Looking at the groups, one could almost immediately pick out the favorites to go through. The division was clear as day between the top two teams in the groups that I almost put in a lot of money on betting for the group qualifiers. Thank God for some traffic however, which prevented me from doing that because I would have lost a lot of money from the first day alone. After that, I decided to ditch the gambling.
Group A:
Poland 1-1 Greece
Russia 4-1 Czech Republic
The hoe team were lucky to escape with a draw in this one. The scoreline doesn't reflect how Greece dominated the game and how the bad calls helped Poland along.
Russia is still in good form giving Czech Republic a god spanking even with Chelsea's Petr Cech manning the goal.
Group B:
Netherlands 0-1 Denmark
Germany 1-0 Portugal
The first big shocker of the event. The Danes were expected to be the weakest team here with the other three contending for the two spots to advance. However, getting a goal and parking the bus after shocked the Dutch into a defeat in what they expected to be the easy match in the group. The Dutch are in big trouble indeed.
The second group B match was the one for the top spot. Germany was able to slip past Portugal and with the Dutch in trouble, the Germans will almost certainly advance.
Group C:
Spain 1-1 Italy
Ireland 1-3 Croatia
The defending champions opened their campaign against an Italian side who have been in poor form in recent games. What looked to be a sure win turned sour as they could only manage a draw. This Spanish side lost their opening match to Switzerland in the last World Cup which they eventually won so I'm not counting them out.
Ireland and Croatia being in this group must feel that their best bet is to beat the other. Croatia got the better of Ireland this time and it only remains to be seen if either team can beat the giants and squeeze through this group.
Group D:
Ukraine 2-1 Sweden
France 1-1 England
In a battle of the classic AC Milan guys, Andriy Shevchenko faced Zlatan Ibrahimovic and came out on top in front of his home side. This was great for the home team who played in Kiev where the Scandinavians proved to be the perfect guests by losing to the delight of the home crowd.
Another great rivalry played out in the second Group D match where France played against an English side lacking several players due to injury. It was an inconclusive draw however but France seemed like the better team throughout the match.
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