Soccer Blog|Football News, Reviews, Quizzes

Alright folks, Euro 2008 has ended, and Spain have broken their 44 year old title drought. Here are a few questions from the three week extravaganza in Austria and Switzerland.

1.) Name the top scorer of the tournament

2.) Spain won the tournament by going through the group stages unbeaten. Which was the last team before Spain to do so ?

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Here is a quiz on the European Championships held in Belgium and Netherlands in 2000- the first Euro to be co hosted. The next Euro to be co hosted, as you might be knowing, is this summer’s event in Austria and Switzerland.

Turn the clock back by eight years, and attempt to answer these questions. Answers given by me as a comment in the end.

1.) Name the official mascot of the event.

2.) There was just one player in the English squad who did not play for an English club. Give me the player, as well as the club he represented at that time.

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No changes from the 23 member provisional squad that Brückner took to South Austria for a training camp. With Daniel Pudil’s withdrawal, Czech champions Slavia Prague will not have a single player from their club playing at Euro 2008.

Czech Republic 23 member Squad for Euro 2008

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Hosts Switzerland have announced their 23 member squad for the upcoming European Championships, and there were no major surprises. Veteran Patrick Muller gets another shot at glory with the national side, making it ahead of Mario Eggimann. Thomas Haberli, called up as a replacement for the injured Blaise Kufo misses out. Joining the veteran Young Boys forward out is defender Steve von Bergen, who fractured a bone is his right hand.

Switzerland 23 member squad for Euro 2008 :- ( Club in Brackets)

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We begin our countdown to Euro 2008, by having a quiz on previous editions of the tournament.

Here is a quiz on Euro 2004. Please post your answers as comments, or e-mail me using the contact page, and I’ll let you know how well you have done.

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Here are the groups for next summer’s European Championships to be held in Austria and Switzerland.

The draw was held in the Swiss town of Lucerne, and a host of great names from yesteryear participated in conducting it- Peter Schmeichel, Didier Deschamps, Franz Beckenbauer, Dino Zoff and Jurgen Klinsmann.

Group A : Switzerland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Portugal

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To track the last time that England failed to qualify for a major international event, we need to turn the clock a decade and a half back to USA ‘94. England finished third behind Norway and Netherlands in their group, and as a result never made the trip across the Atlantic. This time around, Steve McLaren’s boys went into the last round of games needing just a single point to go through. That point would not have been necessary had Andorra managed to hold Russia or even beat them. Andorra were the weakest team in the group, and nothing much could be expected from them. And therefore England had all to play for against Croatia, and the game was at the Mecca of English football- Wembley.

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Here are the results from European qualifying on Saturday, 17th November.

The teams which have confirmed their place in next summer’s European Championships are

Group B - Italy and France.

Group D- Germany and Czech Republic.

Group E- Croatia through. Battle between England and Russia for the other spot.

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A loss to Russia away means that England’s dreams of European qualification are now hanging by a thread. The race in Group E has come down to three teams- Croatia, England and Russia, out of which only two can qualify. Four minutes of madness at the Luzhniki Stadium made what seemed to be three points sealed into nothing at all. And if Russia and Croatia have anything to say, Steve McLaren could become the first English manager since Graham Taylor to fail to qualify for a major international event.
Result : Russia 2-1 England ( Roman Pavyluchenko*2/ Wayne Rooney)

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Saturday night was witness to some crucial games in European qualifying. Here are the results from those games.

Group A :

Armenia 0-0 Serbia

Poland 3-1 Kazakhstan ( Ebi Smolarek*3/ Dmitriy Byakov)

A hattrick from Racing Santander forward Smolarek sees the Poles take all three points  and retain their spot at the top of Group A.

Azerbaijan 0-2 Portugal ( Bruno Alves, Hugo Almeida)

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Chelsea and England left back Ashley Cole might miss his country’s crucial Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on the 17th of October in Moscow. The former Arsenal defender suffered an ankle injury in yesterday night’s game against Estonia, which the Three Lions won 3-0 thanks to goals from Shaun Wright Philips and Wayne Rooney and an own goal from Taavi Rahn

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England have announced their squad for their two European Championship qualifying games against Russia and Estonia. The game against Estonia is at Wembley on October 13 and the game against the Russians is in Moscow on October 17. Michael Carrick misses out due to hs injury in the Roma game. Other absentees due to one reason or the other include Man United’s Owen Hargreaves, Tottenham’s Darren Bent and Wigan’s Emile Heskey. The squad for the two games is given below

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Group A :

Serbia 0-0 Finland

Portugal 2-2 Poland ( Maniche, Cristiano Ronaldo / Lewandowski, Jacek Krzynowek)

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Results from the Euro 2008 qualifying games held on August 22. There were six games in all, three in Group A, and one each from Groups D, E and F.
Group A :

Finland 2-1 Kazakhstan ( Eremenko Jr, Teemu Tainio/ Byakov) 

Belgium 3-2 Serbia ( Moussa Dembele *2, Kevin Mirallas/ Zdravko Kuzmanovic*2) (more…)