EURO 2012

Finland v Holland

Finland take on Holland which should technically be a home venue, but is being played on a neutral ground in Germany…their campaign and looking to make it 8 in a row tonight with a win over their opponents Finland who are sitting towards the lower half of the table. For Holland, van Persie, Sneijder, … the national squad, will want to add to their tally to help their team take this game.

Finland on the other hand had won 4-1 against Moldova in their last game, keeping them …

… both Portugal and Serbia (both of whom had qualified for the World Cup) as well as Finland and Belgium, looked close. However, the Poles managed to top Group A after a shaky start which saw them loose to Finland, thanks to a 6 match winning streak stretching between matchdays 3 and 9.

The campaign … the squad and he already has 2 goals, both in friendly matches against Estonia and Finland, in just 7 games.

Noticeably all four centre-backs are over 1.90 in length …

… seen his side fall as far as 73rd in FIFA’s admittedly farcical ranking system, with the dearth of playing talent a regular topic for the country’s footballing media. Many wonder what happened to the squad that won the European Under-18 Championship in Finland in 2001.

That team included Tomasz Kuszczak, Sebastian Mila and Paweł Brożek, all of whom have gone on to play for the senior side, but also featured ten players who have failed to get cap between them; the “Lost Generation”, as the …

… matches that took place on the selection of Euro 2012.

For some teams the games  identified the tournament fate. For example, Germany came outto  the final part.

Qualifiers Euro 2012, September 2

Israel – Greece – 0:1 (0:0)
Goal: Ninis, 60

Lithuania – Liechtenstein – 0-0

Finland – Moldova – 4:1 (2:0)
Goals: Hämäläinen, 11 (1-0), 43 (2-0), Forssel, 52 (3-0), Armash, 70 (4-0, own goal), Alexeev, 85 (4-1)

Azerbaijan – Belgium – 1:1
Goals: Simons, 55 (0-1), Aliyev, 86 (1-1)…

… in a Euro qualifier in June and beat Luxembourg away 1-0 in a friendly, also in June. Their previous two games were both losses to Holland in Euro qualifiers, 5-3 in Holland and 4-0 at home.

Sweden has won all of their last five games. These were a 1-0 win away to Ukraine on Aug. 10th as well as three Euro qualifying wins, which were 5-0 at home over Finland, 4-1 in Moldova, 2-1 at home against Moldova, and a 2-0 away win against Cyprus in a friendly.

Prediction: Draw. Bet at bookie.

…
14

4
Belarus
10
3
4
3
8
7
1
13

5
Albania
10
2
3
5
7
14
-7
9

6
Luxembourg
10
1
1
8
3
21
-18
4

Group E

#
Team Name
P
W
D
L
F
A
GD
PTS

1
Netherlands
10
9
0
1
37
8
29
27

2
Sweden
10
8
0
2
31
11
20
24

3
Hungary
10
6
1
3
22
14
8
19

4
Finland
10
3
1
6
16
16
0
10

5
Moldova
10
3
0
7
12
16
-4
9

6
San Marino
10
0
0
10
0
53
-53
0

Group F

#
Team Name
P
W
D
L
F
A
GD
PTS

1
Greece
10
7
3
0
14
5
9
24

2
Croatia
10
7
1
2
18
7
11
22

3
Israel
10
5
1
4
13
11
2
16

4
Latvia
10…

…Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
Group G: England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro
Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
Group I: Spain, Czech Republic,…

… of European Championships 2012:

Basket 1: Germany, Spain Italy Netherlands Portugal France England Croatia Russia
Basket 2: Greece, Serbia Sweden Switzerland Czech Republic Turkey Denmark Slovakia Romania
Basket 3: Israel Bulgaria Finland Norway Ireland Scotland Northern Ireland Austria Bosnia and Herzegovina
Basket 4: Slovenia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Belarus Belgium Cyprus Wales
Basket 5: Montenegro, Albania Estonia Georgia Moldova Armenia Iceland Kazakhstan Liechtenstein
…

…Beginnings are always tough, like it was from the beginning of Beenhaker’s work in our country.
White and red defenders didn’t deprive an experienced Dutchman of many nerves and unfortunate interventions causing heart palpitation. First matches with Denmark, later with Finland showed that “Don Leo” would have a lot of work… work which caused that today a fantastic play of our defenders helps in victories with many rivals (Portugal) who are rank higher than we are. But this fantastic play doesn’…