Euro 2012 Poland- Ukraine

[aussiepride]

Euro 2012 starts in a few days.
so the question is.. does anyone have a chance against Spain?
(and for those that are not aware, its the European Championships of football - often regarded as harder to win than the world cup)

GROUP A
Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Rep

GROUP B
Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Portugal

GROUP C
Spain
Italy
Ireland
Croatia

GROUP D
France
England
Ukraine
Sweden

[ila]

Spain doesn't have the great team that sports writers make it out to be. Germany, England, and Holland have a good chance to win the tournament.

[CuriousJim]

Spain doesn't have the great team that sports writers make it out to be. Germany, England, and Holland have a good chance to win the tournament.

England are in an unusual and unique position where it's fans are so deflated and are going into it with no expectations, so however we do will be a bonus. However, I dont expect us to be able to win it. There are sides in Europe that are in far better shape than us.

France are looking menacing. Since sacking the manager and the entire team after their shambolic 2010 world cup campaign, the new manager has started fresh with a young, focused and tightly knit team. They've not lost in the last 21 games, the 22nd game was their last match at the 2010 world cup.

Cant write off Spain, they're not looking as good as they were in 2008 or 2010, but they'll be in with a shout. I think for me Germany, Spain, France or Portugal are likely to come out on top this year.

[ila]

England are in an unusual and unique position where it's fans are so deflated and are going into it with no expectations, so however we do will be a bonus. However, I dont expect us to be able to win it. There are sides in Europe that are in far better shape than us.

France are looking menacing. Since sacking the manager and the entire team after their shambolic 2010 world cup campaign, the new manager has started fresh with a young, focused and tightly knit team. They've not lost in the last 21 games, the 22nd game was their last match at the 2010 world cup.

Cant write off Spain, they're not looking as good as they were in 2008 or 2010, but they'll be in with a shout. I think for me Germany, Spain, France or Portugal are likely to come out on top this year.

Germany has high hopes and they are a definite contender. I don't share your thoughts about France. I really don't think that they are strong enough to get to the finals. The semi-finals are a good possiblility for them. I'm not so sure Portugal is going to give a strong showing. A lot of sports commentators hold Portugal in high regard, but I haven't seen good resons for such ratings.

Italy is going to be an unknown quantity this time. They have always had a good team for international competitions, but their recent scandals will quite possibly have a bad effect on them. I think their first game is going to be telling as to how they are going to play throughout.

[aussiepride]

group a: russia and czech rep to progress

group b: group of death, but germany will top it, with holland to progress as well. portugal are just not playing well enough to get points in this tough group

group c: spain to top the group, croatia to progess. croats always put in a good show, and italy was just sliced apart easily by russia 3-0, so expect the lack of harmony to test them again

group d: cant pick it. i hope england gets through, but they will be without rooney for first 2 games. france are a dark horse, they have a backbone of great youngsters that won the euro championships in 2004 as un -17yrs. expect benzema and nasri to be stars of the tournament if france has a chance.

if germany and spain top their groups, they will not meet until the final, and england will pray they top their group to avoid spain in qtrs, although if russia or czech meets spain the the semis they both have a good chance against them.
spain is def favs, but they always have trouble scoring goals a lot of goals. they recently played china, and although dominated the match, only won 1-0. against germany russia and netherlands, the spanyards luck mite finally run out (unless of course torres starts scoring).

Semis tips:
spain v netherlans
germany v croatia

having said all this this is why i love football.
i think euro is better to watch than wc
and winners like greece and denmark means all your tips mean crap once the tournament kicks off. cant wait!

[CuriousJim]

group d: cant pick it. i hope england gets through, but they will be without rooney for first 2 games.

That wont be a bad thing. He does work hard, but he's not as quick as he used to be. He is an imposing presence but Oxblade-Chamberlin, Defore and Welbeck are in good form. Rooney may find himself on the bench for some time should England progress.

[ila]

It's only the second day of playing and there have been a couple of surprises for me.

I expected Poland to easily beat Greece, but Greece played very well and certainly showed that they aren't to be taken lightly.

I just watched the Holland - Denmark game. I never expected Denmark to win, but they sure did and with ease too. The Dutch performance was very lacklustre. It looked to me like Holland treated this as a warm-up game in which they didn't have to bother giving their full effort.

It's now become a more interesting competition.

[Natalie_J]

There's been a bit of surprise about the Denmark game - not entirely sure why as they topped their qualifing group ahead of Portugal and they have some very good players. Having said that, I thought the Dutch were poor and as they've got to play Germany next I think they may not even qualify now.

I expect Engand are going to play in a very similar fashion to Denmark when they play France on Monday - at least from the evidence of their two warm-up games going into this tournament.

[wertyu]

I think that spain is the best team technical
but Germany is always a very tough team
surely these two teams will go into semi-finals

[Natalie_J]

Spain looked very comfortable in disposing of an admittedly pretty underwhelming Repulic of Ireland side last night. So far, I can't see anybody else apart from them or the Germans winning this.

Still, England are playing Sweden tonight, so hopefully they'll win that one...

[Naked Freedom]

I think Germany or Spain will win this years Championship.

[sms08]

I think Germany or Spain will win this years Championship.
Spain - win

[Naked Freedom]

What a lop sided final. Spain demolished the Azzuris. Germany would have definitely been better opponents. Apart from Andreas Pirlo none from the Italian side looked like putting up a fight.

[ila]

What a lop sided final. Spain demolished the Azzuris. Germany would have definitely been better opponents. Apart from Andreas Pirlo none from the Italian side looked like putting up a fight.

The game was one big snore. It definitely wasn't worth watching.

[CuriousJim]

Yeh, the game wasnt great. I thought the Italians were going to demolish Spain afte how they played against Germany. Instead we were presented with that anti-climax!

Italy played so poorly they made Spain look better than they were. Spain deserved the win, their record in knockout football since 2006 has been amazing. If they win in 2014 it will top off what is already a ridiculously impressive era!