The opening game of the tournament was Sir Alex Ferguson vs Ze Germans! and it wasn’t one of Ferguson’s finest moments in football. Winning the league with Manchester United before he came out obviously made him a bit worse for wear. From the start the German side was all over Scotland, Schippers firing early just after kick off to give them the lead. Not long after that was doubled when Holger Schmidt scoring in the 5th minute. Schmidst blastered himself to the top of the goal scoring charts with his second goal a fantastic move from Germany who threw themselves forward all game. Busch ended Scotland’s misery for some of the Scots to get the hair dryer treatment at full time from Alex.
Scotland 0 - 4 Germany
Sweden faced Ukraine next in Group B and after reaching the final of the World Cup will hope to live up to the expectations put upon them now. One guy that usually cracks under pressure is Zlatan Ibrahimovic but this time he opened the scoring, a through ball from Kallstrom, sending him through as he used his pace to get into the box and fire home. In the 75th minute is was a chance from the spot that doubled the scoring, Alexander Farnerud slotting it in the corner to gain our first win of the tournament
Sweden 2-0 Ukraine
The European and World Champions took on Croatia in what a heated game against the two teams, but Spain played like Champions throughout the game, keeping hold of the ball and putting as many shots on goal as they could. Pietikosa had a good game between the sticks for Croatia but couldn’t stop David Villa in the 10th minute from heading home a cross from Silva to make it 1-0, but that is how it stayed. Both Iniesta and Eduardo were shown the tunnel after both receiving two yellow cards, in a game with many hard hitting tackles.
Spain 1-0 Croatia
For this European Championships you don’t have to choose between France or Spain, Italy or Portugal. England are here in the Ukraine and Poland for these games and you can get behind our Football Manager side managed by Rafa. Greece though took an early lead against England in a close game, Greece playing their usual defensive way with England playing attacking football. It was Dimitris Papadopoulos who fired the first goal with their only shot of the game. But England played a fantastic game and in the second half came out even stronger, Walcott and Rooney up front was terrifying for any defender trying to keep up. Walcott struck twice in the game to secure a win for England.
England 2-0 Greece
Hosts Poland were the opponents for France and home soil made no difference to the performance of the Poles and France revelled in the game. Menez scored the first goal, running in from the right into the box to put the ball behind Boruc to open the scoring. Before half time the game was over and young striker Benzema put the ball into the back of the net to give Zidane a win in his opening game.
France 2-0 Poland
Other Group A result Turkey 1-1 Switzerland
The first meeting of two of our teams was the clash between Italy and Holland. First blood went to Zola’s side, Rossi showing that he was learning under the talents of Zola and in his mould the striker went past two players to hit the ball from outside the box to open the scoring. But what ever Paul Jewell said at half time really did get instant results, straight from kick off Van Persie quickly attacked Buffons goal to draw level. Then De Zeeuw quickly took the ball back from the kick off and put it infront of Huntelaar who straight away put Holland in the lead. A very tight game which either side could have won, but Holland did on this occasion
Italy 1-2 Holland
Spalletti who had just watched his country lose to Holland would not want to see his own team suffer the same fate as Czech Republic met Eastern European rivals Serbia. The first half was contested well and as the sides went in at half time the game was still in deadlock. It took just over an hour before score was opened and it came from the spot, Rosicky being clattered to the ground and he then getting up to take the spot kick. After that Serbia were forced to go forward leaving space for Fenin who doubled the scoring.
Czech Republic 2-0 Serbia