HE'S READY | June 6th 2008

Lucky Switzerland will get to host some of the continent's best and brightest footballers for this summer's big European football tournament, Euro 2008. Pity their Austrian neighbours, writes Gabriele Marcotti ...

This summer's big European football tournament, Euro 2008, is split between Switzerland and Austria--but not evenly. The neutrals in Switzerland (are there any other kind?) will see some of the continent's best and brightest footballers, while their Austrian neighbours have to make do with what some have rather rudely dubbed the Anschluss group--Austria, Germany, Poland and Croatia--plus the odd brilliant young Spaniard (Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas) and the gifted, lanky, volatile Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured). Contrast this with what UEFA's ping-pong balls arranged for the two Swiss-based groups. They get the world champions (Italy), the world runners-up (France), the always entertaining Dutch, Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portuguese team-mates, plus dangerous outsiders like Romania and the Czech Republic. No prizes for guessing where the world's media will be based.

Don't expect another gritty underdog to shock the world as Greece did in 2004. The big boys are a safer bet, though probably not Italy, who are ageing and under reconstruction, or Germany, who were rather flattered by their World Cup semi-final place in 2006. The smart money is on Spain to end their underachieving ways. Barring that, France, with key players such as Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram coming off disappointing seasons at club level, might just have enough hunger to take it.

Two group matches stand out: Germany v Poland (June 8th, Klagenfurt), featuring two goalkeepers going in opposite directions, in the veteran Jens Lehmann and the up-and-coming Artur Boruc; and France v Italy (June 17th, Zurich), a replay of the 2006 World Cup final--with no Zidane, probably no headbutts, but plenty of edge. ~ GABRIELE MARCOTTI

Euro 2008: June 7th to 29th.

(Gabriele Marcotti covers European football for the Times. His biography of Fabio Capello is published in August.)

Photograph: maurobrock/flickr