Switzerland v Czech Rep

MementoMori

So first game - any chance of the almost traditional first-gam-of-the-tournament upset? Never know but cant see it myself.

Bilic has named his team
http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/news/kind=1/newsid=707723.html#confident+bilic+names+croatia+xi

Before departing for the Austrian capital this afternoon, Bilić revealed that he will be sticking with the same formation deployed in Croatia's recent friendlies against Moldova and Hungary, meaning the following players will start at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion: Stipe Pletikosa; Vedran Ćorluka, Robert Kovač, Josip Šimunić, Danijel Pranjić; Darijo Srna, Niko Kovač (c), Luka Modrić, Niko Kranjčar; Mladen Petrić, Ivica Olić.

Will be keeping an eye out on Modric and Srna for the Czechs

For the Swiss, will be curious to see if Liverpool new-boy Degen starts and see how he performs.

Off to stock up on the beers, now - Let the games begin

$lattman

Switzerland are playing Czech Republic, not Croatia...

MementoMori

Cheers $lattman - sharp as a tack today

I feel foolish.:o

Unearthly

Not the most appealing of first games but I said the same about euro 2004 and they both ended up in the final!

Drag00n79

Can we change the thread title?

staker

its gonna be nice to watch unbiased opinions across the tv stations i hope. only thing worse than us not qualifying is those "you know who's" mouthing off on the beeb....

justfortherecor

Ah come on, watching England going out on penalties in Quarter/Semi Finals is one of the most entertaining spectacles in world sport!
Tournament will be a poorer place without them...and us of course!

MementoMori

1629: TEAMS
Switzerland: Benaglio, Lichtsteiner, Muller, Senderos, Magnin, Behrami, Inler, Gelson, Barnetta, Frei, Streller. Subs: Zuberbuhler, Jakupovic, Djourou, Huggel, Cabanas, Yakin, Derdiyok, Grichting, Gygax, Spycher, Vonlanthen, Degen.
Czech Republic: Cech, Jankulovski, Rozehnal, Ujfalusi, Grygera, Plasil, Polak, Galasek, Jarolim, Sionko, Koller. Subs: Blazek, Zitka, Kovac, Fenin, Sverkos, Vlcek, Pospech, Kadlec, Baros, Matejovsky, Sivok, Skacel.

Very big Boo re Degen being on the bench. Will be watching his replacement closely.

Boys on RTE in a merry mood - Brady tried to crack a joke at one stage.

Of course showed his utter disguist when Bill mentioned the Germans doing archery training and tractor pulling

Also the state of Trevor Stevens - shocking - think he tried to dress up in a contemporary Swish fashion stylleee - looked very Eurotrasssh babbee. Women of Basel beware.

Standard pointless opening ceremonies - with giant cow puppet on stilts, - Why do sporting ceremonies bother with this sh.ite. Utterly pointless.

Mods : Feel free to change the title - Save me some embarrasment - Back from shops - gots beers and supplies in.:)

Vokes

Looks like the Swiss are goin all out with 4-4-2. Think they usually play 4-2-3-1.

kaisersose77

anyone with a satellite card in their pc or a HD satellite receiver, ITV HD and BBC HD are showing nearly every match.

Bounty Hunter

and euro 2008 is go for lauch

kaimera

fucking iran v uae is all I bloody well have :mad:

clowns.

Sorted. huzzah¬! for shame about the commentry

flanzer

Bah, NTL (or NTHell) have gone in the Donaghmede area :mad:

Vokes

Inler doesn't look half bad. Haven't seen him play before.

Love watching all the Swiss defenders panic, btw, when the ball comes into Killer

Raskolnikov

Neither of these teams will be winning the Euro's, that's for sure.

Can't believe that we lost to such a poor Czech team.

Xavi6

Pretty dull affair so far.

We actually haven't got too bad a package on free-to-air tv. SBS are doing a highlights package every afternoon at 5.30pm while we get a live game pretty much every second day. Anything else I can probably stream. Awful time of night though.

Raskolnikov

Gelson having a bit of a 'mare so far.

Raskolnikov

Sendros looking mighty shaky as well.

Raskolnikov

Christ, there was some movement on that Frei shot. We could be seeing some fantastic long range goals this tournament thanks to these new balls. Goalies nightmare though.

Xavi6

Get Vonlanthen on.

Vokes

Frei is a big loss.

Will they bring on Vonlanthen or the other new wunderkind ?

kaimera

Frei off injured.

Knee strapped?

Xavi6

First tears of the tournament.

MementoMori

A lot of hustle and bustle but very little top quality action - Swiss shading it slightly as they actually seem interested.

If Frei is gone for the Swiss I'd say kaboom goes their chances. Given his massive boo hoos lokes very likely. Twould be massively hilarious if he did appear for the second half though.

The Czechs have been mighty unimpressive, don't look too interested in actually bothering to put the ball in the net. Look more confident at the back in spite of that. Probably helps to have Cech there.

Ball does seem to move a fair bit in the air.

Def can't imagine either side winning it outright on this 45mins.

delija_sever029

Really sad moment for Frei,tears only showing wish to prove him self in front of home crowd,not nice way to finish Euro on the beggining already,anyway Czech is looking bad comparing what i expected,Swiss was better team so far

Vokes

I reckon as well as Vonlanthen on, maybe get Hakin Yakin on for Streller.

Raskolnikov

I don't think Frei will be a huge loss if Vonlanthen comes on.

Xavi6

Here's the beautifully named Hakin Yakin.

Unearthly

He always impressed me when I used to watch him.

Raskolnikov

1-0 Czech Rep.

Mr Alan

Czechs go one up

Xavi6

Decent finish

Pigman II

Yeay! Goal for Croatia.

Xavi6

Oooooh drama!

Raskolnikov

Vonlanthen misses an open goal, striking off the bar.

Pigman II

Hard to believe we got knocked out twice in recent times by these Swiss chumps. Actually, wait , no it isn't that hard to believe....

Xavi6

Shite game

mike65

Well it was a damned sight better than the last Swiss tournament game I watched. They shudda had a peno for the first hand ball though.

Mike.

SantryRed

Ah don't think either handballs were penalties to be honest. Don't be fooled by how bad the Czechs played though, they'll improve as the tournament goes on. Wouldn't be surprised to see them in the semi against the Germans.

Malice

I thought it wasn't a bad game. The Czechs did the minimum needed. The Swiss were unlucky with Vonlanthen hitting the crossbar. A draw probably would have been a fair result.

Necronomicon

Czechs were very solid at the back. Swiss were unlucky not to get a point, I think the first hand-ball claim should've been a penalty. Fernandes had a great game.

delija_sever029

Czechs definitly dissapointed with their performance,they played defesively like they are Italians or what.I just dont get what should i expect of them in next rounds if they had to defend against Swiss for 90 min.Swiss was really good,positively surprised me and they definitly deserved to win today,even draw wouldnt be fair for them,they totally overplayed Czechs and result is definitly realistic,but thats the football...I think they lost their chance to get 1/4 final

Mr.Nice Guy

This game was better than I expected it to be. I felt the Swiss were unfortunate and the first incident was a handball in my opinion. Don't feel the second one was. I reckon the Swiss will go out now.

RuggieBear

thread title edited.