Euro 2008 - Mystic Matthaeus: Group D

Eurosport - Wed, 18 Jun 19:06:00 2008

Former Germany captain and Eurosport's expert pundit Lothar Matthaeus predicts how Group D will finish.

FOOTBALL - Euro 2008 - Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 0

Matthaeus, a World Cup winner with West Germany in 1990 and the most capped German player of all time, will be giving us his thoughts on every game throughout the three-week long tournament.

And he is certainly well placed to do so - as well as featuring at five World Cups, the former World and European Player of the Year has appeared at four European Championships, winning one, in 1980.

The Germany legend envisages Sweden pipping Russia to a place in the quarter-finals.

Lothar says: Greece 1-2 Spain

"In their third game the Greeks won't win a point, but they'll score a goal, probably from a free-kick. Even if Spain are not playing with their best team, they have the qualities to get their third victory against a weak Greek team."

Disciplinary situation: Suspended: none

Misses next match if booked:

Injured: Vassilis Torosidis, Giourkas Seitaridis, Giorgios Karagounis (Greece); Carles Puyol, David Silva (Spain)

Changes: Greece coach Otto Rehhagel is forced into changes after losing Vassilis Torosidis, Giourkas Seitaridis and Giorgios Karagounis through injury. Loukas Vintra, Nikos Spyropoulos and Yannis Amanatidis are set to come into the side.

Rehhagel is also likely to revert to a familiar 4-4-2 after using a three-pronged attack against Russia, with striker Dimitris Salpigidis set to start in place of Fanis Gekas.

Spain coach Luis Aragones plans to change practically the whole team for their last group match to give his first-choice players a rest ahead of their quarter-final on Saturday in Vienna and to try out some of the squad players.

Key stats: Greece are the only team who have so far not scored a goal at the Euro 2008 finals.

Greece and Spain met in the group stage at Euro 2004 with Spain failing to qualify for the knockout stages and Greece winning the trophy.

Fernando Morientes scored the opening goal in the 28th minute but Angelos Haristeas grabbed a second-half equaliser.

Lothar says: Russia 0-1 Sweden

"The Swedes will reach the quarter-finals because they simply have more experience and have a striker who can score at anytime in Zlatan Ibrahimovic."

Disciplinary situation: Suspended: None

Injured: Christian Wilhelmsson (Sweden)

Changes: The return of Andrei Arshavin after suspension should see a change in formation for Russia with coach Guus Hiddink switching from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 with Arshavin partnering Roman Pavlyuchenko in attack at the expense of midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.

Sweden coach Lars Lagerback is expected to name Niclas Alexandersson in place of Fredrik Stoor at right-back after he recovered from a calf strain sustained in the opening win over Greece.

Key stats: Russia, who need to defeat Sweden to qualify for the quarter-finals, have never beaten Wednesday's opponents.

Russia's Guus Hiddink, coaching his fourth national side, has taken his three previous teams to the knockout stages of a major tournament.

With the Netherlands he reached the quarter-finals of Euro 96 and the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup, with South Korea the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup and as Australia coach, the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup.

Follow live text commentary on the games right here on eurosport.yahoo.com at 19:45 BST on Wednesday.

Eurosport

Comment 1 - 13 of 13

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  1. all prediction of lothar, means that he can never be a good coach,lothar should go and drink ortinger

    From yusuf a, on Wed 18 Jun 9:44PM

  2. The point Giovanni, is that Lothar is getting paid for his "predictions". By all means create a debate forum, but nothing more! The matches have not been THAT difficult to predict so far! Its half time in the Russia game and already he has blown that one.

    From galbraith.andy, on Wed 18 Jun 8:37PM

  3. once again matthaeus shows us his simple , idiotic style of thinking

    From Dinu B, on Wed 18 Jun 7:15PM

  4. Hope Russia win tonight to shut him up with his 'Sweden will win this quite simply because they have a striker who can score goals in Zlatan Ibrahimovic' Ibrahimovic mitn't even b playing tonight so he won't be able to score goals sitting on the bench!!!

    From lfcpatten7, on Wed 18 Jun 5:49PM

  5. Ok, Matthaeus is not predicting well, but who is? I mean, the Cechs lose to Turkey, Italy and France plainly beaten by Holland and drawing against Romania (which he predicted correctly), Italy NOT drawing with France twice in 3 decades, Germany losing to Croatia, Austria grabbing a point instead of zero, Greece just losing (so far)... It was quite unperdictable, although in the end the teams in the 2nd round are more or less the "suspected" ones, plus Turkey (about Russia we will see tonight).
    Who bets money on a result following somebody else's prediction, deserves to lose it.

    From Giovanni T, on Wed 18 Jun 2:25PM

  6. perhaps he can only get his predictions right if he gets on the pitch

    From ryanho0001, on Wed 18 Jun 2:23PM

  7. looks like his genius in playing has not been accompanied into making these predictions. every prediction he has so far made is simply wrong. may be he tries something else.

    edwards

    From eddy, on Wed 18 Jun 8:35AM

  8. He might be the most capped German player of all time, but he is not a predictor at all, remember Pele's guessing?:)))

    From khatusheli, on Wed 18 Jun 8:12AM

  9. I wonder if it is really him who makes these judgments...

    From brainless, on Wed 18 Jun 6:52AM

  10. Come to think of it, maybe Lothar should swap roles with this silly bint, Rosa S. They could put their results down on paper.......or paper tissue!

    From galbraith.andy, on Wed 18 Jun 1:13AM

  11. The Mistake Matthaeus latest. 3 points out of 12 in last 3 days! After a promising revival on Monday with 3 out of 4 result/scorelines correct, Matt slumped again yesterday with not one correct result/scoreline. Of COURSE its pure luck to predict football results! Its why it is infuriating that anyone, brilliant ex footballer or not should pick up a salary for offering such pointless drival to guys who may value his advice and place a few euros on it! Defend the guy as a footballer, yes, but he should give up the new day job.

    From galbraith.andy, on Wed 18 Jun 1:03AM

  12. Spain's quarter-final is on Sunday, not on Saturday.

    From jokerman, on Tue 17 Jun 11:45PM

  13. silly

    From dominic_more, on Tue 17 Jun 10:52PM
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