Euro 2008: Czech Republic, Portugal favourites to advance

Czech Republic and Portugal are the two teams that would be expected to progress to the knockout stages from Group A at the Euro 2008 to be held in Switzerland and Austria from June 7-29, 2008. The two other teams in Group A -- co-hosts Switzerland and Turkey aren't pushovers, but they will have to be play at their optimum best to upset Czech Republic or Portugal.

While Czech Republic will be without their inspirational captain Tomas Rosicky, who is missing the Euro 2008 because of an injury, the Portugese have the best soccer player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo will have players like Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and Nuno Gomes to support him, while the Czech Republic would be looking to Jan Koller and Milan Baros for scoring goals, and would be expecting the mid-field and defence to play their part to perfection as the tournament progresses. Turkey have surprisingly excluded Hakan Sukur from the Euro squad, and it would be interesting to observe how the Turkish forward line plays in his absence. On the other hand, Switzerland would bank all their hopes on the shoulders of Alexander Frei, who is the leading goal-scorer for the Swiss.

This is Czech Republic's fourth appearance in the European Championships in as many attempts, and the team enjoys a good record in the championships having won 39 of the 54 matches they have played. Czech Republic would be hoping to go one better and win the tournament after being defeated by eventual champions Greece at Euro 2004, and would also be looking to put behind the disappointment of failing to advance to the second stage of the FIFA 2006 World Cup. But, they would be hoping that the injury woes that contributed to the team's downfall in 2006 would stay away this time around. The Czechs are certainly an exciting side to watch when they get their act together.

Portugal had a terrific start to the qualifiers and at one stage looked set to qualify with ease, but they lost momentum mid-way through but managed to recover in the end to ensure their spot at Euro 2008. The Portugese, who finished as runners-up at Euro 2004, would be hoping to meet Greece at some stage in the tournament and extract some revenge -- Greece was the only team to beat Portugal in the previous edition of the tournament. Portugal have appeared in the last four UEFA European Championship final tournaments having first qualified in 1984, and are one of the early favourites to win Euro 2008 as they have one of the most balanced teams in the tournament apart from having an inspirational coach in Luiz Felipe Scolari. The Swiss team isn't expected to set the Euro 2008 alight, but would be looking to put up a credible performance at home and prove that they have what it takes to do well on the international stage. Most of the onus for this would come on Frei as he is the most well-known football player from Switzerland currently. Meanwhile, Turkey coach Faith Elim pulled a shocker by dropping Sukur from the Euro 2008 squad. Sukur was not only Turkey's top-scorer in the qualification stage, but is also one of the team's most experienced and inspirational players. Turkey's best performance in the European Championships is a quarter-finals finish at Euro 2000 and it is highly unlikely they would get the chance to match that feat at Euro 2008.

The odds look to be stacked in favour for CZech Republic and Portugal to advance into the second round from this group. Time will only show if the other two teams in the group can pull off any major upsets.