The final weekend of the Eurobowl opening stage is coming to us this weekend with 4 national champions from last season vying for the last 2 spots in the quarterfinal. The Calanda Broncos (Switzerland) and the Parma Panthers (Italy) have started off great in their respective leagues. They are ranked by the European Federation of American Football at numbers 9 and 10 in all of Europe with the Swiss team slightly edging the Italians. These two teams have one common opponent this season each beating last year's Spanish champs in the last two weekends. The Panthers won 34-20, while the Broncos won 42-0. The Broncos head to north Italy this weekend for a final game between two teams who are each on a path for big success on the European stage. Kickoff is listed at 9pm at Stadio XXV Aprile Parma. Whichever team wins here will travel in early May to face the Vienna Vikings of the Austrian Football League(AFL).
Much north of there in a vastly different arena at 3pm on Saturday the Baltic Hurricanes from Deutschland face off with the Carlstad Crusaders from Sverige. These teams are ranked in the top of Europe as well. The Hurricanes garner Europe's #3 ranking and host the 11th ranked Crusaders. This matchup has been highly anticipated proven by the publicity provided by the official eurobowl website with the story "The race for Eurobowl is on", as well as the countdown posted on the Kiel Canes website. The Hurricanes have started off the season with a bang 
by beating the Berlin Adler in a rematch of the final game of the German football league from last year. The Crusaders had a promising showing against the Vikings of Oslo, Norway, in an exhibition game last Saturday, but this will be their first appearance of the 2012 season in competition. The winner of this matchup has the opportunity to travel to Graz, Austria to play the Giants of the AFL.This game can be followed with live updates to the twitter account: Crusaders 2010. The link to this is set to the right in the Other Euroball Links as Crusaders Game Updates.
The preview of the game provided by eurobowl.com can be found temporarily here.
In the EFAF cup group play continues. The Cougars of St. Ouen (France) face off against the Cassidy Coventry Jets (England) after the Cougars lost to the Gold Diggers from Denmark in their opening game. The Jets have yet to compete in this tournament.
Secondly, on the coast of Spain the London Blitz of the UK face the Valencia Firebats (Spain). The Blitz have the opportunity to move to the next round with a win this weekend as they beat the Amsterdam Crusaders heartily a couple weeks back. The third and final game of the cup challenge takes place in the capital of the Czech Republic when the Prague Black Hawks face the Milano Rhinos of Italia on Sunday. The Hawks like the Blitz can move to the semi-final with a win this weekend after they beat the Black Panthers of France 16-13 in their first game. The alternative to each of them winning and moving on would be losing and leaving their fate to the final weekend of the EFAF cup and two other teams defining their destiny.
