Geneva is a great place, but expensive but, as it's a late kick-off, I assume you'll have to stay there, otherwise I'd have suggested staying in Annecy.  I've not been to Geneva for years but can recall plenty of bars and restaurants close to the lake.

As for tickets, be prepared to pay through the nose, especially once the touts work out you're English.  At the World Cup in Germany, we tried for tickets at some of the earlier matches - Portugal v Angola they were after €200 each, I paid €350 for two tickets for USA v Czech Republic, and that was at grounds that held 50,000+.

If they're planning something similar to the Fanfests they had in Germany it'll be worth going for that, over 20,000 fans watching matches on big screens

Blimey! No chance of getting match tickets for face value then?
Can't afford big money like that on a civil service salary! Will it make a difference with no England at the tournament? Just found out the match I'd be interested in going to is Turkey v Czech Republic.

The touts in Germany were very well organised and wouldn't budge on prices - a friend who I went with had been to France 98, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 and had never had these problems in the past. As England aren't there it might be different, but the grounds are a lot smaller than usual.

I applied for tickets via the UEFA lottery last year and they were massively oversubscribed so expect there to be lots of fans looking for not many tickets.

Also, keep an eye on ebay as plenty of tickets came up on there last time.

Half-Time: Spain 0-0 Italy
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Toni had perfectly good goal disallowed for no reason...nothing changes

No big worries, but the age of the back line is a cause for concern perhaps.

Italy played as badly as England. Dont kid yourselves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kt-uYIkkVw

Portugal 1-2 Greece

Perhaps not the most exciting prospect for a neutral, but I really recommend viewing, purely for two terrific goals from Karagounis.

With seasons all over drawing to a close, I'm really beginning to look forward to the tournament.

Yep, should be a good'un. I'll be interested to see if Spain will be much cop now they've got a world-class player.

I'll go for Portugal as my dark-horses, although I reckon the Germans will win it.

I am not on board with some of the Azzurri vets making the squad.   Matrix should not be going.  ADP should go but not start.  Oddo should stay home.  

Italia really need to bring in some more younger players in the squad to get some big tourney feel.

Get ready for WC 2010 damnit!!!

Spain always seem to have World class players and yet still bottle it.  Maybe years of underachievement will make them a bit humbler this time around.  

Portugal are always worth a bet and the Germans will probably make the final.

Italy are I think 7/1 last time I checked which is a good price for the current WC holders.  I dont think anyone thinks Italy will do anything other than a solid job and wont exactly set the tournament alight.  I would like to see some young players being taken for the experience, but I dont hold out much hope for Italy winning the thing. Being in the group of death will test them early on and if they are thinking of being slow starters this tourney they might well find themselves on the plane home early.

il ferret wrote:

I'll go for Portugal as my dark-horses.

Considering they got to the final last time, narrowly missed out on the World Cup final two years ago, and have the best footballer in the world, I'm not really sure you can qualify Portugal as dark horses!

As much as I like them, they're the perfect example of dark horses. Never won anything, and never looked like winning anything really (battered by Greece on home soil in their only ever final). It's a bit of a cliche that they've "never had a goalscorer" - Ronnie aside, do they/you have any decent strikers?

I did actually put a fiver on Croatia ages ago, but with no Eduardo I can't see that happening now.

Portugal are only "worth a bet" if you are talking from the point of view of a bookmaker.  They've never actually won anything, so nobody has ever won a bet on them to win a tournament.

And as for coming close to the world cup final 2 years ago, yes, they were down to play in the semi-finals, but I can't remember them actually turning up.  

On the other hand, they are in much the weaker half of the draw and are probably the second best team of the 8 that will contest one final place.

Although France have a difficult draw with Italy etc, just a look at their squad makes me think anything less than a final place will constitute an under-achievement.

il ferret wrote:

As much as I like them, they're the perfect example of dark horses. Never won anything, and never looked like winning anything really (battered by Greece on home soil in their only ever final).

How does one go about 'looking like winning something' if reaching the final of a major tournament (for which they were pre-match favourites) doesn't count?

Portugal are the only team to have made the final four in the past two international tournaments, even when the semi-final line-up for the World Cup semis was entirely European, so how they can be considered a dark horse, I'm not quite sure. Reached the semi in 2000, as well. So basically, they're the most consistent team over the past four tournament. No, it doesn't count for much when they haven't lifted the trophy, but to cast them as an outsider is odd.

They're also joint-fourth favourites for the competition outright: http://www.eurobet.com/sb.go?page...08&lang=1&sid=1&ms=MS

Fourth favourite! Sorry, but there's no way they can be considered a dark horse.

Not impressed this time with Portugal at all.  Only chance is for C. Ronaldo to do a Maradona ala 1986

They're certainly not as good as four years ago. However, Carvalho and Meira are a good defensive base, and if Quaresma, Simao and Ronaldo are all on form, they'll be unstoppable!

I think they're weak in the centre of the park though. And they've only picked one left-sided defender, so they'll be rather buggered if he gets injured.

With regard to Ferret's point about the striker situation, it is (as ever) a slight cause for concern. Hugo Almeida might be a better bet than Nuno Gomes or Helder Postiga. Portugal have, however, been playing Ronaldo in a 'true' forward role a long time before he played in that position for Manchester United. And when your leading forward has just scored thirty in one Premiership season, you've always got a chance of nicking a goal.

Michael La Viola wrote:

they've only picked one left-sided defender, so they'll be rather buggered if he gets injured.

Miguel Veloso can fill in at left back if necessary, he's done it a few times for Sporting.
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