Quinta-Feira Question Time: Who’s In The Quarters With Us?

I am from Turkey but my honest opinion is that Czech Republic and Portugal will advance from this group rather easily. We are not in good form and our defense is not strong enough to compete against attacking teams like Portugal and Czech Rep. I hope in the end I will be proven wrong and we are one of the two teams that will be in the quarters.

Posted from  Germany

I’ve heard that from some of my Turkish friends Serhat, but to be honest, I am very apprehensive about playing Turkey.

Same goes for Switzerland and Czech…

I think if Portugal want a decent shot at getting to the semi’s, we need to come in first (aka win all 3 games, or 2 and a draw)

2nd place out of our group will be playing 1st in group B, which will be Germany barring any kind of catastrophe or miracle

I think we can handle Austria and Poland (though we did lose to them in qualifiers)

And while the Croatians are tough, they are no Germany.

So I say win the group, play Croatia (or Poland) and then deal with Germany

But who really knows? Thats the beauty of knockout…anything can happen

Posted from  United States

Getting to the final means taking out probably Croatia, Germany, and then one of Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands….

If we win Euro 2008 it will be well deserved

Of course, we shouldn’t really look past the group stage at this time, because I think the Turks, Swiss, and Czechs will give us one hell of a time

Posted from  United States

Haha I just realized that the question wasn’t who will we be playing, but rather who will go through with us.

Czech is the smart call, but something tells me the Swiss will want to make their people proud

Posted from  United States

i’m feeling confident we can win this. last tournament portugal made the final(lost to greece twice) and semi(lost on a penalty). With bosingwa, quaresma, pepe, ronaldo, and nani in the squad win can go all the way and win the euro. this portugal squad is a Ferrari we have so much pace up front.

Posted from  United States

I’m confident Portugal can do well too. Looking back at who they had to play in the World Cup 06…Mexico, Netherlands, England…not the easiest teams and had a more difficult path than others (like England IMO). The squad also did a solid job against France too so I definitely think there’s reason to be optimistic here based on past performances. My guess is Portugal and the Czechs make it out of this group, but I agree with Nelson when he says we really have to win this group to have a good shot or else…

I like everything everyone has said so far but I”m going to break with the easy prediction and go with tradition and say that it will be Portugal (they had better!) and Switzerland. The home team (at least one of them) always always gets thru.
Especially if we beat Turkey and do well against the Cech’s in our second game. That would probably mean we could rest for the last game against the Swiss and that might be enough for them to squeeze thru in second.

Posted from  Canada

The key for portugal is to take one game at a time like they did at WC 2006..no point lookin ahead 2 or 3 matches..If they take it step by step i am sure they will reach the finals again.

Posted from  Singapore

I hate to throuw in the cold water bucket, but we´re not in the quarter´s yet. Nor have our team looked as strong as it did in the past. Nor is our group (or group pile A+B) any easier, no matter if ITA and FRA aren´t there.
On the other hand, though we´re not the strongest team in A+B, I don´t think we don´t have enough for any of the teams.

On the other side, I´d say Croatia and Germany to go through from group B. Poland are much stronger than everybody´s giving them, but Croatia is too. Germany is always Germany.
If we go through, I´d like to play Croatia. Two teams that like to play ball.

On the other half, I´d say France looks the best candidate to reach the Final. If we get there, and I hope we do, it´s either sweet revenge or a bit more of the old french frustration. We were stronger in 84, we were equal (or maybe even better) in 2000 and in 2006 we had to be much better, which we weren´t.

Posted from  Netherlands

Agree with you, Ricardo. One match at a time, otherwhise there won´t be any quarters or anything…

Posted from  Netherlands

i am a bit afraid the national team will not take one match for euro 08.. alot of inexpercience players in the squad this time.. a more experience capped player like maniche/tiago/costhina/ would have help rather than havin players like mireles , mouthino and veloso who never played at such a huge tournament b4..Plus there are players like bosingwa and quresama who are equally inexp;erience at this level too. so a bit worried here.

Posted from  Singapore

Ricardo is right, Portugal won’t make it out of the group, to make matters worse I have a feeling we end up in the fourth position.

First place goes to Czech Republic. 2nd place will be a close battle between Switzerland and Turkey.

Posted from  Netherlands

Not impressed with our game against Georgia. Simao couldnt cross the ball. Nuno was nowhere. In midfield we ran around in circles.Worried about lack of experience ie no Maniche, Costinha, Tiago and Valente. Not confident of advancing as every team is very good and none should be underestimated. Impressed with Boswinga, Pepe, and Moutinho. We have a big problem with which striker to start – the problem – we have no striker – Almeida is the best of the bunch. Pity Makakula wasnt picked. We will suffer from lack of goals unless Ronaldo is striker.

Posted from  Hong Kong

This team isn’t going to pass the group stage, they are all a bunch of overpayed, spoilt inexperienced players. And Big Phil is as good as Erikson…he won the world cup with brazil because with that team even Joe Noone would have…All the best to the remainder of the teams. I bet 1-Switz 2-Chech 3-Turk 4-Port

whoa calem, where’s all the hate coming from? a) they are definitely not inexperienced, 8 out of the 11 starters have all been part of the squads that went to the final 04 and semi final 06, and the other 3 (bosingwa, moutinho, pepe) are pretty bloody experienced in the upper echelons of European football, b) they aren’t overpayed, as the ones that play in portugal earn peanuts compared to most of the players in the french, spanish, italian, german squads but certainly aren’t (significantly worse), and the likes of Ronaldo certainly deserve their wages as much as any other players, c) Brazil were struggling to qualify for World Cup 2002, despite the team they had, so clearly it’s not as easy as you suggest, and for me, the squad in 2006 was so so much better, and yet looked what happened, i mean most people had written off the tournament because Brazil were so overwhelmingly favourites…so clearly Scolari must have done something right.

we’re all entitled to our opinion, and fair play to you, i just hope you’re not one of those old bitter portuguese people who do nothing but moan and complain about their national team, no matter what they manage to achieve (which in this decade, has been a huge amount) rather than being a ‘real’ fan.

Posted from  United Kingdom

It doesn’t matter who we face, every team has a chance to win that’s why they made the ball round… We have to be confident in all are matches and work together to produce good results!! I don’t care if we play germany, france, or any other teams as long as we play as a team I am confident that PORTUGAL will win!!!

Posted from  United States