Qualifying for Euro 2008

The road to a berth at the 2008 finals has been a bit odd for Germany thus far. They struggled mightily in their first game to overcome Ireland 1-0 in Stuttgart, then went away and annihilated San Marino 13-0 (yes, the same San Marino that Ireland managed to beat 2-1 thanks to a 94th minute winner). Germany also beat Slovakia 4-1 away before drawing 0-0 away in Cyprus. This leaves them top of their group, level on points with the Czech Republic, who have also won three and drawn one (also, inexplicably, against Ireland) thus far, and both teams three ahead of Ireland, who have played a game more.

And so it goes that the current ‘Weltmeister der Herzen’ (literally ‘World Champions of our hearts’), the epithet bestowed on the team by a grateful German nation after their very near miss in the World Cup, go head to head with the Czechs in the Letna stadium, Prague, on Saturday evening. There hasn’t been that much interaction between these teams over the past 10 years, but what there has been has been either exciting, decisive, or both.

In 1996 they were paired in the same group in England, where Germany ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, and again in the final (who could forget Gareth Southgate’s penalty miss in the semi-final?), where current team manager Oliver Bierhoff scored the golden goal, with an almighty assist from the butterfingered Czech ‘keeper, that won the Germans a third European Championship after 1972 and 1980. Again together in the group stages of Euro 2004, a Czech B team beat possibly the worst German team in living memory 2-1 to knock them out and send Holland through.

To be brutally honest, you can’t really see past these two teams to qualify out of a weak group – Ireland, Slovakia, Wales, Cyprus and San Marino are all eminently beatable. Indeed, Germany are playing their fourth successive away qualifier, and if they come away unbeaten then that is really pretty much that.

An in form Kevin Kuranyi replaces Miroslav Klose who is currently injured, the rest of team is easily recognisable as the one that should have won the World Cup last year. The Czechs also have a very familiar look about them, the retired Pavel Nedved replaced by Tomas Rosicky behind the strikers.

My betting record makes me loathe to make any predictions, but why break the habit of a lifetime? 2-2.