For Valerio De Santis this is easy: “Italy, of course.” De Santis has enough opportunity to watch all the matches. He is currently doing an internship with Philips in the area of electromagnetic compatibility. De Santis: “Last Monday I went to O’Sheas with a large group of Italians and Spaniards, the Irish Pub in the center.”

Marco Picoco, a Master student of Mechanical Engineering, though Italian dared to join a large group of Dutchmen last Monday to go and watch the match between Holland and Italy in the center. Picoco: “It is great fun to watch it together, although you do attract attention with the Italian flag between all those Orange fans.”

Pietro Andricciola called on as many Italians as possible via the ISN/e list to come and watch last Monday’s match in town together. The French were also rallied via the mailing list to sing their ‘Marseillaise’ among all the Orange fans in the market square.

Orange
Emmanuel Rios, a Master student of BME, can choose his favorite team, being Mexican: “As long as the Dutch play well, I am for Orange. But I am not going to make myself up all in orange or anything, and if they are eliminated, I will pick another favorite.” He had not yet realized that the matches are held exactly during the examination period. He does have a solution already, though: “I watch the matches and during half-time I study. Emmanuel himself plays football as often as possible with the student football club Pusphaira. “We practice twice a week and we play in the competition. That has already ended for this season now.

Examination period
Ali Ehsary, a Master student of BME, is a big fan of the EC football, but he has not got a favorite team yet. Ehsary: “In fact I like football itself most, without being a big fan of any specific team. I like predicting things, such as which team is going to be a big surprise and which one a great disappointment. As things become a lot more exciting when you choose sides, I often do so anyway. I usually watch all first-round matches and on the basis of those I pick the team that plays the most attractive football and that I think will come a long way.”

Ehsary discusses with his friends who are the big favorites to win and who are not. “We have also filled in a number of EC pools and talked about them a lot”, says Ehsary, “I intend to watch as many matches as possible, but considering this is also the examination period, that is going to be a bit of a problem. In any case I am going to watch all the finals, but I shall have to miss out on the group matches now and then.”

Winner
Omar Mubin, from Pakistan, is a first-year PhD student at Industrial Design. Mubin: “European football is the best in the world.” Unfortunately for him his favorite team would be England. Mubin: “I’m not very happy that England has not qualified for Euro 2008 this time around. I won’t be supporting “Oranje”. They are in a very tough group and will do well only to qualify for the next round. Since England is not playing, I hope the best team wins the tournament and that we see a lot of goals. If I had to pick a winner, I would go for Italy or Spain. They have to win this time, don’t they?”/.