It could be a Dutch delight again

It's showtime again, with the high-voltage Euro 2000 football championship, jointly hosted by Holland and Belgium, getting underway on Saturday, June 10. Some of the brightest shining stars in the Continent will be on view and sparks are bound to fly. Noted soccer writer BRIAN GLANVILLE looks at the prospects of the various teams.

With home advantage, Holland looks well capable of repeating its European triumph of 1988, when Marco Van Basten scored that superlative volleyed goal in the Munich final, against the Soviet Union.

Talent abounds, even though Frank Rijkaard, midfield star of the 1988 team and now the manager, has found it curiously hard to win friendly matches. The 3-1 victory over Poland in Lausanne however, obtained without such stars as Marc Overmars and Edgar Davids, suggested things were coming together.

Patrick Kluivert was in incisive form, and Dennis Bergkamp, though he looked a weary figure in the recent UEFA Cup Final in Copenhagen with Arsenal, should rise to the occasion as he notably did in the 98 World Cup.

Holland begins its Group D games in Amsterdam against the Czech Republic on Sunday. The Czechs are bound to miss the influence of Patrick Berger, suspended for the first two matches. Significantly he made a difference when brought him on as a substitute in their last warm up game. In Pavel Nedved, however, the team has another left sided midfielder always capable of infiltration..and goals.

Germany and Oliver Bierhoff at last revived at the weekend in their 3-2 win over the Czechs in Nuremberg. This after endless squabbles within the camp and back-biting by various players plus the assistant coach Uli Stielike - who was promptly sidelined by the besieged manager Erich Ribbeck.

Bierhoff's two goals, one from a penalty, ended a protracted drought, both with Germany and with Milan in Italy. Lothar Matthaus, now 39, didn't play in Nuremberg but we can expect to see him in Charleroi against England on June 17.

Let us pray that the game that day isn't overshadowed by what happens off the field and around the stadium between the hooligan fans of the two teams involved. It seemed sheer madness to assign such a combustible lot again to a tiny stadium in a tiny town like Charleroi and we can only hope that the Belgian police, who made such an inept job of quelling the violence at Heysel Stadium in Brussels at the 1985 Liverpool-Juventus Champions League final, have improved their methods since then.

England's manager Kevin Keegan, hardly the finest of tacticians, will be wise not to look a gift horse in the mouth, as his predecessor, Glenn Hoddle, so sullenly did in the World Cup 98 opener against Romania: the team England meets in its final Group A game.

Then, Hoddle ludicrously preferred the slow Teddy Sheringham to the electric Michael Owen, till very late, in a game England lost. Nicolae Apolzan, Romania's assistant manager, told me in London after the 1-1 draw between England and Brazil at Wembley that he thought Owen, who scored a marvellous goal, was the best player on the field.

But Romania's manager, Emerich Nenei, said to me last Saturday in Bucharest, just after his team had beaten Greece 2-1 in a somewhat meaningless friendly, that though he admired Owen and felt he'd improve, he saw David Beckham as the outstanding England player.

Gheorge Hagi, the 35-year-old doyen of the Romanian midfield, didn't play against Greece, resting a groin injury, but Jemei said he should be playing on June 12 when Romania meet Germany in Liege in Group A. `His age is chronological, not biological!' Jemei told me.

Would Hagi then continue after Euro 2000? I asked. Jemei thought it would depend on his form in Euro 2000. If it was good then Hagi might well extend his contract with Galatasary of Istanbul whom he so materially helped to win the UEFA Cup when Arsenal were beaten on penalties in Copenhagen.

That evening Hagi was sent off for striking the Arsenal and England centre-half Tony Adams, who Hagi thought should also have had a red card. In Malta, England palpably missed the presence of Adams in a four-man defence which never looked secure against the modest Maltese attack. In parenthesis, one must also hope that there are no clashes between English and Turkish fans such as so abysmally occurred in Copenhagen, but the prospects are not good.

Keegan seems to cling to Alan Shearer at all costs though the centre-forward, who promises that he will retire from international football after Euro 2000, had a miserable game against Malta and got away with elbowing an opponent in the face and breaking his nose.

Far more effective was the little Everton midfielder Nicky Barmby, who after a long absence from the England team, came on as a substitute late in the 2-0 win against Ukraine at Wembley and galvanised the attack with his running and through passing.

Keegan would also surely be wise to prefer Nigel Martyb, whose saves enabled England to win that game, to David Seaman, whose ineptitude at a right wing corner conceded the goal against Brazil.

Italy will have a hard job qualifying in Group B, on current form or on lack of it. They are seriously missing Bobo Vieri, whose headed and left-footed goals were so important to them in the 1998 World Cup. Injury puts him out and though on the face it the Italians have an abundance of strikers, none of them looked effective in the recent 1-0 defeat in Norway - where the half Ghanain, half Norwegian striker, Carew headed the kind of goal Vieri got for Italy.

Sweden, who at last have Henrik Larsson back for the attack after he broke a leg playing for Celtic, host Belgium (who drew 2-2 at the weekend with Denmark) and Turkey make up the group. Probably the weakest of the four, but even Italy's defence, now a three- man affair, looks anything but solid.

Carew, by the way, is off to Valencia after just one season with Rosenberg at a fee of œ 7.5 million. He will take the place there of the incisive Argentinean Claudio Lopez, moving to Lazio.

In Group C, the Norwegians, whose attack, with Carew, Tore Andre Flo and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, looks better than the defence, play Spain in their June 13 opener. The Spaniards tend to flatter to deceive in these tournaments and won't be helped by the injury which seems likely to keep Real Madrid's Raul out of the opener.

But the midfield indeed looks impressive, with the experienced Pep Guardiola of Barcel alongside the little blond Gaizka Mendieta, fresh from a dazzling season with Valencia. Spain is bound to miss the ever versatile Luiz Enrique.

France? It didn't seem at full stretch playing a pre- tournament affair in Morocco, where Emmanuel Petit was injured and may be doubtful. But there is an embarrassment of riches up front, in stark contrast with the '98 World Cup.

The ever dissident Nicolas Anelka struck form with Real Madrid just in time and could be abetted by Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord or David Trezeguet.

* * *

Guide to Euro 2000

The Groupings:

Group A: England, Portugal, Germany, Romania.

Group B: Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Turkey.

Group C: Spain, Norway, Slovenia, Yugoslavia.

Group D: Denmark, Holland, Czech Republic, France.

The Fixtures:

Preliminary league:

June 10: Belgium v Sweden, Brussels, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Sunday).

June 11: Italy v Turkey, Arnhem, 1.30 p.m. (6 p.m. IST); France v Denmark, Bruges, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Holland v Czech Republic, Amsterdam, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Monday).

June 12: Germany v Romania, Liege, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Portugal v England, Eindhoven, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Tuesday).

June 13: Spain v Norway, Rotterdam, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Yugoslavia v Slovenia, Charleroi, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Wednesday).

June 14: Italy v Belgium, Brussels, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Thursday).

June 15: Sweden v Turkey, Eindhoven, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Friday).

June 16: France v Czech Republic, Bruges, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Denmark v Holland, Rotterdam, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Saturday).

June 17: Romania v Portugal, Arnhem, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); England v Germany, Charleroi, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Sunday).

June 18: Spain v Slovenia, Amsterdam, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Norway v Yugoslavia, Leige, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Monday).

June 19: Turkey v Belgium, Brussels, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Tuesday); Italy v Sweden, Eindhoven, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Tuesday).

June 20: England v Romania, Charleroi, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Wednesday); Portugal v Germany, Rotterdam, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Wednesday).

June 21: Spain v Yugoslavia, Bruges, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Slovenia v Norway, Arnhem, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST); Denmark v Czech Republic, Liege, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Thursday); France v Holland, Amsterdam, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Thursday).

Quarterfinals:

June 24: Match 1: Runner-up in Group A v Winner of Group B, Brussels, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Sunday); Match 2: Winner of Group A v Runner-up in Group B, Amsterdam, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST).

June 25: Match 3: Winner of Group C v Runner-up in Group D, Bruges, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Monday); Match 4: Winner of Group D v Runner up in Group C, Rotterdam, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST).

Semifinals:

June 28: Winner of Match 2 v Winner of Match 3, Brussels, 7.45 p.m. (00.15 hours IST, Thursday).

June 29: Winner of match 1 v Winner of match 4, Amsterdam, 5 p.m. (9.30 p.m. IST).

Final: July 2, Amsterdam, 7 p.m. (11.30 p.m. IST).

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