Well, in a bid to take away from the misery of Valencia as they lumber towards the finish line like a 168 kilo man trying to complete his first marathon in less than 10 hours, why not talk about the upcoming EURO?

The Groups are:

Group A
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Portugal
Turkey

Group B
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C
Netherlands
Italy
Romania
France

Group D
Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

I was hoping that the Croats would do well, but without the Brazilo-Croat Eduardo I don't know how they will do. The thing is that their group is a bit soft, Austria stinks and Poland seems to wilt in big competitions, so they may advance out of the group. Plus, this must be either the last or next to last competition the brothers Kovac will play for Croatia, they are getting on in years.

As for another Eastern European team, I don't see the Czechs advancing out of the group stage. Nedved was the engine that drove that team in the last Euro competition and now that he is saving his legs for Juventus and retirement, the Czechs don't have a player that can step in and fill those 90minutes or incessant running. I think the Czechs do have some good young players up and coming, but that's just the problem, they are too young to help right now. It's a bit of a shame that the Turks are in that difficult group A, as I like some of the traits of Turkish football, well, mainly that they can be nasty son of a bitches on the pitch. Not that I like dirty football, but I'd rather watch hard fought tackles than some Portuguese or Brazilian diving/flouncing/swan diving their way to a penalty.

I hope Spain does well because I like the team and also that it would increase the value of players that Valencia will sell like Villa, but if Soler needs to sell players before the 30th of June that may not matter so much.

Oh and Gooooooooooooooooooo Sweden! (Try not to cheer to much for them Maite, you want them to advance don't you? )

Two pretty nice matches in the last 24hrs. I didn't think Holland would play Italy off the pitch, but they did. I think Italy has this stupid habit of starting off slow, but even with that Holland toyed with Italy at times like a cat does with a mouse. Some strange starting 11 selection for Italy, I didn't understand why a few players were playing and why some weren't.

Anyway, the Spain match that just concluded was wonderful. Exciting first half and a really great finish to the second half made it such an exciting match to watch. Have to give some credit to Russia for trying to attack rather than trying to play a hyper-defensive system that would lead to 90 minutes of boredom. Villa's hat trick was really nice, I'm happy for him. Also, it was nice that the referee let the teams play and kept his cards in their respective pockets. Can't remember the last time I watched a match with no cards.

Oh and go Sweden!