EURO 2008 - Group B

GROUP B seems to be a walk in the park for Germany, but is it? Germany has some minor internal issues, Austria has plenty of internal issues, Croatia and Poland...well, you wonder if they are really title contenders.

Group B comprises of Austria, Croatia, Germany and Poland

Austria - Being the 2nd host of EURO 2008, many would expect them to put on a better show of football than in most of all their competitions. Austria automatically qualifies like Switzerland and when you would expect them to be more focused with the task at hand, news about the Austria camp having some issues went out to the public.

Many wonder how can Austria even survive the group stage, with Germany arguably the favourites, Croatia and Poland both having far better quality than Austria too. Alex Manninger who once played for Arsenal is in goal for Austria, and the coach's inability to select him or Macho in goal started the disciplinary row in the Austria camp. Vastic appears to be the telling man whose form will decide Austria's fate, but it is apparent that the bottom of the group might be Austria's grave in EURO 2008.

Croatia - The red and white team of Croatia appears to be in bouyant mood in EURO 2008. Their first match against Austria appears to be an easy one and this should set them into a strong decider against Germany. Knocking out the English to be in EURO 2008 is a fantastic feat and Slavan Bilic reckons his team can take it all the way to clinch the title.

Croatia's strength comes from the midfield, and Bilic has admitted that if players like Kranjcar, Srna and Modric hit their form, Croatia fears no team. The loss of Eduardo has been a hard one, scoring 10 goals during qualification. However, Bilic believes their strikers can still put up a fine performance and get the much needed goals.

Germany - Very much in outstanding form throughout qualification, they appear to hit a slump recently although they can still manage victories. Germany can certainly do better, and everyone in the German camp knows it. The only problem Germany has is their goalkeeping ego. While Olivier Kahn is the greatest German keeper to have ever played the game, his mouth is also the biggest, and snapping back at Lehmann's claims about the new Euro ball posing problems signifies where Germany's problems will lie.

Germany's midfield and attack seems to be stagnant recently, unable to put on solid displays and has problems getting goals as well. Their players' form towards the end of the domestic season were amazingly poor and it is unclear if they were conserving themselves for EURO 2008 or they simply just cannot perform. However, the whole team looks largely unchanged from the one that played in World Cup 2006 and a few players are looking forward to putting up a show in EURO 2008. Podolski and Klose, 2 stars who did not do quite as much in 2006 will be hoping they can do better this term, and while getting past the group stage is not a problem as it seems, the knockout phase can be a deadly love affair for the ailing Germans.

Poland - The Polish have improved in recent years and everyone believes Poland will fair even better this time than in the World Cup in 2006. Kuszczak has been ruled out of EURO 2008 due to a back injury but nobody expects their goalkeeping setback to be a major problem. Defending has always been the key issue but they certainly overpowered their way during qualifying by scoring 24 times, even beating Portugal 2-1. Poland qualified top of the group, and this is a key statistic that many may overlook.

Ebi Smolarek is the key goalscorer for Poland and if he can continue to hit the back of the net in EURO 2008 as he did during qualifying, Poland may be dreaming of something big at the end of the group stage. Their first game appears to be a clash of the neighbours as Poland faces Germany, this match likely to decide how Poland will finish in the group.

Kicks 4 Kicks! thinks that Germany should top the group, with victories against Austria and possibly Austria. However, Croatia may prove a little harder, and a draw is most likely there. Poland and Croatia should battle it out for 2nd, and whoever wins in their encounter should most likely end up 2nd in the group. No hope for Austria and zero points on the cards for them.

K4K predicts : Germany, Poland, Croatia, Austria.