Matchday 3: le groupe de mort

Ah yes, the group of death. If today doesn't wet your footballing pallet nothing will. In a perfect world, with electric scissors, I'd like to see France and Romania come out of this group for nothing more than my personal allegiances. I'm a huge fan of Ribery. He really is one of the world's best, and I hope he can carry on his good form for France from the world cup and have a big tournament. Romania were close to perfect in qualifiers and they are a very dangerous team that most of Europe is surely underestimating. I took to the team pentru ca fata mea, and they certainly have a shot at progressing. If the Romanians can conjure the upset today, France can still bounce back, while I don't see any way back for Holland today if they are to falter. That being said, I'm gonna go with our first shocker of the tournament, with hopefully many more to come. 2-1 to Romania behind the goals of Dica and Marica.

The other game will be about who can impose their will on the game. If the Dutch can inject that bit of pace with all of their attacking options who like to go forward, and open the game up, they'll have a decent shot. But if the Italians do what we all know they will, and take the sting out of the game, and frustrate the Dutch, its their game to lose. I really feel that its the Italians tournament to lose for that matter. But the Dutch will no doubt be a good test in our first major clash of European giants. Italy 1-0 and Luca Toni does his silly celebration.