I want to see Fabregas, Torres, Luca Toni and Huntelaar.
There are 16 teams. Technical teams, pedestrian teams, young athletic teams like Germany, old athletic teams like France.
If experience counts, France will walk it. But if Germany can build on the collective dynamism that Jurgen Klinsmann gave them in 2006, Michael Ballack could lift the trophy in Vienna on June 30.
Euro 2008 is a 22-day tournament that starts in Switzerland and ends in Vienna.
We will see 31 games in 8 cities and we hope the tournament will build nicely and become compelling.
Portugal v Turkey is at 8.45 on Saturday night and there will be plenty of temperamental players in that game.
This is Big Phil Scolari’s third tournament as coach but the first with the world’s best player at his disposal. Can Cristiano do it for Big Phil? If so, how many times can he do it ? Will be join Real Madrid, a crap club, just to please his Mum ?
Turkey’s Nihat, 28, plays for Villarreal. With hot skills, shooting ability and bottle, he reminds me of David Speedie. With his injury record, this could be Nihat’s last tournament, so I’m glad he made it.
Luca Toni, 31, is a late developer who has blossomed at Bayern, as Ribery has done. Ribery, a sparky, roaming winger, is Germany’s Footballer of the Year.
Spain will not do anything because the team revolves round Xavi.
That means they take too long to get the ball to Fernando Torres, the most talented striker in the tournament. Cesc Fabregas plays longer balls and earlier balls than Xavi. Cesc could give Nando the chances he needs. But, as I say, the team revolves round Xavi. It’s seniority, it’s the pecking order. It’s such a shame because Fabregas & Torres could be the greatest partnership since Jagger & Richards.
Chelsea reject Adrian Mutu has given up cocaine, which he took to boost his sexual performances with porn stars. Mutu is now happily married and the star of a Romania team that Holland could not beat in the qualifiers.
Marco van Basten can become the only player ever to win the Euros as a player and a coach.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has scored 12 in 24 and I’m interested to see what impact he can make. Kluivert missed four chances in the semi against Brazil and maybe Huntelaar can do better than that. If he gets four chances.
The best final was 2000, when France beat Italy 2-1 with a golden goal by Trezeguet. That match had everything. Class, flair, fierce competition – a magnificent game.
Will I miss England and Steve McClaren?
Of course not. The two teams who beat England, Croatia and Russia, have no chance of winning. That tells me how good England are.
England’s 2-0 win against USA last week told me what I already knew: this is all Capello has. He has Sven’s squad and nobody coming through. Maybe Ashley Young, Micah Richards and Agbonlahor can help him qualify for South Africa.
Of course Greece had no chance of winning in 2004 but they ground out a string of narrow victories. Their ruthlessly negative success was the biggest surprise in this championship since Denmark in 1992.
As ever, football is unpredictable.
There will be surprises. How effective will Del Piero be at 33? I really don’t know. But he knows how to wait for that moment. The moment when a match can be won.
CORRECTION : AfroGunner reminds me that Berti Vogts won it as a player in 1972 and as a coach in 1996. So Marco van Basten could equal that in 1988 and 2008.
I had forgotten that Berti won it as a player.Germany had a fantastic fast centreback around that time, Karl- Heinz Foster. But I can’t remember if KHF played in that team. Will always remember being in the press box for Euro 96 final and seeing a golden goal finish for the first time. Everything stopped. Everything stopped with bodies lying on the ground. It was like a movie ending with a freeze-frame of a battlefield. It was very,very strange to see that, to see the other team not kicking off again. And then seeing a small man on the pitch, wearing a black suit, walking slowly and alone towards the celebrating German supporters, many of them huge guys in Dortmund shirts with SAMMER on the back. At first, I didn’t realise who it was and thought : Who is that little guy?
That image, that picture, that moment for little Berti Vogts, will always stay with me.