Over at The Guardian, Barney Ronay has some interesting analysis of Euro 2008, where it is going wrong, and how some teams are getting it so right.

He pays homage to the exciting attacking systems employed by teams such as Germany – Podolski (an attacker) playing on the left wing, but joining in the attack whenever possible – and Portugal – giving Deco a central role, but allowing him to roam freely. The true key though, appears to be the role that the full backs are playing. Bosingwa and Ferreira barrelling forward gave Portugal extra men up front, Lahm for Germany provided crosses from the right and even when Croatia were ‘under the cosh’ against Austria, Pranjic was leading the attack. Feisty stuff from a left-back, and much copied by the successful Dutch, Spanish and (to a certain extent) the French. His theories are supported by the heat maps from the CPI.

There’s plenty of comment on Barney’s article, so why not head over and join in the fray?