Conspiracy Theories?

The only way Italy could defeat Bulgaria last night and still fail to go through to the next round, would have been if Sweden and Denmark drew by a 2-2 margin or higher.

In the dying moments of Italy's match, Antonio Cassano's goal in stoppage time gave Italy its first victory of the tournament, 2-1 over Bulgaria only to find out that the Denmark-Sweden match had just ended, you guessed it, a 2-2 draw.

Surprisingly, the headlines of il Gazzetta wasn't filled with accusatory headlines, merely the shoulder shrugging acceptance of defeat: Vinciamo ma Usciamo, we win, but we exit. Appropriately enough. They are probably painfully aware of the fact they'd barely even beaten Bulgaria and didn't really deserver to advance in any case.

Thus, Danmark videre efter EM-drama behind national hero Jon Dahl Tomasson (cool photo of Tomasson celebrating in the rain), and Vilken rysare! as the Larsson led Swedes both advance to the quarterfinals.

I samma stund gjorde Italien 2-1.
Konspirationen lever.
Sverige lever.
Danmark lever.


To date:

(nicked off the Swedish paper's site)

Grupp A M V O F Mål +/- Poäng
Portugal 3 2 0 1 4-2 +2 6
Grekland 3 1 1 1 4-4 0 4
Spanien 3 1 1 1 2-2 0 4
Ryssland 3 1 0 2 2-4 -2 3

Spelade matcher:
12/6: Portugal-Grekland 1-2 (0–1)
12/6: Spanien-Ryssland 1-0 (0–0)
16/6: Grekland-Spanien 1-1 (0–1)
16/6: Ryssland-Portugal 0-2 (0–1)
20/6: Ryssland-Grekland 2-1 (2–1)
20/6: Spanien-Portugal 0-1 (0–0)


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Grupp B M V O F Mål +/- Poäng
Frankrike 3 2 1 0 7-4 +3 7
England 3 2 0 1 8-4 +2 6
Kroatien 3 0 2 1 4-6 -2 2
Schweiz 3 0 1 2 1-6 -5 1

Spelade matcher:
13/6: Schweiz-Kroatien 0-0 (0–0)
13/6: Frankrike-England 2-1 (0–1)
17/6: England-Schweiz 3-0 (0–1)
17/6: Kroatien-Frankrike 2-2 (0–1)
21/6: Kroatien-England 2-4 (1–2)
21/6: Schweiz-Frankrike 1-3 (1–1)


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Grupp C M V O F Mål +/- Poäng
Sverige 3 1 2 0 8-3 +5 5
Danmark 3 1 2 0 4-2 +2 5
Italien 3 1 2 0 3-2 +1 5
Bulgarien 3 0 0 3 1-9 -7 0

Spelade matcher:
14/6: Danmark-Italien 0-0 (0-0)
14/6: Sverige-Bulgarien 5-0 (1-0)
18/6: Bulgarien-Danmark 0-2 (1-0)
18/6: Italien-Sverige 1-1 (1-0)

Danmark-Sverige 2-2 (1–0)
Målen: 1–0 Jon Dahl Tomasson (28), 1–1 Henrik Larsson (47 str), 2–1 Jon Dahl Tomasson (66), 2–2 Mattias Jonson (89).
Varningar, Sverige: Erik Edman, Kim Källström.
Domare: Markus Merk, Tyskland.
Publik: 26 115.
Italien-Bulgarien 2-1 (0–1)
Målen: 0–1 Martin Petrov (45 str), 1–1 Simone Perrotta (48), 2–1 Antonio Cassano (90).
Varningar, Italien: Marco Materazzi. Bulgarien: Martin Petrov, Valeri Bozjinov, Ilian Stojanov, Zdravko Lazarov.
Domare: Valentin Ivanov, Ryssland.
Publik: 16 002.



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Grupp D M V O F Mål +/- Poäng
Tjeckien 2 2 0 0 5-3 +2 6
Tyskland 2 0 2 0 1-1 0 2
Holland 2 0 1 1 3-4 -1 1
Lettland 2 0 1 1 1-2 -1 1

Spelade matcher:
15/6: Tjeckien-Lettland 2-1 (0-1)
15/6 Tyskland-Holland 1-1 (1–0)
19/6: Lettland-Tyskland 0-0 (0–0)
Varningar, Lettland: Aleksandrs Isakovs, Vitalijs Astafjevs. Tyskland: Arne Friedrich, Dietmar Hamann, Torsten Frings.
Domare: Mike Riley, England.
Publik: 22 344.

Holland-Tjeckien 2-3 (2–1)
Målen: 1–0 Wilfred Bouma (4), 2–0 Ruud van Nistelrooy (19), 2–1 Jan Koller (23), 2–2 Milan Baros (71), 2–3 Milan Baros (88).
Varningar, Holland: Clarence Seedorf, Johnny Heitinga. Tjeckien: Tomas Galasek.
Utv, Holland: Johnny Heitinga (75).
Domare: Manuel Enrique Mejuto, Spanien.
Publik: 31 498.

Kommande matcher:
23/6: Holland-Lettland
23/6: Tyskland-Tjeckien

Skytteligan
4 mål
Wayne Rooney, England.
3 mål
Henrik Larsson, Sverige
Zinedine Zidane, Frankrike
Jon Dahl Tomasson, Danmark
Antonio Cassano, Italien
2 mål:
Thierry Henry, Frankrike
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sverige
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Holland
Milan Baros, Tjeckien
Frank Lampard, England
1 mål:
Mattias Jonson, Sverige
Fredrik Ljungberg, Sverige
Marcus Allbäck, Sverige
Simone Perrotta, Italien
Maniche, Portugal
Nuno Gomes, Portugal
Rui Costa, Portugal
Fernando Morientes, Spanien
Paul Scholes, England
Steven Gerrard, England
Zisis Vryzas, Grekland
Giorgos Karagounis, Grekland
Angelos Haristeas, Grekland.
Angelos Basinas, Grekland
Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Juan Carlos Valeron, Spanien
Maris Verpakovskis, Lettland
Marek Heinz, Tjeckien
Jan Koller, Tjeckien
Torsten Frings, Tyskland
David Trezeguet, Frankrike
Nico Kovac, Kroatien.
Igor Tudor, Kroatien
Milan Rapaic, Kroatien
Dado Prso, Kroatien
Jesper Grönkjaer, Danmark
Wilfred Bouma, Holland
Dmitrij Kiritjenko, Ryssland
Dimitrij Bulykin, Ryssland
Johan Vonlanthen, Schweiz
Martin Petrov, Bulgarien


***** so the next round looks like this: (gone: Italy, Spain, Croatia, Russia, Bulgaria, Switzerland)

Portugal - England -thurs
France - Greece - fri
Sweden - (Holland??!!) (or perhaps, more interestingly, Latvia still have a chance)-(sat)
(Czechs?) - Denmark -(sun)

*****

Meanwhile, don't look now, but The Mets have won five straight!