Switzerland v Czech Republic - 7th June Preview

The opening game of the Euro 2008 tournament will be one of the joint hosts: Switzerland against one of the favourites: Czech Republic at the Jakob Park Stadium.

Switzerland who are ranked 48th in the world will surely not be able to beat Czech Republic who are ranked 6th? To be honest I wouldn't put any money on it. The interesting thing is that in so many opening games of internation tournaments there are shocks.

Does anyone remember August 1993? Well then they were apparently ranked 3rd in the world! Like ow the heck did that happen? Between then and the end of 1998 they slipped down to 83rd in the world and have been, as recently as July 2006, ranked 13th in the world. It was just a bad 2007 that saw then drop quite quickly.

Czech Replulic have however, been on an upward trend since 1994 when they were ranked 64th in the world. But in two short years they managed to get up to 4th. They may have come off the pace since 2006 but I doubt they'll fall to the Swiss. But what about the injuries ....

Thea Arsenal pair of Eduardo and the national captain Rosicky won't be playing and this may dent their chances. But the world's best stopper will be in goal for the Czechs so I can't see them conceeding.

Austria 2008.co.uk prediction: Switzerland 0:3 Czech Republic