Group C

Romania's European Championships Record

Romania are ranked 13^th in the FIFA rankings issued on February 2008. This signifies that this nation should be respected by its opponents. The Golden Era of the Romanian national football team was the 1990s, when Gheorghe Hagi formed part of the Romanian starting line-up. Euro 2008 will be Romania's fourth appearance in the European Championships. The team has qualified for the 1984, 1996 and 2000 events. The '84 and '96 were very disappointing with Romania being eliminated at the group stage. The Euro 2000 held in Belgium/Netherlands was their most successful, they reached the quarterfinal of the competition.

In the Euro 2000, Romania were favourites to be kicked around by the opposition, being drawn in an ultra-tough group containing Portugal, Germany and England. However, Romania surprised everyone by earning a draw against the Germans, losing to a late goal against Portugal, and managing a 3-2 over England with a late penalty from Ganea. Romania qualified in second place, behind Portugal. However, Romania had to play Group B winners Italy, who had won all three group stage matches, in their quarter final, which they lost 2-0.

Romania failed to qualify for Euro 2004, but did extremely well in the qualifying stage for Euro 2008. They topped a very tight group, finishing above the Netherlands (runners-up) and Bulgaria (3^rd - eliminated). Romania lost just one game in qualifying, winning nine games and drawing two. Unluckily, Romania was once again drawn in the toughest group of this year's European Championship. They were drawn in Group 3, having to face Netherlands, Italy and France.

Romania's Euro 2008 Fixtures:

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France's European Championships Record

The France football team, also known as The Blues, is considered and respected as one of the top sides in world football, at an international stage. From recent FIFA rankings (February 2008), the French rank 7^th, before Portugal (8^th) and after Czech Republic (6^th). In the history of football, this team has enjoyed numerous eras which were characterised by the likes of Michel Platini, Eric Cantona and more recently Zinedine Zidane. The French squad were never short of big names, with French internationals playing at top clubs in England, Spain and France. Besides home-grown talent, the French squad boasts a high level of imported talent, where African (mainly) players gain French nationality and go on to play for France. Just to mention some examples, Thierry Henry, Louis Saha and Sylvain Wiltord all have Guadeloupian origin, Zidane has Algerian origin, Malouda was born in French Guyana, Vieira is an immigrant from Senegal, and Makelele has Congolese origin.

France is managed by Raymond Domenech and captained by Inter Milan player Patrick Vieira. Thierry Henry is the all-time top scorer for the team, with his tally standing at 44 goals. Home games are played at the Stade de France, Paris. The first time that the team appeared in a European Championship was in 1960 and since then has made 7 appearances in European tournaments, including the 2008 event. They failed to qualify for 5 European Championships in a row between 1964 and 1980, but they made a great comeback in the 1984 event, held in France, which they won. Then they missed Euro 1988 but qualified for the Euro 1992 held in Sweden, since 1992, they have not missed a European Championship, appearing in all 5 events (Euro 2008 included). They won Euro 2000 held in Belgium & the etherlands, lost in the semi-finals in Euro 1996 and were eliminated in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004. France qualified for Austria-Switzerland Euro 2008 with just 2 points more Scotland and behind bitter rivals Italy who won the group.

France was drawn in the most difficult group of the competition, having to face rivals Italy again, highly-rated Netherlands and promising Romania. France will kick off its Euro 2008 campaign against Romania, after losing out in the 2006 World Cup Final against the Italians on penalties, with the publicised event regarding Zinedine Zidane's head butt and sending off, France will be looking for revenge and to reclaim the top spot in Europe.

France's Euro 2008 Fixtures:

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Holland's European Championships Record

Out of all the current European nations still competing, only Germany and Russia have competed in more European Championships than Holland. The Dutch first match in the tournament was in the Preliminary Round of the then 'European Nations Cup' in 1964. Van Der Linden scored their first goal in the competition in a 4-2 aggregate win over the Swiss. It was not until 1976 that they started to have a major influence in the championships, spurred on by successful World Cup campaigns previously, the Dutch finished a creditable third losing to eventual victors Czechoslovakia in extra time of the 1976 semi-final. That 'Total Football' generation of Cruyff, Neeskens and Haan to name but a few last played in the 1980 championships hosted by Italy, but were eliminated in the group stage.

Holland finally got their hands on the Henri Delaunay trophy in 1988 when coach Rinus Michels led a team including Gullit and Van Basten to glory, along their way to the trophy they defeated England in the quarter finals with a Marco Van Basten hat-trick in a 3-1 victory. A last minute Van Basten strike was enough to see off arch-rivals and host nation West Germany in a tense semi-final clash and so on June 25 1988 the Dutch got their hands on major international silverware for the first time defeating the USSR 2-0 in the Olympiastadion, Munich in front of over 70,000 supporters. Ruud Gullit scored in the first half with Van Basten scoring a half volley from an almost impossible angle in the second, which was hailed as the goal of the tournament. Van Basten finished as top scorer with 5 goals; his next closest challenger had 2.

Along with Belgium, Holland hosted the 2000 UEFA European Championships and made a successful start, winning through the group stages and coming from behind to defeat world champions France. A quarter final demolition of Yugoslavia by 6 goals to 1 including a Patrick Kluivert hat-trick set the Dutch up for a semi-final clash against Italy where they were defeated 3-1 on penalties after a goalless draw. In 2004 Holland again qualified for the semi-finals where they were defeated by the hosts Portugal in Lisbon 2-1.

Holland's Euro 2008 Fixtures:

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Italy's European Championships Record

Italy qualified top of group B along with runners-up France with 9 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, the group was close with Scotland and the Ukraine narrowly missing out on making the finals. As Italy are the current world champions they are undoubtedly one of the favorites to win Euro 2008, however they had a hard time to qualify from their group in what was the most exciting of the qualifications which saw a three horse race between Italy, world cup finalists France and Scotland.

Italy have been placed in one of the toughest groups in the tournament which sees them once again against France, as well as the Netherlands and Romania, but they should just make it through to the knock-out stages and perhaps further. Italy have not won the European Championships since 1968, when they were the host nation, but this doesn't stop them from being one of the favorites as they will have the expectation and confidence from winning the 2006 World Cup.

Italy did not enter the 1960 European Nations Cup, failed to qualify in 1968, but won as hosts in 1968. They did not qualify again until 1980 where they placed fourth, losing to Czechoslovakia in the third place playoff after finished second in their group. They weren't at the 1984 in France, but reached the 1988 semi-finals, missed the 1992 tournament and didn't get out of their group in 1996 after Gianfranco Zola failed to convert a decisive penalty against eventual tournament winners Germany.

At Euro 2000 in the semifinal against the co-hosts the Holland, Francesco Toldo the Italian goalkeeper saved one penalty during the game and a further two in the shootout to book a place in the final, where they were unluckily to lose to France (2-1 on a golden goal in extra time), the French equalized with just thirty seconds of normal time left.

A three-way tie in the group stage of the 2004 European Championship meant Italy didn't make the knockout stages, finishing behind both Denmark and Sweden on the basis of number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams.