EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP 2008

Motif: Football balls For the second time in the history of the European Football Championships two countries are going to jointly host this competition. Eight years ago the organization of the championship was jointly hosted for the first time by two countries, Belgium and the Netherlands. From 7th to 29th June Switzerland and Austria will jointly host sixteen national teams that obtained their appearance at the finals of the Championship by qualifying matches. As hosts Switzerland and Austria have directly qualified for the competition. Greece was automatically entitled to appear being the winner of the previous European Football Championship. Among the qualified teams there is also the Croatian national football team that so far missed only one of the best European teams’ gatherings, the one held in the year 2000. As a recognized state, Croatia first made their appearance at the European Football Championship in England in 1996, when Germany stopped the drive of the Miroslav Blažević’s team. After this Croatia next appeared in Portugal four years ago, but they had not too much success – they had to be satisfied with the group competition as their ultimate reach. In the course of qualifications for this year’s European Football Championship, Croatia has achieved several exceptionally significant results, among them two victories against England. What is particularly necessary to point out is the last encounter with the players from the cradle of football that was played on the legendary Wembley and where Croatia won 3:2. In terms of competition this game had no significance for Croatia whatsoever, but the defeat directly excluded the English team from appearing at the European Football Championship. In March of this year a rather tense situation occured on account of a possible leaving of the head coach of the national team, Slaven Bilić from his official duty. As a matter of fact, his qualities were recognized by many strong European clubs who wanted to sign a professional contract with this former Croatian football player. However, Bilić turned down all the offered possibilities and decided that he would continue leading the Croatian national team up to the year 2010. Yet, the Croatian team will travel to the battle-field with cramps in the stomach because the team’s best striker Eduardo was severely injured and will not be able to play in this competition. However, other players like Modrić, Kranjčar, Perić, Srna or Klasnić guarantee that Croatia is going to be a serious aspirant even for the highest positions. At the very start of the competition the sixteen teams have been divided into four groups. Playing in Group A are the teams from Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal and Turkey; in Group B, together with Croatia the teams playing are from Austria, Germany and Poland; with good reason Group C is called the “deadly group” because all of the teams are favourites for the title of champion: Italy, France, the Netherlands and Romania; in Group D there are the teams from Greece, Spain, Russia and Sweden. The defending champions are the footballers from Greece who, beside all expectations won in the finals of the latest championship that was hosted by Portugal. Afterwards, true to the unwritten rule, Greece did not rest on their memories but put in hard work for the qualifications so that they are going to have the opportunity to defend this title. The first favourites of the Championship are the Italian footballers who are at the same time the current world champions. Two years ago in Germany they became the best world team after their victory over France, and the gap created between the two opposing teams is going to remain present in this championship as well, because the unrelenting adversaries found themselves in the same group. In addition to Italy, the football chroniclers place as favourites other talented teams like the teams of Spain and Portugal, the increasingly better and stronger Germany and the perpetual aspirant for the highest attainments – the Netherlands team. The footballers from Germany have achieved the majority of European Championship titles so far: they were three times the best in Europe. The French were champions twice while this crown was won once by the footballers of the former Soviet Union, the Czechs, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Greece. The best striker and top-scorer of all times at the European Football Championships is the Frenchman Michel Platini, the current president of the UEFA, with nine goals scored; the second in rank is the Englishman Alan Shearer with seven goals while the Dutchman Patrick Kluivert scored a total of six goals.