Les Bleus Vs The Azzuri : Euro 2008

Group of Death

Former champions Italy, France and Holland were drawn together with Romania the dark horse in the Group C of coming Euro 2008 will be held from 7th to 29th June in Austria and Switzerland. France and Italy were also both finalist for the Euro 2000 and World Cup 2006, France won the Euro 2000 and Italy is the reigning World Champions by beating France in a penalty shoot out in Germany last year.

The Rest of the Draw

This 13th edition of European Championship will kick off in Basel on June the 7th between Switzerland and Czech Republic in Group A which also consist Portugal and Turkey. In my opinion the Portuguese and Czech Republic should came out easily from this group to go to the last eight of the tournament. Greece the surprise winner of last edition Euro 2002 in drawn in Group D with Sweden, Spain and Russia. Spain and Sweden looks promising from here. In Group B there is the mighty Germans (3 times champions) with Austria the debutant, Poland and Croatia who dashed the English hopes in the qualifying round.

The Gala

The draw was held in Culture and Convention Centre in Lucerne earlier this evening. Being conducted by Swiss actress Melanie Winiger and Austrian television presenter Rainer Pariasek. The duo were joined on stage by representatives of the teams that have lifted the trophy previously: Valentin Ivanov (USSR, 1960), Luis Suárez (Spain, 1964), Dino Zoff (Italy, 1968), Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany, 1972), Anton Ondrus (Czechoslovakia, 1976), Bernard Dietz (West Germany, 1980), Michel Platini (France, 1984), Marco van Basten (Netherlands, 1988), Peter Schmeichel (Denmark, 1992), Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany, 1996), Didier Deschamps (France, 2000), and Theodoros Zagorakis (Greece, 2004). Eight of those players participated in making the draw together with UEFA's Gianni Infantino.

For more details surf Euro.com

ciao!