Euro 2012 Preview Group A

By Carl Remner on v2 journal - http://v2journal.com/group-a-preview-euro-2012.html

Euro 2012 - Preview by group

Group A

Poland

What better place to start than with the joint hosts, and the first seeds in Group A. Their FIFA ranking has them as the lowest rated team at the tournament in 62nd place, but they’re a much better team than this suggests. They had disastrous World Cup 2010 qualification campaign, where they finished 5th, ahead of only San Marino, in a group that contained Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia. They’ve lost only once in 12 games since in the past year or so, and in Wojciech Szczesny, they have a strong Goalkeeper that seems to have finally solved Arsenal‘s problem in that area.

They also have three double-winning players from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. Striker Robert Lewandowski, winger Jakub Blaszczykowski and full-back Lukasz Piszczek are not just great Scrabble scores, but were all a big part of Dortmund’s all-conquering side. Lewandowski in particular, could well give Poland a cutting edge that the other sides in the group don’t have. He’s likely to play up front on his own where he’s effective in the air and very mobile. He notched 22 goals in the Bundesliga last season, including the only goal in the win against Bayern Munich which effectively won them the title. He then scored a hat-trick in the cup final, again against Bayern so he’ll be full of confidence going in to the opener against Greece. Having a noisy and plentiful home crowd behind them will certainly give them a huge advantage and I expect them to qualify, but not as group winners.

Group placing prediction: 2nd

One to watch: Robert Lewandowski


Greece

We all remember the scintillating football that Greece played to win the Euros in 2004 don’t we? Right? Well, expect more of the same with this team. Coach Fernando Santos is as much a pragmatist as his predecessor Otto Rehhagel, so they’ll be very tough to beat and the last couple of years have shown that. They’ve lost just once in 21 games giving them the best recent record of any team going in to the tournament. Having said that, they had a very easy qualifying group and have played very little quality opposition in that time, losing to Romania at home in the process.

Greece do have one of those players of diminutive stature that inevitably gets dubbed the “(Enter team name here) Messi” in Giannis Fetfatzidis. The “Greek Messi” is a very raw talent and is unlikely to start against Poland but may have the ability to change a game. It’s whether or not coach Santos will let him off the reins. Veteran Giorgios Karagounis is one of the few survivors of the 2004 winning team, along with Kostas Katsouranis, and most things will go through them. There’s a severe lack of goals in this team, and whilst that didn’t hinder them in 2004, it’s going to be their undoing this time.

Group placing prediction: 4th

One to watch: Giannis Fetfatzidis


Russia

They were outstanding at Euro 2008, playing some of the best football in the tournament, reaching the semi-final where they lost to the winners Spain. But with the same players, they failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, losing in a play-off with Slovenia. No such problems with qualifying this time as they finished top of their group, ahead of the Republic of Ireland. They come in to the tournament on the back of a very convincing 3-0 win against Italy in Switzerland. There’s plenty of recognisable players from the Premier League, including their captain Andrey Ashavin who has been struggling for form. He had a rough couple of seasons for the most part, and has not exactly been pulling up trees with this loan move to Zenit St. Petersburg.

They’re dark horses to many (including me) to win the tournament and with the World Cup in 2018 going to Russia, the pressure is on to produce a team capable of winning a trophy. The hope lies on the shoulders of two of the youngsters in squad, attacking midfielder Alan Dzagoev of CSKA Moscow and winger Alexandr Kokorin of Dinamo Moscow. Dzagoev in particularly is likely to make an impact as he’s almost certain to start and is very direct. I don’t see any problems with Russia getting out of this group and I think they’ll top it.

Group placing prediction: 1st

One to watch: Alan Dzagoev


Czech Republic

It was always going to be a big ask for the Czechs to qualify ahead of Spain in qualification for Euro 2012 and that was proven, as they finished second to the Spanish. The Czechs were helped on their way though, when Scotland became the first team in history to play a formation that did not include any strikers in Prague. They comfortably saw off Montenegro in the play-offs but have only picked up one win since September 2011 when they beat Ukraine 4-0. A loss to Hungary at home and then 0-0’s against Japan and Peru suggests a lack bite in front of goal. They do still have Milan Baros however, and he seems to turn up when a tournament comes around.

Petr Cech had a fantastic season with Chelsea and looked to be back to some of his best form, so he’s going to be hard to beat. They have a real threat from the back in Michal Kadlec, who likes to get forward and score goals. But they will mainly look to their “Little Mozart” Tomáš Rosický to get the team going. He certainly showed some good form at Arsenal last season but it was only in patches really. I can’t see him having enough influential to see this very average side through.

Group placing prediction: 3rd

One to watch: Václav Pilar