Euro 2008 - Day One

Euro 2008 kicked off last night, with co-hosts Switzerland entertaining Czech Rep. and Portugal vs. Turkey. Switzerland will wake up this morning feeling that they could have got something out of the tournament opener yesterday, and worse still their best player and Captain Alexander Frei will be out of the rest of the tournament. Not a great start for the tournament hosts that were probably hoping for the same kind of home support that helped push South Korea to the World Cup Semi Finals. In truth, the Czech Rep. were a shadow of their former selves, and I cannot see them progressing past the Quarter Finals.

Portugal were comfortable winners in the Group's second match, neither denting or enhancing their credentials as potential winners of the tournament. Turkey put in a fairly decent performance, spreading the ball about, moving forward with pace, but never really threatened a Portugal defence that certainly isn't impenetrable. Scolari is continuing with his 4-5-1 formation that has seen his Portugal side play attractive football, but often fail at the penultimate hurdle due to a lack of an out and out goalscorer. All things going as expected, Portugal will meet Germany in this year's Semi-Finals, but they will desperately need Ronaldo to find that spark that led him to 42 club goals this season.

Both matches yesterday produced free-flowing end to end football, which bodes well for the games to come, although real clear cut chances were a rarity. Petr Cech, along with many other Tournament goalkeepers had raised his concerns about the movement of the football, indicating there could be a number of long range goals this summer, but it only seemed to be a lack of movement in the ball that had Cech flustered.

With Germany as Tournament favourites, they will be looking to send a message across Europe today, and a 3-0 victory against a well organised Poland would be enough to send fear into the top teams in the other half of the draw. The world is expecting great things from Mario Gomez, and if he works well with Lucas Podolski, Germany could have a ruthless strike force for many years to come.

Austria are widely considered to be the poorest team at this summer's tournament, even with home support they will struggle not to finish bottom of Group B. Croatia are a young and exciting side, and dark horses to progress into the latter stages. A strong 2-0 victory today could be the catalyst for an unbelievable tournament.