Euro 2012 Thread

I'll get the predictions rolling shall I? :pac:

Group A:
Russia
Czech
Greece
Poland

Group B:
Germany
Holland
Portugal
Denmark

Group C:
Spain
Italy
Croatia
Ireland

Group
France
England
Ukraine
Sweden


Holland to beat the Russia, Germany to beat the Czechs, Spain to beat England and France to beat Italy in the QF's.

Spain to beat the Holland in the SF and Germnay to beat France.

Spain then to win it out.

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I'd be surprised if either of the hosts didn't get through but I can't see which one. I think I'm correct in saying Poland are a shambles and Ukraine have a difficult group. Spain -vs- Germnay should make for a cracking final,provided they get there. I really fancy France to do something special, they have a lot to prove after the shambles of a WC and they have a very good squad. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they managed to get to the final. England might surprise people if Harry takes over, but they will get to the SF at best, he doesn't have the tactical awareness to win a major tournament. Portugal have shockingly hard group, how 3 of the best 10 teams in the world are together is very surprising.

As for Ireland, I can only see us picking up a point against the Croatians. I can't see any other result than a loss against Spain, but then look at Switzerland in the last WC, and as for Italy, they seem to have gotten themselves in order.

All will be revealed soon enough though. I'll be interested to see how accurate my predictions are.

We'll top the group. Robbie Keane top scorer for the tournament.

Ireland will get out of the group,as they have done in 90,94,02.

We will inflict major revenge on Spain after robbing us in 02.

Positive thinking and all that.

cgpg5 wrote: »

Spain have no defence and will get caught out I feel.

:eek: They conceeded 2 goals at the WC 2010, and none in the knockout stages. Their constant presure on the ball from all eleven players coupled with their possesion makes them one of the best defensive teams around imo.

I don't think Ireland will get out of the group but I'm confident we will get a few points and maybe even a win (most likely v Italy).

Great odds on paddy power for top scorer, van persie at 10/1 huntelaar at 20/1. Same team of course but cant complain with them

cgpg5 wrote: »

Tbh the rest of their team is so good their defence rarely has much to do. But if tested I feel they could come unstuck. Ramos has to be one of the worst defending full-backs I've seen was awful v England recently, Pique is a United reject good on the ball but poor defender, Puyol is committed and a great warrior but prone to the odd error and left back has been a problem position in the last few years.

Agree about Ramos, he seems to do well at CB though. Pique is not a United reject. This article is probably crap (only using it because it came up top in a google search), but it references how Fergie said he never wanted to lose Pique, and even if you google it plenty more will come up.
Even still, Spain defence isn't their 4 players at the back, it's their whole team, which is what makes them so hard to score against. Look at any of their players when they don't have the ball, they hound the man in possesion.

Reganio 2 wrote: »

People are severely over-estimating Croatia I think. I don't rate Ireland at all, but Croatia aren't that great in the slightest.

I find this happening a lot. Everyone that was on off the ball as guest presenters while Ken was away had us down to lose or at best draw against Croatia. Is everyone remembering the Croatia of 2009/10? They're not as good as they were, struggled to qualify (Turkey collapsed in the playoffs in the first game but were the better team over the 2 legs). I can't see us losing to them and think we could definitely snatch a win. It's for the taking. Spain is a no brainer which would set up the final match against Italy as a massive game. Fingers crossed!

kitakyushu wrote: »

They gave us 2 pens in the game, played a good portion of extra-time with ten men (seemingly without Ireland even realising it?) and even missed two out of five pens in the shoot-out. I don't know how much more generous one could expect an opponent to be?

If they did rob us it was only because we left all the windows and doors to our house open and put a big sign over the porch saying 'we've gone on holidays for 2 weeks'.

Not to mention playing strikerless for a good chunk of time too!

Backing Germany to the hilt. Huntelaar represents excellent value at 20/1 for top goalscorer. 43 goals in 44 games for Schalke this season in all competitions.

THFC wrote: »

I'll get the predictions rolling shall I? :pac:

Group A:
Russia
Czech
Greece
Poland

Group B:
Germany
Holland
Portugal
Denmark

Group C:
Spain
Italy
Croatia
Ireland

Group
France
England
Ukraine
Sweden


Holland to beat the Russia, Germany to beat the Czechs, Spain to beat England and France to beat Italy in the QF's.

Spain to beat the Holland in the SF and Germnay to beat France.

Spain then to win it out.

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I'd be surprised if either of the hosts didn't get through but I can't see which one. I think I'm correct in saying Poland are a shambles and Ukraine have a difficult group. Spain -vs- Germnay should make for a cracking final,provided they get there. I really fancy France to do something special, they have a lot to prove after the shambles of a WC and they have a very good squad. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they managed to get to the final. England might surprise people if Harry takes over, but they will get to the SF at best, he doesn't have the tactical awareness to win a major tournament. Portugal have shockingly hard group, how 3 of the best 10 teams in the world are together is very surprising.

As for Ireland, I can only see us picking up a point against the Croatians. I can't see any other result than a loss against Spain, but then look at Switzerland in the last WC, and as for Italy, they seem to have gotten themselves in order.

All will be revealed soon enough though. I'll be interested to see how accurate my predictions are.

Italy have hardly got themselves in order. They lost their last two matches to USA and Uruguay and had a fairly uninspiring qualification drawing with Serbia and Northern Ireland while scraping a 1-0 win away to Faroe Islands! Plus we beat them 2-0 last year.

steelcityblues wrote: »

I wonder if results in qualifiers are an accurate way of predicting tournaments.

They're not the be all and end off of predictors but I certainly find them valid and useful data.

For instance the classic is Greece in 2004. They went into the 2004 finals as rank outsiders purely because of their name. So despite the fact that they won their qualifying group (ahead of Spain!), beat Spain *in* Spain, and won their last 6 games in a row with 6 clean sheets not many rated them.

Basically they had been doing the business that won them the tournament right in the qualifying stage yet not many people appeared to register it because they'd lost their opening 2 games.

If there's any unfavoured team in the 2012 who has a good run of results in the 2nd half of qualifying with few goals conceded then I'd keep an eye them.

Backing Germany to win this at 7/2, have a few quid on as we speak :cool:

I think France are 15/8 to beat England in the opener, I think that's a very good bet especially if Pearce is the English manager!

Not really thought about top scorer, RvP seems to obvious (yes, yes I know, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck!!) so I might have a few quid on Gomes come the start of the tournament.

Some nice jerseys to look forward to also

It always amazes me come new-jersey-time that a lot of the so called 'nice' ones are the kind of thing people wouldn't be caught dead in if they didn't have a football badge on them.

For me the simpler the better.

^^
I think England beating Spain is more unlikely than us getting to the final :pac:

Germany are a horrible price at a general 3/1-7/2. When you see that the current European and World champions Spain are 5/2 +, it really doesn't make sense that Germany are less than a point bigger. You then have a very good Holland side which ran Spain the closest in the WC, and they are more than double Germany's price at 15/2.

I can understand why they are so short. It happens in a hell of a lot of markets. You have an obvious favourite that people don't want to hammer into, so they look for a 'fashionable' alternative. This time it's Germany. I'll even expect their price to contract further in the coming months as lazy tipsters and football pundits who don't understand gambling will put them up as their selection.

I'm not saying they don't have a good chance. A good young side that performed admirably at the WC, and breezed through their qualification group. If they were 6/1+ i'd be putting them up as my selection. But that doesn't stop the 3/1 being a ridiculous price. They haven't shown enough to be so close to Spain in the betting.

If you're determined to back them at underpriced odds, at least don't back them outright. You'll get far more value just backing them at each stage. Look at their expected route. Giving very short conservative prices as an example, they are 3/10 to get out of the group, We'll say Greece in the QF (1/5), England in the SF (4/7) and Spain in the final (6/4)...3/10 x 1/5 x 4/7 x 6/4 = Over 5/1. That's a significant increase on the 7/2 available now.

I'm actually thinking Spain are a bet at 13/5 to win it out. Whilst the hunger may not be totally there, they may just be good enough to win regardless. They never hit form during the WC at all, yet were still good enough to win it in second gear. The last time they were at the Euro's, 08, they set the place alight and they may be an even better team now. Goals will be a slight worry, but as the WC showed, one is often enough as they control possession so well. I wouldn't back them now however. They started very slowly in the WC, and are only 1/7 to get out of the group. Little point in backing them now when they will likely still be 9/4 before the quarter finals. Back them then instead.

The only real juice I can see in an outsiders price at the moment is the 25's available on Portugal. Very tough group, but 25's is too big and they'll be a hell of a lot shorter should they make it to the QF.

Last time I checked Brazil, USA, Argentina and South Korea weren't involved in the EUROPEAN Championships.