The big day and the group of death matches will be played today. The group consists of World Champions Italy, France which was beaten in final at World Cup 2006 by Italy, always strong team full of stars Netherlands and a team from Romania. First match of the day is France - Romania in which France is heavily favored, but the Romanias can suprise with their star forward Mutu. The second game will be Italy against Netherlands, which no doubt will be one of the highlight matches of the group phase of Euro 2008.

Yesterday the favorite Germany beat Poland 2:0 and the heavily favored Croatia only with luck won against the great playing Austrians which has so far been the surprise of the tournament. Both goals for Germany were scored by Podolski and Croatia scored in the 4th minute from a penalty shot.

The European soccer championship EURO 2008 was started yesterday with a game between the hosting country of Switzerland and Czech Republic with the ladder winning the game 0:1 with a goal by a newcomer to the team Sverkos. Sverkos came in 56 minute as he replaced Jan Koller for whom the game was not going so well. In 71. minute Sverkos scored his first international goal in his only 3rd appearance in the national team. Switzerland was the better team, its attacks being much more dangerous then that of Czech Republic. The Swiss’s captain and the star of the team had to be subbed after he sustained an injury at the end of the first half to his knee. For him the Euro 2008 is over as his injury will take about 6 weeks to heal.
In the second game of Group A between Portugal and Turkey was won by Portugal 2:0. Portugal was the better team the whole game, with Turkey having virtually no chances to score a goal. Christiano Ronaldo was very clearly the player of the game, as he set-up most of the scoring chances for Portugal. The goals were scored by Pepe in 61. minute and by Meireles in injury time.

Day 2 of the championship brings two games, the cohosting country of Austria will play against Croatia and Germany will face Poland in a much heated match. There has already been reports of fan clashes of the countries. Germany and Croatia are favorites to advance to the next stage of the championship, but Poland is also very strong, having winned its qualifying group. According to bookmakers the chance that Poland wins its game against Germany is lower then Austria winning its game against Croatia….

Today starts the three week long marathon of excellent soccer with the opening match in Basel at 18:00 CET (-6 hours EST) between host country Switzerland and Czech Republic. At 20.45 CET starts another match at Zurich between Portugal and Turkey.

News from the teams:
Zdenek Pospech of Czech Republic did not travel with the team to Basel and stayed behind at Czech Republic team’s “home” city in Seefeld due to a flu. He was being considered by the manager Karel Bruckner to be in the starting line-up. The rest of the team transferred to Basel on Friday and in the evening trained in St. Jakobs Park.

One of the key players of Switzerland, Tranquillo Barnetta, native of St. Gallen, is reported to be healed from his injury and ready to play against the Czechs. This is no doubt good news for Switzerland as Barnetta is key midfielder for his team.

There are no surprises expected in Portugal’s starting lineup, as all players are healthy ready for their opener against Turkey. They are expected to start with a 4-3-3 formation, with Nuno Gomes the lone stiker supported on wings by Christiano Ronaldo and Simao.

The first leg of the third qualifying round for Champions League is over. All of the favorites won, except for Ajax Amsterdam who lost to Slavia Prague 0:1. Here are the scores:

Toulouse 0 - 1 Liverpool
43′ Andriy Voronin

Tampere 0 - 3 Rosenborg
19′ Miika Koppinen
21′ Yssouf Koné
81′ Yssouf Koné

Spartak Moscow 1 - 1 Celtic
20′ Paul Hartley
42′ Roman Pavlyuchenko

BATE Borisov 2 - 2 Steaua Bucuresti
43′ Artem Radkov
58′ Nicolae Dorin Goian
84′ Constantin Nicolae Dica
90′ Gennadi Bliznyuk

Fenerbahce 1 - 0 Anderlecht
32′ Alex

FK Sarajevo 0 - 1 Dynamo Kiev
12′ Maksim Shatskikh

FC Zurich 1 - 1 Besiktas
4′ Matias Emilio Delgado
90′ Alexandre Alphonse

Ajax 0 - 1 Slavia Prague
76′ David Kalivoda

Salzburg 1 - 0 Shakhtar Donetsk
10′ Alexander Zickler

Werder Bremen 2 - 1 Din. Zagreb
45′ Bosko Balaban
46′ Hugo Almeida
85′ Daniel Jensen

Sparta Prague 0 - 2 Arsenal
72′ Cesc Fabregas
90′ Aleksandr Hleb

Sevilla 2 - 0 AEK Athens

Three of tonite’s 12 matches are finished, with the favorite Liverpool beating Toulouse on their home ground 0:1 with a goal right before half time by Andriy Voronin.

In what must be a good feel game for Celtic, they tied Spartak Moscow at Olimpiyskiy Kompleks Luzhniki Stadion in Moscow 1:1. Celtic took an early lead with a goal by Paul Hartley in the 20th minute. Spartak came back with in 42nd minute with a goal by Roman Pavlyuchenko. This score gives Celtic very good prospects for qualifying to the main stage of the competition, as Spartak will have to win in two weeks on Celtic’s turf.

The favored Tempere United lost big against Rosenborg at Tempere 0:3. The goals were scored by Miika Koppinen and two by Yssouf Kone. It should be very easy for Rosenborg to keep the lead and to make history by qualifying for the main round of Champions League competition.

In a currently ongoing match, BATE Borisov is suprisingly winning over Steaua Buchurest 1:0 at half time.

Finding places where you can watch live scoring from tonite’s Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League is not so easy. Of course you can get your teams specific feeds, but to find a place where all of the games are tracked is hard to find. Well we have done the work for you and found the two following sites:

 http://www.oleole.org.uk/scores/2007/08/15/l/149 and http://www.goalslive.com/ (Choose Champions League from the Leagues checkboxes).

Good luck to your team tonite!

Today is the day when the second day of the third qualifying round of Europe’s most prestigious and the biggest money maker cup, the Champions League, begins.

Yesterday’s opening matches showed that there are clear favorites. On the hand, some teams which were favored to qualify for the main competition, complicated its qualifying chances. Lazio Roma only tied at home with Dynamo Bucharest 1:1, which means that they have to win at Bucurest in two weeks in order to qualify. The fans of both teams were very violent with a fan of Lazio being stabbed in the back and 5 others ending up in hospital. The match itself saw Dynamo taking the lead early on, with Lazio tieing the game in 53rd minute. The push by the home team was cut short when 2 players received red cards.

Another matches saw the favorites win, with Glasgow Rangers beating Crvena Zvezda Belegrad 1:0, Benfica Lisbon beating FC København 2:1 and Valencia easily beat Elfsborg 3:0.

Here are today’s matches with betting odds (the lower number the higher probability the team will win):

Toulouse FC 4.75 - Liverpool FC     1.70
Spartak Moscow     1.75  - Celtic Glasgow     4.50
Tampere United     3.05 - Rosenborg     2.15
BATE Borisov     4.20 - Steaua Bucharest     1.75
Fenerbahce     1.65 - Anderlecht     4.80
FK Sarajevo     4.00 - Dynamo Kiev     1.80
FC Zurich     2.15 - Besiktas     3.10
Ajax Amsterdam     1.35 - Slavia Prague     8.50
Red Bull Salzburg     2.05 - Shakhtar Donetsk     3.25
Werder Bremen     1.35 - Dinamo Zagreb     7.50
FC Sevilla     1.20 - AEK Athens     11.50
Sparta Prague     4.50 - Arsenal FC     1.70

This puts Ajax, Werder Bremen, Liverpool, Arsenal and Fenerbahce as clear favorites.

It is coming down to the wire for teams which want to cash in big on the Champions League bonuses by qualifying to the main round of the Champions League competition. Many teams depend on these bonuses to keep afloat, and cannot afford to not be in the competition. The third and last qualifying round starts tomorrow and Wednesday, with second leg matches being played two weeks later.

There are some major European teams in this third leg which would like to be in the competition. Arsenal who had to leave the competition last year already in the first knockout round; knocked out by PSV Eidhoven; plays on Wednesday against Sparta Prague who did not qualify for the main competition last year. Arsenal are clear favorites beating Sparta in the 2005-2006 year 2:0 away and 3:1 at home. Arsenal however lost its biggest star over the summer (Henry who transfered to Barcelona), and its new striker Adebayor, is only recovering from an injury and might not be ready for Wednesday’s match with starts 20:15 SELC. This will be a very interesting match, as Sparta has nothing to loose and Arsenal would like to make it as far in the competition as posible in order to raise the monetary value of the team. In the last few days Formula 1 czar Bernie Ecclestone officialy announced interest in purchasing Arsenal. Arsenal’s board of directors, however signed a memorandum to not sell the team for at least a year.

Another team which cannot afford to not be in the competition this year is Ajax Amsterdam. The Champions League regular, did not even qualify for the main competition last year, loosing 3:2 aggragate against Kobenhavn, a suprise upset. Ajax which lost Wesley Sneijder to Real Madrid over the summer will face Slavia Prague. Slavia Prague had to qualify for the third round, beating SK Zilina in the second round on penalties 4:3. Slavia Prague has not qualified for the main competition in over 5 years, but are hoping to break their string of bad luck. Slavia strengtened their squad over the summer with an addition of homecoming of Vladimir Smicer, a Czech Republic squad regular who played in Liverpool (with whom he won the Champions League in 2005-2006) and then in RC Lens before returning to Slavia Prague. He will however not be able to play in the first match, due to yellow cards. This match is also played on Wednesday. Slavia Prague has an advantage over Ajax of already playing four matches (two in Czech Gambrinus Liga and two in Champions League second qualifying round). Ajax has recently lost 1:0 to Arsenal in a friendly match.

In the first round of Bundesliga this weekend, the newcomers Karlsruhe and Duisburg made their Bundesliga debute and won. Karlsruhe beat Nueremberg, last years German Cup winners. Duisburg on the other hand, defeated Borussia Dortmund, 3:1 with goals by Nigerian striker Manasseh Ishiaku.

Bayern Munich and its star studded additions to their team which ended up at dissapointing  4th place last year, beat 3:0 the newly added Hansa Rostock. This was a must win situation, but there were doubts as Bayern had a hard time last weekend with a division team, beating them after a penalty shootout.

Another surprise was that last year’s Bundesliga winner, VFB Stuttgart, only tied 2:2 with Schalke 04.

Fixtures Table