UEFA Euro 2008 Group C

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 finished on 17 June. All six group matches were 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". [cite news |first=Michael |last=Harrold |title=Group of Death draws mixed reaction |url=http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/news/kind=1/newsid=631078.html |publisher=euro2008.com |date=2007-12-02 |accessdate=2008-03-03 ] [cite news |title=Italy and France in Euro 2008 'group of death' |url=http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=486945&cc=5901 |publisher=ESPNsoccernet |date=2007-12-02 |accessdate=2008-03-03 ] Nevertheless, despite the strength of the four teams, Group C was the only group at Euro 2008 from which no team made it past the quarter-finals.

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.

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. Because of the Italian win, Romania had to beat the Netherlands to qualify for the quarters, but they 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.

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