown that they can score a lot of goals despite playing beautiful soccer and with Italy’s strength in defense, it will be a lot more tough. Score: Netherlands 0-1 Italy.

Market odds: Netherlands (+975), Italy (-1/4, -0.95)

Romania – Romania top the qualifiers in the group which included Netherlands and Bulgaria. They had been a permanent feature in all Euro and World Cup tournaments in recent memories. They had talent all round and play fast attacking football. The coach is still in the process of experimenting with their defence as he is reportingly not happy with the back four in the most recent friendly with Montenegro although they won 4-0.

France – Features three old horses in the likes of Patrick Viera, Lilian Thuram and Thiery Henry who will be joined by some new blood as well. Viera will miss the opener due to a thigh injury. Franck Ribery, William Gallas and Lilian Thuram are also not 100% fit. It has a couple of rising stars, first is the 20-year-old Samsir Nasri, touted another Zinedine Zidane in the making after Ribery. Then there’s 20-year-old Karim Benzema who has kocked in 20 league goals for Lyon and wanted by Manchester United.

Prediction – This is the group of death and the result for this game can go both ways. Expect France to keep a super tight defence. This is at most a single goal game with every possibility of a goalless draw. However, France might just sneak in a goal with Romania’s defence still unsettled and no further experimenting possible, score: Romania 0-1 France.

Market odds: France (-1/2, +0.9), Romania (-0.975)