no, the ukraine can get a draw at best. and if shevchenko is out, they are certain to lose.

England-Ukraine: 1-0 ( Ukraine had a valid,but unapproved goal by the referee). Ukraine did their best, but England was the better team.

Sweden-France: 2-0. Too bad Sweden was already eliminated.

The champions will be Spain or Germany. Maybe Italy or Portugal ,even Greece (like they did in 2004) :)

way to sit on the fence there Paul ;-)

i think it will be a spain Germany Final with Germany edging it

i would like to see an England Germany Final but i dont think we are good enough to beat Spain

England were the better team? Not so much, don't know any fellow English that would say that either - The Ukraine shot certainly was over the line though Milevsky was also arguably offside which does cloud the waters somewhat.

I would say it should have been given - then again I said that 2 years ago about Lampard's "goal" against Germany as well. Blatter needs to put goaline technology in I think - things like that shouldn't spoil major tournements.

England are getting results - and my word that is a new thing in a major tournement long may it continue, but we are not playing well.

it was marginly over the line but i dont think there is any doubt that he was offside anyway so play should have stopped already.

England wernt the better team but they grinded out the result. that game was never going to be a pretty one just about getting the job done.

A lot of people in RL are moaning about the ref standing on the line but how many times did you need to look at the replays before you were sure it was over. about 10 times right? the poor guy has a split second to make his mind up, no replays, no pausing play,no slow mo. its an imposible task to get right and if he isnt 100% sure then he cant give the goal.

Goal line techonology is way....WAY overdue!

P.S. the lampard goal was way over the line ;-)

I recently read that right after this tournament the first official tests of goal line technology will start. The article specifically mentioned the possibility of it being used on the next World Cup..., I just forget whether they confirmed or denied that possibility. :s

@ ska2d2 the ukranian "goal" was offside anyway but that match proved that goalline technology and the goalline offical are both useless even if it wasn't offside we were cheated of a goal in the 2010 world cup against germany and we were owed that

*goalline technology is needed and the extra offical is useless

@RvW i heard on the radio about a month ago that they tested the technology in an irish game and it was successful. (what successful means i dont know) so heres hoping they will start testing it a little more and it is rolled out into important games

Sorry to go back a few posts, but...

Moros, NL and Germany are pretty intense rivals. A NL fan wouldn't want Germany to win.

For the goalline technology...

It is a mystery to me why it is not implemented in football, especially in high-ranked sports events like Euro. The same technology has been used for years in tennis and, for a couple of years now, in volleyball events in Poland. It is yet to be approved by FIVB as standard, since it is yet in planning stages in many countries, but year after year there are matches where one side is always deemed "eliminated by referee"... I have no idea why UEFA hasn't put a thought to this...

Also, Blatter, who was mentioned earlier, can think all he want, but for UEFA Euro 2012, it's Platini that makes the call, and he as a former pro should know how important this technology is.

@szeweningen:

It's also a mystery to me why they don't simply get rid off the whole offside bs while they're at it. Only effect it seems to have is giving referees a chance to make impossible decisions incorrectly. Hockey ("field hockey" for the Canadians, Fins and Russians among us) got rid off the offside rule a decade ago...

Regarding goalline technology, probably the same reason football is still played on real grass instead of artificial grass: the people making the call seem to be rather technophobic, probably defending their ignorance with the standard "last time we looked at it (read: ages ago), the technology was utterly inferior". Of course, nowadays the technology didn't simply catch up, it advanced way beyond the threshold where they should've switched over, but it takes at least a semi-competent person (competent in anything other than squeezing as much money as possible out of everything) to actually figure that out. (No, I'm not exactly a member of the Blatter (or Platini, for that matter) fanclub...)

No one is...

remove the offside rule? um, no. if we're removing rules because the referee makes the wrong call on it sometimes, then lets just play lawless, 17th century style.

If Germany can escape the group of death with 9 points than they can beat any team in europe

The offside rule is to prevent strikers standing in the opposition box for the duration of the game waiting to recieve a longball or similar - It's not exciting to watch a few players goal poach. As for artificial turf, it was the fans and the players who helped get rid of that last time rouns (in England at least) as it did not ake for as good football as grass does and it led to more injuries to the players. The football league recently opened it up to their league vote and found that it was still largely unwanted.

RvW you really must be kidding. Offside is THE single-most important rule in all of football. Well, apart from the "noone use their hands except the goalies" rule, of course...

Anyways, it's time for the crystal ball!
Česko vs. Portugal could become a really intense game. Or not. The Czechs will make it in the end.
Greece vs. Germany shall be the most boring thing ever watched on television up until the 88th minute, when Gekas will score the first and last goal of the match (with his head; from a corner kick, presumably). This should be fun. =)
As for Spain vs. France, I foresee 90% possession for Spain and Xavi with 200 passes completed, apart from that it's only fog. Wait... is that... Benzema scoring the winning goal?
Those 130+ minutes of England vs. Italy will be the second-most boring thing ever watched on television. Italy wins on penalties.

remove the offside rule? um, no. if we're removing rules because the referee makes the wrong call on it sometimes, then lets just play lawless, 17th century style.

Not remove it because the referee can get it wrong, remove it because (from what I've heard officials say) the only reason to keep it seems to add "excitement" (the chance of the referee getting it wrong).

The offside rule is to prevent strikers standing in the opposition box for the duration of the game waiting to recieve a longball or similar - It's not exciting to watch a few players goal poach.

Let him stand there, so what? There's two possibilities, either it works or it doesn't. If it doesn't that means they're effectively playing 10-vs-11; hardly a brilliant strategy. If it does actually work (if the rest of the team can deliver enough and accurate-enough longballs) all it takes is one defender to keep him company.
Essentially, what's the difference between the farthest (??) attacker having his position decided by the last defender (due to the offside rule) and the last defender having his position decided by the farthest attacker (due to having to guard him)?

Anyways, it's time for the crystal ball!

According to my crystal wiki, the Czechs didn't make it in the end. No idea whether it was an intense game though; it didn't say so. :p