GROUP C: Sweden, Bulgaria, Italy, Denmark

With the three other countries hoping to emulate teams of the past, Sweden look a good bet to dominate Group C. There was a time where anybody facing the Italians would shudder and look for the first available flight out of the country on the nearest date after the group stage was over. But these days, Italy has become a by-word for predictability and stifling game play which many teams now ironically counter with pressing tactics first employed by teams such as Milan and Juventus.

The Swedes with their flair and surprisingly continental attacking play should make light work of a Bulgarian side suffering a personality crisis in their opening game on June 14. When they take on Italy four days later, the Swedes will hope to smother the Azzurri with wave after wave of attacking play, pushing the ball around a midfield which the Italians like to keep in a strangle hold. With a second victory in the bag, the Swedes can push home their advantage with a convincing rout of the Danish who could well be in disarray by the final game.

Italy will be no push over, though. In the last championships, they reached the final with tactics that ground down the opposition and hit them at their most frustrated. The Italians could take the Swedes apart in a slow python-like game plan which forces the expressive Scandinavians into hot-headed mistakes. The Danes could suffer a similar fate in the opening group game and the Bulgarians could well roll over in the face of such esteemed opposition, leaving the Azzurri to top the group.

Denmark could get it together to punish either Italy or Sweden but not both. They have enough to beat the Bulgarians but it is unlikely that their quality runs deep enough to end the challenges of both the seeded Swedes and the stalwart Italians. It is likely that the best the Danes could hope for is a third place finish above the whipping boys of Bulgaria.

DW Prediction: Sweden and Italy to qualify.