Posts Tagged ‘euro 2012’

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Taking A Look At The UEFA Euro 2012 Finals

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

The Euro 2012 Finals  will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The tournament is the last one to be sixteen teams as the next one in 2016 will expand to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the tournament.

 

The games will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish venues to have matches will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian venues will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will be held in Kiev which will also have a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after development will be one of the top stadia and sporting complexes on the planet. The new arena in Warsaw is also being built and promises to be a state of the art stadium.

 

The draw for the tournament has already been made and qualifying matches will begin following the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Each of the 9 group winners and the best runner-up will get direct entry into the competition. Following that the remaining 8 runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would consider Germany and Turkey would be too resilient with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a three way fight with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be fairly simple for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take 2nd.

 

There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should really be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers by way of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and then finally from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time enthusiasm and expectancy for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.

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The Rise Of Roy Hodgson

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Under the superb guidance of Roy Hodgson, Fulham have reached the final of the 2010 Europa League defying the odds along the way. Fulham supporters have enjoyed a memorable campaign with wins over holders Shaktar Donetsk and Juventus.

 

As a player, Hodgson was on the books at Crystal Palace but never made a first team appearance. Hodgson started to make a name for himself when he moved into management. The early part of his career was in Sweden with Halmstads, Orebro and Malmo where he won the Swedish league against the odds with Halmstads in 1976 and 1979.

 

From there, Hodgson moved to Switzerland with Neuchatel Xamax before taking over the Swiss national team who he guided to the 1994 World Cup Finals and the 1996 Euro Finals. Hodgson next spent 2 years in Italy as manager of Inter Milan. In his final season as manager of Inter, they reached the 1997 UEFA Cup final before he headed to Blackburn Rovers. The move didn’t work out and he was sacked after 18 months.

 

For the next few years, Hodgson held a number of managerial positions but never really settled anywhere for long and in 2005, he took over the Finnish national team and took them tantalisingly close to the Euro 2008 finals.

 

At the end of 2007, Fulham offer Hodgson the managers job as at the time, they were struggling in the Premier League and needed a change of direction. Despite some poor initial results, Fulham stayed up and the following season Hodgson had worked his magic as they finished 7th, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

 

Fulham’s first season in Europe has been nothing short of spectacular. They have not had an easy route playing the holders, Juventus and the German champions on the way. Now, Atheltico Madrid stand in their way of glory in the final in Hamburg.

 

But what next for Roy Hodgson? There is no doubt that his influence on Fulham will have attracted the attentions of bigger clubs. Although Hodgson has been linked with the England job, Fabio Capello is doing a fine job and isn’t going anywhere. Perhaps it is a bit more realistic to think that Hodgson could well take over the English national team after the Euro 2012 finals.

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Who Will Go Through To Euro 2012 From Group G?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championship will be fierce with every team desperate to make it. There are nine groups in total. The nine group winners will qualify for the tournament along with the best runner-up. The remaining 8 runners-up will be drawn into two-legged play-offs. 

One of the main groups of interest in Group G which contains England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro. As the seeded team, England will be favourites to finish top of the group. That said, they failed to qualify for the last tournament. 

The main competition will come from Switzerland and Bulgaria. Switzerland have qualified for three of the last four European Championships but have failed to reach the knock out stages. They actually co-hosted the last tournament with Austria. They are a solid team without being anything special.  

Bulgaria have only qualified for the tournament twice, the last of which was in 2004. Again they have never made it past the group stage. They used to be a regular at the World Cup attending every one from 1962 to 1974 and then in 1986 and 1994 where it finished fourth. It hasn’t been back since 1998. 

Its big name players are Stiliyan Petrov who plays for Aston Villa and Dimitar Berbatov who plays for Manchester United.  

Wales only previous experience with this tournament was in 1976 and that was when it using a completely different format. The eight group winners of which Wales were one were drawn into two-legged playoffs and the winners qualified for the finals in Yugoslavia. That was the team who Wales lost to in the playoffs. This was the last time Wales appeared in the finals of a major tournament. 

Montenegro is only three years old. It used to be part of Yugoslavia and then Serbia and Montenegro. They will struggle to do well in the Euro 2012 Group G.

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Why UEFA Decided Some Euro 2012 Qualifying Fixtures

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

When the draw was made for the Euro 2012 championships, there was great excitement amongst the fans. Their thoughts turned to the new destinations they would visit following their team in their quest to make the finals which will be hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine.

Until the dates of the qualifiers were confirmed, travel plans couldn’t be made. Initially, the teams in the 9 qualifying groups were to hold a meeting to attempt to sort out the fixtures. The competing nations could chose to play the fixtures on any of the international dates between September 2010 and October 2011.

Within weeks of the Euro 2012 Qualifying draw being made, meetings were being held all round Europe and in five of the nine groups, fixtures were agreed which meant supporters could start making their travel plans. For the countries of the four remaining groups, the fixtures were decided by UEFA. Among the teams who didn’t agree fixtures were both England and Republic of Ireland who enjoy huge travelling support. This meant the loyal supporters had to wait a little longer to make their travel plans. Such delays only served to increase the anticipation and the more cynical supporters believed it was also an excuse for the officials of the various football associations to have another all expenses trip to Tel Aviv.

The countries from the four unresolved groups headed to Tel Aviv to await their fate at the hands of UEFA. The procedure was pretty straight forward. UEFA have a standard fixture list with fixtures such as A v B on a specific dates. All that was left to do was to draw the teams from each group into a letter thus giving the set of fixtures for the remaining four Euro 2012 Qualifying groups. Finally, supporters could start planning their trips.

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