England vs France

You'd have to think France will need to f*ck up badly not to..

Aye, I fancy a 4-0 to France. With the problems at CB and James in goal I can see France knocking a few in.

I reckon it will be a 0-0 or 1-1 draw, and quite a dull game. Lots of tension.

-- woody

2-2
rooney and beckham

It will be very interesting to see how France play as the bold strategy would be to go for it and attack England's dodgy defence from the off. But then, despite their qualifying record, they must still have a few ghosts from Japorea and might well be more cautious.

This is one of those games will be decided by the score after 60 mins and my money would be on 1-1 as a draw suits everyone.

Personally I wouldn't be that concerned if England lose (assuming they play well). If we beat the French we'd go into over-confidence mode and lose to the Swiss.

Matthew

0-0 and a slow game. But after a few pints, watching in the pub, it will be tense, close fought battle with loads of close misses.

The problem here is that the English will treat a victory as some sort of tournament win (as ever) rather than looking at the bigger picture. Anyone read the comments from Beckham. Apparently, winning this would possibly be better than the treble and, apart from the treble, he considers his other career highlight to be scoring a penalty against Argentina. Oh dear!!!

In order to progress in this tournament they actually may need to finish second as, looking at the other likely qualifiers, the draw would then be gentler. Unfortunately, history is against the English despite both teams having dodgy defences (Ashley Cole - what is THAT about?) in that they have never won in the Euros group stages after winning their opening game and the last time they did so they crashed out spectacularly.

Now, bets please. The team undefeated in 18 or the team that's' won once in 9 months (and that against an Iceland asked to go easy).

Hmmm...

"In order to progress in this tournament they actually may need to finish second"

I disagree. Second likely gets you Spain in the Quarters, but winning would get you you Greece or Portugal. I'd rather have either of the latter.

"Ashley Cole - what is THAT about?"

He's a modern fullback designed to play in dominant club side that expects to win most of its games and spend most of its time attacking. Defensive duties are very much secondary, the best examples being Roberto Carlos who is a dodgy fullback and basically plays as an auxillary wwide midfield player who "tracks back" every now and again.

Matthew

Some good predictions there Mathew!!!