It will be very hard for Denmark & Portugal. Denmark face Holland first and they are VERY VERY likely to loose. If they cant win the next match against portugal its game over for them. 1 Loss & 1 Draw wont be enough.

Ideally Portugal will finish last but they are Oranje's bogey team so its pretty difficult to call. But I dont see them making it unless they get a SHOCK win over Oranje.

Germany & Netherlands look firm favourites. I think Oranje will win the group. In such groups Oranje does brillianly well,thumped France & Italy in 2008. Last time Germany was paired with Oranje in 2004,they did not make it out of the groups.

Anyways this is too close to call,just like the Croatia-Italy-Spain combo or the Italy-England-Ukraine-Sweden one. Just that this is in a higher level. I am not going to be foolish & say 100% this team will go through. This is way too tough to call,but there are clear favourites for sure

IMO it's wide open between Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal (although the latter is a bit weaker than the first two). It'll be very interesting to see how this ends up.

Germany and Holland. Because they're the best teams.

However, I think Denmark is the dark horse (not Portugal), despite their awful performance against Brazil. They were in the same group as Portugal in the qualifiers and finished ahead of them. Portugal have not been convincing for me.

I see the group finishing:
1. Netherlands
2. German
3. Portugal
4. Denmark

For the most part the rest of the teams in the group will play behind the ball against Germany and hope they can get out of the fixture with a draw. Whereas I think teams will stupidly not employ the same tactics against the Netherlands. Either way they both go through, but not without some sleepless nights.

1-Germany
2-Denmark

I would honestly not even be surprised if Germany didn't make it out of the group (although they are clearly the best)

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

deadrave wrote:portugal will qualify for sure

Dont know how you can be so sure when Holland and Germany are vastly superior and Denmark finished above Portugal in qualifying.....

well i believe portugal will win germany in the 1st group game and fairly gather the required points from the other 2 games

Guiltybystander wrote:I would honestly not even be surprised if Germany didn't make it out of the group (although they are clearly the best)

This. Be Humble & remember 2004. I have said any team can crash out in this group. Its way too close to call.

The very nature of tournament play creates an enviorment where the favourites don't progress.

I'm prepared for anything in this group, it'll come down to the details.

Kingofeverythingclassy wrote:

Guiltybystander wrote:I would honestly not even be surprised if Germany didn't make it out of the group (although they are clearly the best)

This. Be Humble & remember 2004. I have said any team can crash out in this group. Its way too close to call.

I've said before that I'm quite afraid of Denmark and Portugal parking the bus against us and grinding out a result.

Got a 50-1 bet on England Portugal and Spain to win their groups respectively. Think I might have been dreaming a bit but then again if Ronaldo is on form they don't really need a striker - he'll do both jobs

I think it's going to end up

1.Germany
2.Netherlands
3.Denmark
4.Portugal

It's up to Denmark and Portugal to cause problems for the Netherlands.
I think Germany are too strong atm not to go through at 1.

But Ronaldo thinks that Portugal may be the surprise package of the group and insists that the favourites tag is an extra source of pressure.

"We know we are in the most difficult group of the Euros, but it is not anything to regret, because you cannot change it, and we have known it for months," he told Uefa.com.

"So we have to be prepared, we have no other option. These will be extremely difficult matches, but I think Portugal will do a good job and we will progress to the next phase.

I have faith, because the favourites do not always win, and we are not on the list of favourites, which takes a bit of pressure off our players."

The 27-year-old then highlighted the importance of the team getting off to good start with a victory against Germany on Saturday.

"We obviously want to win, because we want to start the Euros well," Ronaldo explained. "Germany are a great team, they have had great results in recent competitions, so we respect them a lot.

"But we also have our strengths and we will do everything to start the Euros on the right foot.

"We have everything we need and we just have to be calm because things will go well.

"I hope the future will be good for us and that we will win something important, because we have a great team and a great coach, so we have to aim to win something important."

Honestly, I think a lot will come down to the first game against Denmark. One or no points could be a disaster for us. We never had much luck against the Portuguese and due to our relatively weak defense the chances of us winning from the Germans is about 40% in my opinion. I'm not a dreamer type of guy, more of a realist, so that's how I see things. If we win the game against Denmark and tie against Germany, I definately see us progress. If we have at least 3 points after 2 games, there is still a decent chance. Anything below 3 points after 2 games = probably exit.

You may think I'm mad, but I'm gonna take Germany and Portugal (despite being a HUGE RvP fan). I just think that Netherlands has so much pressure given the stars they have and positive result from last WC run. I think Germany is very deep, and when CR7 is playing (with Nani), they can score...a lot.

I would like to remind people last time Oranje were drawn with World Cup winners & Runners up in France & Italy & we thrashed them 3-0 & 4-1.That was 2008.

In 2004 we were drawn again in a very hard group with Czechs,Germany & others. And Germany crashed out.

I see Oranje making out of the group. A 3 point vs Denmark will be great start & that is possible. A win vs Denmark will be a huge start if Germany & Portugal draw

my favorite brazilian pundit said that there is no such thing as group of death since netherlands and germany will obviously qualify and portugal and denmark are meh.lets see

Ganso wrote:my favorite brazilian pundit said that there is no such thing as group of death since netherlands and germany will obviously qualify and portugal and denmark are meh.lets see

I agree.

I'm not quite sure why people are already counting Portugal out. When you have one of the best players in the world, you're always going to have a chance at winning. I think Portugal will surprise a lot of people in Euro 12.

1 - Germany
2 - Portugal
3 - Netherlands
4 - Denmark

one of the best players in the world who is nothing special for the NT

Hasn't done anything special yet. I believe this will be his breakout year.

However, I don't think Portugal is strong enough to win the whole thing. I think it comes down to Germany or Spain.

EarlyPrototype wrote:1-Germany
2-Portugal

I have a feeling Portugal will scrape their way through as long as they don't make stupid primary school mistakes in defense.

EP

Danng I was so close with my predictions. I had Denmark in second ahead of Portugal