Euro 2008, thoughts on.

And so, after a month or so of inactivity, another post this way comes.

 Scotland were beaten by Italy tonight, bringing an end to their bid to progress to the Euro 2008 finals. This is a pity as this Scotland team are playing better than they have been for some time. It’s been 10 years since Scotland last advanced to a major tournament (World Cup France 98) and this team has deserved to progress more than any team for the intervening years, and perhaps even the team 10 years ago (mainly composed of ‘old guard’ who peaked in the early-mid ’90s, retired soon after, and were perhaps a genuinely good batch of players (who were Scottish? Heaven forbid)). This team has beaten the World Cup runners-up twice, but due to failing against World Cup Winners, Semi-Finalists, and, er, Georgia, they will not appear in Euro 2008. Probably a good thing, as to the best of my knowledge, Scotland has never passed the first round in a major tournament. But fair play to them, this was a very difficult group (unless you’re France or Italy).

 Moving on from Scotland, who may have average player, but compensate by having a good manager, good team work, and a good try, untill the finish, to qualify, to their fierce rivals (from Scotland’s point of view at least), England (to who Scotland are 3rd, after Germany and Argentina), a team who have excellent players, but also have a crap manager, teamwork, and have made an easy group intensley difficult. The fact that we’re relying on a game between footballing giants Israel and the unstoppable force that is, er,  Russia, to qualify is very poor. The result was good at least, the Israelis defeating the Russians 2-1, meaning a draw/win against Croatia  will put us (England) through to the finals (pending playoffs). Not that a draw/win is certain. Even without goal-scoring hero Gary Neville, Croatia has been the strongest team in the group, and defeated England already in the group. Despite Israel’s win, qualification still may not happen, even with the deciding game at New Wembley. For a start, we have no attackers. We have Peter Crouch, and, er, er, er… Steven Gerrard? He’s a striker now? Apparently, according to the Sky Sports News 24. Well, that fixes the midfield problem at least. Except Beckham. Who I still don’t belive has any right to be picked over Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steven Gerrard, Aaron Lennon, Charlie Chaplain or whoever Mad McClaren is playing this week. But I digress. To summerise, we’re screwed.