Euro 2004 predictions - first round

[Robert]

D2 Latvia

you actually know that Latvia is not Germany or Holland, do you?

[Solly]

12-06-2004, Group A:
Portugal - Greece 1-0
Spain - Russia 2-1
Portugal
Spain

13-06-2004, Group B:
Switzerland - Croatia 0-1
France - England 1-2
England
Croatia

14-06-2004, Group C:
Denmark - Italy 0-2
Sweden - Bulgaria 1-1
Italy Bulgaria

15-06-2004, Group D:
Germany - Netherlands 0-1
Czech Republic - Latvia 4-0
Czech
Netherlands

Top scorer: Scholes
Winner: Spain

[Solver]

you actually know that Latvia is not Germany or Holland, do you?

Yeah . Wouldn't bet on Germany get out of that group, not by any rate. Holland has a chance, but less than Latvia.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Solver
Holland has a chance, but less than Latvia.

I know you're cheering for your own team and everything, but even you must know Latvia's chance to survive that group far, far less than the Netherlands' or Germany's chances. It's not completely impossible for them to go through, but certainly bloody unlikely.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Solver

you actually know that Latvia is not Germany or Holland, do you?

Yeah . Wouldn't bet on Germany get out of that group, not by any rate. Holland has a chance, but less than Latvia.

Ah, you're from Latvia.
Oh well, go ahead and support your team

[Paul]

You have 24 hours to post your predictions.

[MikeH]

I reckon Latvia have more chance than Germany.

[Solver]

Cyber and Locutus,

Firstly, I couldn't NOT predict that for Latvia. They're my country team, after all. As for how realistic the chances are. Theoretically, I rate them third in that group, the very weak Germany being fourth. However, what leads me to believe that Latvia might indeed take the second spot and not Holland, is the fact that the last Dutch matches have been uninspiring, to say the least. Whereas Latvian team isn't crap as it used to be, but actually plays nice football, and we do have two decent scorers. Nothing like Nistelroy, of course, but we don't have the same problems that Dutch do .

[Locutus]

Have you seen Latvia's own recent friendlies? Not exactly to be proud of either.

But what's more, the Netherlands *always* does poorly in the road to the tournament, it's tradition. It didn't keep us from getting to the final in '74 and '78, winning in '88 or getting to the semis in '92 and 2000. It also lead to us not getting out of the group stage in '90 and failing to even qualify in '02. You simply can never tell in advance how well the Dutch will do based on a few practice matches, it can always go either way. (Note also that before last week's matches, the Netherlands hadn't lost it's last 25 friendlies or so -- and most of those were against countries of the likes of France, Spain, England, Brazil, etc.)

[Zopperoni]

Edwin v/d Sar injured his hand yesterday and is questionable for the match against Germany.

[TheArsenal]

European Champion: France
Top Goal Scorer: Theirry Henry
(I will use Euro style dates to not confuse)

12-06-2004, Group A:
Portugal - Greece 2-0
Spain - Russia 2-1

13-06-2004, Group B:
Switzerland - Croatia 1-1
France - England 3-1

14-06-2004, Group C:
Denmark - Italy 0-1
Sweden - Bulgaria 2-1

15-06-2004, Group D:
Germany - Netherlands 2-3
Czech Republic - Latvia 3-0

16-06-2004, Group A:
Greece - Spain 0-2
Russia - Portugal 1-2

17-06-2004, Group B:
England - Switzerland 1-1
Croatia - France 0-4

18-06-2004, Group C:
Bulgaria - Denmark 0-2
Italy - Sweden 1-1

19-06-2004, Group D:
Latvia - Germany 0-2
Netherlands - Czech Republic 3-1

20-06-2004, Group A:
Spain - Portugal 1-2
Russia - Greece 1-0

21-06-2004, Group B:
Croatia - England 0-1
Switzerland - France 0-1

22-06-2004, Group C:
Italy - Bulgaria 2-0
Denmark - Sweden 1-1

23-06-2004, Group D:
Netherlands - Latvia 2-0
Germany - Czech Republic 2-1

A1: Portugal
A2: Spain

B1: France
B2: England

C1: Italy
C2: Denmark

D1: Netherlands
D2: Germany

[Solver]

You know, Locutus, Latvia's friendlies inspired me more than Holland-Ireland .

And, anyway, I am going to keep hoping and believing to the best of my ability that we do it .

[Zopperoni]

Drawing 2-2 with Azerbaidjan is hardly inspiring.

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by Solver
You guys are going to be surprised a lot in group D. Much as I love the Dutch team, I don't believe they will make it out of the group this year. I think the Czezchs and Latvians will.

Aren’t the Czechs the one complaining about the new ball being used hurting their chances? That this seamless ball doesn't slow down enough once touching down after a long kick, hurting their long ball game? I’m counting them out. They’re psyched out before they even get there.

[Solver]

LOL, don't know if they are complaining about balls, but their performances have been surprisingly good. Actually, they were a surprise in 96 as the Euro finalists. They also passed the qualification to Euro04 now very impressively.