Didn't realise Petr Cech was in goal for the Czech republic, he seems to have lost his mantle of being and outstanding shotstopper these days, or maybe the team was generally poor, didn't see the match, had childcare issues.

You're forgetting he heavily contributed to Chelski's Champions League success. He did have a poor game vs the Russian's though.

Russia looked pretty good I thought although the Czech defence was poor. Arshavin had a great game just goes to show he is a great player when he gives a s***!

Bit like Pavluchenko then as well

No idea why this was locked???? Anyway, carry on

Originally Posted by: Essan 

I assumed it was to stop me posting this afternoon? 


Anyway, saw bits and pieces of the game.  Hopefully whoever was commentating was right when he said they were the 2 worst teams in the tornament ..... 

Originally Posted by: Matty H 

Defo not. I'd have just deleted your account if I wanted to stop you posting.

We've had a few of these apparently self locking topics. Weird, anyway, onward!

I watched both games this evening to an extent, and both were games of two halves. Russia are my outside tip to win it of Spain, Germany or Holland don't.

Enjoyed both matches as football was being played.Only 1 red card spoilt it.

So today we have :

Holland v Denmark
Germany v Portugal.

Holland with memories of 1988 van basten and co can boast a 6-0 defeat northern ireland going into a game with the Danes who also won their last friendly 2-0 and good memories of winning  the tornament in 1992 with big Pete Schmi then in goal .

Team news Holland - Denmark Ron Vlaar or Wilfred Bouma are likely to partner Johnny Heitinga in central defence for the Netherlands after Joris Mathijsen was ruled out of the game against Denmark on Saturday.
Mathijsen has a hamstring injury, but he hopes to face Germany on Wednesday.
PSV Eindhoven left-back Jetro Willems, 18, could become the youngest ever player to feature in the Euros.

We know too much of the Germans v Portugal

Germany Who won 2-0 go into a game with Portugal who lost to turkey hoping to improve and win the competition with ronaldo.

Team news
 Germany coach Joachim Loew has a full squad to choose from for Saturday's match after captain Philipp Lahm and Sami Khedira returned to training.
Per Mertesacker took a knock in training on Thursday but is still expected to start, as is Bastian Schweinsteiger, who missed their warm-up friendlies after suffering a calf niggle in the Champions League final.
Portugal also have a fully-fit squad.
Manchester United winger Nani has recovered from a foot injury.

Didnt bother watching yesterday's games, though I hear they were quite good.

Looking forward to seeing the big guns later today

Awful scenes after the Russia v Czech Rep game. The Poland v Russia game could be carnage lets hope not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOm4IN1G9yU

So much for the stewarding, they need to be in groups and carry clubs.

For dealing with those knuckle dragging yobs

This sort of thing is normal in this part of the world. Its like what we had in the 70s every Saturday afternoon.

The England fans who have gone out there are brave (or stupid) 

Or carrying (its what one did in the 70's)

England's brave John Terry visits Auschwitz...

Only half-time and still losing by just the one goal though, plenty of time yet!

Never thought of that...

All part of the Dutch master plan 

Oh well old head, old shoulders you know

There's a rather good comment on racism in The Times Sports Pages today, about Oleg Blokhin, the Ukrainian coach, I have found a link to a Mirror newspaper article about it too.

Apparently the authorities did nothing about it at the time (it was the 2006 world cup build up), not only was there no outcry made by the authorities, no one else said anything although he was also at that time a member of parliament.

He resigned as national coach in 2010, but was reappointed as the Euro coach in 2011.

I would be surprised if he has changed his opinions since.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/ukraine-coach-oleg-blokhin-is-at-the-centre-868812

Disastrous start it is. Losing to Denmark in a group that contains Portugal and Germany could be catastrophic for one of the pre-tournament favourites.

As you say that could be the kiss of death, losing the first game.

Talk about everything being on a knife edge.