Guide to 2012 Euros
With just 71 days to go before the much anticipated summer tournament, it’s time to take a look at the biggest contenders, this list includes Holland, Germany, England, Italy, Portugal, France, and title holders, Spain.
Holland: World Cup runners up and they have the top goal scorer of the Premier League, Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie. Apart from him they have talented players such as Dirk Kuyt,Rafael van der Vaart, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Van Bommel, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Huntelaar who is currently top goal scorer of the tournament. They already showed potential in the world cup, defying the odds be beating teams like Brazil and Diego Forlan’s Uruguay. This summer they are up against Denmark, German and Portugal in the group stages, a group with 3 genuine contenders.
Germany: won all the 30 points in play during the qualifyiers. Runners up in the Euro 2008, losing out to Spain, and once again being sent home by the Spaniards in the world cup semi-finals, no doubt that they are hungry for success. Germany have one of the finest goalkeepers, Neuer, and other quality players such as Jerome Boateng, Madrid stars Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze, Podolski and Bayern’s top goal scorer Mario Gomez. Germany surprised everyone in the last world cup by playing an attractive attacking style of football at the hands of Joachim Loew , Die Mannschaft advanced all the way to semi-finals, but their dream was cut short by a Carles Puyol goal. They later beat Uruguay for third place.
England: Lately England have been having too many problems, with Capello gone and no one to officially replace him until May, a month might not be enough time to get the team into shape. Managers like Harry Redknapp have been rumoured to take over, and some people think Stuart Pearce should – since he’s making preparations, be the England manager during the Euros. It would be a shame if they didn’t qualify since they didn’t do so for the last Euros, and they went out to Germany in an unfair manner as Lampard’s equaliser was wrongfully disallowed. With a team that could potentially get far in the tournament. The best news is that Jack Wilshire will be ready for the tournament. The Daily Star says the young Arsenal midfielder, who has been out for the whole season, could start playing within a fortnight.
Italy: Winners of the World Cup in 2006, Italy sent shock-waves around the world when they were out in the first round of the 2010 edition of the tournament this way the Azzuri became the third team to be eliminated in the first round while being world cup holders. In the last Euros they went out after a penalty shootout against Spain
Portugal: after finishing second in their group, they had to play the play-offs to secure a place in the Euros. They drew the first leg against Bosnia and Herzegovina, but managed to secure a pass to the final tournament, after winning 6-2. On the 29th they played a friendly against Poland which ended in a goalless draw. The man to look for in the Portuguese team, as ever, is Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. They were knocked out of Euro 2008 by Germany, losing 2-3. Former manager Carlos Queiroz was criticised for his style of play, his players were too cautious at the back, leaving Ronaldo to do everything practically by himself in attack. They failed to score in 3 of their 4 matches, although the match they did score in was the 7-0 win over North Korea. Queiroz was sacked after the World Cup; the current manager is Paulo Bento.
France: after a disastrous run in the 2010 world cup where they were knocked out in the group stages, having lost twice and drawn once. Anelka was kicked out of the squad for insulting former coach Raymond Domenech when he criticised his performance in one of the games, this resulted in the rest of the squad deciding not to train. Laurent Blanc was called on as Domenech’s successor and revamped the whole team. Unfortunately, due to health problems, Barcelona defender Eric Abidal will most likely not recover from his recent liver transplant in time for the summer tournament. In the Euro 2012 we will see Karim Benzema, who was left out of the World Cup due to his poor performance at Real Madrid. Since then the Benzema is a regular in the Spanish team. With team mates like Ribery, Patrice Evra, Sami Nasri and a new mentality in the team, France have the potential to get very far.
Spain: Former winners, hoping to be the first team ever to win Euro-World Cup-Euro back to back David Villa, who is a key man in “La Roja” will probably not make it in time for the Euros after breaking his leg in the World Club Cup with Barcelona, he is Spain’s top goal scorer and his absence might not go unnoticed. If you add to this Fernando Torres sudden loss of form, Del Bosque might have to think for alternatives, though he is spoilt for choice Fernando Llorente, Soldado, Alvaro Negredo or even the young Adrian Lopez. They have more than a decent team to win it, but they have the pressure of being past winners and the most recent World Cup winners.
This summer’s Euro’s will be hold start on the 8th June and the final will be on the 11th July.
The groups are as follows:
Group A:
Group B:
Group C:
Group D:
Follow the Euro 2012 tounament at euro2012.football.co.uk
Source: DSG
