Featured Articles / Ben Lyttleton / 13 June 2008 / Leave a comment

Ben Lyttleton reminds us that five teams have lost their captains to injury so far in the competition and looks at how their sides have coped without them.

Ask any expert for three elements needed to win a major tournament and one will always recur: that little bit of luck at the right moment. Italy had it on the way to their World Cup success ­ witness their late winners against Australia and Germany ­ while Greece had it four years ago, only getting out of their group as they scored more goals than Spain.

This year, there has been plenty of bad luck for the teams in Austria and
Switzerland ­ but it's how they cope with that misfortune which might
determine their ultimate success in Euro 2008. Five teams in the competition
have lost their captains through injury ­ Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland
and Turkey ­ while two other sides, Croatia and Russia, are without,
arguably, their best strikers because of injury.

While this gives an undoubted advantage to those teams with fully-fit squads imagine how Portugal would do without Cristiano Ronaldo (quite well, considering his replacement is Quaresma or Nani) or Germany without Michael Ballack (less well, with Tim Borowski) ­ it is instructive to look at how the depleted teams have got over their problems.

The defining image of the opening-day was the sight of Swiss captain Alex Frei limping off in tears, his tournament over with a knee ligament injury. The hosts were distraught: Frei is their best player and, in the first half against the Czechs, their best chance of a goal. Frei has stayed with the squad, and his replacement Hakin Yakin almost netted in that first game,
opened the scoring against Turkey, but missed a crucial chance to finish off the game. Losing Frei may have lessened the pressure on the Swiss, but they struggled to cope without their skipper.

The same could be said for Italy, who have drifted to [12.0] for the tournament after their Fabio Cannavaro-less defence was ripped apart by Holland in Group C. Andrea Barzagli stepped in but Italy lacked a leader in the middle and it showed. The world champions talked down Cannavaro's absence at the time, and their tournament mentality was lauded as a key
strength. That mentality has not changed in a week - and they are [1.95] to keep a clean sheet against Romania ­ but missing an on-pitch leader as important as Cannavaro may hurt them in the later stages of the tournament, if they get that far. Again, it appears that this injury is a key one for the Italians.

France also appeared to struggle without captain Patrick Vieira in their goalless draw against Romania. Claude Makelele was left as the midfielder charged with feeding the strikers, a role the Chelsea man is clearly unused to. Vieira's bursts from the midfield are a better link from defence to attack, and if he gets fit soon, France are dangerous outsiders at [13.5]
for the competition, and [2.06] to qualify from the group. Thierry Henry missed France's first game though injury but is still [3.9] to finish as their top-scorer.

Less vital were the injuries to the captains of Turkey and Poland respectively. Turkey missed Emre for their win over Switzerland, even though coach Fatih Terim was choked with emotion at the prospect of his favourite player missing the rest of the group games. Turkey are in from [5.6] to a still-decent [2.48] to qualify from Group A. Poland lost their captain Maciej Zurawski at half-time against Germany, but his replacement Roger looked a more dangerous option.

When Croatia laboured to a first-game win over Austria, all the talk was of how they missed Eduardo. They have known he would be unavailable since February and there were fears that the Eduardo myth would haunt them this summer (just as Arsenal blamed last season's failure on Eduardo, when in truth he was not a key player for them). But just as they stopped worrying
about his absence ­ and in fact, stopped using Mladen Petric as his like-for-like replacement ­ they turned in a great performance against Germany. Niko Kranjcar has found scoring positions in every game and is unmatched in the Croatia top-scorer market ­ take our expert Andy Richmond's advice and be a price-maker, not a price-taker!

Other injuries will no doubt happen throughout the tournament. Some teams will deal with them by replacing players like-for-like, and others by mixing things around ­ but how each coach copes with those injuries could determine the outcome of Euro 2008.

Tags: Euro 2008 odds, France football, Patrick Vieira