Take Your Pick : U21 European Championship draw

I know, I know…we should be focused on the senior Azzurri squad, but allow me a little indulgence here. The ‘Azzurrini’ found out their fate in the Under 21 European Championship draw earlier today. Given that Italy has won five of the last seven U21 European tournaments, you’d be surprised if they weren’t picked to win it all again or at least go straight into the semifinals after the round-robin. Channel 4 certainly thinks so.

But not so fast, says UEFA,thus proving even further that you can’t trust everything you read on the internet. Heh. At any rate, we do know a couple things…
1. Denmark scores goals. Lots of them.
2. Italy doesn’t allow goals. At all. (Well, almost.)
3. These two sides were stellar throughout the qualifying, so it should be fun to watch them square off in group play. The Danes probably hold a bit of a grudge after being knocked out by Italy in 2004.

Outside of the group, Portugal look to field an exciting team and since they’ll be playing on home soil they’ll cause serious problems for anyone in their path. My money is on Portugal and Italy to square off in the Finals.