The only problem is when you play your best football at the beginning of the tournament like Spain and Argentina in 2006 and run out of steam later. But what helps is having a good bench and the Dutch certainly have that. I still think a good attacking side such as Portugal or a holding midfield such as Germany's will test them properly. France have been piss poor, and Italy's shape has been shocking at times, they are playing a 4-3-3 but looks more like a 4-3-2-1, with poor finishing.

You want to gradually play yourself into the tournament and keep fresh and confident which I think Portugal are doing simmering nicely they have alot better football in them but are still playing smoothly. My worry is the Dutch will get over confident, when they come up against a side that counter attacks back. I think people discount Croatia a little too much, Slaven Bilic is a very good coach and are my 'dark horses'; I think they will grow in confidence as the tournament goes on; they didn't beat England twice out of sheer luck.

They were right to think that as Germany are in the top half of the draw which means the only big team they can meat is Portugal on route to the final. Whereas in the bottom half of the draw you have Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands with competent sides such as Romania and Russia under Hiddink. So you fancied the Germans who have kept continuity in their ranks with Ballack and Fringes 2 excellent holding midfielders and Klose and Podolski to bang them in. The major problem I feel is playing Podolski as a left winger instead of a striker where the useless Gomez is playing and plonk Bastian onto the wing.

Some shocking decisions by some referees and even more shocking how FIFA are trying their best to agree with all of them. Italy have had 2 shockers.

It won't come out until the 20th. I just realised you can't read my entries. Instead I got a regular PS3, GTA4 and MGS4. I was planning on playing MGS4, but then I got an invite for GTA4 and we've been playing that for a while online now.

What's your PSN? Mine's *SHOCK* Denicalis.

GrawlNL. I'll add you later, I just booted GTA up.

Sweden earned this loss, it's their fault for falling back that way after being able to keep up with spain during the first half, it's like they didn't know whoever gets second on this group will be up against the dutch, it didn't seem they really wanted to win it... even sitting zlatan down. Anyways 3 points for me 0 for deni I might add in the last minute.

I am glad that Greece is out. They played disastrous football. Spain got very lucky in the stoppage time, both teams deserved one point (and I deserved three points grrrrrr)

Betting Game Sheet (Day 8)

Six points for Shin today, not bad, sir!

It was more a question of the Spanish falling back after their goal, allowing us to keep possession more and to create some chances, than the other way around. And the substitution of Zlatan was due to his injured knee, by the way.

Fuck me. The first day I miss watching the games and I get blanked. Ouch.

Haha, this was a great day for football! I hope for you that you didn't miss that awesome match!

Betting Game Sheet (Day 9)

Not ONE of us collected a point today :tpg:

How the hell do you card someone sitting on the bench?

Well today was a washout all round: double zero points for everyone.

Errm its not as uncommon as you think, cards can even be given after the end of a half even after the final whistle to any squad player this includes the bench and the manager and staff can also get red carded in that they can be banned from the dugouts.

I loved the Turkish team of 2002, but they have been really poor since then, I'm glad to see a little bit of the flair in the last third of the match. But Nihat's finish for the third goal, my word that was a beauty to curl it from 25 yards rather than slide it past Cech, takes bottle!! that finish I tell you now.

And the biggest Girl of the tournament award goes to Jan Koller, he's been going down so easily all match with barely a touch, so no wonder he feined being shot when Volkan merely shoved him.

Portugal didn't even look like they wanted to go out and play in their match, a nice consolation for the Swiss but Portugal knew they didn't have to do a thing and played lazily.

Wow great, Turkish celebrations on the streets outside (including cars and firecrackers). I won't be able to sleep tonight :mad:

And Portugal, I didn't watch that game, but I assume they played with their B-team again, yes?

That was such a good game. I wanted Turkey to win, they're a great team. I like your guys' captain that scored the two goals at the end.

Congratulations to Turkey and yes, I didn't see the Portugal game either but I know Ronaldo and Deco were given a rest at least.

I was happy to see the Czech Republic get beaten, they represent the worst in football as far as I'm concerned--just no imagination, incredibly conservative and just devoid of any love for the sport. Putting a striker whose only skill is to be tall really seals the deal for me. It's like they looked at the Italian team and went "how can we make this even more lifeless?"

So it was satisfying to see them lose in the last minute to a team that had almost nothing except passion. Turkey to be this Euro's Greece? :erm:

My money's on Croatia; Bilic has them setup nicely. They'll be happy to draw Turkey, who now have no Volkan nor Aurelio but I'm a fan of both teams.

Seeing Nihat's goal again really shows a nerve of steel to bury that one, a beaut.

The attacking has been sizzling but the defending by the centre backs this tournament has been shocking. The only real world class centre back in this tournament I feel is Ricardo Carvalho of Portugal. No Ferdinand (easily the best in the world at the moment), Terry, Canavarro or Vidic to show the sides how its really done. But this bodes well for us goal lovers.

This is developing into a lovely tournament. Need one out of France or Italy to qualify to help make the final stages a little more exciting.

No. Greece won nearly every game with 1:0 and a good portion of luck. In my opinion it's a different thing to change a nearly 0:2 loss to a 3:2 win (and before 0:1 to 2:1).

Concerning Swiss - Portugal: It was a good game! When I remember right seven of the eleven players of Portugal's usual start team were substitutes in this match but that fact made it more interesting. Swiss played well and its win was a nice good bye gift for Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn. I'm looking forward to the team's performance when Ottmar Hitzfeld is coaching them.

Concerning Czech - Turkey: Oh my...

Yeah absolutely, Greece won on free kicks, corners and luck. But if Turkey wins this tournament, they will be this year's Greece, just sayin'.

Hey guys, look here:

Betting Game Sheet (Day 10)

Germany-Austria was a pretty bad game, but I am glad that Germany made it :-)

Both coaches between Germany and Austria were sent off for "constant bickering". LULZ

Yeah I know, it was pretty fun, but I think the decision was a bit too harsh. I mean, I didn't see everything, but the referee should have given them a warning before he sent them off.

I'm a bit surprised by the players we're using tonight. Not even Van Der Sar as goalie. Let's see how this goes.

Betting Game Sheet (Day 11)

So the French are out without having scored a single goal. Who would have thought.

Please be aware that tomorrow, after the last matches in group D, I gonna send you a PM requesting you to send me your bets for the quarter finals!

Ha ha ha, seeing France go out without even scoring makes me feel not so bad about England not qualifying. Fuck Italy though, if they'd put some effort in and won their group I'd have won close to £100. As it is, a safe bet on Croatia winning the other night has brought me back to a financial break-even point for the tournament so far so I can blow it all again on the quarter finals.

Hate to piss in your cornflakes, but France did score. Henry put one past Holland.