GROUP A : ENGLAND, GERMANY, PORTUGAL, ROMANIA

First-round opponents: Portugal (June 12), Germany (June 17), Romania (June 20). 

Best finish: Semifinalist (1996). 

Last time around: Semifinalist. 

The quotable coach: "What I want to do is win Euro 2000 -- but what we want and what happens might be two different things. We have had two very good warmup games against Brazil and Ukraine and I am going to Euro 2000 believing we can win it." 

So says Kevin Keegan, but the reality is that it has been 34 years since England last won anything, and why should that change now? 

Player perspective: This is all she wrote, says striker Alan Shearer, who has promised to hang up his international boots after England's final game. He was the 1996 tournament's top scorer with six goals and wants to repeat that feat, but age has taken its toll on his speed and mobility. 

Still, he is as dangerous in the air as ever, and if opposing defenses throw their resources at stopping any of the younger and faster Liverpool trio of Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Emile Heskey, the old Newcastle United warhorse, not yet 30, might cause some damage. 

The bottom line: A 1-1 tie with Brazil and a 2-0 victory over Ukraine were promising results, but both games were at Wembley. On the road, even just across the English Channel, England's record is not so hot. 

It barely scraped into Euro 2000 after finishing well behind Sweden in its qualifying group and only just ahead of Poland. It took a playoff victory over Scotland to earn it a place. 

"We've got a nice blend of youth and experience," says Keegan. But the youth has injury and temperament problems, and the experience comes with a little too much age. At 36, for example, is Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman really at the top of his game? How about 33-year-old Arsenal defender Tony Adams? 

Red cards in France '98 World Cup and the World Club Championship this year suggest that Manchester United midfielder David Beckham has a long way to go before being considered mature. Michael Owen is no longer a boy wonder, and the Liverpool forward has been fighting injuries all season. 

Prediction: The popular view is that the quarterfinals are the team's best hope. But if the English hooligans don't disrupt everything, the team can reach the final and earn Keegan a promised new contract through the 2006 World Cup. But watch out for the game against Germany at Charleroi. 

First-round opponents: Romania (June 12), England (June 17), Portugal (June 20). 

Best finish: Champion (1972, 1980, 1996). 

Last time around: Champion. 

The quotable coach: "I'm not an idiot," says Erich Ribbeck. "I'm being described as somebody who does not know what he wants. I know exactly what I want and that is to put together the best possible team." 

Well, I'm glad we got that straightened out. 

Player perspective: Americans might remember him as the player who flattened Claudio Reyna at World Cup '98, thereby effectively ending the U.S. campaign before it started. Jens Jeremies has come a long way since then and in his role as playmaker -- unless veteran Thomas Haessler steals it away -- he is the key to German hopes. 

The no-nonsense tackler from Bayern Munich is coming off a season where he helped the club win league and cup titles, which will boost his confidence. Only 26, and from the former East German town of Grlitz, Jeremies is viewed by future German coach Lothar Matthaeus as his heir apparent in the libero position. 

Two things might slow him this time around: lingering doubts about a broken collarbone suffered in the Champions League semifinals and his public criticism of Ribbeck over the "miserable" state of the team. 

The bottom line: Turmoil surrounds the Germans once again. It's that way before every World Cup and every European Championship. And then Germany, a tournament team if ever there was one, sets about taking home the silverware. 

The odds seem very long this time, though. After all, 20 years after his first European Championship experience, Matthaeus is still in the team. 

That's part testimony to the 39-year-old Matthaeus' ability, but also points out how Germany has struggled to develop new top-flight talent. 

According to one poll, only one German fan in four believes the team can win the championship. 

The squad is built around six players from Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich and five from runner-up Bayer Leverkusen. The task for Ribbeck and his new assistant, Horst Hrubesch, is to unite the squad and pick the correct starting 11. 

Bayer Leverkusen's Ulf Kirsten and AC Milan's Oliver Bierhoff will be the main strikers, but Bayern Munich's Carsten Jancker could have a bigger impact than either. Mental toughness, tremendous self-belief and a never-say-die attitude are the hallmarks of Germany, which has reached five Euro finals and won three. 

Prediction: History shows that no country has won the title twice in a row. That fact, combined with its uninspired series of performances under Ribbeck, means Germany will drop out along the way. Surely, it won't be in the first round though, will it? 

First-round opponents: England (June 12), Romania (June 17), Germany (June 20). 

Best finish: Semifinalist (1984). 

Last time around: Quarterfinalist. 

The quotable coach: "Perhaps for some of them, this will be the last opportunity they will have to win a European Championship," says Humberto Coelho, referring, somewhat sadly, to Portugal's "golden generation" of players who twice won the FIFA World Youth Championship but who have not experienced equal success at the full international level. 

Player perspective: Portugal danced all the way to the quarterfinals four years ago, partly because it had a great goalkeeper, Vitor Baia, and a sound defense anchored by the hugely experienced Fernando Couto. 

A World Youth Championship winner in 1989, Couto's club career has taken him to FC Porto, Parma, Barcelona and, most recently, Lazio. 

Along the way, he has picked up a slew of honors, including the European Cup Winners's  Cup with both Barcelona and Lazio; the UEFA Cup with Parma; a UEFA Super Cup, a league title and a Spanish Cup with Barcelona; three league championships with Porto; and, this season, a league and cup double with Lazio. Not a bad haul. 

But winning Euro 2000 would be the icing for the 30-year-old who can read the game as well as anyone, is powerful in the air and an excellent man-marker. 

The bottom line: With only three teams in Portugal of any value -- Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon -- the job of selecting the national side is somewhat easier for Coelho. Eight of his 22-man squad come from that trio of clubs. 

But to locate the real talent, Coelho has to go abroad. There is, for instance, the above-mentioned Couto, but there is also the gold mine of talented midfielders exported by Portugal. Coelho's entire seven-man midfield is foreign-based and includes such standouts as Rui Costa (Fiorentina), Paulo Sousa (Parma), Luis Figo (Barcelona) and Sergio Conceicao (Lazio). 

The trouble is, strong as the Portuguese are at the back and in the middle, they fall short up front. That might not be evident from Euro 2000 qualifying, where they scored 32 goals in 10 games and allowed only four, but 21 of those goals were against lightweights Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan. 

Perhaps Pauleta, fresh off a Spanish championship with Deportivo La Coruna, will come to the rescue. 

Prediction: Arguably the most technically talented and attractive team in a strong group, Portugal might simply have too much finesse and not enough grit to get out of the first round. One hopes not, because it's far more enjoyable watching the Portuguese than, say, the dour Germans, the equally depressing English or the exciting but erratic Romanians. 

First-round opponents: Germany (June 12), Portugal (June 17), England (June 20). 

Best finish: Quarterfinalist (1960, 1972). 

Last time around: Ousted in the first round. 

The quotable coach: "Even if Brazil had been in the tournament, Cyprus would still have won." That was what Emerich Jenei said after Cyprus, a minnow in soccer terms, had upset Romania in the final of an eight-nation tournament in February. Seems the coach is as fiery and outspoken as his players, which can be good or bad. 

Player perspective: Gheorghe Hagi, the most celebrated Romanian player of all time, returns for a curtain call, hoping that he can recapture, one last time, the magic that has seen him delight fans for 20 tumultuous years. 

"Hagi always produces on the big stage," former England striker Gary Lineker once said. "He seems to need the grand occasion to display the full range of his talents. He might have slowed, but he can still change games with his shooting." 

Indeed, Hagi free kicks -- all taken with that lethal left foot -- could be packaged and sold as training videos to any youngster wanting to learn exactly how to befuddle defenders and confound goalkeepers. 

Voted Romania's player of the century last year, Hagi, 35, won the UEFA Cup with Galatasaray of Turkey this season and said he will retire from international play after Euro 2000. Naturally, he wants to leave on a high note. 

The bottom line: Romania, with a decent goalkeeper in Bogdan Stelea and a rock-solid back line, comes in knowing that it defeated England at the France '98 World Cup, defeated and tied Portugal during qualifying play and tied Germany in a 1998 friendly. Expectations, in other words, are running high. 

"I'm confident we will be able to win the first three matches in the group," said Hagi, never at a loss for words. It was during the 1994 World Cup that Hagi made a remark sure to be recalled by two of his Euro 2000 foes. 

"Romanians are not concrete, like the Germans or like the English," he said. "We want to play exciting football, to score goals." 

Creating them will be up to Hagi and another veteran midfielder, Dorinel Munteanu (Wolfsbrug). Scoring them will be the job of Viorel Moldovan (Fenerbahce) and, especially, of Adrian Ilie (Valencia). The latter is nicknamed "The Cobra," and he will have to be as dangerous if Romania is to have any chance of winning it all. 

Prediction: The age and experience gap between the generation of players making its final bow and the new generation is too large, especially against this caliber of opposition. Romanian spirit might see it through, but not if the old legs start going. An early exit seems likely. 

Grahame L. Jones 
The Sporting News