UEFA Euro 2008, the next major football competition after the FIFA World Cup, has pretty much left us all feeling excited(even if England isn't in). This magazine series of "Countdown to UEFA Euro 2008" is about each team's profile in the competition, and I will go through 7 major teams in the tournament in the time span of 4 days, telling you about their UEFA Euro history and their key players. Hope you love it and enjoy:
Finally, I got one more place to travel to. The home country of Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Mr Hotshot Cristiano Ronaldo. And after that, I will talk about the slogan for this years competition and that's not all folks, because Portugal is the last and only country being talked about here, there will be EXTRA CONTENT in this issue, a Prediction Chart. Wanna know more, then let's go check it out!
Portugal:
Team Profile:
Association: Federação Portuguesa de Futebol
Manager: Luiz Felipe Scolari
Captain: Nuno Gomes
Most Caps: Luis Figo (127)
Top Scorer: Pauleta (47)
FIFA Ranking: 11
Number of Times Champions: 0
The Ones to Watch:
Cristiano Ronaldo
No Points for guessing why. Outstanding season with the Red Devils, if he do well for Portugal as well as he does for Man Utd, Portugal have a huge gem in their team and Luis Felipe Scolari would be happy as a lark. 42 goals for Man Utd in all competitions, I don't expect him to do the same thing for Portugal, but in Euro 08 he may just have more assists than goals. An excellent dribbler, his stepovers can cause sore eyes for his opponents. Definitely the man to watch.
Ricardo Carvalho
This guy started the argument whether John Terry was still the best defender at Chelsea. An excellent defender who forms a formidable partnership with J.T., he is a rock-solid defender that seldom lose concentration, often thinking about the situation at hand. Perhaps the main force in Portugal's defence, Cristiano Ronaldo can show his stuffs all he want, but without the Portugal without their backbone in Carvalho would mean that no matter how many goals Ronaldo scored he will always be overshadowed. Watch out for him to be a key man for Portugal.
Odds:
Portugal in my opinion, is a rather good team and one has to wonder why they haven't been able to win any trophies the past few years.
Boasted with the likes of the exciting Cristiano Ronaldo, up and coming Nani, excellent technical player Quaresma, and rock-solid Carvalho, there's no reason why they can't win it.
And yes, they will win it. Remember you heard it here first, on GUNNERockYa, Portugal will be winners. They can do right what they did wrong in the last UEFA Euro tournament, when they had a major upset losing to underdogs Greece in the finals on their own turf. But this time, they will be no mistakes. With Figo and Pauleta gone, here comes a new generation of Portugese players brilliantly led by Felipe Scolari, that will win the competition. My favourites to win this match, my money's on them.
Chance of Winning: 9.5/10
UEFA Euro 2008 Slogan:
As you can see, the slogan for this eyar's tournamnet would be "Expect Emotions".
Here's what Michel Platini said about the slogan:
Sounds like a very good slogan to me. There will be emotions, especially for the group of death. Who will go out? We shall see.
"It describes in a nutshell what the UEFA Euro 2008 has to offer: all kinds of emotions—joy, disappointment, relief or high tension—right up to the final whistle."
My Group Predictions:
Group A
Portugal
Switzerland
Group B
Croatia
Germany
Group C
France
Italy
Group D
Spain
Russia
It's only my predictions, there are no gurantees they are right!
Well, finally I've finished the magazine series. I seriously regretted doing it so late, but never mind. I was thinking whether I should continue the magazine series, either in a different name or the same name as the tournament has started. But maybe I won't do at all due to the lack of time. Well I will see first, but keep visiting this blog for the latest news ;) Cheers, hope you enjoyed this magazine series :)
Jump to:
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
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