On June 12, 2004, the European Championship in Portugal began. Before the game, it was customary for the European powerhouses to brag about their national teams, and several traditional powerhouses mobilized their own media to start boasting about how strong their national teams were, and that they were the favourites to win the European Championship.

Needless to say, Spain's talented players have been blowing out in recent years, and the strength of the Spanish national team is on the rise as a whole. Needless to say, Joaquín and Vicente, who became famous two or three years ago, and people like Harvey. Alonso, Torres, Villa, Reyes are some of the players who have been very good in the 0304 season. Harvey. Marcos Alonso won the Champions League at Liverpool, Villa scored 30 goals for Deportivo La Coruna and Fernando Torres scored 19 in La Liga. These talented players have given the Spanish media endless confidence.

Spain has a lot of talent, but other national teams are not envious either. Not to mention other national teams, when it comes to the talented Dutch national team, you will be foaming at the mouth. Genius, the last thing the Netherlands lacks is genius. Van der Vaart, Robben, and Sneijder pulled out which of these people did not shock the European football world.

As for the French national team, it also has a rising star like Cisse, and the French national team is still in the golden generation. Zidane, Makelele, and Thuram are the ones who are getting older, while Henry and Vieira are at their prime.

Italy and England also have their own talented players. Italy has Cassano, who is known as the next Baggio and the next Totti, who is already worth 30 million euros when he is nineteen or twenty years old. England even has their national treasure, Wayne Rooney. Of course, there is another team that has attracted a lot of attention from the media, and that is the Portuguese national team. After all, this European Championship is being held in Portugal. As the hosts, Portugal also has great hopes.

So none of them obey anyone, and they are all very confident in their national team. Except for the German national team, which is currently young and yellow, and they have a bit of a low profile, the other national teams are very high-profile. At this time, the Czech Republic was not very happy, because the Czech Republic was separated from Germany and the Netherlands, and this was an absolute group of death.

This European Championship has come out with such a damn group of death. Although Germany's players are out of gear and think that the green and yellow are not connected, no one will underestimate Germany. After all, Germany was underestimated in 02, and they did not enter the semi-finals of the Shijie Cup. Germany is a national team that cannot be judged by common sense. Needless to say, in the Netherlands, there are a lot of shijie-level stars. Like Stam, Seedorf, Davis, Cocu, Overmars, Vanney, Kluivert, Mackay. Even talented players also have a group of talented players such as Van der Vaart, Robben, Sneijder, and Van der Meyde.

Of course, the Czech Republic is not weak. Although the Czech Republic is not as influential as these traditional powerhouses. But the Czech Republic is the winner of the Shijie Cup. In terms of strength, it is not worse than these European powerhouses. There are the Czech Republic, Germany, and the Netherlands in such a group, and this is a group that must be killed, and there must be a strong team to be eliminated.

On 15 June 2004, Group D began four years after the start of the European Championships. The Czech Republic's first match was against Latvia, the weakest team in the group. If even Latvia can't beat it. Then there will definitely be no one in this group. The Czechs are heavily armed. And it was the removal of Gilberto. A full-time midfielder like Silva plays the two-striker combination of Jankole and Baroshe. In the game, the Czech Republic won 3-1 thanks to the goals of Poboski, Barosz and Jankole. Germany and the Netherlands were tied 1-1.

The first game was normal, and even after the first game there was no big surprise in the media. The draw between Germany and the Netherlands shows that the strength of the strong teams in this group is similar. is a real group of death. And the Czech victory over Latvia is not a big deal. Because Latvia is being played in this group.

But after the second game, no one thought like that. Germany is indeed in the green, and its strength has declined too much. In the face of a garbage team like Latvia, it was forced to draw 0-0 by others. Germany worked hard because they knew that this group would have to win if Latvia was to emerge.

The match between the Netherlands and the Czech Republic was quite hot. Both sides played a high-quality attack throughout the game, and even came out of the woodwork three times. After the start of the game, the Netherlands had the advantage, especially Robben on the left flank, who was simply crazy to break through and break again. Grigra is also a seasoned player at PSV Eindhoven and is still team-mates with Robben.

But Robben didn't give him any face at all in this game. Just four minutes into the game, Arjen Robben's free-kick set up Bouma to score the first goal of the game. In the 19th minute of the first half, Robben received a through pass from Davies to successfully counter offside, and then passed to the unmarked Ruud van Nistelrooy with a comfortable and uncomfortable ball, allowing Ruud van Nistelrooy to easily push the empty goal.

In the 19th minute of the first half, the Netherlands led the Czech Republic 2-0, and some commentators even thought that the Netherlands was going to burst the rhythm of the Czech Republic. But what happened later was not predicted. Just four minutes later, the Czechs took advantage of a cross mistake from Cocu in midfield and quickly counter-attacked. Zuihou's cross from Poboski allowed Jankohler to pull a goal back.

At the end of the second half, Nedved's cross from the left was chested by Jankoller to Rosicky, who was cut in behind. Rosicky fired a powerful shot straight into the Czech Republic's equaliser.

Of course, the climax is not over yet. Eighty-eight minutes into stoppage time, Rosicky dribbled the ball in front of the court and suddenly passed to Senna next to him, and Senna's long-range shot was saved by Van der Sar. The goal came right in front of Nedved, who was cut forward from the left, and Nedved scored the goal of overtaking the score with a long-range shot without being polite.

3-2, the Czech Republic defeated the Netherlands 3-2 in a thrilling comeback. With this game, the Czech Republic has already scored six points, Germany has two points, the Netherlands has one point, and Latvia has zero points. In the group of death, the Czech Republic only took two games to appear in first place. It was left to the old powerhouses Germany and the Netherlands in the worst possible situation.

"The golden generation of Czech football!"

"Czech, big hit!"

"Czech, another France."

"Nedved, the best player of the century."

Although the Czech Republic was also a favorite team before the start of the European Championship, it was still a little worse than the traditional giants such as Spain, England, Italy, Portugal and France. This is not a reason for strength, many times the media just like to classify it this way. But after two games, the Czech Republic is back as the favourite for the European Championships.

But the popularity at this time is really nothing compared to a few days later. Because the third game in a few days was a complete formality for the Czech Republic. Because the Czech Republic has six points, it is already guaranteed to be the first place in this group. Zuihou is a game that is completely dispensable for the Czech Republic.

Therefore, as soon as the Czech starting list came out, the whole media was in an uproar. Even the Dutch side was very dissatisfied, starting with the Dutch coach and the players, everyone thought that the Czech Republic was unfair. They believe that because of the traditional relationship between the Czech Republic and Germany, the Czech Republic deliberately watered Germany. Now Germany has two points and the Netherlands has one. A starting line-up like the Czech Republic is completely unfair.

The Czech starting line-up caused a media uproar, and the entire starting line-up did not even have a single player of the same kind compared to the game against the Netherlands. It was the main goalkeeper like Petr Cech who was thrown to the bench by Brückner. From goalkeeper to striker, it's all changed.

The German media was relieved and thought that the Czech Republic was really a good buddy. But after the game, everyone was dumbfounded again. The Netherlands rejoiced, Germany cried. Because the Czech Republic has a complete substitute lineup, but it has beaten Germany dizzy. Although Ballack scored a goal in the game, he still did not stop the Czech Horseman.

Smitchell and Lokwenc, they helped the Czech Republic to score two goals. In fact, don't look at only two goals, in the game, Smitchell, a midfielder who was completely reduced to a substitute in the national team, beat the German national team midfielder in the game. And Locwentz is already preparing to return to China for retirement, but this game is still majestic.

A complete bench lineup turned out to wipe out Germany, so that Germany completely lost the opportunity to appear. There is a constant criticism of the German national team in Germany, and they are embarrassed to think that the Czech Republic has destroyed them. Because the Czech Republic is very interesting, with full substitutions. The blame can only be blamed on Germany itself for being too bad. After this game, many people were impressed with the Czech Republic. The odds of the Czech Republic winning the championship have also risen rapidly, and they have become the favorite to win the championship.

The European Championship continued, and the Czech Republic met Denmark in the quarterfinals of the European Championship because it was the first place. Although Denmark had a Danish fairy tale more than ten years ago, Denmark today is no longer the Denmark of the past. The Czech Republic did not come under any pressure against Denmark in the quarter-finals, and ended the match comfortably 3-0.

The quarter-finals were difficult elsewhere, with the Netherlands and Sweden going 0-0 and only going to the penalty shoot-out final. In the end, the Netherlands eliminated Sweden on penalties. The match between Portugal and England also ended in a 2-2 draw, with Zuihou a penalty shoot-out in which Portugal won against England. Of course, the biggest upset was Greece's 1-0 victory over France, which eliminated the mighty France.

In this way, the Czech Republic simply entered the semi-finals of the European Championship and met Greece, the biggest dark horse in the European Cup.

Many people think that the Czech Republic is lucky, first against the weak Denmark, and now against the dark horse. Since it is a dark horse, it shows that its strength is not as good as that of the Czech Republic. (To be continued......)