EURO 2008 .......

GROUP A

Since 1984, ten european countries have hosted/ joint hosted one of the two major football championships, that is 30 group matches for the home nation and they have posted an incredibly impressive 24-3-3 record. Only Belgium, twice in 2000 and Portugal in 2004 have lost and the Portugese still went on to reach the final.

In the European Championship, a host nation has reached, at least, the semi-final stage. in all twelve finals.

Most recent host nations have shown poor form going into the tournament, but that is hardly surprising, as they have basically been playing friendlies for two years and we know how hard it is to get motivated for those. Therefore, we can expect an improved showing from either Austria or Switzerland and I definitely feel that the Swiss have the greater potential.

They impressed me in the last World Cup, where they went out without losing, or even conceding a single goal and completely outplayed the French.Coach Jakob Kuhn has them well organised and they remain very tight defensively, they have a mixture of youthful promise and experience and in Aleaxander Frei, a proven goalscorer who despite a injury hit season, seems to have recovered and found his scoring touch just in time, with six in his last eight games for Dortmund.

This is a group where I have doubts about the other three teams, Portugal look worthy favourites, but will be dependant on Ronaldo's goals, Czech Republic look past their best, are missing their most creative players and are another who look set to struggle for goals and Turkey are an enigma, they could be anything, but have a number of inexperienced players and aside from Nihat, the other three strikers have 11 appearances and one goal between them.

Therefore, I give the Swiss a real chance to progress and think the odds against quote is pretty generous, they can expect to get any "favours"going from the officials and I will discuss this a little later. I make them a strong bet and will also take a little on Frei, who is their all time highest scorer, with 35 goals in just 58 matches and notched a couple last week, to be their top marksman, after his injury problems, he comes into the tournament fresh and hungry. Streller and Yakin are the only others to have reached double digits goal wise and combined, they are still nine short of Frei's total.

8 points Switzerland to qualify 2.20 general quote.... 2.25 in places.... NOW 2.05

I sent this to subscribers in the first part of my Euro 2008 preview last week, once again they got the best of the deal, there is a massive difference between getting 2.25 for your money, compared to 2.05. Let me explain, if you have a 48% success rate, staking $100 across 100 bets, the first equates to an $800 profit, the second, a $160 loss ........... you HAVE to get the best of the odds.

DETAILS OF THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE CAN BE FOUND ON WWW.PREDICTUWIN.COM.

Good Luck.