MVN - Most Valuable Network

MVN Reviews Saturday’s EURO 2008 Opening Night

SWITZERLAND 0 -  1 CZECH REPUBLIC 

Goal: Sverkos, 71′

The tournament opener saw the superstar ’keeper Petr Cech not playing at his best, and Switzerland were the better side throughout the first half.  The co-host nation was not lucky however, and their best player during these minutes, Alex Frei, was removed just before halftime after a knee injury caused from a tackle.  After several Swiss misses, the Czech Republic finally scored on their very first shot on goal, which came late in the match. It was their Vaclav Sverkos (shown here) who scored in 71st minute.  His first-ever goal for his national team was enough to get the Czech Republic past the Swiss for the victory on this night. (story continues below photo…)

PORTUGAL 2 - 0 TURKEY  

Goals: Pepe, 61′ - Raul Meireles, 90+3′

For the second match, all eyes were on Cristiano Ronaldo, who was moved up to forward for this match.  Already an early favorite for FIFA’s 2008 Player of the Year, he was fouled early - something expected to happen frequently in this tournament, and the Portugal team as a whole was held in check throughout the first half.

Nuno Gomes hit the bar on three attempts, but it was neither he nor Ronaldo who finally broke through for the side. Pepe was the one who did it - after an early offsides ‘no goal’ - successful at last in the 61st minute.  A stoppage-time goal added insurance for the Group A favorites. (story continues below photo…)

Both Group A teams have four days to rest, while the other groups complete their first matches. As you might expect, the groups go in successive order each day (A, B, C, etc.), and play each team in their group for a total of three matches each. The top two teams in each group go through to the quarterfinals.

I won’t be doing an article like this every day, but I thought for the first day, it would be a nice way to start. I will choose some of the key days and individual matches throughout the tournament on which to write, accomapnied by news photos like these.

You should also check out the official EURO 2008 site (with features available in TEN LANGUAGES !) for all of the stats, news, and official videos, constantly updated 24 hours a day;  It’s a great UEFA event portal….

VIDEO - Official song “Feel the Rush”

As always, feel free to leave your comments below…and ENJOY =)

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.