I’ve been meaning to write my preview and predictions for Euro 2008 for a week now but better late than never. First of all, this tournament is awesome in so many ways. It is second in my view only to the World Cup and only because it is missing the great South American players. This particular European Cup is also great because it is missing England and I know for sure how much that pisses off or should I say devastates the Brits! In fact, I hear it’s so bad that the BBC doesn’t even cover the event! But getting away from taking the piss out of the Brits (which is always fun), this tournament has a lot of great teams and features many of the worlds best players. In the end I believe that the 2004 runners up, Portugal, will be the Champions of Europe.

I hate to say that because I do detest Cristiano Ronaldo but he is far and away the best player in the world this year and has a very strong supporting cast of veteran players. I believe that they along with the Czech Republic will emerge from Group A.

I believe that Group B will produce the strongest competitors for Portugal in Germany, which is as strong as ever after their near miss at the World Cup and veteran leadership, and Croatia which is a pesky team with a lot of world class players who are looking for global attention.

Group C is by far the toughest group with the Netherlands, who I predict will win the group and perennial powers France and Italy along with Romania. I believe that Italy will recover from their shalacking at the hands of the Dutch to advance. I feel that Les Bleus are too old and slow to compete with the Italians for the second slot.

Group D is the weakest group and I can’t imagine anyone besides perennial underachievers Spain and Sweden will advance from this group although Greece, the shocking defending champions, are in this group. However, I am positive it will show through that 2004 was a complete aburration and they will head back to Athens after 3 games in the group stage. Spain has their strongest team in years with Raul, Fabregas and Torres playing the best football of their careers and the clear emergence of David Villa. I think they have a real shot…but we say that every year with them. They will be my dark horse.

I think that once the dust clears on the group stage, the final four will be Portugal, Germany, Netherlands and Spain with Portugal and Spain advancing to the finals and in a battle of the Iberian Peninsula-Portugal wins Euro 2008 and Ronaldo goes on to win World Player of the Year.

I was fortunate enough to be at Euro 2000 for the final between Italy and France when Les Bleus completed a masterful extra time comeback to beat the Italians to follow up their 1998 World Cup victory. That loss devastated the Italians who were only able to sort of recover after their 2006 World Cup victory over the hated French in that memorable head butting match. I know how it captivates an entire continent and many countries around the world. I am psyched that ESPN is covering it so in depthly and I hope it catches on a bit in the States. Only 30 minutes until Croatia and Germany-I love this tournament!

Sharing is caring!