Football!

[Chrill]

Maybe THIS time the England campaign won't go horribly wrong? For the first time in, roughly, 50 years?

Well, England played the football giants Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino... Tough draw, that.

[Pyoro]

Yes, well ...

... about as tough as the World Cup group they didn't survive?

Honestly can't see anyone other than Germany or Spain win this one. Obviously it's a tournament and crazy things happen more often than not, but ...
Oh well. We'll see.

[SwissFan91]

Looking at the qualifying I think both Spain and Germany are beatable in a one-off knockout game although they have the tournament experience over a team like Belgium or England. If France can get their team spirit together then they could threaten being at home and all that.

I don't see England getting particularly far but that won't stop me getting behind them come June!

[Chrill]

I'm rooting for Belgium. Even if they are now ranked 1 in the FIFA standings, I still hold them as sort of underdogs.

I'm also keeping an eye on Iceland. They did really well in the qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, and did great in the qualifying for the 2016 championship. I'm hoping they can keep it up, because.. well.. it's barely a country. Just a bunch of fishermen kicking a football around.

[61653]

Austria could be dark horses, having been unbeaten in qualifying (unlike both Spain and Germany!)... For Wales and Northern Ireland getting out of the groups would be considered a success though. Also...

Dear Scotland,

Please look after the place while we're all on holiday in France next summer.
Thanks,

England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

X

[Chrill]

Austria could be dark horses, having been unbeaten in qualifying

Well, their strongest rivals in qualifying was a Russia that never got up to speed under Fabio Capello, and a Sweden that never got up to speed at all. They really weren't challenged.

[Dave]

England to ease through a fairly simple group, beat a third placed side in the Round of 16 then go out to Portugal. On penalties.

[Chrill]

Yessssssss. Great day for a bump, because Sweden decided to make it to the World Cup despite everything. On our way, we sent Netherlands out in the qualifiers, we beat France on our way to the playoffs. And now Italy is missing the World Cup for the first time since 1958 (that year, the World Cup was held in Sweden).

So yeah, Sweden caused both Netherlands and Italy to miss the World Cup. I'm rather pleased we overcame such atrocious luck twice. And all without the Zlatan.

Kim Källström and Jonas Olsson (both former internationals who played alongside Zlatan for a long time) says that they expect him to return for the world cup.