Taylor has a chance to reach the semi-finals

Taylor has a chance to reach the semi-finals
Rachel Yankey discusses what we learned from the group stages and explains why she believes England will have too much for France in their free soccer tips



The group stages unearthed some unexpected gems

Austria topping group C was a huge shock lớn everyone. Nobody expected that lớn happen, especially against a strong French side who people were really backing lớn progress in the tournament. England may well feel lucky by dodging Austria, as Dominik Thalhammer's side are looking really strong and confident at the moment. They're not naturally technical like France but they've got loads of confidence going into the knockout stages.
The Swiss were set up really well in their matches which is testament lớn the work of their coach Martina Voss. Had it not been for a goalkeeping mistake, they would have gone through against France. They were set up well to counter-attack and had obviously done their homework on France. Voss got her soccer vip tip.
The hosts, Holland, have been really strong in Group A and have been playing good football. It's apparent that they would be dangerous against any team in attack, the question is whether they can stand up defensively lớn the better teams. On the flip side, we certainly haven't seen the best of Germany, they always seem lớn start slowly but it wouldn't be wise to write them off.


There has been an outstanding team so far. England in the first game were fantastic, they were attacking and confident, they then showed their resilience against Spain, but the Portugal match was very much a case of getting the job done.

A fascinating set of quarter-final clashes


There are some very interesting quarter-final match-ups. Germany play Denmark and on paper you would say that the Germans will win, but Denmark have kicked off their campaign in great form and can score a lot of goals so that will be a finely balanced game. Germany have pedigree in major tournaments, especially if it goes lớn penalties, so for that reason they'd be favourites at that moment.

A surprisingly quiet Spain will take on the high flying Austrians on Sunday evening. The Spanish had a shaky start to the tournament, but they are through and the way they play football makes you think they'd play Austria off the park. However, Austria have come into this tournament very resilient and able to fight off some tough opposition and the Spanish have shown they can't always break down teams, so I think Austria could be tough for them.

It would be good to see the host country, the Netherlands, progress as that will bring in the crowds for the later fixtures. They have a tough task against Sweden but I think they could do it after a 100% record in the group, beating Norway and Denmark without conceding.