IT'S BEEN a mixed first week to these championships but we've had a few good games to enjoy and the tournament seems certain to improve overall now that managers can fairly much figure out exactly what they have to do over the remaining group fixtures if their sides are going to progress.

Undoubtedly the best result so far, and probably the best game, was Italy's victory over.

The Russians and it is interesting to see that both the Italians, and Germans, each of whom traditionally start slowly in major finals, look so strong and positive in their opening games.

Usually the opening games in these events are dominated by each side's fear of losing but, in these cases, what we have had instead was the Germans and Italians looking at the group and realising that winning theirs opening games would prove very important to their chances of qualification with the result that they went out to play very positively and, perhaps, even caught their respective opponents slightly off guard.

The Italians, in particular will have surprised a lot of observers with their approach and they have left the Russians with a great deal to do in their remaining outings.

Without Baresi, the Italians have generally looked to be more attack minded in their approach anyway but in this game I felt that their midfield was superb with some fine tackling being followed by excellent movement going forward, creating a lot of options.

Alksandro Del Piero had a good game before he was withdrawn at half time but, in my opinion, the star of the show for the Italians was Gianfranco Zola. The 29 year old reminds a great deal of Peter Beardsley, although he's a bit more gifted than Peter, and after living in the shadow of Baggio for so long at international level, it was wonderful to see him seize the opportunity to show what he is capable of.

In previous championships the Italians have gone in lacking an obvious source of goals but come out the other side with someone making themselves a household name through their heroics up front. On Tuesday we saw Casiraghi perform as though he might add his name to a list that already includes Rossi and Schillaci but I would be surprised if he keeps up that sort of standard over the coming games.

In a wider context the Lazio man contributes a great deal and works tirelessly to help his side but he is not generally the sharpest in front of goal and if the Italians are really going to prove themselves in the tournament then their other stars are going to have to chip in with a few goals.

As for the Russians, they've now got a bit of an uphill task on their hands if they are goings it qualify for the last 16. They were unfortunate that it was their goalkeeper Cherchesov, as it had been the Portuguese and Romanian keepers before him this week, who let the team down with a terrible lapse of concentration. Although, significantly, all of the errors have, been when the players have had the ball at their feet, which? shows the extent to which there still difficulty adapting to the new rules.

Apart from that, a great deal of what the Russians did was extremely good but they never really created the number of chances they must have hoped for as they increasingly struggled to get behind Sacchi's defence and you always had the impression that the Italians had another goal in them.

Apart from the Italians none of the teams that were in action on Monday or Tuesday did an awful lot of to persuade neutrals that they have a serious chance of making an impact on the latter stages of this competition.

The French did not look to be up to much until they finally scored a goal that owed much more to appalling goal keeping than any fine work on their parts, the Croatians lacked any real conviction against a poor looking Turkish side while the Dutch will be have been very disappointed not to have beaten Scotland.

There is no doubting that the performance by Scotland was gutsy but really the Dutch should have been able to get something for their early pressure and had they done that then they probably would have gone on to win the match quite comfortably.

The game highlighted some of the question marks that hang over the Dutch side with their mental strength, compared to the approach of a side like the Germans, appearing to be a particular point of concern. Another is their obvious, and slightly unhealthy, reliance on Danny Blind who is a great influence on them from the back.

I was especially disappointed to see them panic towards the end of the game. To a large extent they had simply been deprived of a goal by a matter of luck but they didn't have the belief in themselves to keep plugging away and _when you saw them inside the lash 15 minutes attempting to grab the extra points with some sort of wonder goal from 25 or 30 yards you couldn't help feeling that they didn't have what it takes to beat the more composed, patient sides that lie ahead.

The French were made to look very much second best until the goal from Dugarry who, while excellent for the afternoon, was fortunate to find the net in the circumstances. There were a few other good performances from the French but within the 4-3-2-1 formation that they played the other day it was very difficult to see how Eric Cantona would not have thrived behind the main striker as one of the two.

For the Romanians the reliance on the attacking abilities of Hagi was always going to be something of a problem but it? might not have been as much a liability as it was on Monday if his team mates had simply fed him the ball in decent positions.

Instead they managed to rob themselves of their own greatest weapon when they were enjoying the better of the game early on while, once the allowed the goal to go in, they rarely looked like recovering fully and scoring.

Finally the Croats were another side to make a relatively disappointing start to this tournament. Against a Turkish side which seemed to lack any real cutting edge the Croats failed to show anything like their best although they will at least take comfort in winning despite a poor display.

It's a strange thing about them as a team, that they can either flourish into attack or withdraw into their shells and while I could understand it more if they were weak at the back, the fact that they look so good there makes it all a little mystifying.

For all that, though, they should grow in confidence after securing the win while, as a unit, they should only get better as they go on at Euro 96. Just like the tournament itself, really, which should step up a gear with the start today of the second round of group games.