EURO 2008. I need to know the WINNER

Why not look at the predictions threads? Everyone's views are already in there.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Spain won't win, they never do.

Neither will Greece. They never do.

I'll take you word for it chdpoker - seeing as you knew the answer to my question before I asked it

Its Portugal for me as they have quality all over the pitch.

As for the top scorer, Ballak at about 28/1 is a sweet bet as he takes all their frees and peno's and gets a few from open play too - plus they are not in a tough group...

Euro2008 is very diffcult to call with any certainty. One factor that plays into the difficulty is the draw itself as it has created a group of "death" (Holland, Italy, France, Romania) where effectively one 'big' team will go out. And Romania are no push-overs either, far from it. This factor lowers the odds of these teams and a bet on any of them could easily go awry. The corrollary is that their odds are better than 'normal'.

Paddypower, who is usually not far wrong, is calling it thus:

Germany	4 - 1   Holland 14 - 1       Sweden 33 - 1
Spain 11 - 2      Czech Rep 18 - 1  Romania 40 - 1
Portugal 7 - 1    Russia 25 - 1        Poland 40 - 1
Italy 7 - 1        Switzerland 25 - 1  Turkey 50 - 1
France 8 - 1     Greece 28 - 1        Austria 100 - 1
Croatia 12 - 1

Any one of the top-8 in terms of shortest odds could win it and they would not be a surpirse win, although Croatia would perhaps and are perhaps the darkest horse. But this is not horse-racing!.

I dont think we will have another Greece ala Euro2004. They were 80-1 at the start of the tournament but they displayed a great team ethic with defence-minded/counter-attack/dead-ball tactics to steal the trophy with 1-0 wins. They themselves admit they were not the 'best' football team in the tournament, far from it, and things just went their way, but such is the nature of football.

What is interesting from our point of view is that because there is no Ireland, NI, Wales, Scotland or England, most of us can be totally neutral and enjoy the football for what it is. On the other hand, because the 'home' nations are not in it, there is less media interest, hype, etc. That doesnt bother me at all so I'll looking to see some decent football being played, hopefully.

Btw, the recent FIFA rankings are:

World Ranking - Uefa Ranking - Team - Pts Jun 2008
3	1	Italy Italy	1424	0	Equal	28
4	2	Spain Spain	1303	0	Equal	-20
5	3	Germany Germany	1274	0	Equal	10
6	4	Czech Republic Czech Republic	1246	0	Equal	2
7	5	France France	1143	0	Equal	-62
8	6	Greece Greece	1133	0	Equal	-63
9	7	[I]England[/I]	1123	2	Up	25
10	8	Netherlands Netherlands	1111	0	Equal	-12
11	9	Portugal Portugal	1094	-2	Down	-37
12	10	Romania Romania	1069	0	Equal	-13
15	11	Croatia Croatia	1017	-2	Down	-27
20	14	Turkey Turkey	877	5	Up	21
24	16	Russia Russia	846	1	Up	-10
28	18	Poland Poland	805	-1	Down	-43
30	19	Sweden Sweden	799	-7	Down	-63
42	25	[B]Republic of Ireland[/B]	674	-1	Down	33
44	26	Switzerland Switzerland	644	4	Up	27
92	43	Austria Austria	341	9	Up	13

The home factor usually helps countries in these tournaments, but surely Switzerland or Austria wont win it. CH may be a worthwhile bet for a top-4 finish though.

Redspider

I think Croatia will be a good bet @12/1 team spirit is excellent and they will really want to win unlike others (France for instance) who will be thinking of their summer holidays, speaking of which Spain are a bookmakers best friend and always seem to bottle it on the big occasions.

SantryRed wrote: »

Romania to win it:D

I actually think there gonna get out of the group of death. Really think they'll beat France in the first game.

And all bleach their hair when they qualify :pac: