garyrozanski

December is always an interesting time, especially the year before a major football tournament takes place. The reason for all this interest was the draw takes place for the group stages of said major football tournament. Today in Kiev, the draw took place for Euro 2012.

Euro 2012 will be co-hosted by Poland & Ukraine, where 16 countries will vie for the chance to lift the coveted Henri Delaunay trophy on July 01.

England, who had failed to qualify for Euro 2008, qualified from Group G with relative ease – which is always a pleasant experience. During the draw, England were placed in Pot 2 – so it was more than possible that they’d be placed in the so called ‘Group of Death’. Thankfully the draw looked kindly upon the Three Lions, where they were picked with co-hosts Ukraine, France & Sweden.

By no means, this isn’t a simple & easy group to advance from but it could have been much worse. Don’t believe me, check out Group B.

Ok, so let’s look a little more in-depth at England’s Euro 2012 opponents…

Ukraine
They are the co-hosts, alongside Poland, so even though they are ranked 55th in the FIFA rankings, they’ll have the home crowd advantage. It is also Ukraine’s debut at Euro 2012.

During the World Cup in 2006, they reached the Quarter Finals – being knocked out by Italy. They failed to qualify for the World Cup 2010.

Ukraine’s main threat, if he is selected, will come from the aging Andriy Shevchenko. The guy is a goal machine, wherever he plays.

Sweden

Although England beat Sweden in a low-key friendly last month, they have yet to beat Sweden in an official tournament.

Sweden had an impressive qualifying period, finishing second to Holland but qualifying as the best runner-up amongst all the groups. They scored 31 goals during this period with Zlatan Ibrahimovic the leading goal scorer.

It is in my opinion that Sweden will be the dark horse of Euro 2012. They will be toughest of the three opponents that England will face in the group stage.

France
At the turn of the new millenium France were the team to beat, but after 2002 things began to go wrong – culminating in a disappointing 2010 World Cup and a very public falling out between a number of senior players and their former coach Raymond Domenech.

2012 will be a different French team, now managed by former player – Laurent Blanc. They lost only one of their qualifying games and, with only four goals conceded, it is easy to see Blanc’s influence. No other team in Poland and Ukraine were so parsimonious in the qualifying stages.

Their main threats will come from Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema, both quality players & often linked to Premiership clubs. Lets just hope they both concentrate on football, rather than underage prostitutes.

France are definitely not the same force that won the World Cup in 1998 and followed it up by winning Euro 2000. It’ll be interesting to see which French team turns up in Ukraine.

England will have to bring their good stuff to get out of this group & they will likely have to do it without Wayne Rooney, due to his suspension. England definitely have potential to do well at Euro 2012, but I’m fairly certain we always say that at every major tournament.

Roll on June 2012.