PREVIEW: Euro 2008 Group A, Czech Republic vs Portugal

Czech Republic

vs

Portugal

Tuesday, June 11th, 1800 CET
Geneva (Switzerland) – Travel to Geneva

THE BIG PICTURE

Both teams won their opening games, though Portugal’s 2-0 win over Turkey was a lot more convincing that the Czech 1-0 win over Switzerland. So Portugal are top on goal difference going in, but whichever team wins this will qualify for the quarterfinals.

Euro 2008 standings here

CZECH REPUBLIC

Three Key Players:

Tomas Ujfalusi – possible handballs aside, the captain was a defensive mountain against Switzerland

Jan Koller – disappointing against Switzerland, and his replacement Vaclav Sverkos scored the only goal, but should get another chance to perform today

Martin Fenin – the team looked one dimensional against Switzerland, but this young striker could provide the missing x-factor

Czech Republic squad
Czech Republic Team Profile

Visit Méd’a at the Czech Republic Euro 2008 Team Blog for more.

Buy Czech Republic national team gear here.

Portugal

Three Key Players:

Pepe – will the big central defender pull off another Brazilliant wondergoal? Probably not, but he’ll likely have another rock-like game in defence.

Cristiano Ronaldo – obviously his performance is key, but more importantly I’m hoping television commentators/announcers will stop drooling over him long enough to remember there are other players involved in the game.

Ricardo – great at stopping penalties, not so great at gathering crosses. And the Czech Republic seem to like putting crosses.

Portugal squad
Portugal Team Profile

Visit Greg at the Portugal Euro 2008 Team Blog, and definitely read his quality Portugal vs Czech Republic preview here.

Buy Portugal national team gear here.

BIG BATTLES

Petr Cech vs Cristiano Ronaldo It’s Chelsea vs Man Utd, only on a bigger stage. And who wouldn’t love to see C-Ron face P-Cech from 18 12 yards again?

Jose Boswinga vs Marek Jankulovski There’ll be a contest between Portuguese right back and Czech left back to see who can make the most overlapping runs.

Tomas Ujfalusi vs his own arms The captain got lucky and had two possibly very good shouts for handball in the box against him ignored against Switzerland. Third time he might not be so lucky.

Bet on Euro 2008

LIVEBLOG

Follow the Czech Republic vs Portugal LiveBlog here.