Svensson betting against the odds again

by Sujay Dutt from Lugano

Midfielder Anders Svensson will have a key role in Innsbruck on Saturday against a potent Spain side, but upsetting the odds is something he and Sweden have done before.

Contrast
Sweden's second UEFA EURO 2008™ group match should certainly be different from their opener against Greece. While the European champions rarely put Lars Lagerbäck's men under serious pressure in a 2-0 win for the Blågult, Spain put four goals past Russia in the Group D curtain-raiser. Svensson and company watched some of that game on television and the IF Elfsborg stalwart was impressed by what he saw. "Spain are one of the teams most comfortable on the ball in the world – we probably won't have much possession when we play them," said the 31-year-old. "But such matches can be won too."

Precedent
Svensson is not making empty promises. The 92-cap international was in the Sweden side at the 2002 FIFA World Cup when they played Argentina in the last match of the first phase – a group that also included England and Nigeria. In a fixture pre-tournament favourites Argentina had to win to go through, the technically superior South Americans controlled the ball for most of the game but it was Sweden who scored first through a now legendary Svensson free-kick. Argentina managed an equaliser but were eliminated while the draw made Sweden group winners.

Meticulous planning
Like Argentina six years ago, Spain have been heralded as contenders for the UEFA EURO 2008™ crown. Lagerbäck has called them "one of the world's best when they click" and Svensson agrees with the coach's assessment. "Absolutely. We've played them twice in qualifying so we know what they can do," he told euro2008.com. "We need to make it difficult for them, to impose ourselves physically and to try to frustrate them." Even Svensson, one of his country's most creative players, has taken on a more defensive role lately and against a high-tempo Spanish passing game, he knows the recipe they must cook up to obtain a result. "We need to work as a team and keep well positioned," he concluded. "It's going to be 90 minutes of hard work."

Group A decider could go to penalties

by Paul Saffer from Basel

If Turkey and the Czech Republic draw their final Group A match in Geneva on Sunday, second place and a quarter-final berth will be decided on penalties.

Shoot-out chance
The Czech Republic lost 3-1 to Portugal on Wednesday evening and then Turkey beat Switzerland 2-1 – both after added-time goals. That leaves the Czech Republic and Turkey level on points, goal difference and goals scored, and according to Article 7.08 in the official 2008 UEFA European Championship regulations, in that instance, if the two equal teams are playing in the last game, their match is decided by spot-kicks after 90 minutes should it finish level.

Regulations
Article 7.08 reads: "If two teams which have the same number of points, the same number of goals scored and conceded play their last group match against each other and are still equal at the end of that match, the ranking of the two teams in question will be determined by kicks from the penalty mark, provided no other teams within the group have the same number of points on completion of all group matches." The full regulations can be read by clicking here. Whoever finishes second in Group A will play the winners of Group B in Vienna on 20 June. Portugal, as Group A winners, face the Group B runners-up in Basel the night before.

Precedent
The situation has arisen before in a UEFA final tournament. In the 2002/03 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship in Germany, Italy and Sweden went into their last group game exactly level. A last-gasp Italy goal made the score 3-3, and Sweden won the shoot-out 4-1, though they were to lose to Norway on penalties in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, while Turkey have never been in a major penalty shoot-out, the Czech Republic beat France 6-5 to reach the 1996 UEFA European Championship semi-finals and Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany 5-3 in the 1976 final and France 9-8 in the 1980 third-place match, giving the nation a major tourmament record of three wins out of three with all 20 attempts converted.

Experience
Meanwhile, both likely goalkeepers on Sunday have recent experience of major penalty shoot-outs. Turkey's Volkan Demirel saved three spot-kicks as Fenerbahçe SK defeated Sevilla FC 3-2 on penalties in the UEFA Champions League first knockout round in February. Fenerbahçe then lost to Chelsea FC, who reached the final only to be beaten 6-5 in a penalty competition by Manchester United FC in Moscow, Petr Čech saving from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Euro 2008 - June 11, 2008

The Euro Cup 2008 has begun and the eyes of every football fan around the world are fixed between Austria and Switzerland this June to watch the display of top quality football that the European teams have to offer and that's precisely the reason why this event that takes place every four years is considered the second most important football competition in the world, just after the World Cup.

Currently the supremacy of the UEFA football teams is an undeniable fact; statistically the European teams lead the world rankings with 24 of the Top 40 teams on both FIFA World Rankings and World Football Elo Ratings, and all the teams qualified to the Euro 2008 are part of those Top 40 teams except for Austria and Switzerland that were automatically qualified as hosts.

The European Championship started on Saturday June 7 at the co-host Switzerland, with a short opening ceremony followed by the first match of the Group A between Switzerland and Czech Republic where the co-host team was defeated 0-1. The Swiss team also lost one of its best players, the striker and Switzerland's all-time leading scorer Alexander Frei who suffered a knee injury at the end of the first half of the game that will have him out of the rest of the competition.

The second match of the opening day was between the other two teams of the Group A, Portugal and Turkey, and it was a game clearly dominated by Portugal that ended with a score of 2-0 and may have won with a bigger margin as three of their shots were stopped by the crossbar. Portugal is currently leading the Group A and is one of the favorite teams to win the championship; they hosted the Euro 2004 and finished as runner-ups that year against Greece.

The first matches of Group B took place on Sunday; Germany defeated Poland 2-0 and Croatia defeated the other championship co-host Austria 1-0. Monday was the day for the Group C, formed by four Top Ten teams in the World Football Elo Ratings: Netherlands, France, Italy and Romania. This group is considered the "Group of death" of the Euro 2008. France faced Romania in the first game that finished with a 0-0 draw while Netherlands managed to overcome the present World Cup Champion Italy 3-0 in a catastrophic start for the Azurri team that placed it in the last position of the group, situation that the champions will need to eradicate in the remaining two games of the group stage to be able to continue in the competition.

The Group D teams played their first games on Tuesday beginning with a great start for the Spaniard team leaded by the striker David Villa, the man of the match that scored three goals for his team in the first 75 minutes of the game. Roman Pavluchenko scored a late goal back for Russia in the 86 minute but four minutes later Cesc Fabregas scored the fourth shot that closed the game with a deserved victory for Spain. Finally, Greece stumbled in the first step to defend its championship title when it was defeated 2-0 by Sweden. Group stage continue this Wednesday with the second round of matches of the Group A and will finish until June 18th, after this the top two teams of each team will pass to the Quarter-finals of the Knockout stage.

The Championship is just in its first week and though there are some favorite teams already, we'll have to keep watching closely to see who's going to take the Euro Cup Trophy home this time.