Orlando, FL

Today I'm picking France over Switzerland and England over Croatia.

UPDATE
England just beat Croatia, 4-2
France beat Switzerland, 3-1
So, Thursday will have England vs. Portugal.
Tough call here, but I'm going with Portugal (agologies all around mates)
Friday will have France and Greece. Come on you Greeks! Send the French packing!

UPDATE
Italy just beat Bulgaria in a sqeaker, 2-1, but Italy still goes home since Sweden and Denamrk have more goals in their group.

Watch out England, here comes Portugal!!!

Yes!!

Nordic Victory - Bye Bye Italy!!

Serves Gli Azzurri right for playing so defensive and boring.

Mmm, Nordic victory. But it was a little of a shame. The way Sweden got the penalty and the goal was imo planned. 2-2 It can't be coincedence.

Well, hope the Czech do what they have to do and beat Germany, then the Dutch will finish off the Swedish team.

If England don't win the tournament--and it's ridiculous to even think about that yet--I want the Czechs to win. 3 out of 3 wins now, and for each one they came from behind. Cracking stuff.

I am usually gutted for any team who strives as hard as Italy did, only to still go out due to other scores--and last night was no exception, as I love to watch the Italians play (when they're playing well, which they haven't for a while).

Tomorrow's match prediction:

Portugal (1) - (3) England

Mick

Here are my predictions:
Quarter:
Portugal 2, England 3 (although I would love to see Portugal advance)
France 3, Greece 0 (valiant effort Greece)
Sweden 1, Holland 2 (I have too many Dutch friends to not pick Holland)
Czech Rep 2, Denmark 1 (CR are come back kids)

Semi:
England 2, Holland 0
France 1, Czech Rep 3

Final:
England 1, Czech Rep 0

BTW, I think Sweden and Demark tanked the end of the match to construct a draw, but strategy is part of a tournament. Playing down after the draw was legitimately acheived is one thing, but fixing it so in a pre-arranged draw is bad.

Ciao Italia!

Would love to see the Czech Republic win it. The only team who don't seem frightened to lose. So far my predicitons have been way off but undaunted I'm going for the semis of:

England v. Holland
France v. Czechs

I don't think England have been as brilliant as the media makes out over here but I don't think the Portuguese have enough of a cutting edge in the forwards to score enough goals to win. Say 2-1 to England.

Sadly, I agree with you Senza Mama. Portugal dominated Spain with agression to the ball, but they could not finish with many goals. If step-overs and spot on passes were goals then Portugal wins by 50-0, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Figo will have to shoot on goal often to win.

This game is a win-win for me, I enjoy both sides.
As long as France gets beat, I'm happy.

Ofcourse I'm happy with the fact the Dutch are trough and the German not. But still i think Czech will eventually win the tournament.

that was a great game! England 2 x 2 Portugal. Portugal advance on penalties. this buddy above who thought England would win, sorry! what a weak team! again they started winning in an important game, and then stopped playing and kept waiting for the other team to win. as Portugal is almost as weak as them, it still allowed the tie. anyway, I'm cheering for Czech Republic, as somebody here already said "the only team that is not frightened to lose". they are playing so fine like I don't see a national team to play in a long time. I hope they win, but what I really want is to see great games.

Great game last night. England can blame many things, the referee, the sandy penalty spot, the heat. Me? I blame the coach. Defending for 80 minutes with 8 or 9 players behind the ball and your forwards 60 yards away is just not England's game. It's alright for Italy who are brought up playing like that but England's natural game is going forward with passion and aggression. Also David Beckham was the worst player on the pitch by a country mile but Eriksson didn't have the cojones to bring him off. Sorry, but under Eriksson England won't win anything.

Have to agree with you there. Of course I do blame the ref, because if it wasn't for his decision we would almost certainly have won. However, it shouldn't have to have come down to that. Like you say, Eriksson just encourages us to sit on the lead and not attack. Yes we got to the quarter final but with the players we have we could have gone a lot further with a different manager.

No arguments here on anything said above. Beckham has not shown up for a game (in spirit) since he left Man U.
John Terry and Sol Campbell kept England in the game. Cole shutdown Ronaldo. Rooney's departure may have been the turning point in England's agression to the ball. Campbell's goal was legit and should have been the end of the game. Vassell does not belong on this team and not because of his penalty kick. He runs away from the ball.
Anyway, enough complaining...I like Portugal, so hopefully they will win it all.

AMAZING!!!!

Greece defeats France, 1-0 !!!!!!!

I love it - I love it - I love it !!!!!

Underdogs rule the past few days!!!!

The best game I've seen from England's back four, and possibly the worst I've seen from the midfield. Beckham is a shadow of the player he was when he lead us to a 2-2 draw against Greece a couple of years ago (I rank that as his best performance I've seen from him, ever). Scholes should NEVER have been taken off. Gerrard shouldn't have either. I cringed when Eriksson brought Vassell on--you can NEVER see a goal comeing from him, and I don't rate his work off the ball either. Ultimately, I feel the choice of substitutions was a disgrace, and asking for trouble. What's wrong with players who offer defensive duties while STILL attacking the ball, such as Dyer, Joe Cole et al? Instead, Sven took away all opportunities of invention (at a time when we desperately needed to get a cushion) by bringing on Phil Neville and Owen Hargreaves. Hargreaves is one of the most overrated players in the squad for me, with Vassell close behind, and am bewildered at the decision to bring Phil Neville on--AND put him in the CENTRE.

The state of the spot kick WAS a disgrace, but it didn't work against us--look at what Rui Costa did.

I ALSO thought that the commentary was typically horrid--tempting fate RIGHT after Owen's goal, and the media hyped Rooney up way too much: as if the team was relying on only ONE player (which, after he went off, it seemed that we HAD to been).

Anyway, a cruel way to finish a match. An awfuly unjust result for Ashley Cole (my man of the match) and Sol Campbell, whose goal was ROBBED big time from the Swiss bastard.

I thought I had burst a blood vessel after Lampard's goal--continuous screaming is NOT recommended.

Anyway, I'm glad the Frogs are out now, and well done Greece.

Czech Republic to win!

Mick

Hell Yeah. We are still in the tournament and we are growing every day.

I loved it to see France losing against Greece... guahahahah
Now I hope that Portugal gets to the final and meets with Czech Republic. That would be a great final. I think the Czechs will win it. They have an amazing team with Baros, Nedved, Makaay and others.

Euhh Vito, Makaay is a Dutchmen! LOL

In the semis I'm taking Portugal over Holland and the Czech Republic over Greece.

so am I.

and Czech to win it all.

I agree with the semi predictions, but I say Portugal over Czechs, 3-1.

My Big Fat Greek Final !!!!!

Greece beats Czech Rep, 1-0 !!!!!

Portugal vs. Greece in the Final.

I'm sticking with my original pick of Portugal, but that Greek defence will be hard to crack.

And we're back to game 1. Who would have thought Greece would make it past the group stage? But they did, and now they're in the final. I'm really proud of them. This shows you that you don't need a team full of stars to make it to the final. All the favorites were knocked out early. I won't be surprised if Greece ends up winning. But I think this time Portugal will truimph. May the best team win.

Wow, I've just realised that! Amazing, isn't it! I want the Greeks to win, being a fan of the underdogs in neutral games.

Mick

I can't believe Greece won! They're probably on a huge high and have a lot of momentum but I've still got to go with Portugal in the final. Should be a great match.

My bad haahahha

lol

And once again Greece upset the odds. Unbelievable! A big congratulations to Greece and all the Greek fans.

hello my friends! have been on holiday so unable to post for a few days!
wow what a night! i am unable to describe the sheer joy from last night, at the start of the tournament i told you to watch out for us!
The team spirit brought us through in the end, it just shows that a team with a great spirit and no stars is better than a team filled with stars and no spirit, like the portugeuse.
Traianos Dellas had a fantastic tournament, and so did are full back,Seitaridis, im sure there be snapped up by bigger teams.
I am still buzzing from last night, i cannot believe it! it was the greatest night of my life!

Condratulations, Greece. Unbelievable!!!!