EURO 2008 INFO

It's much easier for Tina Turner to sing at full lungs "Simply the best" for that of soccer experts to decide which football team is actually "simply the best".

This endless debate often revolves around the world rankings of FIFA best national teams, even if the latter does not really enough to break definitively parties.

Taking the classification of FIFA in February 2008 as a reference, here's ranking in the area of the 16 UEFA countries qualified for the UEFA Euro 2008TM:

1 Italy: 1484 pts
2 Spain: 1 352
3 Germany: 1 281
4 Czech Republic: 1 244
5 France: 1 223
6 Portugal: 1 191
7 Netherlands: 1 179
8 Greece: 1 142
10 Croatia: 1 096
11 Romania: 1 060
13 Turkey: 927
15 Poland : 903
16 Russia: 890
18 Sweden: 877
26 Switzerland: 647
42 Austria: 377

Note that England (ninth with 1133 points) is the country unskilled in the best position to Scotland (12th with 990 points) and Bulgaria (14th with 919 points).

But how this classification he argues the comparison with the index performance Castrol? By adding together the points CPI players each selection, here is what the rankings of the 16 countries qualified:

1 Czech Republic : 16492 pts
2 Netherlands: 15 362
3 Italy : 15 801
4 Greece: 14 187
5 Romania: 13 269
6 Croatia: 13 264
7 Germany: 12 778
8 France: 11 174
9 Poland: 10 718
10 Sweden: 10 619
11 Turkey: 10 308
12 Spain: 9 229
13 Russia: 9 134
14 Switzerland: 9 025
15 Portugal: 7 858
16 Austria: 7 137

Conclusions

The differences between the two rankings are spectacular (supporters Spanish and Portuguese certainly prefer to rely on figures FIFA) because they take into account the different elements. Thus, the FIFA ranking is based on performance and results per team, while the CPI measures the performance of individual players within their team, regardless of the outcome.

The problem, according to the spirit of the Treaty of comedian Jimmy Tarbuck Liverpool, is as follows: "Liverpool should win on paper but the game is played on the lawn. "The index performance Castrol rewards the most successful players, ie those who have the biggest impact in a match by scoring or making judgments for their team. So the Azzurri perform well when the attackers Luca Toni and Antonio Di Natale are shaped, while the Netherlands enjoyed the performances of their two excellent guards, Edwin van der Sar and Maarten Stekelenburg.

Beyond the numbers

But whatever the method of calculation used or ranking, some elements are evident.

1) Austria should be exercised in cold blood, be lucky and deliver exceptional performance to make a good impression in Group B.

2) After the 2006 World Cup disappointment, the Czech Republic looks like a match. The coach Karel Bruckner has renewed his team, a lot of young talent are in the process of drilling, Petr Cech is in the purposes and the country has benefited from a favourable draw lots (he will not Italy, France or Netherlands before the finals). The most serious threat in its part of the table is Germany, since the Czechs had already had to share the points with the Germans during the qualifications.

3) Italy is probably the team to beat. Roberto Donadoni has experienced some difficulties in succeeding Marcello Lippi, but he managed to lead the world champions title through a difficult qualifying group and make the Portuguese almost normal during the friendly match which had recently opposed the two teams. In addition, as the Czechs, they have a goaltender world-class, Gianluigi Buffon.

4) The difference between many of these teams is so small that everything can change on a stroke of tactical genius, a sublime moment of address or even a bad day ...