The Euro 2008 qualifiers are slowly coming. England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic Ireland will battle it out to join Austria and Switzerland for the big tournament. So, what can we expect from the proper tournament in two years time?

THE HOSTS

Austria and Switzerland don't have many big clubs, or indeed, spectacular stadia. However, they will hope thay can do better than Portugal's efforts in 2004, but the two small countries will have a lot to do before thay can do that.

LESS RED CARDS

Hopefully the red cards will calm down, after the 28 dismissals at the World Cup. Euro 2004 only brought out six red cards, and, thankfully, they were all in the group stage. Holland lost Heitinga, Bulgaria lost Stilian Petrov, Switzerland loist Vogel and Haas and Russia lost Sharonov and goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov, who received the only straight red card of the tournament, after Norweigan referee Terje Hauge said he handled the ball outside the box.

SURPRISE TEAMS

Greece, Greece, Greece. Who would have thought Greece would have won Euro 2004. Nobody! Lets hope we get some more big and major surprise teams at the next tournament.

I hope you like the preview of Euro 208; Austria and Switzerland.

  

This post was last modified: 08-27-2006 07:26 PM by jonny4.

it wont be a surprise scotland will win it after gubbing the world champions italy and runners up france on the way to qualifying

Hi, I'm new. I'm an England fan but in all honesty I don't think we'll win it, we'll come close probably quarter finals, I think France got a good chance this time.

I'm pulling for England as well, but after the 1-0 victory over Macedonia I was a bit worried. France does look quite strong as well as Germany. Who can combat a 13-0 route? But the fight is still there for the Lions. Interesting Euro 08 for sure.

I live in one of the cities where the games will be played, a nice experience for shure

I desperatly hope Croatia make it out of the group stage this time around. Since the euphoria of 1998 there has been nothing but big dissapointments at the major tournaments.

Always the same story: Play excellent in qualifying, then crumble in the group stage

Hopefully you can add scotland to the list of surprises.

Im hoping for atleast a point against France or atleast a strong performance but I don't want a lousy performance or a lucky goal from Henry.

We are in a little defensive injury crisis for Saturday but we have got some depth back there so it shouldn't be a problem.

Hope for the best and hope all you tartan army forum roamers are with me on this one!

I love these Cinderella stories, however, I do believe that grade a teams always get an unfair treatment at major events. Ex: Italy and Spain in 2002, England at 98 and more recently 06. I think many people enjoy watching excellent footbal as oppose to lucky football. In terms of the upcoming euro 2008, I believe that most of the teams that should be there will be there and hopefully we are all in for some classic matches.

Unfair treatments include Scotland today, the ref was all over us.

Sweden have full points after 4 games and beat Iceland today with many injuries.

Svensson, Ljungberg, Isaksson, Mellberg and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all missed todays game