Euro 2008 Preview, Part II

Thoughts on the tournament in general: It should be interesting as most of the top teams in Europe are represented. With the exception of Austria, there really are no patsies this year. I'm officially picking the big boys to go deep into the tourney but mark my words, there will be at least one cinderella team that will surprise people. Will it be Greece again? Possible but unlikely. Could the Turks summon the spirit of the Ottomans and shock Europe? You never know. Can Romania defy the experts and advance from the group of death? Would not surprise me; after all, they won their qualifying group - which also included the Netherlands - easily, scoring almost twice as many goals as the Dutch in the process.

Only one thing is for sure and that is that there will be some surprises when all is said and done. And I will most likely have egg on my face but...who cares! Euro 2008 is finally here!

Some more predictions:

MY TOP 3 FAVORITES TO WIN IT ALL:
Germany
Portugal
Italy

NEXT 2 FAVORITES:
Spain
France

TEAMS THAT HAVE NO CHANCE:
Austria
Russia
Poland

MY DARK HORSES:
Turkey
Romania

TEAMS I PREDICT WILL DISAPPOINT:
Holland
Czech Republic
Switzerland

TEAMS NOT PLAYING THAT I WILL MISS MOST:
England
Ireland
Denmark

TEAMS THAT SHOULD BE THE MOST FUN TO WATCH:
Portugal
Germany
Spain

BEST FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS:
Italy-France
Portugal-Czech Republic
Spain-Sweden
Germany-Croatia
France-Holland

TEAM THAT COULD BENEFIT FROM PLAYING AT HOME:
Switzerland

WHO WILL PROBABLY WIN THE GOLDEN BOOT:
Fernando Torres (Spain)

OTHER TOP CANDIDATES FOR GOLDEN BOOT:
Christiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Luca Toni (Italy)
Miroslav Klose (Germany)
Adrian Mutu (Romania)
Zlatan Ibrahamovich (Sweden)
Thierry Henry (France)

DARK HORSE CANDIDATES FOR GOLDEN BOOT:
David Villa (Spain)
Antonio DiNatale (Italy)
Antonio Cassano (Italy)
Mladen Petric (Croatia)
Nihat (Turkey)

NOTABLE ABSENTEES DUE TO INJURY:
Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic)
Ryan Babel (Holland)
Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)
Eduardo (Croatia)
Patrick Viera (France)
Dorian Goian (Romania)

NOTABLE ABSENTEES DUE TO NON-SELECTION:
Raul (Spain)
David Trezeguet (France)
Filippo Inzaghi (Italy)

Semi Finals: Germany-Portugal, Italy-France

Finals: Germany-Italy

Champion: Italy

[NOTE: Right up until the moment I posted my picks I was tabbing Germany to win the tournament. However, as I am an unabashedly tremendous homer for the Azzurri, I will freely admit that I'm picking with my heart rather than my head.]