Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine

[Daedalus]

Is anyone looking forward to the tournament this summer?

Any predictions or thoughts about who will do well and who will go home early?

How do we think the hosts will do?

And what about England's chances? Could we have a half decent tournament for the first time in a long while?

There are details of the groups and the fixtures here - www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/european-championship/2012/groups-schedule

The tournament kicks off in 21 days from this post with Poland opening against Greece on Friday 8th June.

England's first game of the tournament will be against France on Monday 11th June, kick off at 17:00.

In the group stages, there are some very tasty looking games involving the 'heavy-weights', including:
Germany v Portugal
Spain v Italy
France v England
Netherlands v Germany
Portugal v Netherlands

The groups are as follows:

Group A
Czech Rep.
Greece
Poland
Russia

Group B
Denmark
Germany
Netherlands
Portugal

Group C
Croatia
Italy
R. of Ireland
Spain

Group D
England
France
Sweden
Ukraine

Group B surely being the group of death!

I'll post up the England squad and fixtures in the next post!

[Daedalus]

England squad:

#	Pos.	Player	Date of Birth (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Joe Hart	19 April 1987 (aged 25)	17	0	Manchester City
12	GK	Robert Green	18 January 1980 (aged 32)	11	0	West Ham United
23	GK	John Ruddy	24 October 1986 (aged 25)	0	0	Norwich City
2	DF	Glen Johnson	23 August 1984 (aged 27)	35	1	Liverpool
3	DF	Ashley Cole	20 December 1980 (aged 31)	93	0	Chelsea
5	DF	Gary Cahill	19 December 1985 (aged 26)	8	2	Chelsea
6	DF	John Terry	7 December 1980 (aged 31)	72	6	Chelsea
13	DF	Leighton Baines	11 December 1984 (aged 27)	7	0	Everton
17	DF	Joleon Lescott	16 August 1982 (aged 29)	14	0	Manchester City
20	DF	Phil Jones	21 February 1992 (aged 20)	4	0	Manchester United
4	MF	Steven Gerrard (captain)	30 May 1980 (aged 32)	90	19	Liverpool
7	MF	Scott Parker	13 October 1980 (aged 31)	11	0	Tottenham Hotspur
8	MF	Frank Lampard	20 June 1978 (aged 33)	90	23	Chelsea
11	MF	Ashley Young	9 July 1985 (aged 26)	19	5	Manchester United
14	MF	Theo Walcott	16 March 1989 (aged 23)	22	3	Arsenal
16	MF	James Milner	4 January 1986 (aged 26)	24	0	Manchester City
18	MF	Gareth Barry	23 February 1981 (aged 31)	52	3	Manchester City
21	MF	Stewart Downing	22 July 1984 (aged 27)	33	0	Liverpool
22	MF	Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain	15 August 1993 (aged 18)	0	0	Arsenal
9	FW	Andy Carroll	6 January 1989 (aged 23)	3	1	Liverpool
10	FW	Wayne Rooney	24 October 1985 (aged 26)	73	28	Manchester United
15	FW	Jermain Defoe	7 October 1982 (aged 29)	46	15	Tottenham Hotspur
19	FW	Danny Welbeck	26 November 1990 (aged 21)	4	0	Manchester United

Standby players - Jack Butland, Phil Jagielka, Jordan Henderson, Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge.

This page on Wikipedia is a good resource for information about the other named squads for this tournament - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012_squads

[Daedalus]

Monday 11th June 17:00 (being shown on ITV)
France v England

Friday 15th June 19:45 (being shown on BBC One)
Sweden v England

Tuesday 19th June 19:45 (being shown on ITV)
England v Ukraine


If England were to qualify from Group D, they will be drawn to play a team from Group C (Croatia, Italy, R. of Ireland or Spain).

Full details of the groups & fixtures here - www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/european-championship/2012/groups-schedule

[Daedalus]

Hopefully Hatboy will post us up some latest odds for the tournament!

[COYS]

That's the first time I've seen the squad numbers, and they're pretty interesting. I think they give an idea of Hodgson's intentions.

Clearly Johnson will be our first-choice right-back (unbelievably), having been given the number 2 shirt, while Carroll looks like he'll be heavily involved in Rooney's absence as he's been handed number 9. The fact that Gerrard, Parker and Lampard have been given numbers 4, 7 and 8 respectively might suggest that they'll be Hodgson's first choice midfield trio in a 4-5-1? Or am I reading too much into this?

The way I see it, it looks like the team vs France will be:

GK - Hart
RB - Johnson
LB - Cole
CB - Terry
CB - Cahill
DM - Parker
CM - Lampard
CM - Gerrard (c)
AM - Young
AM - Welbeck?
FC - Carroll

Would others agree with that? I'm not sure about whether Welbeck, Walcott or someone will start in that other 'winger' slot, or even if Roy will go 4-5-1, I do hope so though.

[Hatboy]

May 18, 2012 15:54:56 GMT Daedalus said:

Hopefully Hatboy will post us up some latest odds for the tournament!

Sorry haven't been on for a few days.

Best available pre tournament odds:

Spain 11/4
Germany 10/3
Holland 7/1
France 62/5
England 25/2

[Daedalus]

May 18, 2012 17:36:08 GMT COYS said:

The fact that Gerrard, Parker and Lampard have been given numbers 4, 7 and 8 respectively might suggest that they'll be Hodgson's first choice midfield trio in a 4-5-1? Or am I reading too much into this?

I suspect Hodgson will play 4-4-2 or some variation on that shape (4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1). I don't expect him to play a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 shape personally.

Interestingly, in his press conference the other day, he was still talking in 4-4-2 terms saying, for example, that Carroll will start the match tonight but that he is still looking into options for the second striker. I guess we'll find out more tonight!

There are some interesting videos on the UEFA site about Hodgson's views on certain playing systems and styles. Here are a couple of them that I found quite interesting to watch:

Hodgson on 4-4-2

Hodgson on 4-3-3

However, these videos are of a younger Hodgson, so it could well be that he views have changed based on recent experiences. That said, check his profile on this site (www.football-lineups.com/coach/159/) and he has generally tended towards 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 shapes.

We'll definitely get more of a clue about what his intentions are tonight anyway!

[Daedalus]

May 21, 2012 21:42:24 GMT Hatboy said:

Sorry haven't been on for a few days.

Best available pre tournament odds:

Spain 11/4
Germany 10/3
Holland 7/1
France 62/5
England 25/2

Thanks Hatboy!

[Boomer]

May 21, 2012 21:42:24 GMT Hatboy said:

May 18, 2012 15:54:56 GMT Daedalus said:

Hopefully Hatboy will post us up some latest odds for the tournament!

Sorry haven't been on for a few days.

Best available pre tournament odds:

Spain 11/4
Germany 10/3
Holland 7/1
France 62/5
England 25/2

62/5 and 25/2? What sort of Mickey Mouse odds are they? As a matter of interest, Hatboy, what are the odds on Italy winning? They have had a pretty poor record in the Euros, of late. It has to change sooner or later, methinks.

[Deleted]

Latest odds from Ladbrokes :-
5/2 Spain
3/1. Germany
7/1. Holland
9/1. England
11/1 France
12/1 Italy
20/1 Portugal
20/1 Russia
40/1 Bar

[Hatboy]

[/quote]


62/5 and 25/2? What sort of Mickey Mouse odds are they? As a matter of interest, Hatboy, what are the odds on Italy winning? They have had a pretty poor record in the Euros, of late. It has to change sooner or later, methinks.[/quote]


Those are the Best odds available squezing a little extra out


Winner

Spain 11/4 bet365
Germany 76/25 betfair
Holland 15/2 coral
England 12 paddypower
France 12 bet365

The Best odds about for Italy are 14/1 with most bookmakers

[Saint]

Three interesting results from last night:

Portugal 0-0 Macedonia
Switzerland 5-3 Germany
Holland 1-2 Bulgaria

[EFMTFTV]

I went to Norway, dull game but our Norwegian Branch looked after me well

[Hatboy]

Best available odds for the open weekends matches:


Poland (11/10) v (23/10) Greece (7/2)
Russia (5/4) v (9/4) Czech Republic (3)

Netherlands (8/13) v (3) Denmark (6)
Germany (1) v (5/2) Portugal (10/3)

Spain (4/5) v (11/4) Italy (9/2)
Republic of Ireland (14/5) v (9/4) Croatia (5/4)

[Daedalus]

Thanks Hatboy! Some really tasty looking games on the opening weekend!

Looks like Germany are leading in our little poll on this thread. Nobody has voted for England, I see!

[Hatboy]

Best odds for tomorrow's game

Sweden (3) v (12/5) England (6/5)

First goalscorer best odds

Danny Welback & Andy Carroll 7/1
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 8/1
Ashley Young 9/1

[Hatboy]

Best odds available for tomorrow nights game:

England (6/5) v (5/2) Ukraine (3)

First goalscorer best odds:

Wayne Rooney 11/2
Danny Wellback & Andy Carroll, 15/2
Jermain Defoe 9/1
Andriy Shevchenko & Ashley Young 9/1

[Daedalus]

So is everyone enjoying the Euros?

England to get beaten by Italy or to get to the semi-finals for the first time since 1996? What do we think?

Have a feeling that it won't be a thriller by any stretch of the imagination but I hope maybe England have a chance to keep it tight and maybe grab a goal from a set piece. Italy haven't looked too great and they made hard work of beating Ireland but then the Italians are masters at getting results in these big tournaments.

Has anyone changed their prediction by now? Obviously, the three who voted for Netherlands must have done!

[Hatboy]

Best odds for England v Italy

England (19/10) v (21/10) Italy (19/10)
To Qualify both 19/20

Correct score:
1-1 11/2
0-0 6/1
1-0 both 6/1
2-1 England 11/1
2-1 Italy 12/1
2-0 both 15/1
2-2 25/1

First goal scorer:

No scorer and Wayne Rooney 6/1
Mario Balotelli and Antonio Di Natale 8/1
Danny Welbeck 9/1
Antonio Cassano 10/1

[AFF]

Sheesh.
I don't have Sky so I could hardly contain my excitement at the opportunity to watch 90 minutes of high class football on terrestrial TV when England played.
Phew!
Is that what it's like watching Premiership football each week?
Who does Milner play for? What age is he?
Tell me this. When England go out and play like they did against Italy, does the manager tell' 'em to play like that? This is the cream of English football so presumably they are capable of playing in any style they want to. Or do the "senior players" get together in the tunnel and say to each other. "Nah. Forget what the Gaffer said, let's play this way"?

[Daedalus]

There is a good article by Brian Glanville on the World Soccer website: Pirlo’s masterclass exposes dearth of English creativity

In general, I think there have been some poor games during the knock-out stages of this tournament. Germany v Italy last night has probably been the most entertaining match. I hope that the Italians now go on to beat Spain in the final!