As always seems to happen at moments like this, my sister presented me with a prediction form for her work sweepstake a few days ago. I must say I find football predictions a lot more challenging than rugby, and to make matters worse, exact scores were required. I came up with a potentially very silly theory that the way to maximise the chances of getting any given match score right is to always predict 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, 2-0, 2-1 or 2-2. Obviously many games will have much higher scores, but I reckoned the chances of hitting on precisely the right numbers on those occasions are so slim that it's hardly worth the bother of trying - whereas the chances of being right about a 2-1 or a 0-0 scoreline are a bit healthier.
Anyway, this is what I came up with -
Group A
Poland 1-1 Greece
Russia 1-0 Czech Republic
Greece 0-1 Czech Republic
Poland 0-0 Russia
Czech Republic 1-1 Poland
Greece 0-2 Russia
Table :
Russia 7
Czech Republic 4
Poland 3
Greece 1
Group B
Netherlands 2-0 Denmark
Germany 2-1 Portugal
Denmark 1-2 Portugal
Netherlands 1-2 Germany
Portugal 0-1 Netherlands
Denmark 0-1 Germany
Table :
Germany 9
Netherlands 6
Portugal 3
Denmark 0
Group C
Spain 2-0 Italy
Ireland 1-1 Croatia
Italy 1-1 Croatia
Spain 2-0 Ireland
Croatia 1-2 Spain
Italy 1-0 Ireland
Table :
Spain 9
Italy 4
Croatia 2
Ireland 1
Group D
France 0-1 England
Ukraine 1-1 Sweden
Ukraine 0-0 France
Sweden 0-1 England
England 1-0 Ukraine
Sweden 1-2 France
Table :
England 9
France 4
Ukraine 2
Sweden 1
Quarter-finals :
Russia 0-2 Netherlands
Spain 2-0 France
Germany 2-0 Czech Republic
England 1-0 Italy
Semi-finals :
Netherlands 0-2 Spain
Germany 2-1 England
Final :
Spain 2-1 Germany
Hardly worth having the contest now.
ReplyDeleteJust let's give Spain the cup. They need a bit of cheering up right now.
:)
PS: This is the tournament that will not be graced by anyone from the UK/English government, isn't it? One wonders how they will cope without one of Mr Hunt's ministers there.
They haven't, I see, managed to persuade the EFA to stay away. I wonder if Ukraine will still go to their Olympics...
For the benefit of the Scottish Labour party's greetin-faced unionists, shouldn’t three of these scores be amended:
ReplyDeleteFrance 0-1 Britain
Sweden 0-1 Britain
Britain 1-0 Ukraine
You just have to apply the same logic here as they did with those memorable events of last summer. They weren’t English riots, they were ‘British’ riots.
After all the ‘excitement’ of the Jubilee ‘celebrations’ and the Olympic torch ceremony, I’m not sure how much more of this lukewarm afterglow of ‘We’re all in it together’ I can take. As ever, it’s ABE for me but if there is any justice, which occasionally there is in football, it’s got to be Spain, but to be beat Netherlands in the final, 3-1.