Day 11 review France 0 Italy 2 (predicted: 0-2) Time restricted my analysis of this game but it panned out largely like I expected: Italy were the stronger team, deservedly won and France looked completely unmotivated. In the wake of the defeat Lilian Thuram (dropped for the game) and Claude Makelele retired (again), Raymond Domenech […]
Day 10 review Austria 0 Germany 1 (predicted: 0-3) The scoreline may not have reflected the German dominance but they were worthy winners against a brave effort from limited Austria. The 10,000 people who signed the petition calling for the nation not to compete and embarrass itself should be the ones left a little red-faced […]
Day 7 review Italy 1 Romania 1 (predicted: 2-1) The group of death became the group of pigeons with a cat amongst them after a second Romanian stalemate left them ahead of the single-pointed Italy and France in Group C. Amongst my predictions yesterday were that we’d see a lot of Italian changes – and […]
Day 6 review Croatia 2 Germany 1 (predicted: 1-2) Yes, this took me by surprise. Unfortunately I had to make do with highlights and match reports for most of today’s games but it seems that Croatia turned things upside down in Group B. The Croatians were as good as they were lackluster in their first […]
Day 3 review Romania 0 France 0 (predicted: 0-0) Tepid and fairly uninspiring, if this is what the group of death is to be like then I may just switch Group C off. Romania cannot be faulted for their workrate and organisation – the back four were very impressive and left-back Razvan Rat kept Franck […]
Day 2 review Austria 0 Croatia 1 (predicted: 0-2) For the second day in a row the competition co-hosts were hard done by, this time Austria losing out to the underwhelming Croats by a single goal. Croatia went ahead from a Luka Modric penalty in the fourth minute after Rene Aufhauser clattered in to the […]
nearvana 