EURO 2012

In the first match in Ukraine, one of the favorites of the whole tournament will meet the strong Danish team. The Danish can seriously endanger the Oranje national team; they take the 9th position in FIFA ranking, have won their elimination group by outrivaling Portugal and at Euro, they will surely be in very good condition.

Morten Olsen’s team wasn’t lucky at group draw and was placed in the group of death. The Dutch, however, will play at Euro for the highest stakes and their goal is at …

…and 1982 and the Olympic gold in 1972 and two silver medals in 1976 and 1992. As co-organizer of the tournament Poland is guaranteed to start in the tournament through which since 2009 we play only friendly matches which may explain our big drop in the FIFA ranking. During the term of Franciszek Smuda we were able to overcome the Ivory Coast team, among others, to outplay Argentina’s third team, to tie with Mexico, Portugal and Germany and to lose to Italy and France.

It is hard to say much …

The representation of Spain, defending the title of a champion, the absolute number one favourite and leader in the FIFA rankings, two-time winner of the European Championship in 1964 and 2008, will compete to win the most valuable trophy in Europe for the ninth time.

Spain easily and expectedly advanced to the Euro 2012, winning all eight games and losing only six goals. Spain’s top scorer turned to be David Villa. The author of seven goals along with Fernando Torres will be the team’s main…

… European Championship has been playing continuously since 1972, having made three victories in this event.

In the last three major events, Germany took the places at the podium but never once stood on the top step. The German team, third in the FIFA ranking, in qualifying for Euro 2012 has recorded 10 victories in 10 matches scoring 34 goals and losing only seven.

The top scorer and also the largest terror for goalkeepers at the tournament in Poland and Ukraine was the duo of strikers, …

… 2008 by Giovanni Trapattoni only once had the honour to take part in the Championship of the old continent. In 1988, after the victory, a draw and a defeat it was eliminated from the tournament already after the group stage.

Ireland, 19 in FIFA rankings, had to accept in the qualifying games the superiority of Russia, and after ten meetings, having collected 21 points, qualified for the play-offs, where after the lucky draw they defeated Estonia 5-1 in the two-legged tie.

The captain, …

… Andrei Arshavin, Pavel Pogriebnyak, or Alexander Kerzhakov. The representation team of Russia will play their games in Wrocław and at the National Stadium in Warsaw. Russians are assumed to have the biggest chance from all the four teams to leave the group and play in the quarterfinals. It is proved by a high, twelfth place in the FIFA rankings, the eliminations won and a thrilling game at the last championship tournament.

Russia Euro 2012 Squad
The Euro 2012 Russia squad is not yet known.

The representation of Portugal, the seventh in the FIFA ranking, will compete for the title of the European Champion in football for the sixth time. In 2004, as the hosts of the tournament they recorded their best score in this event. They reached the final where they couldn’t cope with the Greece.

Paulo Bento team barely qualified for the main event until the playoffs where they won by beating Bosnia and Herzegovina in the two-legged tie up to 6:2. The Portuguese play alternately in the …

Michal Bilek’s team, currently 29th in the FIFA ranking, will play for the fifth time in a row, for the title of the European Champion. The best result so far was the second place achieved in a debut performance in 1996.

In the qualifying group the Czechs won only thirteen points which allowed them for finishing second behind Spain, which won all of their meetings. The Czechs played in the playoffs with Montenegro beating them twice 2-0 and 1-0. The goals scored in the qualifying games were …

Croatia, the tenth in the FIFA ranking, will participate only for the fourth time at the European Championship and will try to improve their best result which was the quarterfinal achieved twice.

Croats took the second place in the qualifying group losing two points to the Greeks, the European Champions of 2004. In the playoffs they did not give any chance to the Turkish team by winning the first game 3-0 and the second ending with a goalless draw.

A large impact on the game of the …

World Cup vice-champions, on the second place after Spain in the FIFA rankings are one of the main favourites to win the European Championship. Two years ago in the World Cup final after extra time the Netherlands lost 0:1 to the Spanish. The team of Bert van Marwijk will play for the ninth time at the European Championship. The best result so far was the gold medal in 1988.

In qualifying for the Euro 2012 the Oranje team won 27 of 30 possible points available. The brightest points of the …