The draw for the Euro'08 Finals in Switzerland and Austria is complete, and wow, does Europe ever need to do some research on the concept of seeding. Group C was always going to be a beast because of the top seeds that had to go to weak hosts Switzerland and Austria and defending champions Greece, so the was guaranteed to have two of the top five teams in Europe in it, but UEFA went a little overboard, putting the finalists of the last World Cup (France and Italy) together again, and Holland as a third seed. Clasping their heads in their hands and looking skyward to ask "What have we done to deserve this fate?" are Romania, who will find qualifying out of that group more difficult than dubbing Nicholas Cage into Cantonese.
This conveniently groups the headquarters of three of the five Romance languages together so all the hooligans will understand each other. Presumably since they couldn't squeeze in one of the Iberian teams they threw in the Dutch who speak five languages and smoke marijuana, and have a hooligan army ready to spring out of a windmill at a moment's notice. Sales of French-Dutch pocket dictionaries in Den Haag have gone through the roof... everything through practice!
Germany gets the easiest group in my opinion, although they do get their old friensd the Poles in a neutral field rematch. The Germans decided previously decided to schedule their Germany'06 match as far west from Poland as possible... like Pennsylvania. Rounding out that group are Austria and Croatia.
Switzerland has a couple decent opponents in Portugal and the Czech Republic, and any of those three could advance. I wouldn't disregard the Turks either, so the Swiss could be back to stacking gold bars and snorting blow off Martina Hingis in the first week.
Greece have the advantage of the "No Home Field Advantage" group drawn from the farthest corners of Europe: Greece in the south, Russia in the east, Spain in the west, and Sweden in the north. Spain is pretty good in the early rounds before crumpling against their first competent opponent (and occasionally squeezing past a minnow like Ireland on PK's) but the Swedes have a few tricks like the ninja skills of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Russians are still looking to make a mark on the international scene in the post-Evil Empire era, and the counter-attacking Greeks are always ready to roll out a trojan and fuck somebody.
And if you really want to know more about Euro'08 or qualification, I still say Peter Godfrey's site is the best for results: http://www.eofl.co.uk/eu2008
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