Pool F:
1.Belgium(5) 7-0 756 639
2.Portugal(1) 6-1 791 642
3.Slovensko(2) 5-2 775 673
4.Danmark(7) 3-4 686 691
5.Ísland(4) 3-4 754 802
6.Ukraina(3) 2-5 724 738
7.Moldova(6) 2-5 708 795
8.Scotland(8) 0-7 660 874
Woah. I got this group wayyyy wrong. It makes it more exciting though! All I got right was who would finish last! :P Anyways Belgium absolutely stunned and went undefeated to join Italia as the only undefeated teams. I had them pegged as the number 5 team! not 1! They are probably the weakest number 1 team to advance this season and will probably hold up the rear in the 2nd round. Danmark surprised and finished 4th. A few good wins allowed them to sneak up their. Ukraina disappointed and I had them third but they decided to be 7th. Scotland was my one.. uhh.. bright spot? They finished last with an 0-7 record to join Luxembourg as the only teams to not win a game.
2nd Round!!
Pool G:
1.Italia
2.France
3.Espana
4.Portugal
5.Israel
6.Nederland
1.Italia has HCA and one of, if not the strongest team in the tournament. A pretty easy pick to make. As long as they manage GS and enthusiasm they should advance. If they are able to get Fanesi's GS up to a useable level, they will easily go undefeated, otherwise they should still go undefeated :P
2.I picked France to make it to the final four and based on what ive seen I am not willing to change that prediction. They have a very strong team. If they continue to manage their GS wisely and their enthusiasm Italia could be the only difficult game.
3.Espana, at this point in the tournament it is very, very hard to pick the order, but Espana comes after Italia and France because their roster is just weaker, that is all. Their is nothing much I can say here.
4.Portugal has a strong roster, I mean they made it this far. If they get their other 400k big man to a useable GS level they could push France and with their better GS management, they could most certaintly beat Espana ou for third.
5.I didn't pick Israel to even make it this far, I don't expect them to go much further. They may have a strong team, but it just doesn't stack up to the absolute monster rosters in this pool.
6.Nederland, not expected to make it this far, and have used a lot of their enthusiasm just to get here. Thats gonna cost them and they should hold the back end of Pool G.
Pool H:
1.Deutschland
2.Turkiye
3.Lietuva
4.Poland
5.Eesti
6.Belgium
1. I picked Deutschland to make the final four, not going to change that. They lost to France in their final game of the first round and if my predictions end up being correct a semi-final rematch against France would be the result.
2.Turkiye, my Schweiz replacement. I picked Turkiye to advance to the final four because i like thir managment of tactics, enthusiasm and GS plus they have a strong roster. it will be a battle to finish 1st and avoid a semi-final matchup with Italia.
3.Lietuva is soooooo strong, this was so tough to pick and Lietuva could easily finish 1st, however I see third as a more likely result. They have a very versatile roster and could surprise teams with their tactic choices.
4.Poland beat out Srbija and they have England to thank for that. However Poland still went 6-1 on their way to advancing so it wasn't alll England. While Poland was strong enough to beat Srbija I don't think they are strong enough to advance over the three teams I have placed before them.
5.Eesti teamed up with Nederland to deny Schweiz a spot in the 2nd round. They are a strong inside oriented team, but I don't think that'll be enough.
6.Belgium, pulled 1st place out of their a-... butt. They can't stand up against the teams here though. I think inside or outside they just don't stack up with anybody here and should be the caboose of this group.