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UEFA EURO 2008â„¢: The line-up is complete
The 16 teams participating in UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ were set. Alongside hosts Austria and Switzerland, titleholders Greece, world champions Italy and the national teams of Germany, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic and Turkey will contest the final round of the European Football Championship from 7 – 29 June 2008. “Welcome to all the qualifying nations. I look forward to a European Championship final round full of unforgettable moments – entirely in keeping with the tournament motto, ‘Expect emotions’,†said Ralph Zloczower, President of the Swiss Football Association. The final draw will take place on Sunday, 2 December 2007, in Lucerne. Lots will be drawn to divide the teams into four groups and the precise match fixture list will be compiled. “Together with the teams, I look forward to greeting the many football fans from right across Europe who will make UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ an amazing, amicable football festival,†said Friedrich Stickler, President of the Austrian Football Association. Not counting the Serbia-Kazakhstan match, which will be played on Saturday, 306 qualifying matches have been contested on 18 matchdays since 16 August 2006. In a total of 27,540 minutes, 838 goals were scored. The most prolific goal scorer was David Healy, who chalked up 13 for Northern Ireland. As a means of comparison, in Group G the Dutch team took only 15 goals to qualify second – despite managing a total of 79 shots on goal, more than any other team in the competition. The most goals in one game were scored in Germany’s 13-0 victory over San Marino. Only 21 matches were goalless. With six yellow cards, Croatia was the ‘fairest’ team in the qualifying round and Spain committed the fewest fouls (85). The most fouls were suffered by Andy Selva from San Marino: his opponents broke the rules no fewer than 52 times in order to stop him. In second place in this category is Cristiano Ronaldo (48 fouls suffered). Ronaldo was also the player with the most shots on goal (31) – and the most shots wide (24). Detailed player, team and match statistics can be found on www.euro2008.com.
