Euro 2008 Debate: Tops And Flops

Austria

Hot: Ivica Vastic, for actually being able to put the ball in the back of the net with an extremely cool last-minute penalty (even if the award looked dubious).

Not: Martin Harnik. For someone who talks so much he sure is awful. Said he would make the Germans "s*** their pants" - and I'm sure they did - from laughing at his inability to convert chances gifted to him by the Mannschaft's moronic defending.

Croatia

Hot: It has to be Bilic. There were some on-song individuals throughout the team, but the charismatic, rock star, lawyer and occasional football coach has proven to be something of a revelation on the international scene. He proves that coaching is as much about having the right attitude as it is the right tactics. Is incredibly loyal to his country, and therefore unlikely to leave them for a big club just yet - perhaps after the World Cup.

Not: The relentless praise of Luka Modric. He's a good player - we get it - but he's not that good. There have been at least a dozen at the tournament who have performed better than him, but because he masterminded a win over the mighty England in qualifying and is on his way to the Premier League with a big-money move to Tottenham Hotspur, does his every run, pass and snot-bubble need to be hailed as something majestic? He's good, not great - there are better.

Czech Republic

Hot: Libor Sionko. He played for Rangers?! Why a team that made their way to the UEFA Cup final playing as little football as possible let a gem like this go is absolutely anybody's guess - even at 31, he has more to offer on a bigger stage than at FC Copenhagen - let's see if someone snaps him up...

Not: Petr Cech. It's cruel - he didn't have a bad tournament - but his Paul Robinson approach to goalkeeping knocked his side out of the tournament when they were on course for routine qualification to the quarterfinals.

France

Hot: What?

Not: In as few words as possible: Raymond Domenech, his marriage proposal, his unnatural attachment to astrology, his hobo-chic approach to fashion, leaving a red-hot Sebastian Frey on the bench, playing Willy Sagnol despite his obvious lack of match practice, not bringing Philippe Mexes to fill in for old man Lilian Thuram, playing Eric Abidal at centre-back, playing Eric Abidal in the first place with Champions League winner Patrice Evra reduced to getting shoved in the tunnel after 4-1 thrashings, his persistence with a double-pivot of slow midfielders, not bringing Mathieu Flamini, Florent Malouda (no explanation required), playing Nicolas Anelka despite Chelsea doing their best to destroy his form and confidence by playing him on the wing and leaving Euro 2000 winner and second-top scorer in Serie A David Trezeguet at home all at the same time, bringing Samir Nasri just because people call him the new Zinedine Zidane while leaving at home an old but far superior and more versatile Robert Pires over a personal feud, and lastly, the fact he still has a job for at least the next eight days. Staggering.

Germany

Hot: Michael Ballack. Wasn't it obvious? Germany's star rises to the occasion once again. Well and truly the consummate midfielder and professional, he has rarely put a foot wrong all tournament. The only thing that will be irking him and without doubt his team-mates is, despite his incredibly pedigree, he has a history of being an also-ran in major tournaments. Will that prove to be the case again?

Not: Central defenders Cristoph Metzelder and Per Mertesacker, otherwise known as Dumb and Dumber. With a double-pivot protecting them against Portugal, they actually passed themselves off as competent defenders, but throughout the group games they did their very utmost to gift chances to the likes of Poland and Austria in what can only be described as the worst group in the competition. Metzelder may be rusty and Mertesacker may still be fairly young, but there is no room for excuses at this level.

Greece

Hot: Yeah, I hear it regularly hits 25 to 30 degrees celsius over there.

Not: Just about everything. Extremely fortuitous champions in 2004 and exposed for what they are this time around. Not good enough. Perhaps their showing will punch a hole in UEFA's moronic bureaucratic logic that they should be awarded a top seed just because they won the competition, while France, Italy, the Netherlands and even an impressive Romania all had to fight it out in one group.

Italy

Hot: Giorgio Chiellini. Should Alessandro Nesta indeed come out of international retirement, he will no doubt supercede the Juventus youngster to partner captain Fabio Cannavaro and probably rightly so, but at least the Azzurri can rest in the comfort that when Fabio calls it quits, there is finally an able successor in waiting. Andrea Barzagli, Alessandro Gamberini and friends are good without being great on the big stage. Chiellini, on the back of his performances at Euro 2008, has the makings of the next great Italian defender.

Not: Gennaro Gattuso and Massimo Ambrosini. Yes, Luca Toni looked a shadow of the man we've known him to be and the defence was shambolic against the Netherlands, but Italy's ultimate undoing lay somewhere inbetween. The lumbering mediocrity of the defensive midfield Milan duo held back the world champions far too often throughout the tournament. Putting aside the fact Daniele De Rossi is quite possibly better than both of them put together and Roberto Donadoni should have been wise to this fact from the beginning, they had the experience and credentials to deliver and failed to.

Netherlands

Hot: Wesley Sneijder. Few would doubt that he was the Oranje's player of the tournament, involved in almost all their attacking play and scoring two sensational goals. Despite moving to Real Madrid almost a year ago and winning La Liga in his debut season, the 24-year-old is still of a relatively low profile on the world stage - perhaps not so much anymore.

Not: Marco van Basten - that's right. So, sacrificing defensive balance in mdifield for forward players worked against France - he was lucky - and in trying it again and getting crucified by the Russians he only made that abundantly clear. Quite like Germany, the Netherlands lack good defenders. As such, it is wise to keep them protected with a double pivot (as Germany did in their only consistently solid performance of the tournament so far). Yet at every opportunity, whether it was pressure above from football's know-it-all Johann Cruyff or his own need to prove just how 'total football' and 'attacking' he was, van Basten gave it away. They were outplayed by the better side in the end, but if anybody could have done more, it was the departing coach.

Poland

Hot: Roger Guerreiro. As is often the case with many countries, their star player is in fact a Brazilian. His skill, tenacity and direct approach to the game facilitated the Poles no end. It is of little surprise that their worst half of football - the opener against Germany - came without him on the field.

Not: Their defending. It would be unfair to single out one or two because they were all just that bad. Artur Boruc well and truly had his work cut out in goal.

Portugal

Hot: Deco! The little wizard with the uneven eyebrows had a timely return to form few could have predicted off the back of his miserable season with Barcelona. The 31-year-old spent much time out with Ronaldinho-like mystery injuries and looked sluggish whenever he took the field for the Blaugrana, but he was full of energy and ideas throughout the tournament, without doubt having a point to prove as he looks to engineer a move away from Camp Nou, with Chelsea and Internazionale thought to be leading the chase.

Not: Luiz Felipe Scolari. Like van Basten, it was all any of the media could do to sing his praises as his side got off to an assured start to Euro 2008, but there were warning signs changes would be needed in bigger games during the knockout rounds and they weren't heeded. Though Germany played well, Portugal's elimination was very much their own doing.

Romania

Hot: Cristian Chivu. His declining set-piece ability aside, the Inter stopper showed all his experience in leading an extremely solid Romanian defensive unit in the face of Italy, France and the Netherlands. Three games, three goals conceded - not bad.

Not: Adrian Mutu. He played well, but like Cech's error for the Czechs, Mutu's penalty miss was the difference between qualification and heading home.

Spain

Hot: Iker Casillas. Just when it looked like he might go through a whole competition without being required to perform any miracles, he consigned Daniele De Rossi to his second heartbreaking penalty miss of the season with a quite incredible stop. Made another more ordinary save from Antonio Di Natale in the same shootout to secure Spanish victory. Cesc Fabregas' attitude and performances from the bench also merit a mention, as does David Villa, who is now everyone's favourite player off the back of a hat-trick against Russia, yet he cannot be mentioned in a sentence without Liverpool's Fernando Torres, despite the fact Villa has been better than Torres for several years, and that remains the case now, as if it isn't obvious already.

Not: Luis Aragones. He has done well to select a good starting eleven, but his substitutions and the lack of inspiration behind them could prove to be Spain's undoing in the end. They well and truly obliterated Russia, leaving him with little to do besides watch on with a smile. They have laboured since; sneaking past Sweden with a win and producing a creditable comeback against Greece with their second string. Their penalty shootout win against Italy is praiseworthy to say the least, but with the weakened state of the world champions, Spain dominated the game but failed to test Gianluigi Buffon - not good enough. Selection can be to blame as well; there is a lack of genuine width, with the in-form Diego Capel and undoubted talent of Joaquin being left at home in favour of a plethora of albeit talented but ultimately superfluous central midfielders. It would be a shame but not a surprise to see this cost them against Russia.

Sweden

Hot: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He was injured, yet he played through the pain and scored one beautiful goal to essentially win the game against Greece, and another well-taken striker's goal to level things up against Spain, which might have been enough to see them through if not for one moment of defensive weakness at the death which saw David Villa snatch a winner. Few can question his commitment or quality following his performances in Austria-Switzerland, though admittedly he doesn't always do himself too many favours.

Not: The age of the team. Despite Henrik Larsson's most defiant attempts to thwart the press in a post-match interview, it was obvious that he along with many of his team-mates were not up for 90 minutes of action at this level. More youth should have been brought in purely as a source of energy and to give them more options off the bench.

Switzerland

Hot: Just about everything. Great team play, fans and some outstanding individuals. It's hard to believe they failed to make it out of their group, as they did so little wrong. Gökhan Inler, Valon Behrami, Johan Vonlanthen, Tranquillo Barnetta, Hakan Yakin and Eren Derdiyok showed a lot of promise and a lot of class.

Not: Marco Streller. If there's one man you could definitely accuse of not stepping up to the plate, it's the FC Basel striker. Touted as something of a threat following a few goals in the warm-up games, with or without captain and all-time leading goal-scorer Alexander Frei, Streller looked awful. Had he been half way decent in the first game against the Czech Republic and Switzerland got a result - even a point - things could have been entirely different.

Russia

Hot: Andrei Arshavin. He is the new sensation and with just cause, as his creativity and dynamism are exceptional. He is a big game player and can always pop up with a goal. Certain to move to one of Europe's heavyweights this summer, with Barcelona already publicised as the club of his dreams.

Not: Defending. Often eastern European teams are associated with a militant-like discipline to their defensive and incredible fitness being the keys to their success. Russia tick one of those boxes, but their defending remains somewhat suspect, particularly from set-pieces. There is work to be done, but in truth, it is no mean feat picking flaws in the team who have played arguably the best football at the tournament.

Turkey

Hot: Fatih Terim. All you have to do is take a look at the man on the sidelines when his side are losing to understand what inspires Turkey to produce these incredible comebacks: fear. Terim has the demeanour of a man who would not hesitate to nail Nihat to the wall by his ears just to prove a point to the rest of the squad. "Inspirational" they call him. That injury crisis - what do you think really happened?

Not: Ill discipline. The two booking rule is nonsensical and the referees are, in some cases, too strict - but it's the same for everyone - and Volkan's push on Jan Koller in the dying minutes of their game against the Czech Republic defied all logic. Yes, Turkey have had a lot of injuries, but four are also suspended for tonight's game that needn't have been.