Euro 2008 - Matthaeus: My dream team

Eurosport - Wed, 25 Jun 17:06:00 2008

Euro 2008 has seen many fine individual performances so far but with three games remaining, which players have been the cream of the crop?

FOOTBALL 2008 Euro 2008 Portugal-Germany Bastian Schweinsteiger - 0

Here, Eurosport pundit and former Germany captain Lothar Matthaeus presents his very own dream team of the tournament so far.

(3-1-3-3 formation)

Iker Casillas (Spain) - "Usually you pick players who go very far in the competition, so for me Casillas is the goalkeeper of the tournament."

Philipp Lahm (German) - "Lahm has played well consistently. He puts a lot of pressure on opponents and embodies everything that a modern full-back should be in a successful team."

Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal) - "Carvalho is a very good central defender who has gained a lot of international experience with Chelsea."

Carles Puyol (Spain) - "The Spaniard has been very strong in the centre of defence."

Sergei Semak (Russia) - "I've included the captain of Russia because he is a team player and gives everything for his team. He plays the ball quickly, closes down space and controls the game from his defensive midfield position."

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - "Ronaldo gets the nod, even though he was eliminated in the quarter-final. He's the best player in the world, a very good dribbler and a real goal threat."

Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) - "Sneijder is a smart player and always looks for goals."

Bastien Schweinsteiger (Germany) - "When Schweinsteiger plays like he did against Portugal, he's as good as some of the greats who have played that position."

Andrei Arshavin (Russia) - "Arshavin is a fast player who takes part in every attack and is dangerous in front of goal."

Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia) - "Pavlyuchenko is a player who is on the move for the entire 90 minutes. He's very fast and finds his way through into dangerous positions."

David Villa (Spain) - "Spain have two kinds of strikers - one is tall and big, the other one is mobile and clever. Villa, the latter, has already proved his instinct for goal with a hat-trick in the first game against Russia."

Manager: Guus Hiddink (Russia) - "I think Hiddink's side have played some good football so far and he has been the coach of the tournament so far."

Eurosport

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  1. hey mystic you call lothar a clown ? hehe ... his predictions aren't correct and his team isn't perfect but as a player he was very useful to bayern ,a very strong defender ;) i can't say that he's a clown mate

    From dobromir_kantev, on Wed 25 Jun 6:15PM

  2. lothar is not dreaming here he is obviously watching another tournament how unearth did he leave ballack out and include Christiano "go missing in crunch time" Ronaldo.
    Lothar must be outta his mind

    From jamiu d, on Wed 25 Jun 6:07PM

  3. b4 euros:buffon,lahm,ramos,puyol,sagnol,sneider,ballack,fabregas, ronaldo,torres,henry.

    up 2 now:casillas,lahm,puyol,pepe,ramos,sneider,ballack,senna,podol ski,villa,van nist.

    love to add russia and turkey players but hope spain beat germany in final.

    From alificomc, on Wed 25 Jun 5:25PM

  4. suprised he didnt pick a load of ex SS officers as well.

    From karlbillo, on Wed 25 Jun 5:10PM

  5. if mattheus says something do the opposite. this guy is a piece of sh.. U R RUIBBISH MATTHEUS

    From fulham, on Wed 25 Jun 5:06PM

  6. shut up jay

    From warrenmanu, on Wed 25 Jun 4:59PM

  7. Maybe they should change the name mystic matthus to mistake atthus

    From nickgrech@ymail.com, on Wed 25 Jun 4:54PM

  8. I agree with JAY (see post under).

    somewhat surprised with the picks.

    From seriousness_one, on Wed 25 Jun 4:33PM

  9. ALLLLLLAMANIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    ALLLLLLAMANIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ALLLLLLAMANIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    ALLLLLLAMANIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

    From kassim961, on Wed 25 Jun 4:30PM

  10. Why Ronaldo?
    No Ballack........?
    Where's Modric?
    I thought Boularouz had a good tournament.

    Too much Ronaldo-ass-kissing going on cos he didn't have the best nor worst tournament.

    From Jay, on Wed 25 Jun 4:24PM

  11. look guys we are all duped.
    couple weeks ago somewhere in the annals of eurosport hq. bunch of guys needed to pep up the site. with england out there was a great fear of losing ratings.they needed a clown a homer simspson figure to achieve their evil aims . suddenly one of them remembered that dithering idiot he met at the bar the other night. he checked his pocket and found the napkin which idiot crawled his name and his tel number. after several calls a meeting was arranged rest is history. grey suits at eurosport are smiling once again. damn.....

    From mystic, on Wed 25 Jun 4:23PM

  12. My Best 11 for the euros: (1) Aurthur Boruc (2) Jose Bosingwa (3) Phillip Lahm (4) Marcos Senna (5) Robert Kovak (6) Per Matersacker (7) Bastian Schweinstagger (8) Michael Ballack (9) David Villa (10) Andrei Arshavin (11) Arda Turan. Classic Formation 4-3-3. Coach: Guus Hiddink. Team of the Tournament: Turkey & Russia. Hard to choose 4rm those 2, but I think Turkey has an edge over Russia because of their never-say-die spirit. My Teams for the Finals: Spain v Germany. But semi-finals promises to be v interesting. c y'all.

    From samuel l, on Wed 25 Jun 4:20PM

  13. C'mon. Lothar is clearly taking the piss. Carvalho was part of the worst defence in the tournament. Puyol is consistently awful. Zhirkov isn't in it. Ronaldo????. Schweinsteiger has a good games to sending offs ratio of 1:1. Eurosport should ditch all pundits and ask the man on the street, who is clearly more well informed.

    From daverochford, on Wed 25 Jun 4:04PM

  14. well darling maurice,
    perhaps eurosport should, every morning that pasty faced clown appears on my tv screen and blubbers something and he gets paid. if lothar can anyone can.

    From mystic, on Wed 25 Jun 4:00PM

  15. buffon-zambrotta,puyol,chiellini,lahm-altintop,moutinho,modric -arshavin-pavlyuschenko,david villa

    From elio77h, on Wed 25 Jun 3:56PM

  16. Casillas is NOT keeper of the tornement is every one ignoring the fact that he let in such a soft goal against sweden any nomal manager would have dropped him and you cant say that was just 1 mistake he's been like that all season for Real Madrid and for spain to have him as their captian is just redicules! whats wrong with Puyol or Iniesta!! I think that although poland wer knocked out ealy on Artur Boruc has been the keeper of the tornement and also i think Real Madrid should play Jerzy Dudek instead of Casillas next season and Spain should finally realise before its to late that he's a useless waste of space and should play Pepe Reina of Liverpool or Palop of Sevilla who both are exelent keepers and for anyone who disagrees with me about Casillas should watch him in the next game and watch how he saves eveything with his FEET wilst falling over at the same time!! as a keeper myself i and all the other keepers out ther know that you should use your hands and gather it in WEIR EVER POSSIBLE not parry it away with your feet falling to the floor at the same time!!!!!

    From woody, on Wed 25 Jun 3:47PM

  17. Eurosport should take you turkish people to analyse things. You seem to know football quite well :P

    From mauricechlela, on Wed 25 Jun 3:45PM

  18. Anyway, it's only call My Dream Team and I think we can safely conclude he was in deep slumber.

    From Gamuchirai Christopher C, on Wed 25 Jun 3:40PM

  19. Of course one can bring a lot of good other players on! But the 11 picked by Lothar are definitiveely ok, except maybe Pavlyuchenko, a constant threat but also a constant chance-waster. Between Buffon and Casillas, he chose the winner of their match, but Buffon was once again just impressive, and decisive saving Mutu's penalty. Casillas has still to learn WHEN he is supposed to leave the goal line. On the goal line he is fantastic.
    Among the least fancied players, not subject of transfer rumours (to my knowledge): Mertesacker, Chiellini (impressive against Spain), Silva, Moutinho.
    Whoever said Arshavin has played just one game: he has played two and scored in both.

    From Giovanni T, on Wed 25 Jun 3:38PM

  20. lothar s latest prediction before the match,

    turkisher team is not konziztent, but german team iz konziztent, mihael ballack iz gut so he is konziztent they will play 4x4 aber rest will be 3-3 so this konziztent with loew. therefore podolski must play then shoot the ball and germany must score to win. if germany do not score so they dont win.also die tuerken must score to win if no score they dont win. so simple germany will win 11-0 this ofkorz konziztent.we then beat sovietische team after them the spanien all score 52-0 for russischer then 3-1/2 for spanien. we are the champions!this is konziztent..(und i am a fair pundit.)

    From mystic, on Wed 25 Jun 3:33PM
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