Euro 2012 introduction – Artchive
After the long wait the European championships have finally landed and the tournament is well underway. On Friday we saw one of the best opening ceremonies we have ever seen in any championships of football and there was literally no expense spared by the Polish and Ukrainians. There has been much hype about the tournament and there is a huge amount of supporters who have done their very best to be here for the festivities.
In Group A we see that one of the hosts Poland have been pitted against Russia, Greece and the Czech Republic in what promises to be one of the most interesting groups in the tournament. Group B has been aptly named the group of death as this group features some of the tournament favourites in Germany, Denmark, Holland and Portugal. This group will by far be the most difficult to qualify from as many each and every team within it have the ability to win the competition if they are playing at their best.
Group C once again has been given the title of group of death as again it features some of the highest seeded teams in the competition such as the inners of the last two tournaments which of course are Spain and Italy. The group includes Croatia, Republic of Ireland, Italy and tournament favourites Spain and these games hopefully will prove to be very close indeed. The final group of the tournament is Group D which again has some fantastic teams within it and again it would be hard to predict the two teams which would qualify for the next round. Group D includes England, France, Sweden and joint tournament hosts Ukraine so as you can see this again will be a very tight group.
The favourites for the tournament are of course Spain as in many bookmakers you will gain odds of around 3/1 for them to retain their title by the end of the tournament. Second favourites for the tournament are the Germans as with their technical ability and past tournament experiences are one of the most highly rated teams at the competition and you will find odds of 10/3 for Germany. The third favourites for the competition are the French who have seen a large rebuilding project pay off dramatically over the past two years and who are now a handful for any team. If you shop around you will be able to get odds of 17/2 for the French to win the tournament which is a very good price considering they have been in a rebuilding project.
The forth favourites for the competition are the Russians who have themselves been one of the top form teams in the build up to the tournament. Many bookmakers will be offering odds of 12 //1 for the Russians to win the tournament which is very good odds for such a technically gifted squad. The fifth and final favourites we will look at are the Italians as this side have all the experience and players to cause a major upset in the competition. Many people have been unsupportive of the Italians including their own countrymen due to the match fixing scandal but this will only work in favour for the Italians as this has acted to take a huge amount of pressure off the squad as they are not expected to do that well hence the odds of 12/1 you will find at most gaming vendors.
All in all the tournament is all set to become one of the best in recent years and we will be following it all the way from start to finish so please feel free to check back at your leisure for all the latest news and happenings from Poland and the Ukraine.
