Group A (Poland, Russia, Greece, Czech Republic):
Prior to the draw being released, Poland looked like a long shot to make it out of the group stage. They are the lowest ranked team in the tournament at 66 in the world and 33 in Europe. It looked likely that they would become just the 4th nation since the European Championship began in 1960 to host the European Championship and not make it out of the group stage, joining just Belgium in 2000 and Austria and Switzerland in 2008 to fail to make the knockout stage. However, Poland is very fortunate that they drew, by far, the easiest of the four groups. The Polish, led by coach Franciszek Smuda, drew the lowest ranked team in pot 2, Russia, the 2nd lowest ranked team in group 3, Greece, and the lowest ranked team in pot 4, Czech Republic. If you add the European rankings of the four team, it adds up to 72. To put that in perspective, Netherlands, which was in pot 1 just like Poland, and they drew a group that when you add the European rankings of the four team, it adds up to 17!
Russia will definitely be the favorite, but the entire group is wide open and there for the taking. While the Russians will look for scoring from Roman Pavlyuchenko, the heart of their team is their defense. In qualifying, just Italy allowed fewer goals than Russia, as the Russians allowed just 4 goals in 10 matches and they didn't concede any goals in their final 4 matches.
Greece as well thoroughly relies on their defense, as they allowed just 5 goals in 10 matches. They will be looking to use their great defense and tactics to make a run similar to their unbelievable Championship victory in 2004 in Portugal.
The Polish will have a huge home field advantage and the energy of playing in Warsaw against Greece and Russia and Wroclaw in their final match against Russia. Although Poland is the lowest ranked team in the group, Czech Republic may be the most unlikely to make it out of the group stage.
Group B (Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Denmark):
In one of the greatest groups that you will ever see in any international tournament, it is just unfortunate that two of these very high quality teams will not make it to the knockout stage. To call this the group of death is probably an understatement and not doing it justice. Of the top 11 teams in the world and the top 8 teams in Europe, 4 of them are in this group. The group features the 2nd highest ranked team from pot 1, Netherlands, the highest ranked team in pot 2, Germany, the highest ranked team in pot 3, Portugal, and the highest ranked team in pot 4, Denmark. Their average world ranking is 5.75 and their average European ranking is 4.5, which is unbelievably impressive.
In qualifying, Germany and Netherlands were by far the most impressive teams in the group stage. The Germans had a perfect 10-0-0 record and had a goal differential of +27. Although the Netherlands dropped their last game against Sweden, they still finished the group with a +29 goal differential and they were able to score goals on everybody, as they racked up 37 goals in just 10 games. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored 12 goals for the Dutch, which is more goals than 24 other teams in the competition scored during qualifying. The Germans are the favorite to win the group, especially after they just convincingly beat the Dutch 3-0 on November 15th.
However, it would not be surprising if any of these four teams won the group. The Portuguese have Cristiano Ronaldo, so that alone poises an immense threat to ever other team in the group. Ronaldo will need help though if the Portuguese side is going to advance. Nani will have to continue to play like he currently is for Manchester United and the back four, which has world class players like Pepe and Fabio Coentrao, will have to step up, especially since they have drawn high-powered offenses like the German and Dutch.
The big question mark in this group is Denmark. The Danish actually finished ahead of Portugal in Group H qualifying. In fact, they beat Portugal on the final day of qualifying, 2-1, to take the group. The Danish will heavily rely on striker Nicklas Bendtner for their scoring, as they didn't score more than 2 goals in any qualifying match.
Group C (Spain, Italy, Croatia, Republic of Ireland):
Spain boss Vincente del Bosque said, "It's a complicated group. We've got an important team like Italy and two two teams that got through the playoff easily." However, you have to believe that the Spanish coach is fairly happy with his group, as the defending European champions avoided Germany and Portugal. Despite the fact that the Spanish had a perfect 8-0-0 record in qualifying, questions have been raised about the World and European Champions recently. They fell to England at Wembley on November 12th 1-0 and then tied Costa Rico in San Jose three days later 2-2 after trailing 2-0 until two late goals from David Silva in the 83rd minute and David Villa in the 90th minute.
The Italians should be riding into Euro 2012 with some confidence. They breezed through qualifying, as they allowed just 2 goals in 10 matches and the Italians also beat the Spanish in their last meeting on August 10th 2-1. However, in qualifying and in their victory over Spain, the Italians played with talented strikers Giuseppe Rossi and Antonio Cassano. However, with Rossi likely out for the tournament with a serious knee injury and Cassano probably out as well after he had surgery to repair a small hole in his heart, the Italians will heavily relay on Mario Balotelli and Giampaolo Pazzini to proivde the scoring for the side.
The Croatians could be the biggest question mark of any team in the entire tournament. The 8th ranked team in the world, has shown at times that it can be as good as any team in the world but it has been very inconsistent like when it fell to Georgia 1-0 in qualifying and then went on to win 4 straight qualifying matches.
Lastly, while Ireland is going to have a difficult time doing much of anything in this group, they definitely have a ton of interesting storylines. Their Italian boss, Giovanni Trapattoni, is going to manage against his homeland and former team, as he managed the Italian national team for 4 years from 2000 to 2004. Since the Irish have not been in the European Championship since 1988, the Irish fans will be hoping for a nice showing in Poland-Ukraine.
Group D (Ukraine, England, France, Sweden):
The English, led by boss Fabio Capello, have to be content with the Euro 2012 draw. They avoided Spain and Netherlands from pot 1, as well as Portugal from pot 3. However, the English side definitely has a whole lot of pressure and controversy surrounding them. Wayne Rooney has a three-match suspension and if his appeal is not succesful, he will miss the entire group stage. This would leave the English in a deep goal scoring hole without the Manchester United striker. Also, Fabio Capello will be under an immense amount of pressure since the English, who lost in the round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup, have never even made the finals of the European Championship. The Three Lions open up with a huge clash against Les Bleus in Donetsk, Ukraine. The English should be coming into the group as the favorites and with a huge amount of confidence. In their last two qualifying games, they beat the World and European Championship Spain 1-0 and then beat Sweden 1-0 as well, who is in there group for the tournament.
The French look like they have turned the corner from the disgrace surrounding their 2010 World Cup after Nicolas Anelka, Patrice Evra, Frank Rbery, and Jeremy Toulalan were all suspended after their revolt against former boss Raymond Domenech. Les Bleus have been playing some really great soccer recently under new boss Laurent Blanc. They are unbeaten in their last 17 matches and haven't lost in well over a year since September 3, 2010. The French will heavily relay on Frank Ribery, Karim Benzema, Florent Malouda, and Yoann Gourcuff. The other teams in Group D will have a lot of trouble breaking down the French defense, as they allowed just 4 goals in 10 matches during qualifying.
Ukraine and Sweden are the long shots in this group with powers like England and France expected to advance into the quarterfinals. Ukraine, like Poland, will have a huge home field advantage and the energy of playing in Kiev against Sweden and Donetsk in their final two matches against France and England. Ukraine should not be overlooked in this group. They tied Germany 3-3 after leading for much of the match 3-1, which is a very impressive showing considering that the Germans didn't drop one point in Euro 2012 qualifying. Sweden also should not be overlooked in this group. During qualifying, Sweden scored 31 goals, which was the third most goals scored in qualifying, only behind the Netherlands and Germany. Sweden even beat the Netherlands in their final qualifying match 3-2 to prove that they can play with any team in the world. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored 5 goals in qualifying, will have to be a dynamic threat for Sweden if they want to sniff the top two.
you rock!
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