Euro 2008 format should be revised

While reading the match report of the Germany vs Portugal game, I read something about Germany's next probable opponent. The name "Croatia and Turkey" pop up, and I some how feel Germany vs Croatia is kind of familiar. Ohh ya! Croatia beat Germany in group stage, and now they are going to meet again? I was a little mystified, and I went to check out the full schedule for the competiton.

Looking at the Euro 2008 fixtures, I noticed something very wrong about the format of this prestigious competition. The teams in group A and B will never meet teams in Group C and Group D. Now I realized that to win a European Championship is not that hard after all, if a team can get favorable draw.

In the case of Germany, the teams that are considered strong in their side are Portugal (which they just disposed of), Czech Republic( which failed to qualify to the quarterfinals), Croatia( the team in their group who beat them in the 1st round, and also their most likely opponent in the semifinals). With no disrespect to Turkey, they also stand a very good chance to make it to the finals, but if they are going to face Germany in quarterfinals, not many will bet on them to win.

Never mind all those possibilities. What I want to point out here is that, a team will only need to better than those teams in their half to reach the final. If they get a favorable draw, that tasks is not the hardest. If we look at the other half, we can easily name the traditional strong teams: Holland, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, defending champions Greece, dark horses Russia and Romania. All these 8 teams are decent team which might qualify if they are in the other half.

And after fighting out the quarterfinals, they still have to play one of these power house of football. So why don't the UEFA match the semifinals ties to the teams on the other half. For example, Germany play the winner of Italy vs Spain, or Holland vs Russia instead of Croatia vs Turkey. This will ensure teams in the same group in the 1st round will not meet again until the finals.

Also to avoid unsporting play. Lucky that Holland is a proud and sporting nation that always play to their best instead of planning their way to final. If not, ousting Italy and France will be their choice, and their one remaining obstacle is to be Spain, instead of facing Italy again, who normally start the competition slowly and get stronger during knock-out stage. UEFA should look into making the fixtures to cross over between the two half. A repeat of the same tie as in the group match will be a non-spectacle if one team is much stronger than the other. At lease in the probable event of Croatia vs Germany, Croatia had beaten the Germans in the group stage, making the tie not a one-sided event.