By Khilen Mehta

Also known as the group of death, every team in this group has the potential to knock the others out. With 3 previous winners in this group, it will be guaranteed to set the pulses racing with some free flowing, entertaining football.

France- France’s Group B campaign proved more of an ordeal than many would have anticipated although Italy’s 2-1 win in Scotland did them a big favour by making their final game in Ukraine a formality and allowed them to finish second in the group behind the Italians. Following successes in 1984 and 2000,France are the only other country apart from three-time winners Germans to have won the competition more than once. Their manager has dropped many of their ageing stars such as Trezeguet and instead the French will be relying on their new gems, such as Benzema and Nasri to lead them to their third European success. Everybody´s eyes will be on the game between the French and the Italians in this group as France try to avenge defeat in the World Cup final.

Manager- Raymond Domenech, “Experience is helpful, but one competition is never the same as the next.”

Key Player- Thierry Henry will be eager to recover from his Barcelona misery

Prediction- Their age will count against them this tournament, shock early exit

Italy- Replacing Marcello Lippi after Italy’s success at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, coach Roberto Donadoni made a shaky start in qualifying but his team eventually did enough to eventually qualify as Group B winners. They secured qualification both for themselves and France by beating Scotland 2-1 in Glasgow thanks to another goal from Toni and an added-time winner from defender Christian Panucci and a 3-1 win against the Faroe Islands in their final fixture earned them top spot in the section at France’s expense. Having won the European Championships in 1968, the Italians will be hoping to secure a second victory, forty years on from their previous triumph. With only Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti missing from their victorious World Cup squad, Italian fans will be quietly confident.

Manager- Roberto Donadoni,” I think that our ability to use several formations could be one of our strengths”

Key Player- Alessandro Del Piero was the top scorer in this seasons Serie A

Prediction- Defeat in the semi- finals

By Khilen Mehta

So if you’re like me, you are probably thinking what you can do this summer now that your domestic football season has drawn to a close. Your teams fate has been decided, you’ve shed your tears and you promise yourself that next season you will listen to your partner when they say, “it’s only a game, love!”

But is it really worth all the drama? Is it worth losing your beloved fingernails? Is it worth your wife or girlfriend threatening to leave you? Too damn right it is! And that’s why, even though England aren’t in it this time round, all football fans eyes will  be peeled on the European Championships this summer.

You can never get enough of football. Even if your team isn’t in it, there is always some member of your team playing, and you even get an early opportunity to scout some of the targets your manager is after. Seriously, what more could you want? So let’s get the lads round, crack the beers open and read my guide to the top three countries this coming summer.

1)     Spain- The Perennial Under-achievers

Every tournament pundits say the same. This is their best chance. They have the players and they have the support but every tournament they fall away at the quarter-final stage. So why should this year be different I hear you shouting? Because this time, Spain are coming into the tournament on a great run of form. 14 games without defeat including games against England and Italy. Fernando Torres will lead the line, Cesc will be tougher after a hard season and Ramos oozes class at the back. Could this year actually be their year?

Key Player: Fernando Torres to continue to knock the goals in

2)     Italy- The reigning world champions

So can the best team in the world, become the best team in Europe? Arguably the best passing team around, Italy’s only problem has been their lack of pace in going forward. However with a new fluid front three, they have a new attacking dimension that could catch teams out. They have the experience and they have the players. A definite threat.

Key Player: Andrea Pirlo will hold the team together and provide a set piece threat

3)     France- Last chance for the golden age?

Raymond Domenech has been bold in his squad selection. He has left out David Trezeguet and in his place fans will be itching to catch a glimpse of the countrys new gems, Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa. They have a solid, experienced spine with the likes of Thierry Henry, Claude Makelele and William Gallas all itching to make amends for their World Cup  misery.

Key Player: Thierry Henry to make up for his Barcelona misery

Call me biased, but I actually believe this could be Spain´s year. I´ve probably just jinxed them…

by Lev Elgudin

If you look up the word quaint on dictionary.com, here’s what you’ll find:

quaint

–adjective, -er, -est.

After taking a five day rent-a-car road trip through southern France, I found that the word describes the historical charm of the region perfectly. And, as with all quaint places, a cheap, mapless, hippie-style ride through the side roads is a must.
The drive from Madrid to San Sebastián is about 4 hours with no traffic, which means about 5 hours in real life. Not too long if you’re used to driving longer distances, plus with beautiful sights and a bit of mountain weaving on the way.
But me and my two friends wanted as much southern France time as we could get, so we didn’t stop on the way, and arrived in Donostia (Basque for San Sebastián) at approximately 1 am, just in time to meet a couch surfer (check out couchsurfing.com) who’d agreed to show us the bar scene. It seems like a cool city, certainly a separate future trip altogether. One weird thing about it: in Madrid, we’re used to “chinos” selling beer and food on the street at night; in San Sebastián they sell glow sticks and weird glowing spinning tops for a couple of euros. And no beer. Needless to say, I was distracted for hours.

Wednesday night’s sleep was both one of the most uncomfortable and satisfying of my life. After leaving Donostia at about 3:30 am, we drove out past the border into France just a few kilometres away. We found a quaint little field, off a small, woodsy road, and parked. We had a tent, but it was raining, and we were tired. So we did the logical thing: we slept in the car. As I received a last minute upgrade from Atesa for some unknown Spanish reason, our car was a Citroen C5, which is a relatively large sedan. So we piled our bags in the front two seats, moved them up as far as they went, flattened out the back seats and stretched out on top of our home-brought blankets and pillows with our feet in the trunk. With the three of us, it was a tight squeeze, but a few tokes and some wine had us good and passed out.

When we awoke, we found that our quaint little field was actually someone’s house, and the small woodsy road was actually part of a residential neighbourhood where people wake up early and get to work. By our 10 am wake up time, the street was bustling with activity. It was a holiday too in France, so we were greeted with a lot of weird looks and stares. What would you do if you saw three bleary-eyed strangers emerging from a seemingly abandoned car parked on the grass right next to your house? The didn’t seem to care though, so my respect for the French went up a lot.

The rest of the trip was filled with lots of French food and wine, delicious chocolate croissants, foie gras, and crepes. And lots of other things too. Here are some highlights.
Bordeaux: Le Fiacre sound bar (www.le-fiacre.com) is located near Place Rey-Berland in the centre of town. It’s a “post rock” punk bar which was relatively quiet on this Thursday night, but the bartender said it’s usually packed with locals and regulars. They have a live band in the basement every weekend, and how can you miss a bar that features acts like Pussydelic and Funky Freaks. The highlight of the night was when we started talking to a Parisian visiting the city on holiday. Boy, did he make a lot of hand motions. Lots of weaving and twirling, sometimes using both hands, seemingly unattached to what he was actually saying. Neither his English nor Spanish were very good, but that didn’t matter, his orchestra directing hands didn’t stop. Nice guy though.

Every little town: has a tourism office, and amazingly, from Thursday to Sunday, they were all closed. It’s amazing the Spanish have a worldwide reputation for not working a lot, the French work week is capped at 35 hours.
All small French villages are equipped with cool-looking cathedrals. Every single one.
Highways are crazily expensive, at least by US standards. The drive from Bordeaux to Toulouse is about 2 hours, but it cost 16 euros.
The road you want to be on if you’re not in a hurry is N1113, a side road that gets you from Bordeaux to Toulouse in about 4 hours. It’s filled with off-road fruit stands with delicious strawberries, a million chateaux for wine tasting mostly in the Graves area, and small little quaint villages that are seemingly all the same but somehow different.

On a final and abrupt note, I want to mention a February article in Time magazine (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1720316,00.html) that states, among other wondrous statistics, 90% of French women over 50 are sexually active. To me, that’s incredible. But after spending some time in the south of France, I saw why. These small little quaint towns, there’s little to do but drink wine, eat foie, and have wild outdoor sex. It’s a beautiful country, I recommend a visit.