FIRST WEEKEND, FEW SURPRISES


The first four matches of the Euro 2008 on Saturday and Sunday, evoked few surprises.



In the Group A Swiss opener, Switzerland lost to the Czech Republic, 1-0. By the end of the firstthe half at St Jakob Park, with Swiss captain Alexander Frei in tears, injured for what appears to be the remainder of the tournament, the Swiss hopes looked hushed, just like the stadium.


Frei cries...

But they came out in the 2nd half and put on a gutty display, the game constantly in question and the Czechs assisted by a couple of dubious non handball calls which would easily have given Switzerland a draw and thus deprived the Czechs of the 2 of the 3 points they ultimately earned.

In addition to the blown hand ball calls, the lone Czech goal came on a mis-kick from substitute Vaclav Sverkos in the 71st minute and sealed the fate.

What it all means is that it will take a national disaster to stop the Czechs from making it to the next round.



Portugal 2 Turkey 0: Hardly a suprise. Picked by many, including Sports Amnesia, to make it to the finals, the Portugese never struggled, barely worked up a sweat and so thoroughly dominated the Turks that you have to wonder whose defence might have a prayer of stopping them. The match could have easily finished 4-0 or 5-0.

There are more than 170,000 Portuguese living in Switzerland, and local authorities said nearly 20,000 fans were in Neuchatel on Sunday to try to get a glimpse of Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates

The two Group A winners will face each other on Wednesday as will the two losers.

Everyone's favourite to win the top scorer honours, Man U's Cristiano Ronaldo, did not as many had hoped, suffered a broken leg in the middle of one of his patented, smirking step overs, but was held scoreless in any event. Not that it mattered, there are plenty on this side who can put it in the net.

On Sunday, the Austrian side of this dual-host set up opened with the Austrians facing the Croatians.

Although the Croatians are now notorious in the UK having taken two games from the English and having prevented the English from qualifying for this very tournament, they were less than brilliant against an Austrian side that proved much steadier and much more heroic than anyone realistically thought possible.

"I'm not losing confidence," Bilic said. "We have the three points. We did not sink against Austria despite the poor second half. Football is a strange game: we can play even worse than yesterday, and still beat the Germans."

Croatia, led by supercool manager Slaven Bilic, had to wait only four minutes into the match to score.

A fourth-minute penalty from recent Spurs signing, Luka Modric - the earliest in the history of the European Championship - gave the Croats a 1-0 win on Sunday over co-host Austria, which is considered the weakest side in the 16-nation tournament.

The result was disappointing for Croatia despite gaining the maximum 3 points but it doesn't matter much - they have Germany looming ahead of them next, a game that will test the best of both sides.

Austria can take their morale victory but it won't get them into the quarterfinals and it looks quite clear, as was expected, that neither host nation will advance.

Germany 2 Poland 0: Germany forward Lukas Podolski who was, ironically enough, born in Poland, scored twice in Sunday night's 2-0 win over Poland to fire his side top of Group B.

It was the type of clinical finish that convinces many who think the Germans have a good chance to make it to the finals, that their instincts are right, as they are with every tournament the Germans enter: they are a good bet to advance.