Sorry non-football fans - Day 3

In all of the giddiness that has taken over in the last few days it has completely passed me by that Brazil were eliminated from the Copa America! IN THE GROUP STAGE! Despite them taking a pretty strong squad and thumping Haiti 7-1 the other night.

This is the thing when a major tournament is on. Everything else stops, even caring for other football. Major Tournaments do actually make me feel sorry for those who don’t like football. I’m sure that they couldn’t give a toss and that they might find my “pity” patronising. But what do they have?

I genuinely woke up on Friday morning feeling like a kid at Christmas. Last night, rather than thinking, “Urgh I hate Sunday nights...” it was, “Great! It’s Germany v Ukraine…”. Same for today, there was no, “Urgh! Monday morning...!” For today is an opportunity to watch Spain, Zlatan and Italy!

Much like Christmas as a kid, a major European tournament has no weekdays or weekends. For about a month, life just isn’t the same!

It's back!

The football's back, I think I'm finally over the World Cup, actually it's probably best we don't talk about the World Cup (you know, it's a bit of a faux pas to talk about your ex on a first date). The football season started last week for me with Reims v PSG in Ligue 1 on Friday, involved a bit of Ajax v Vitesse on Sunday and finally finished with the 2nd half of the Charity Community Shield (I missed the 1st half because I'd totally forgotten it was on). And now this week I'm off to The Boleyn for our first game of the season against Sp*rs, and I'm petrified. I just can't see how we'll get anything out of the game, not after beating them 3 times last year, and then there's all these West Ham fans I keep seeing online, "giving it" like it will be a walkover for us. I'm ashamed to admit it, but they're acting like Sp*rs fans. Touch wood we'll at least get a draw tomorrow and then I don't have to watch that game for another season (I really don't enjoy Sp*rs at home).

Everywhere I look there are previews of the season to come so I thought I'd do my own. Here's 10 things that you may (or may not) see this season.

Manchester United will be good again
I actually found it a bit uncomfortable with them being so bad last year. Especially when all the Liverpool lovers were lording it up. I expect to see an improvement from last year's showing at Old Trafford, not because I think David Moyes is the terrible manager that the media have made him out to be, or because Louis Van Gaal is the knight in shining armour that is also being painted. But because they can only get better, surely. That squad failed last year because it was terrible, not just because of Cleverly or Fellaini, because Fergie had neglected it for a couple of seasons. So this year what's different? Well they have Mata for a whole season and Ander Herrera from my beloved Athletic Club. Plus a fresh pair of scowling, hardened, taking no sh*t, eyes steering the ship in the form of the aforementioned "LVG". Surely they can't be that bad again this year right? Surely!

Arsenal go through the same cycle
We see it every year, they'll have a period where they play amazingly and people start saying, "Oooh! Are they dark horses for the title?" Sanchez will link up with Oeeeeeeeeeeeeerzil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Podolski,  Carzola, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ger-nab-ry and any other attacking midfielder/not quite a centre forward that they have and they'll look unbeatable. Then they'll have that month, the month that everyone's been saying is coming up, the one that's "a true test of their title credentials". The month where they play Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool in the cup, Bayern Munich in the Champions League, the Sega Team for Virtua striker and Pele and his crew from Escape to Victory. And they'll lose every one of those key games, which will make all the Sp*rs fans happy (and Facebook will blow up with Arsenal jokes). Then they'll get their sh*t together, put together a decent run and finish 4th. Why don't we just give them 77 points now and say they've finished 4th?

I couldn't find a picture of Micah Richards' bum, and if I'm being honest, felt a little uncomfortable searching for one. Take my word for it, it's huge!

Micah Ricahrds finally gets his chance?
Nah, he'll never get any games for City! Everyone knows Zabaleta has got right back locked down. Maybe he'll finally move on? Maybe this year Richards will do something else, like beat Kim Kardashian (and Hulk) to the title of Rear of the Year? And Jimmy Floyd Hasslebank will look on, wondering what might have been, had he still been in the public spotlight... Weird thought, I know. But Richards isn't getting anywhere near that City team and he does have a big a*se. There's more chance of the rear of the year thing happening!

Kim isn't gonna go down without a fight!

West Ham are average
At best! Is Enner Valencia going to score a ton of goals? Or maybe Mauro Zarate? Doubt it. We'll probably have given up on them come the end of November and it will be good old loyal Carlton Cole up top or even worse, the famed 4-6-0! Fingers crossed something decent will happen.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's powers will start to decline
He took 7 minutes to open his account last week against Reims. And he ended up with a second by the end of the game. The guy is just phenomenal and he's now 33! Surely there'll be a season soon where he doesn't score 20+ goals. Is this going to be it, or is the French league too weak for the fact that he's the wrong side of 30 to matter at the moment? Watch this space, I think he's got another good season left in him.

Great to see Ashley fitting in already (far left)

Ashley Cole will tear it up in Italy
Another player who is 33 (the same age as me, god I'm old for a footballer) is Cashley. Who has decided to make the bold move of going to Roma. Fair play to him, I reckon there's still a season or two left in him and he could potentially do the business in a side that performed VERY well last year. Will he thrive though? Will the Curva Sud (I think Romanistas have the Curva Sud) be singing his name, like the Curva Nord did 20 odd years ago with a certain Paul Gascoinge? Will he be able to handle the intense Italian media? Will he even learn Italian (from what I've seen in the past he's just about got the hang of English)? I'm saying I think he will! I think Roma might win the league this year, down to their signings and Juventus being Conte-less/Allegri-full, come on Ashley show us that you're still a decent giocatore (that's Italian for "player" that is, you can have that one for free Mr Cole)!

I will watch the Eredivise in it's entirety
I'm not 100% sure this will happen, what with baby commitments and other leagues to watch, but for some reason last week I was a little drawn to that Ajax game. I found myself thinking, "You should watch this league more often.." Maybe I will, maybe I'll learn who the good and not so good players are (I pretty much knew NOBODY in the Ajax side until Daley Blind came off the bench). Let's say I will!

I still won't watch the German league
Screw that! I read an article the other day entitled, "Are you a Football Hipster?" and I can safely say I'm not as one of the main qualifiers was having a love for the Bundesliga. I appreciate that the German league has more goals, bigger attendances and some of the best players in Europe in it, but I just can't get on board. This must be how people who hate Italian football feel about Serie A.

Fernando Torres will start scoring goals again
Yeeeeeeeeeeah right! I'm also calling the Diego Costa signing not turning out the way Chelsea expected right now too. Nice and early!

Atletico Madrid will win back to back titles
We can dream. Barcelona and Madrid's response to not winning the league for the 1st time in like 20 years was to sign the best player from the World Cup just gone (Oh the World Cup! My beloved World Cup, I miss you! *sobs into a some tissues*) and the best player in the Premier League last season. Those guys are hurting! I can remember sweating like I was an Atleti fan last year towards the end of the season as they limped over the line in first place, having run out of steam. What are they going to do this year? Hopefully they'll sign Reus to go with Griezmann and Mandzukic (touch wood Song doesn't see him when they play Barca) and put up another great fight.

So it's back, the highs & lows, the twitter rants at the official West Ham account after an inept performance, watching La Liga, Serie A & Ligue 1 on a laptop while the Mrs watches X-Factor and steering clear of Facebook every time Sp*rs win. Come May some of us will be sick of it (my girlfriend definitely will), by that point I definitely won't be interested in watching games containing teams like Leicester and Palace by then unless West Ham are involved (by the way, Palace definitely screwed with Pulis leaving), but we'll have had another history making 10 months of football. Bring it on!!

The Footballing Schlieffen Plan

Ok, I'm really really really really really really really sorry! I've been so lazy recently. Recently?? Ok I've been so lazy in the last few months, thing is I've been meaning to write updates to this blog and have seen tons of stuff, both football and non-football (for the ladies, wink wink) related. I have no idea why I'm winking or typing about winking to imaginary women reading my blog, bear with me here people.

So what's been happening? Well in terms of me, not much has changed, I say that but I mean in respect of my living/working situation, I'm pretty much doing all the same stuff I was doing back in the summer when I was on here moaning about West Ham and regaling you all with my humorous observations from the European World Cup. One massive thing that has changed in my life is that I purchased FIFA 13, now I'm a lover of the odd computer game especially football/cricket ones and last year I found myself in a situation where I wasn't too enamoured with any of the new football games that came out in October/November. For those of you not in the know (mainly the ladies, wink wink, I'm kidding, just continuing the joke), I'm talking about the trilogy of FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer and Football Manager (Championship Manager in old money) for years these games have ruined relationships, caused weight gain and aided the breaking of inanimate objects in the bedrooms (and sometimes lounges) of men aged 13-40 all over the world. And FIFA 13 is kinda doing this to me. Now I'm not saying I've broken anything and I don't feel my relationship with the Mrs has suffered (and I don't intend on that ever being the case) but my evenings have definitely changed. No longer do I come home from work looking forward to making a decent meal and watching some TV with my flatmates. Now all I can think about is how I can improve my Hull City side in our momentum gathering march towards domination of the footballing world. Well the EA Sports footballing world. I find myself thinking of tactics and potential transfer targets on the walk to the train station in the morning. Going over missed opportunities and (perceived) bad refereeing decisions in the shower and yes, every so often I do lose it and turn into a snarling football manager. A snarling manager being gently nudged back into the technical area by the 4th official, on the brink of being sent to the stands for dissent. Why does this happen to me? Why do I care? Why FIFA 13? I didn't care much for FIFA 12 or 11 and I've barely touched Pro Evo or Championship Manager (yeah that's right 'Old Money') in the last 4/5 years. Whatever it is, it must be a good game cos I'm hooked, I've put on over a stone and a half since the summer (that's no lie) and haven't done any exercise in about 2 months. God help me!!

Cheers for the token gesture Lazio, but there are always going to be  morons in the world. It's one of those things.

In the real, Travis Newton isn't the manager of Hull City and they are still in the Championship, footballing world a lot has happened. I'm not going to go into it all, in fact I'm going to try and keep this part of my post really brief. So here it is. Zlatan's been doing it again, an this time it was against England, so begrudgingly some pundits have had to accept that maybe they were wrong and he is a little better than a pub footballer. Racism is the buzz phrase/word whatever you wanna call it, it seems to all happening in terms of race at the moment. There's talk of a black PFA, black players are refusing to wear Kick It Out t-shirts, The England Under 21's were abused in Serbia, my own fellow West Ham fans behaved appallingly at White Hart Lane the other day and fans are now being continually picked out for making monkey gestures at black players. My opinion on it all (and there's no humour here unfortunately), people are idiots, not all of us (thank god) but a lot of people. And football fans & players are no exception. Is there a problem with racism? Yeah, because it shouldn't really be prevalent in any walk of life in this day and age, not when we have as much knowledge at our disposal as we currently do, with the internet and all that; or with the world being as 'small' as it is now. People should know better! As for football fans, people seem to think that it's acceptable to do something when in a crowd (or a mob) as there is less chance of them being singled out for punishment (that's how riots start), in addition to that, footballers seem to think it's ok to say whatever they want to their peers as it's deemed to have been done 'in the heat of battle'. Bollocks! Players, fans and people in ordinary society that resort to racism are ignorant halfwits. Rant over!

Dog poo!

Now for the bit relating to the title. Aside from getting bed sores from sitting around all day playing FIFA I have also embarked on a little project. A project that, like FIFA, probably does me no favours in being attractive to the opposite sex (although the Mrs hasn't complained yet). Anyone with a little historical knowledge will know that the Schlieffen Plan was a plan devised by a German general, which basically led to World War One, that centred around fighting a war on two fronts. The plan was that Germany were to march through Belgium in 6 weeks, beating the French; then turn back and beat the Russians before they even knew what had hit them. As a spoiler for those that know nothing history wise, they got stuck in Belgium for 4 years, which was basically World War One. Now my Schlieffen plan involves following a European top flight football league on numerous fronts. Let me get things straight here, I often watch a lot of foreign football and follow the European leagues fairly closely; to the point that I'd even say I've followed two leagues in a season before. Normally The Premiership along with either Serie A or La Liga. This year I'm taking it to a new level. So of course I'm following the Premiership, what with West Ham in it I go to a game once every fortnight or so. In addition to that I am avidly following Serie A, I'd say at least a game a weekend and making sure I see highlights of all the others. I'm trying to keep up my following of the Spanish League especially with respect to seeing my team Athletic Bilbao (who are having a horrible season this year) but I'm struggling what with the Italian games getting it the way and the Mrs' love of X Factor, damn the scheduling of those Spanish games! I am also (yeah that's right I'm greedy) trying to watch the French League, what with PSG and this injection of cash I'm intrigued to see how things pan out for them this season. I've seen a couple of live games but am mainly watching highlights. At the same time my fingers and thumbs are in the pies that are the German and Dutch leagues. I really want to watch more German football but it's hard to squeeze it in, especially if I want to have a life and a girlfriend (and if I want to take Hull to Champions League glory). So in summary here's what I've learned from my own Schlieffen Plan. Pescara are dog poo. Wow they're bad, saw them win this weekend, how I have no idea?!? Anybody who thinks QPR or Reading are bad, you've seen nothing. The Italian league is full of goals and great forwards, people that talk about it being defensive haven't got a clue, Cavani, Milito, El Shaarawy, Di Natale, Miccoli, Klose, Toni Goals! Every week. And I have no idea who is going to win the thing, Do Juve need a striker? Have Inter turned a corner? Has Milan's start hindered them? Can Lazio/Napoli/Fiorentina challenge this year? Love it! Falcao is immense! He's basically keeping Atletico Madrid in touch with the guys at the top. Bilbao on the other hand are struggling bad. Is it time for Bielsa to go? PSG are very very disjointed. They struggle without Zlatan and they're playing in a league where the competition isn't very good. They should walk it if they get their act together (but probably wont). There are also some very weak goals scored in both the French and Dutch leagues. Finally, there are some very good sides in Germany, Bayern look epic but Dortmund look like they can match them, they have however been stretched by the Champions League.

And that, my readers, is a war on multiple fronts!

From daily to weekly. Apologies

It would appear that I bit off way more than I could chew in saying I'd update this blog every day during the European World Cup. OK so I lied, it's not like I went a week without updating it...

Anybody that's paying attention, or that cares, will notice that that last statement is also a lie, it has been a week since I last put finger to button in anger on here. But now I'm back! And what a week it has been!

In summary...

Captain Cavemaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

England were almost single handedly beaten by a caveman. When the hell did Olaf Mellburg score goals? And when he does when does he get a brace, that would have been one hell of a bet!

In Group A Greece managed to do a "Greece Euro 2004" and sneak through at the expense of the Russians, despite the Russians clearly being the best side in the group and finishing with a much better record in the tournament than the Greeks?!?! What the hell is up with this head to head rubbish that UEFA are doing? Nobody knows what is going on. Were Spain and Croatia going to draw 2-2? Were Italy going out even if they won 10-0? Were Spain going to go through? The Italian players had no idea what they needed to do to throw the Ireland game, so they just beat them and went through to the next round. I'm joking by the way I don't buy into all that "Italians are cheats nonsense". They're no more cheats than anyone else. To be fair there is one thing I find more confusing than the logic behind "Head to Head" and that is, who is who out of Gekas and Salpingidis? I thought Gekas had scored twice but it turns out it was Salpingidis that got their goal in the Poland game. Gekas could end up with the Golden Boot at this rate...

These are two different guys I swear!

Another thing that I noticed in Group A were two hilarious names in the Czech Republic team. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who giggles every time the commentators talk of Gebre Selassie (the Czech right back) and how he's full of running... I'm not surprised he's full of running, you should have seen him in the 10,000 Metres in Atlanta!!

Watch out for him on the Czech right flank

And on top of that they've also got a guy in the side called "You're a Czech" (spelt Jiracek). It's almost as if he had an identity crisis and wasn't sure who he should represent at international level, so somebody had to remind him in his name. Thank god for him he's not from The Central African Republic. "You're a Central African Republican", would that fit on the back of a shirt?


In Group B the Dutch are out! I have nothing funny to say about that, they've ruined my chances in work's prediction competition, I had them as runners up! There's talk of dissent in the camp, in traditional Dutch style. Holland if you're gonna go all late 1990's on us you might as well get the De Boer brothers back, who can I say, are so inseparable they've got a joint Twitter account. Give it up guys! Those Ajax days are over, you're going to have to go your separate ways at some point in your lives.

England are through, and once again I'm left thinking, "Am I the only one who can see the cracks?" As mentioned before we let the Swedish caveman score twice, and we didn't look all that convincing in our victory over Ukraine (I've been told I'm not supposed to say "The Ukraine"). Our goal came from a piece of goalkeeping so dodgy that even Shay Given, Petr Cech and myself were shaking our heads while we watched it on TV. You know for the fact that the Sun will have some sort of "Woy" Hodgson pun tomorrow and will have proclaimed us the new all conquering Kings of the European World Cup!

So it's on to the quarter finals and the only thing I have left to say is, how defensive/aggressive is Roy Keane? Wow! All he ever seems to say is "Listen!" We're all listening Roy (apologies to those of you who follow me on Twitter, you'll have heard that one already)! If you think I'm exaggerating watch this. Make sure you listen!

Oh and Zlatan scored AGAIN!

European World Cup Day 4 England were playing (for once) but the weather wasn't playing ball

Let's not all get carried away (I know this will fall upon deaf ears) England did pretty well yesterday against France. This was the same France side that I have stuck money on to win the whole competition and that are 20+ games unbeaten. Well done England! Problem is, despite saying that nobody expects anything from England this year (rightly so), I still see in the media adverts where Terry Venables talks of us being "contenders" and Alan Shearer saying how we have an outside chance. I will reserve further, potentially scathing comments, til the end of the group stage, so far so good. I watched the game yesterday in a pub that I always try and watch England games in, with some old (and new) friends. Normally we've been very lucky when we go there to watch England in major international tournaments, in the fact that the weather is scorchingly hot and we can enjoy the big beer garden they have which is accompanied with a TV and BBQ. Yesterday things were different, much like Roy's England team, it was the most miserable June day ever, meaning we had to swap the big screen and BBQ in the sun for a couch inside. This did however give us a chance to earwig to chavs having a domestic in the pub at about 3pm (as you do), apparently the man whose voice bore a resemblance to that of Ozzy Osbourne had been sleeping around with Ladies of the night, much to the obvious disgust of his female partner, who also spoke in a manner similar to Mr Osbourne (nice lady). This incident aside the whole day, although enjoyable, was a little disappointing due to the weather, about as disappointing as seeing Jordan Henderson come on for the last few minutes of the game (some people in the pub booed).

Not bad for a flop

The second game of the day, and last of the first round of matches, involved co-hosts Ukraine. I didn't hold much hope for them doing anything in this tournament, which means they won of course, they and Sweden capped a first round of matches that I have found thoroughly entertaining from throughout. Zlatan scored again to put the Swedes ahead, although it counted for nothing in the end as Chelsea "flop"/General Legend anywhere else, Andriy Shevchenko scored twice to win the game for the host nation. Another good game and the big debate that came out of it was, although the consensus amongst my friends (not all friends, just schooled ones) is that Ibrahimovic is a good player, would you buy him if you were building a team? I'm 50/50 on the whole thing.

Day 4 Summary

In Roy (with an 'R') we trust, to an extent...

Hero(s)
There are multiple heroes again, Roy Hodgson needs to be given credit for the way England played. They didn't just resort to kick and rush (although they were fairly direct) and troubled France throughout the first half. Well done England! Andriy Shevchenko is the other hero, I gave his country little hope of registering a win this tournament and most certainly didn't think he'd be among the goals. He scored two very good headers and showed very good strikers instinct.

The familiar sight of Zlatan celebrating a goal, would he add value to your team though?

Villain(s)
Anyone who talks about 1966 or mentions England winning this years European World Cup, calm down it was a decent performance but there is a lot of room for improvement. Zlatan-bashers are also villains, how many more times does he have to do it for you to believe in him?? Oh and Ozzy Osbourne (the male one) from down the pub, why would you cheat on your lovely, fellow Ozzy Osbourne sounding, Mrs with a prostitute?!? Shame on you!

It's been a goalfest, especially with regards to headers

Bet of the day
All four teams to score. I'm telling you all now, if this tournament carries on in the same manner that will be a very good bet. It's happened every day except Day 3!

Day 2 of the European World Cup and 10 things to look out for

Another decent day of football in my opinion, the Danes "shocked" the Dutch beating them 1-0. I say "shocked" because it wasn't that much of a shock. They're ranked 9th in the world (I think), qualified top of their group, which contained Portugal and held The Netherlands to a 1-1 draw in the last World Cup (although it wasn't a European World Cup, just a regular one), the same World Cup that the Dutch got to the final in. The second game was a lot closer than I thought it would be, I really don't rate Portugal, to the point that I think it's ludicrous that anyone would suggest Ronaldo will have a good tournament. I don't get why people can't see that although he is arguably the best player in the World (definitely in the European World) he needs a good team around him to do well, which he has in Real Madrid, but doesn't with Portugal. The Portuguese did hit the bar twice in the game, one of those being an off the bar and down onto the line incendent, which luckily was conclusive, else all we'd be hearing "bla bla bla goal line technology"; but on the face of it I think the Germans did enough to deserve the win, for a start they had more chances.

A Summary of Day 2

Close your legs!!

Hero
Michael Krohn-Dehli. Scored a very good goal against the Dutch and "nutzed" the keeper, I always keep my legs closed in those situations, Steklenburg needs to take tips from me (or Rob Green who I learnt the technique from), in fact I thought the three up top for Denmark were quality, they all looked really sharp, even Bendtner.

Not his best day...

Villain

Robin Van Persie (closely followed by Ibrahim Afellay and Arjen Robben). The three up top for The Netherlands were the opposite of the Danish front line. Although they moved around well and got a lot of the ball, they often held on to it for too long and wasted a number of very good chances. Van Persie in particular was terrible, I'm not sure why they opted to start with him in the middle when they had Huntelaar on the bench. Huntelaar was the top scorer in qualifying, had a very good season with Schalke AND has a name that makes him sound like he'll be a predator in front of goal, Huntelaar, THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME (I'm aware he squandered a few chances too)!

How many different angles do you reckon I can find pictures of Gomez's goal from?

Bet of the day

Has to be Mario Gomez, first goalscorer, if only I'd placed it. I instead went for an accumulator with Sharapova to win the tennis, The Netherlands and Germany, despite the fact that I thought, correctly, that the Dutch one might be dodgy. I'm just not very good at this gambling lark.

In addition to my Day 2 summary, here's 10 things to look out for at Euro 2012.

The opening credits

I've seen BBC's this year and they're pretty naff, yet to see ITV's. The Opening Credits are normally where ITV actually shine, if only they invested as much time in their choice of commentators and pundits...

Here are some of my favourite Opening Credits (why not eh...)

ITV France 98

BBC Euro 2004 (I just like the song)

ITV South Africa 2010 (I have too much time on my hands don't I...)

Clarence Seedorf

Excellent choice by the BBC to get him in as a pundit. He'll provide some insight amongst all the dated clichés and stereotypes that Hansen and co will come up with.

Updates from the England camp

This really grinds my gears, when I watch Italy v Spain at half time I want detailed analysis of what I've just watched from the 1st half not a running report on the mundane goings on within the England camp in the last few days. The tournament isn't just about England, they're not even playing (see what I did there)!! I really couldn't care less as to what Walcott just had for dinner, he probably lost control of the fork and spilt it all down himself anyway.

Stereotypes

If you wanna play a Euro 2012 drinking game I suggest this, do a shot every time somebody on TV:-

Calls the Italians "defensive" or "negative"

Says "Tika-Taka" when Spain are playing

Slates Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Questions a decent players ability as he's never played in England

Mentions a penalty shoot out when Germany are playing

Backs Ronaldo to do well

Zlatan Ibrahimovic getting slated

I like Zlatan. I totally get that he's arrogant and that he comes across as lazy sometimes. But how can you argue that a player who didn't win the league with his club for the first time in 5 years or something like that this season, consistently scores goals (he's been top scorer in every country he's played in) and scored one of the goals of the tournament in the last two European World Cups, isn't all that? Zlatan could single handed win the tournament for Sweden scoring twice in every game and as he went to lift the trophy every pundit over here would be saying, "I just don't get what all the fuss is about?" I'm literally shaking my head as I write this.

Marcel Desailly

All I'm gonna say is "for sure". I love this guy, he's the only pundit worth watching on ITV. I can do a decent impression as well (in my opinion).

Russia

They have a decent side and may not have to play anyone too challenging until the Semi Finals, obviously to agree with that you'd have to disregard all of the positive things that I've said about Denmark above (it's very likely they could face them in the Quarter Finals), see even I'm contradicting myself, this punditry bug is catching.

France

They're my tip to win the whole thing, I've basically backed Germany for the last two and a bit to three years and upon the eve of the tournament my attentions have turned to France. Fickleity of the highest order! I've got money on them and Benzema to do well.

This blog

I'm going to try and update it every day throughout Euro 2012! I know it's going to be difficult, let's see what happens...

And finally, this picture...

Why does the Portuguese keeper have a big circle on his top? Is it in case he forgets where the badge is? [Kiss here]

I said I'd get as many as I could in from different angles.

Italy v Spain this evening, and the début of the Republic of Ireland (aka The Npower Championship All Star team)!