Euro 2012: After the 1st set of games

12^th June

Euros 2012:    

     

So now that the first batch of group games have finished, some teams have come out on top and shown their class and others have not yet lived up to their billing. I will just give you a overview of what happened and what I think about it.

Group A:

Consisting of Russia, Poland, Greece and the Czech Republic, this group is really the weakest of all the groups in this year’s competition. As expected Russia came out firing against the Czech and thrashed them 4-1,while co-hosts Poland drew 1-1 with Greece in controversial game (with both teams  down to 10 men, Greece had their defender off and Poland had their goalie off).  Russia is anticipated to carry on their winning ways against the rest of the groups while smashing home a lot of goals. So the second spot very much up for grabs between the three other teams. 

Group B:

This group has been labelled the “Group of Death”, and rightly so with Germany, Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands pitted in one group. All of these teams are in the top 10 in the world. It was very much anticipated at the start of the comp, that this group would be a three horse race for this group. But after the first set of games, Denmark having pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament by beating Netherland 1-0, it would very much appear that Denmark have made their own plans to shake up this group even more. Germany were always expected to top this group, and they delivered a 1-0 victory over Portugal, thanks to a Mario Gomez header, which puts them top of group with some breathing room. But Holland will have to win the remainder of their games in order for them to have a chance of progressing.  It is now even harder to predict who will make it from this group, so the rest of the fixtures in this group will be crucial for all the teams and their definitely won’t be any easy games.

Group C:

This is not as harder to predict as Group B, but it is probably going to be that Spain top this group, with Italy and Croatia fighting for second spot, while Ireland will put up a good fight but will not have enough fire power to get past their European counterparts. Surprisingly it was Italy who struck first against reigning champions but it only lasted three minutes as Fabregas struck to level the game and it stayed that way with Torres coming on as a late sub and missing couple of good opportunities to take the lead. But it is Italy who would most likely happy with taking a point away from this game, while in the other Croatia beat Ireland 3-1 to put them top of this group.

Group D:

This group consisted of the co-host Ukraine, Sweden, the resurgent France and the underachievers England. The opener for this group was between England and France, with the game being billed as the attack (France) vs defence (England) game. As France possess the trio of Benzema, Nasri and Ribery, while this England team lack the creative flair however they do have Hodgeson well organised defence. The game turned to be just that with France holding about 60% of the procession to England 40%, and France registering 19 shots to England 3. But it was England who took a shock lead thanks to a well-executed free kick by captain fantastic (Steven Gerrard) finding Lescott in the box to head home. But nine minutes later, Nasri equalised with well stroke goal from the edge of the box to beat Joe Hart on the near post.  After that the game remained sllow paced and settled on a draw. While in the other the hosts pulled of another upset by downing Sweden 2-1 thanks to their captian Schevencko’s brace. So in this group it should be almost straight forward for England and France to progress through.

EUROS 2012 - POINTS TABLE
Group A:	W	L	D	GF	GA	P
Russia	1	0	0	4	1	3
Greece	0	0	1	1	1	1
Poland	0	0	1	1	1	1
Czech	0	1	0	1	4	0
Group B:	W	L	D	GF	GA	P
Denmark	1	0	0	1	0	3
Germany	1	0	0	1	0	3
Netherlands	0	1	0	0	1	0
Portugal	0	1	0	0	1	0
Group C:	W	L	D	GF	GA	P
Crotia	1	0	0	3	1	3
Italy	0	0	1	1	1	1
Spain	0	0	1	1	1	1
Ireland	0	1	0	1	3	0
Group D:	W	L	D	GF	GA	P
Ukraine	1	0	0	2	1	3
England	0	0	1	1	1	1
France	0	0	1	1	1	1
Sweden	0	1	0	1	2	0