Germany and Portugal look good for the Euros

Filed in archive Euro 2008 on June 9, 2008

Two days into Euro 2008 and two of the favourites for the tournament have already put down their mark. Portugal and Germany were equally impressive in their 2-0 wins over Turkey and Poland respectively.

Portugal played with flair and produced some wonderful flowing moves, usually involving Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo, and looked a quality side with a real chance of success.

Germany played in their usual efficient way with the excellent Torsten Frings running the show from the middle of the pitch. They too looked like a team who mean business.

Today we will see three of the other tournament favourites, France, Italy and Holland. Of course, at least one of those three teams can't make it to the quarter-finals. Will we have more idea who that might be after today?

The final team from the group of six favourites, Spain, sit it out again today and get a chance to weigh up their likely opposition in the latter stages of the competition. They will have been suitably impressed with what they have seen so far from the other top teams and I've no doubt will witness some more moments of pure quality today.

The tournament has started well. The quality of the play has been good, the spirit has good and the refereeing has been good. It has been disappointing for the both the host nations to lose their opening games but there was a fear that they would be embarrassed, particularly the Austrians. Neither team should be embarrassed by their performances in the first games, they were both unlucky to lose. They will have restored some pride and given their fans something to cheer and shout about.

If the quality of the games continues and improves from the high standard we have already seen, this has the potential to be one of the best tournaments ever. It is hard for an Englishman to say that, knowing that we are not there and that if we were, we probably wouldn't have matched or improved the standard or made much impact!

Never mind. I can watch the games in a relaxed fashion and admire the football. There has been much to admire already, and it is only going to get better.