UEFA Euro 2012 Thread

[BroadwayBomber55]

Okay football (soccer) fans,

It's time for another UEFA European Football Tournament.

It's UEFA Euro 2012 taking place in Poland and Ukraine.

From the opening round draws on February 7, 2010 to the final whistle on July 1, 2012, you can talk smack about it.

It is also the last time that the UEFA European Football Tournament will have sixteen teams competing because in UEFA Euro 2016, the competition will expand to a field of 24.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro2012/index.html

[BroadwayBomber55]

Euro 2012 Qualifying seedings
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...europe&cc=5901

Keep in mind, Poland and Ukraine are automatically qualified at joint hosts.

Pot One: Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia.

Pot Two: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania.

Pot Three: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Pot Four: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus.

Pot Five: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein.

Pot Six: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino.

More information about how the co-efficents are decided can be found on the UEFA website.

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/...7_DOWNLOAD.pdf

[BroadwayBomber55]

The UEFA 2012 Qualifying Draw
Sunday February 7, 2010 at 12:00 CET/6 AM ET/3 AM PT
http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/...2_download.pdf

You can follow it on ESPN360.com

[NyQuil]

Mon Scotland, England and Holland.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Warsaw ready to stage Euro 2012 draw
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...europe&cc=5901

[BroadwayBomber55]

The UEFA 2012 Qualifying draw seedings
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...europe&cc=5901

The nine group winners, along with the best runner-up, will automatically make it to Ukraine and Poland. The other eight runners-up will face a two-legged play off to complete the 16-team line-up.

Groups 1-6 will have results involving the nation which finishes bottom of the group removed to determine the best runner-up. The makes sure all second place teams will be evaluated based upon eight matches.

SEEDINGS:
Pot 1: Spain (holders), Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia
Pot 2: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Pot 4: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus
Pot 5: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein
Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

[BroadwayBomber55]

EURO 2012 DRAW LIVE: All the updates
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/live?id=736079&cc=5901

6 AM ET/3 AM PT in North America 11 AM GMT in the UK.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Qualifying draw details via ESPN Soccernet Live Chat:
10:49

Dale Johnson:
Right, a quick overview of how qualification works. Basically, 16 teams will be in Poland and Ukraine - the hosts of course being two of them. There will be nine qualifying groups, made up of the 51 eligible European nations. The group winners qualify automatically, as does the best runner-up. The other eight runners-up have a two-legged play-off - as was the case for the World Cup - to take the last four places.
Sunday February 7, 2010 10:49 Dale Johnson
10:50

Dale Johnson:
There will be six groups of six nations, and three groups of five nations. This of course means there has to be a fair rule to pick out the best runner-up. For the groups with six nations, the results against the team which finishes bottom will be ignored, so all runners-up will be judged on eight matches.

10:51

Dale Johnson:
One small point about the draw, Buried in the rules of the draw procedure is a mandate from UEFA that Russia, in pot one, and Georgia, in pot 5, must be kept apart. UEFA really fear serious trouble if they were to face each other so they have gone against their usual policy with this, they normally ignore political reasoning.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Qualifying Rounds: September 2010 to October 2011

Play-Offs: November 2011.

[BroadwayBomber55]

From ESPN Soccernet Live Chat:

Nice tribute with Frederic Chopin and the most memorable goals in the UEFA European Football Championship tournament history.

Andriy Shevchenko and Zbigniew Boniek are on to make the draw, legend of Ukraine and Poland. They are now being interviewed.

[BroadwayBomber55]

The venues for UEFA Euro 2012

Poland: Warsaw Poznań Wrocław Gdańsk
National Stadium
Capacity: 55,920 Municipal Stadium
Capacity: 45,830 Stadium in Maślice
Capacity: 42,771 PGE Arena Gdańsk
Capacity: 44,000

Ukraine: Kiev Donetsk Lviv Kharkiv
NSK Olimpiyskyi
Capacity: 69,004 Donbass Arena
Capacity: 51,504 Lemberg Stadium
Capacity: 33,500 Metalist Stadium
Capacity: 41,411

[BroadwayBomber55]

Here we go...

2012 UEFA Football Tournament Qualifying groups via ESPN Soccernet and ESPN360.com

53 teams; 9 groups; six groups of six nations and three groups of five nations

Group A: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Austria, Turkey and Germany

Group B: Andorra, Armenia, FYR Macedonia, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia and Russia

Group C: Faroe Islands, Estonia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Serbia and Italy

Group D: Luxembourg, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania and France

Group E: San Marino, Moldova, Hungary, Finland, Sweden and Netherlands

Group F: Malta, Georgia, Latvia, Israel, Greece and Croatia

Group G: Montenegro, Wales, Bulgaria, Switzerland and England

Group H: Iceland, Cyprus, Norway, Denmark and Portugal

Group I: Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Scotland, Czech Republic and Spain

[BroadwayBomber55]

Nashwan vs. Alex

It's the Merseyside Derby, UEFA style.

England vs. Wales

[Nashwan]

Nashwan vs. Alex

It's the Merseyside Derby, UEFA style.

England vs. Wales

Not the easiest of the Groups but I'd be surprised if England failed to top it at the end of the qualifying games.

I just tuned in this afternoon as that stupid "Sky" reporter got short shrift from both Fabio Capello and John Toshack for attempting to bring the words "John" and "Terry" into the conversation about the European Championships. Well done, chaps.

[ajra21]

we got each other again ... oh well, if you want tickets at the millennium, let me know. i should be able to get a few.

not the easiest group? england should be looking to win every game.

nash, what did the sky reporter do?

[ajra21]

Nashwan vs. Alex

It's the Merseyside Derby, UEFA style.

England vs. Wales

nah, england v scotland is the derby. wales v england is more like newcastle playing middlesborough. it gets lip service even though everyone knows newcastle's rivals are sunderland.

[BroadwayBomber55]

Okay folks,

Believe it or not, UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying starts on August 11th.

[BroadwayBomber55]

UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying

Fixtures from UEFA.com

August 11

Group C 19:00 Estonia vs Faroe Islands
Referee: Ante Vučemilović-Šimunović Jr. (CRO)
Stadium: A Le Coq Arena, Tallinn (EST)

[BroadwayBomber55]

UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying

Qualifying Group FT Scores from UEFA.com and ESPN Soccernet

August 11

Group C
Estonia 2-1 Faroe Islands

[BroadwayBomber55]

UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying

Group Stages

From UEFA.com

The road to Poland/Ukraine for Euro 2012 starts on September 2 for the rest of the teams.

There are a total of nine groups. Six of these groups have six teams (one each from pots 1 to 6 below); the remaining three groups consist of five teams (one each from pots 1 to 5 below). At the conclusion of qualifying, the team at the top of each group will qualify automatically. The second-placed team with the most points from games versus the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams will qualify also. The remaining eight second-placed teams will contest two-legged playoffs for the right to join them.

Qualifying Group Stage Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
2. Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question
4. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question
5. If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply
6. Results of all group matches:
1. Superior goal difference
2. Higher number of goals scored
3. Higher number of goals scored away from home
4. Fair play conduct
7. Drawing of lots

[BroadwayBomber55]

UEFA 2012 Qualifying

From UEFA.com
The following 18 dates are reserved for group matches in qualifying:

* 3/4 and 7 September 2010
* 8/9 and 12 October 2010
* 25/26 and 29 March 2011
* 3/4 and 7 June 2011
* 2/3 and 6 September 2011
* 7/8 and 11 October 2011

For the first time, Tuesday evenings replace Wednesday evenings for midweek qualifying fixtures where two matchdays occur in the same week. This is in order to allow players an extra day to return to their clubs for domestic duty the following week. Consequently, teams are permitted to move the earlier weekend match forward to the Friday evening. Where matches are scheduled for a Friday evening, there remains a possibility that the fixture will actually be played on the Saturday.

[BroadwayBomber55]

BB55's Predictions - UEFA 2012 Qualifying: Group A

Group Winner: Germany
Group Runner-up: Turkey

3. Belgium
4. Austria
5. Kazakhstan
6. Azerbaijan

[BroadwayBomber55]

BB55's Predictions - UEFA 2012 Qualifying: Group B

Group Winner: Russia
Group Runner-Up: Slovakia

3. Republic of Ireland
4. Macedonia
5. Armenia
6. Andorra

[BroadwayBomber55]

BB55's Predictions - UEFA 2012 Qualifying: Group C

Group Winner: Italy
Group Runner-Up: Serbia

3. Slovenia
4. Northern Ireland
5. Estonia
6. Faroe Islands

[BroadwayBomber55]

BB55's Predictions - UEFA 2012 Qualifying: Group D

Group Winner: France
Group Runner-Up: Bosnia and Herzegovina

3. Romania
4. Belarus
5. Albania
6. Luxembourg