England avoid Italy, Germany + Spain in Euro2004!

[Ikon]

England avoid Italy, Germany and Spain in draw

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Holders France, Sweden and the Czech Republic are the top seeds along with hosts Portugal for the Euro 2004 draw next week, UEFA has said.

 

Big guns Italy, Germany, Spain and England are in a second tier of seeds, European soccer's governing body said after the last five qualifiers emerged from Wednesday's playoffs.

 

The top seeds will be placed in Pot A, one of four groups of four teams, in the draw scheduled for Lisbon on November 30. The second group will be in Pot B with the third, Pot C, comprising the Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia and Russia.

 

Pot D is made up of the supposedly weaker teams, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Greece and tournament newcomers Latvia, the surprise qualifiers who upset World Cup semi-finalists Turkey in the playoffs.

 

UEFA said the seeding was based on the record of the 15 teams -- not including Portugal -- in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JoeDrawb]

ideal group for us would be :-

 

ENGLAND, czech republic, russia, latvia

 

worst group for us would be :-

 

England, France, Holland and Greece

 

 

[Ikon]

Nah man! Czech republic are awesome!

 

Id rather Sweden

[JoeDrawb]

hmm dunno, we never seem to do too well against the Sweedes - but yeah u cud be right, the Czech's have been impressive of late.......

 

 

[Jofish]

Not the czech's if we got sweden i think there is still a piont to prove after the world cup. But before we all talk about which teams we want or dont want we need to get our own ship in order, we will get raped by the likes of holland and france otherwise!

 

what would be your starting 11?

[CreamyC]

If England are [censored] hot as they think they are then it dont matter who we got in any round, they should beat them. To be the best you have to beat the best. None of this easy route [censored] business.

[Jofish]

yeah true. All i was saying was that we have loads of world class individualls that cant seem to play as a team, an age old problem and one that needs sorting if we are ever gonna win a thing.

[CreamyC]

Jofish said:

yeah true. All i was saying was that we have loads of world class individualls that cant seem to play as a team, an age old problem and one that needs sorting if we are ever gonna win a thing.

 

Well then thats their problem to sort out then. [censored] Heroes, they aint heroes, they're a bunch of overpaid useless cunts that have won NOTHING since 1966. Now tell me we should be up with the best. We are not the best until we prove it. We may all well get hard-ons about about beating lesser teams and having an 8-game unbeaten run but what about when we come up to the classier teams.

 

Can you class Denmark classy? No. So how do we expect to beat better teams and therefore class ourselves as top quality? We are a joke. Fact.

[JoeDrawb]

ahh now we have a debate

 

my starting 11 would be :-

 

Gk - D.James

 

Rb - G.Neville

Lb - W.Bridge

Cb - R.Ferdinand

Cb - S.Campbell

 

Rw - P.Scholes

Lw - J.Cole

Cm - D.Beckham

Cm - S.Gerrard

 

Fw - W.Rooney (playing just off Owen)

St - M.Owen

 

I am not a fan of David James, but don't know whether we have anyone else with the experience to be put in at this late stage (paul robinson/chris kirkland)

 

Not a fan of Gary Neville either really, Hope Glen Johnson fills his boots when he is ready...LB - wayne bridge, as Ashley Cole never performs for England and W.Bridge is good going forward and defending.

 

The midfield I would play with Gerrard holding the defence together and Beckham allowed to play his game, with Cole and Scholes out wider but allowed to go more central with cover on the wings from the full backs....Hard to leave out Lampard as he is quality tho...

 

Owen 20+ goals in 40 odd games and Rooneys 3 in like 7, that's good enough for me....Heskey??? hmmm 4 goals in 30+ caps....no thank-you. Vassell would be my 3rd choice striker.

[CreamyC]

Gary Neville - Over rated cock

Heskey - Useless cunt

David James - Pure [censored]

Vassell - Over rated.

[JoeDrawb]

Dont agree with you there! England aren't the best team in the world - FACT....we are ranked 8th in the world and there are a few European teams ranked above us there (France/Spain/Italy..etc) So I don't think we should be expected to bring home the trophy, BUT as we have high expections and as we thought up the bloody game - then there is a lot of pressure......

 

That doesn't mean we are a Joke - off the top of my head - (WC) semi finals 1990 (EC) semi finals 1996 (EC) semi finals 2000 (WC) quarter finals 2002 --- correct me if I was wrong in any of those....anyway, our time will come!

 

England 5 Germany 1 / England 4 Holland 1 /England 1 Argentina 0

 

3 LIONS !

[Jofish]

I think i would play lampard instead of cole, Joe cole is the kind of player that could swing a match in the last 1/2 hour and he can be a very greedy player and still has a lot to learn about international football, plus having lampard and gerard in the team would allow them to alternate, one holding one going forward there both as good going forward as they are defending.

 

Get rid of Emile Heskey if he is lucky he can carry the magic sponge but he would probably drop it and then fall over it!

 

James- on his day world class not consistant enough for my likeing but there is not many options for GK.

 

Owen and Rooney a partnership that can lead england for the next 8-10 years!

[JoeDrawb]

thing is - can you fit Gerrard/Beckham and Lampard in the same starting line up (Scholes has to start too - although he has been inconsistant for England he is still a match winner)

 

Gerrard could play on the right, with Lampard and Beckham in the middle...but I like Gerrard to keep a eye on the defence (which is lookin a little dodgy at times)...

 

Gerrards record with England is amazing, every time he has played - England have never lost (20 odd games)

[JoeDrawb]

CreamyC said:

Gary Neville - Over rated cock

Heskey - Useless cunt

David James - Pure [censored]

Vassell - Over rated.

 

 

Heskey - agree with you - he's out of his depth with both Liverpool and England.

 

David James - Not good enough for the England no.1 jersey, but who else is at the moment??

 

Gary Neville - Agree with u again, has had his day (but wud rather him than that twat danny mills) Glen Johnson future Right back

 

Vassell - Don't agree with ya there, rate Vassell - England always pick up a gear when he comes on.

 

Gareth Barry should get a call up too.

[Jofish]

I would take vassell to the tempo is always raised when he comes on and on the world scene he is an unknown quantity and can worry deffences with his pace and skill!

 

I was told by a mate that cudachinni ( i know thats not how its spelt) the chelsea keeper will be eligable to play for England next year, he is deffinatlly worth a look, and i dont think he's gonna get in the Italian team with the likes of Buffon and Co?