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Group C of the 2008 UEFA European Championships is one of four groups of competing nations at UEFA Euro 2008. The first of three rounds of matches took place on 9 June, and are scheduled to finish on 17 June. All six group matches will be played at venues in Switzerland, in Zürich and Berne. The group is composed of 2006 FIFA World Cup finalists Italy and France, as well as the Netherlands and Romania. At the time of the draw, these countries' respective Elo rankings among European teams were 1st, 2nd, 4th and 8th, and as such the group has been dubbed the competition's "group of death".[1][2]
The Netherlands became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals from Group C. In their first match, they beat the world champions, Italy, 3–0 in a display of counter-attacking football. Then, in their second game, they also beat the 2006 World Cup runners-up, France, 4–1. This left the French in a difficult position, having already played out a scoreless draw against Romania in the group's opening match. Romania also managed to pull off a draw against Italy in their second match, leaving them in second place going into the final round of group matches.
Last games
As Netherlands met Romania, and as the Dutch were already qualified, speculation was high about the posibility of them giving the match to Romania in order to eventually meet them, and not one of the two football superpowers in the semi-finals. The international press itself was wuwing about it, in different tones: while some appealed at the honor of the Dutch, others, an Italian newspaper, noted that for their country, honor comes and goes depending on interests and thus should not be in any measure to ask for it now, when it suits them. The terms were, that even at a 2 goal loss, an equal between Italy and France would bring Romania to the next stage. All these plans were undone by a Klaas-Jan Huntelaar goal just after half-time, before Robin van Persie scored his second of the tournament three minutes from the end.
Italy finished as the second quarter-finalists, after they beat France 2–0 in their final game. French defender Éric Abidal was sent off just over a quarter of the way through the game for a foul on Luca Toni in the area; Andrea Pirlo converted the resulting penalty. Daniele De Rossi added the second goal from a deflected free kick just after the hour mark.
All times local (UTC+2)
Romania vs France
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Netherlands vs Italy
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Italy vs Romania
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Netherlands vs France
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Netherlands vs Romania
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France vs Italy
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References
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "UEFA Euro 2008 Group C" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2008_Group_C, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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Netherlands
Italy
Romania
France
