First off, sell your Kirsch and Goldschlager futures, because England will not be going to Switzerland next summer after losing 3-2 to Croatia in London today, while Russia as expected won in Andorra to knock England out of the tournament. (Early whining has the New York Giants to blame for tearing up the field in their game against the Dolphins at Wembley.) Pretty much everybody else came through as expected: the Turks came through with a win against Bosnia to knock out Norway, the Poles obliged the Portuguese by knocking out Serbia, and the Swedes are in over Northern Ireland. I was also watching with interest the battle between Germany and Holland to avoid being a top seed, and despite a 2-1 loss in Minsk, the Dutch are still a top seed. So here they are grouped by seeding, your Euro2008 finalists:
Austria (hosts)
Switzerland (hosts)
Greece (holders)
Netherlands
Sweden
Italy
Croatia
Czech Republic
Spain
Portugal
Germany
Romania
France (???)
Russia
Turkey
Poland
The top 16 in Europe are good enough that seeding isn't all that important, since all groups should be tough anyways, but this is the most lopsided I've seen. France in the bottom tier and Austria as a #1 seed, this could lead to an absolutely epic Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France group. And of course, the three European teams I was pulling for, the Belgians, Irish, and Norwegians, all failed to qualify for a second tournament in a row. At least the French will be there for style, and the Dutch to once again choke on their mayonnaise coated fries.
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