So the European Football Championship is back once again after the usual 4 year break. Spain started their dominance of International Football in 2008 by winning Euro 2008. What has changed as we move to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine ? Spain are still a top side having won the World Cup 2 years ago, but Countries like Germany and Holland are right up there in terms of Quality. This tournament looks set to be a very interesting tournament with many up and coming stars on display. The Tournament begins on the 8th June until the 1st July. Here are the groups Group A Poland Greece Russia Czech Republic Group B Netherlands Denmark Germany Portugal Group C Spain Italy Republic Of Ireland Croatia Group D Ukraine Sweden France England After the Group Stages the Winners of Group A will play the runners up from B The Winner of This match will play the winner of the match between the Group C winners and the Group D Runners up. Change winners to runners up and vice versa and you get the other side of the draw. Now for some predictions Favourites Spain/ The holders are among the favourites again, being World Cup and European Champions means you have to put them here. Their big club sides: Real Madrid and Barcelona will both be disappointed with the end to their seasons, despite both winning cups, they will have wanted more. Injuries to key players like Carlos Puyol (Defence) and David Villa (Striker) will affect them, especially the defence which becomes more and more unreliable. It has never been good, but their ball retention has made up for that. Personally I don’t see them winning, but they will get far. Xavi and Iniesta will be key again, but the form of Gerard Pique will be even more crucial as he will be the main man in defence. Holland/ World Cup finalists, vilified in that tournament for being extremely tough tacklers, they seem to have lost that tag for the most part. Another team with it’s defence as it’s weakness, on paper they look very even with Spain. The key battle with the two would be that Holland has better out and out wingers while Spain wins the central midfield battle. Wesley Sneijder is Holland’s star man, one of the best midfielders in the world and always performs in the big tournaments. Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben will also be key, but them getting the ball will depend on Sneijder. Germany/ Many would tip the germans for the win in this tournament, in The 2010 world cup they were amazing, but perhaps their young team was too young then. Players like Ozil, Kroos and Muller have matured and the team is looking better and better. A more solid defence than Holland or Spain, but lack some of the attacking flair. Dark Horses Portugal/ A team that have been very inconsistent, exemplified by their star man Cristiano Ronaldo, who does not seem to ever perform as well for Portugal as Real Madrid. He also never performs in the big international tournaments, but his form is so good at the moment I expect him to finally show the world he can perform on the biggest of stages. The problem with portugal is that they tend to rely so much on their big players. Nani and Ronaldo, both are wingers so rely on the service from the midfield. They look a more solid team overall and should they get out of their group could go far. Ireland/ It could be my Irish bias taking, but I think we can do well in this tournament. We are in a very tough group, Spain (winners of the last two international tournaments), Italy (2006 World Cup Winners) and Croatia who have some brilliant players. On the outside looking in Ireland do not seem to have many good players, Shay Given is an Amazing Goalkeeper and Robbie Keane’s goal to game ratio cannot be ignored. After these two you would struggle to see many more amazing players. They key thing about Ireland is the sense of belief and the Unity of the team, very difficult to score against is the strength and we do actually play a fairly defensive formation 4-4-2 in defence but more of a 4-2-2-2 in attack with two wingers. We will cause teams trouble. I actually think we will make it out of our group, Spain struggle to break down the type of defence we have, Italy are not as strong as they once were, so Croatia may actually be the danger team for Ireland. And I hope that England have a good tournament, they constantly flatter to deceive and their Squad is good enough to compete with the favourites, they just rarely show this. My tournament prediction with added overestimation of Ireland Quarter Finals Russia Vs Germany Spain Vs France Holland Vs Czech Republic England Vs Ireland Semi Finals Germany Vs Spain Holland Vs England/Ireland (I cannot call who would win) Final and 3rd Place match Final – Germany Vs Holland I expect Holland to win just about 3rd Place match – Spain Vs England/Ireland 1ST/ Holland 2ND/Germany 3RD/Spain/Ireland 4TH/England/Spain If Italy get through instead of Ireland, I think England would easily win. So Let the discussion begin. First 2 matches are tomorrow with Group A Co-Hosts Poland start their tournament against 2004 winners Greece and Russia play Czech Republic. Not the most star studded group, but Russia VS Czech Republic should be a good game. I think Poland will win 2-1 because they have some very creative players and I feel they are underrated by most. I think 2-2 for the other match with a lot of end to end action. Results Group A First Round Greece 1 - 1 Poland Russia 4 - 1 Czech Republic Second Round Greece 1 - 2 Czech Republic Russia 1 - 1 Poland Third Round Russia 0 - 1 Greece Czech Republic 1 - 0 Poland Group B First Round Denmark 1 - 0 Holland Portugal 0 - 1 Germany Second Round Denmark 2 - 3 Portugal Germany 2 - 1 Holland Third Round Germany 2 - 1 Denmark Holland 1 - 2 Portugal Group C First Round Spain 1 - 1 Italy Ireland 1 - 3 Croatia Second Round Spain 4 - 0 Ireland Croatia 1 - 1 Italy Third Round Spain 1 - 0 Croatia Ireland 0 - 2 Italy Group D First Round England 1 - 1 France Ukraine 2 - 1 Sweden Second Round England 3 - 2 Sweden France 2 - 0 Ukraine Third Round England 1 - 0 Ukraine Sweden 2 - 0 France Quarter Finals Czech Republic 0 Vs 1 Portugal Germany 4 Vs 2 Greece France 0 Vs 2 Spain England 0(2) Vs 0(4) Italy- AET and Penalties Semi Finals Portugal Vs Spain Germany Vs Italy
I've been waiting for this thread I think Netherlands and Germany will be in the final(I of course,hope Holland will win ) Don't really see Spain winning first place this time around.Especially since Villa and Puyol aren't playing. And I wonder how popular this thread will be,knowing that there aren't a lot of people from Europe here...
COME ON SCOTL- oh yeah, they didn't qualify......again *sighs* Oh well, guess i'll support England then *locks self in room away from parents*
If Ireland go out Early, Holland are who I will throw my support behind, Sneijder is one of my favourite players.
Great goal from Poland, the Greek left back is being destroyed. Edit/ Sokratis sent off for Greece, both yellows were extremely harsh, half time Poland up 1-0. Greece are pretty shocking.
Aaand it's 1-1 . I gotta say both goals were nice(and kinda weird too lol.Especially Greece's ) This is getting interesting
I kind of want Greece to win actually, something to cheer them up hopefully. Didn't they win 8 years ago?
Don't remember what year it was, but yep. Bunch of people marked the scrap out hella hard too, as its one of the few times we even care about soccer.
OOOH!! RED CARD!! Finally, this is getting exciting!! OOOH, and it's the goalie!!! Damn, bad luck for Poland there
Thank you Airspeed! I wanted to make something like this but feared it would be ignored. Of course, I want England to go far but I kind of hate the team, and Holland will be my next choice.
All I'm waiting for is the inevitable racist crowd to go nuts, have teams leave the field in protest and basically the tournament to descend into a shambolic mess. Well a bigger shambolic mess.
