In the absence of any Home Nations presence in the upcoming Euro 2008 football championships, there’s been plenty of talk about which teams we Brits should support. I suspect many will have been scouring family trees or revamping tired old prejudices in a desperate attempt to give a hoot about what will happen.
Personally, I find it difficult to forget past footballing harm inflicted on England, and could never bring myself to support the perpetrators. As such, this condition rules out Portugal, Germany, France, Romania and, well, if you go back far enough, pretty much anyone (except maybe Spain). Which doesn’t leave a whole load of choice. Perhaps, then, there’s a different way to go about things, whilst remaining steadfastly British: namely, supporting the underdogs. But even this seems unsatisfactory – should we really decide our allegiances on a game-by-game basis and applaud any upsets?
Probably the best solution is to forget fabricated support entirely and just enjoy the sport on offer. After all, many of the best players in the world will be out there; slapping each other, falling over, feigning injury and occasionally conjuring up mind-boggling feats of footballing genius.
Accordingly, I’ve chosen a handful of games from the group stages which capture that Euro 2008 feeling. They’re not necessarily the most important matches, but are ones which, I believe, are most likely to provide entertainment of one sort or another.
In chronological order:
Germany v Poland, June 8. Proof that you can’t keep a good grudge down. Polish newspapers have been reprimanded for showing pictures of the German captain, decapitated, beneath the slogan “bring us their heads!”. If anyone needs reminding of the appeal of international football, this should provide it.
Netherlands v Italy, June 9. For many the tournament starts in earnest here. Both giants of the game will fear defeat in a dangerous group, both are highly cautious, and both have success built around tight defenses. This has all the hallmarks of a dull, dull match. Expect a 4-3 thriller.
Sweden v Spain, June 14. The ‘highly fancied’ Spanish flatter to deceive on a more frequent basis even than us, we chortle, since their only trophy came all the way back in 1964. (whereas ours was much more recent, of course.) Frankly if they win the whole thing, we’ll be the only losers left in Europe, which we can’t allow. Fortunately, this is Spain we’re talking about, and an early kick-off means you should reach the pub just in time to see them jeopardise yet another ‘highly fancied’ campaign.
Turkey v Czech Republic, June 15. Many have decided that Portugal are a sure thing to qualify from this group, but it might just be that a tactical draw in this match sees both teams go through at Portugal’s expense.
France v Italy, June 17. Italian dolce vita meets French malaise in German-speaking Zurich – you can’t get much more Swiss than that. A replay of the World Cup final: once again there are going to be tears at the end of this one, and my money’s on them being stained with ragu.
Of course, the important thing to remember is that once these games are over we’re out of the group stages and can finally start cheering for penalties, which, since we’re not involved, we can all happily acknowledge as the most entertaining aspect of international football.
Comments