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Euro 2008- Group D (R); GRE, SWE, ESP, RUS
Topic Started: May 22 2008, 10:55 AM (983 Views)
Merengue
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A place to discuss the matches from Group D involving tournament holders Greece, Sweden, Spain and Russia. Reuters preview of the four teams in this group:

Greece:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns

Sweden:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns

Spain:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns

Russia:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns
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raconteur
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Guus Hiddink just announced Russia's final 23 player roster for the tournament:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeyev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Perm), Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg)

Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Alexei Berezutsy, Vasily Berezursky, Sergei Ignashevich (all CSKA Moscow), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Renat Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moscow)

Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Dmitry Torbinsky (both Lokomotiv Moscow), Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), Yury Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Konstantin Zyryanov, Roman Shirokov (both Zenit St Petersburg), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Sergei Semak (Kazan)

Strikers: Roman Adamov (FC Moscow), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), Pavel Pogrebnyak, Andrei Arshavin (both Zenit St Petersburg), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg)

Six players from UEFA Cup winners Zenit St. Petersburg. With more money coming into the Russian game note that all but one of these players is domestically based now. An interesting development. With Hiddink's great track record in international tournaments and after watching Zenit's great run to the UEFA Cup I would not underestimate this team. Most of us probably aren't too familiar with these players as the Russian league isn't broadcast much around the globe but this could be a darkhorse team in this tournament.
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hobbes
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They're my darkhorse and they're going to be the team I'm supporting (the Dutch are dead to me). I hope they can overcome the loss of Arshavin for the first two matches. He's a treat to watch.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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Yogi
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That's not a bad choice as a darkhorse and if they can reproduce some of Zenit's play then they'll be fun to watch. But Arshavin's suspension for the first two games will hurt them.
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Merengue
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Here are the final rosters and individual player numbers for each team in this group. There is still some doubt however if Russia's Pogrebnyak will be able to compete as he was injured in a pre tournament warm up match.

GREECE

Goalkeepers: 1-Antonis Nikopolidis (Olympiakos Piraeus), 12-Costas Chalkias (Aris Salonika), 13-Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI Crete).

Defenders: 2-Giourkas Seitaridis (Atletico Madrid), 3-Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiakos), 4-Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos), 5-Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens), 11-Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos), 15-Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), 16-Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt), 18-Yannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), 19-Paraskevas Antzas (Olympiakos).

Midfielders: 6-Angelos Basinas (Real Mallorca), 8-Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers), 10-Georgios Karagounis (Panathinaikos), 21-Costas Katsouranis (Benfica), 22-Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos).

Forwards: 7-Giorgos Samaras (Celtic), 9-Angelos Haristeas (Nuremberg), 14-Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), 17-Fanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), 20-Yiannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), 23-Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK).

RUSSIA

Goalkeepers: 1-Igor Akinfeyev (CSKA Moscow), 16-Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg), 12-Vladimir Gabulov (Amkar Perm).

Defenders: 4-Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), 5-Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), 2-Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), 22-Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), 8-Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), 3-Renat Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moscow).

Midfielders: 15-Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), 18-Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), 20-Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), 7-Dmitry Torbinsky (Lokomotiv Moscow), 23-Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), 17-Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St Petersburg), 14-Roman Shirokov (Zenit St Petersburg), 11-Sergei Semak (Rubin Kazan).

Forwards: 10-Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), 13-Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St Petersburg), 19-Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), 21-Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), 6-Roman Adamov (FK Moscow), 9-Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg).

SPAIN

Goalkeepers: 1-Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), 23-Pepe Reina (Liverpool), 13-Andres Palop (Sevilla).

Defenders: 15-Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), 11-Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), 2-Raul Albiol (Valencia), 5-Carles Puyol (Barcelona), 4-Carlos Marchena (Valencia), 3-Fernando Navarro (Real Mallorca), 18-Alvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool), 20-Juanito (Real Betis).

Midfielders: 10-Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), 6-Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), 8-Xavi (Barcelona), 21-David Silva (Valencia), 12-Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), 14-Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), 22-Ruben de la Red (Getafe), 19-Marcos Senna (Villarreal).

Forwards: 7-David Villa (Valencia), 17-Daniel Guiza (Real Mallorca), 16-Sergio Garcia (Real Zaragoza), 9-Fernando Torres (Liverpool).

SWEDEN

Goalkeepers: 1-Andreas Isaksson (Manchester City), 12-Rami Shaaban (Hammarby), 13-Johan Wiland (Elfsborg Boras).

Defenders: 3-Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa), 4-Petter Hansson (Stade Rennes), 2-Mikael Nilsson (Panathinaikos), 7-Niclas Alexandersson (IFK Gothenburg), 15-Andreas Granqvist (Helsingborg), 14-Daniel Majstorovic (Basel), 5-Fredrik Stoor (Rosenborg Trondheim), 23-Mikael Dorsin (CFR Cluj).

Midfielders: 6-Tobias Linderoth (Galatasaray), 19-Daniel Andersson (Malmo), 8-Anders Svensson (Elfsborg Boras), 16-Kim Kallstrom (Olympique Lyon), 21-Christian Wilhelmsson (Deportivo Coruna), 9-Fredrik Ljungberg (West Ham United), 18-Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham City).

Forwards: 10-Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), 11-Johan Elmander (Toulouse), 20-Marcus Allback (FC Copenhagen), 22-Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen), 17-Henrik Larsson (Helsingborg).

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shelsoccer
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Availability questions surround at least two of the teams in this group.

As mentioned, Arshavin must sit out the first two games (vs. Spain and Greece) due to a red card in the final qualifier. Also, Pogrebnyak's status is in doubt after his knee injury.

For Sweden, Linderoth has been battling a pelvic injury and Ljungberg broke a rib, I believe during West Ham's final game. Fortunately, Zlatan returned from a long injury absence with a two-goal performance to clinch the scudetto for Inter, but you do have to wonder how match fit he truly is.

I see Spain as the clear favorite in this group, and I don't believe Greece is going to come anywhere close to duplicating its feat of four years ago. For me, the battle for second will be between Sweden and Russia, so the issues above will be key.
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badgerboy
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I hope the eventual winners (it would be the two finalists but for the stupid draw system at these Championships) comes from this group.

If one of the "big six" are to win this tournament I really hope it's Spain. Their excellent football in recent times makes them long overdue (at least in my book) for a major tournament success.

And for a dark horse I would love to see Russia do well. Hiddink has the pedigree after all & Zenit's play in the UEFA Cup especially shows they have a fair bit of "quality".

That said - with Pogrebnyak now out of the tournament & key man Arshavin missing the first two games - Hiddink's famous "luck" seems to be in short supply.

Sweden are/were my pre-tournament tip for "worst team of the tournament" though (along with the Czechs - who won their opening game :rolleyes: ) while Greece are the "unknown quantity" to me.

I can't see them remotely replicating their performance of four years ago but I still think they are far more likely to take advantage of Russia's problems than Sweden.
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siralfred
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Forza Zlatan!
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badgerboy,Jun 9 2008
04:22 AM
Sweden are/were my pre-tournament tip for "worst team of the tournament"

Thanks for using the quotation marks there, and while I agree it doesn't look good for my patria, I think we're still capable of challenging anyone in our group and hold on for some points. I have high hopes that we'll at least do better than Austria and Turkey :rolleyes:

While we've always depended on some luck for our relative success in big tournaments, being the oldest team in this Euro we're going to need a lot of it this time.

HEJA SVERIGE!!!!
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Don Balon
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Sweden almost always are underrated coming into tournaments and more likely than not they end up proving to be very difficult opponents. I don't think this competition will be any different. And while Greece may not be favorites to repeat their championship of four years ago, they too showed with teamwork, a solid defense and some opportunism in front of goal, you can go fra, very far.

Hiddink always has some tricks up his sleeve and even though Russia have some missing players, they also have a lot of speed and technique. Yesterday the Dutch showed how valuable that can be. As for my Espaņa, well we always have illusion coming into tournaments, maybe we are finally due to live up to our hope?

The probable starters for Spain and Russia:

Espaņa: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Marchena, Capdevila; Senna; Iniesta, Xavi, Silva; Villa, Torres.

Russia: Afinkeyev; Anyukov, Shirokov, Kolodin, Zhirkov; Bistrov, Zirianov, Semak, Semchov; Bilyaletdinov, Pavlyuchenko
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Pepe
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Quote:
 
Espaņa: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Marchena, Capdevila; Senna; Iniesta, Xavi, Silva; Villa, Torres.

Russia: Afinkeyev; Anyukov, Shirokov, Kolodin, Zhirkov; Bistrov, Zirianov, Semak, Semchov; Bilyaletdinov, Pavlyuchenko


I like that lineup from Espaņa and as we discussed in the Spain forum prior to the tournament, Marcos Senna provides defensive cover for the backline. I am concerned about Russia's speed on the counter especially against Puyol and Marchena, that could be the key matchup in this game. There is plenty of talent on this Espaņa team, now they have to demonstrate they can produce on the big occasion.

iViva Espaņa!
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Merengue
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Pepe,Jun 10 2008
05:36 AM
Quote:
 
Espaņa: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Puyol, Marchena, Capdevila; Senna; Iniesta, Xavi, Silva; Villa, Torres.

Russia: Afinkeyev; Anyukov, Shirokov, Kolodin, Zhirkov; Bistrov, Zirianov, Semak, Semchov; Bilyaletdinov, Pavlyuchenko


I like that lineup from Espaņa and as we discussed in the Spain forum prior to the tournament, Marcos Senna provides defensive cover for the backline. I am concerned about Russia's speed on the counter especially against Puyol and Marchena, that could be the key matchup in this game. There is plenty of talent on this Espaņa team, now they have to demonstrate they can produce on the big occasion.

iViva Espaņa!

Those are my concerns going into this game too Pepe. But I do like Spain's attack and they should be able to generate chances on the other end.
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gaviota
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Espaņa 4-1 Russia
Sweden 2-0 Greece

A great start for Spain against Russia and three goals for David Villa! The Russians didn't play poorly offensively and created some chances and nearly tied it after Spain scored first but it was that opening goal set up by Torres hard work, and speed, where he won the ball and fed David Villa for the open goal. Then Iniesta with a perfect through ball gave Villa the 2nd goal. In the 2nd half Spain slowed it's pace down and Cesc came on for Torres to give the team even more ball possession and Villa scored a third after fighting off a Russian defender. late in the game Pavlyuchenko, headed in a consolation goal and in injury tiem a quick break resulted in Spain's 4th when Xavi's shot was blocked and Cesc headed in the rebound.

Spain played with quickness, mobility and intelligence and the attacking duo of Torres and Villa created headaches for Russia's defense. There are things to still work on, mainly defensive concentration but this is a great way to start!

Sweden always looked better than Greece but it took them an hour to finally break down the Greek defense. And it was Ibrahimovic after a give and go with Larsson who scored the fine first goal. A second was added and it looks good for Spain and Sweden, who meet next, to move on from this group.
CHAMP13NS
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shelsoccer
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HEJA SVERIGE, indeed Sir Alfred. Doesn't read like a scintillating game -- Sweden rarely plays those, nor does Greece -- but I can't wait to get home to watch my recording of this game.

Best of all, the prodigal son Zlatan finally breaks his almost three-year goal drought for the national team. Plus, Sweden has a good goal differential over Russia and Greece.

I'm not expecting much out of Sweden in this tournament. A quarterfinal appearance would satisfy me. Today's results make that a distinct possibility. A tie vs. Spain in the next game -- the two teams are very familiar with each other (trading home wins in qualifying) -- would just about do it.

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Hector
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I couldn't have asked for a better start by Spain to this tournament. I was very impressed with the speed Spain had in attack. On the counter, they were especially dangerous but their passing game and movement really troubled the Russian defenders. Torres and Villa looked wonderful in attack, while Xavi and Iniesta run the show in midfield and with subs like Cazorla and Cesc available, Spain looks deep in talent. gaviota is right there were a couple of defensive lapses there too but that gives Aragones something to work on these next days before facing Sweden. The Swedes will be able to defend much better than Russia did and in Ibrahimovic have a player who will be a constant threat. If Spain passes that test then there could be some real cause to dream big about this team!
iPuerta amigo, Sevilla esta contigo!
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valenciano
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This is the David Villa that I've grown to love watching play with Valencia. Now keep your ahnds off him, Chelsea or whomever may come trying to throw around some money looking to buy him! Torres and Villa made a great partnership with their speed and mobility. As others discussed, the Russian defenders just could not handle that. Behind them the midfield played well and the defense while not perfect was more than good enough today. An excellent start for La Furia Roja and now they need to build on this. What I also liked was that Aragones was able to pull Torrres and Iniesta, two players coming off minor injuries, off early in the 2nd half. Save them both to fight another day.
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