HelpBets.com - Everything You want to know about Euro 2008

Alexander Frei - star of the Team

Alexander Frei – Swiss footballer born on 15th July 1979 in Basel. He plays as a striker both in the club and in the national team. He began his football career in 1997 in Basel team. He did not settle in this club any long and he moved to Thun after finishing the season, and the year later he was already playing Luzern. Also there he played one season making 32 season appearances and scoring 15 goals. In 2001 he won the Cup of the Switzerland and played in the UEFA Cup with Servette. He played three seasons in Servette and moved to French Ligue as a talented player. Scoring 20 goals in his debut season he was just behind Cisse in the general scoring classification. He made it in the next season scoring also 20 goals. With Stade Rennais he was also playing in the UEFA Cup. In 2006 Alexander drew interests from Dortmund’s scouts. In the same year he signed 4-year contact with Borussia. In his debut season in Bundesliga he scored 16 goals in 32 matches and was the best scorer of BVB. He was also in the forefront of scorers of the whole league. In the senior Swiss national team he made his first game in 2001 in a game against Yugoslavia. He played 45 games in his national team scoring 26 goals.

Switzerland - National Team

Player	Club	Position	Age	Value
Diego Benaglio	VfL Wolfsburg	Goalkeeper	23	3,000,000E
Eldin Jakupovic	Grasshopper-Club Zürich	Goalkeeper	23	1,300,000E
Pascal Zuberbühler	Neuchâtel Xamax FC	Goalkeeper	37	650,000E
Philippe Senderos	Arsenal FC	Defender	23	6,500,000E
Stephan Lichtsteiner	LOSC Lille Métropole	Defender	24	5,000,000E
Johan Djourou	Arsenal FC	Defender	21	3,750,000E
Ludovic Magnin	VfB Stuttgart	Defender	29	3,500,000E
Philipp Degen	BV Borussia Dortmund	Defender	25	2,500,000E
Steve von Bergen	Hertha BSC Berlin	Defender	24	2,200,000E
Stéphane Grichting	AJ Auxerre	Defender	29	2,000,000E
Patrick Müller	Olympique Lyonnais	Defender	31	800,000E
Tranquillo Barnetta	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	Midfielder	22	7,500,000E
Gökhan Inler	Udinese Calcio	Midfielder	23	5,500,000E
Valon Behrami	SS Lazio	Midfielder	23	5,000,000E
Gelson Fernandes	Manchester City FC	Midfielder	21	4,500,000E
Hakan Yakin	BSC Young Boys	Midfielder	31	2,700,000E
Johan Vonlanthen	FC Salzburg	Midfielder	22	2,000,000E
Daniel Gygax	FC Metz	Midfielder	26	1,700,000E
Benjamin Huggel	FC Basel 1893	Midfielder	30	1,200,000E
Ricardo Cabanas	Grasshopper-Club	Midfielder	29	1,150,000E
Alexander Frei	BV Borussia Dortmund	Forward	28	11,000,000E
Blaise Nkufo	FC Twente	Forward	32	3,250,000E
Marco Streller	FC Basel 1893	Forward	25	2,500,000E
Marco Streller	FC Basel 1893	Forward	25	2,500,000E
Eren Derdiyok	FC Basel 1893	Forward	19	1,200,000E
Averages:			25.8	3,320,000E

Formations

Switzerland - Picks

Date	Time	Team	Score	Team
7 June 2008	18:00	Switzerland	0-1	Czech Republic
Pick:	2	Odd:	2.86: Betfair
The favourites of this clash seem to be the Czech team. This indicates both the recent form shown by this team and the place in Fifa ranking. Czechs have gone to EURO without Nedved and it could seem the morale of the team will lower. However it hasn’t as the team manages very well even without him. They won qualification without problem. Additionally, the national team of Switzerland does not seem good and it will be hard for them to qualify from the group. You can’t distinguish anyone in this team except for Senderos and Frei. But these two players can’t stand up for good-playing Czech national team.
11 June 2008	20:45	Switzerland	1-2	Turkey
Pick:	1	Odd:	2.3: Interwetten
This is little attractive game in the group A, but very important for both these teams. None of them will want to be last because this does not bring fame and glory. The Swiss look better for me. They show better playing style than the Turks. These second don’t have much better footballers than the Swisss. Except for Nihat, whose duty will be scoring goals, none of the players can be depend on. However Villareal’s striker by himself will not do much and you can hardly count on help from the colleagues from the team. The Switzerland despite the fact that they also don’t have anything particular to be proud of, they are however the hosts of the tournament and I believe they should deal with Turkish national team.
15 June 2008	20:45	Switzerland	2-0	Portugal
Pick:	X2	Odd:	1.36: 888sport
Portugal as the first team has secured their qualification to quarter finals of Euro 2008. They confidently beat Czech team 3 : 1 in their last match. Switzerland is the only team in the group that hasn’t captured even a point, though they had big chances for a draw in last match with Turkey. They lost their hopes after an injury time goal for Turkey. If that match had been drawn all teams would have had chances of qualifying. But now none of these teams have anything to fight for, although the hosts will want to salvage their honor and shouldn’t end group phase with no points. Zero-points state can be a huge surprise because Swiss played very well both with Czechs and with Turks in extremely difficult conditions. What’s more, they lost their best player in the team – Frei - who had to leave the pitch in the opening match with Czechs. And he was leaving the field with tears in his eyes because he knew that it was the end of his play in this tournament. I believe Swiss are capable of salvaging a point playing against fighting-for-nothing Portugal.