Euro 2012 Thread

[charliepanayi]

Expected Quarterfinals:

Poland (Group A Winner) versus Netherlands (Group B Runner-up)
Germany (Group B Winner) versus Czech Republic (Group A Runner-up)
Spain (Group C Winner) versus England (Group D Runner-up)
France (Group D Winner) versus Italy (Group C Runner-up)

I fancy Poland to be the surprise team this year, based on a fairly easy group and the home-field advantage. The Netherlands will just beat out Portugal but will be behind tournament favorite Germany in Group B.

Spain meanwhile will sail through group C but I really think their lack of strikers will hurt them, maybe even against England. I think France gets top of the group thanks to goal difference over England, as I see both teams drawing their game and then beating the other two teams in the group.


Semis:

Poland (SHOCKER!) Versus Germany
England (SHOCKER!) Versus France

Final: Germany versus France

Golden Boot: Miroslav Klose (Once more for the golden oldie) or Karim Benzema



Take care all.

Just to say, your semi-final lineup can't happen - the draw works as follows:

Winner of Poland (Group A Winner) versus Netherlands (Group B Runner-up) plays winner of Spain (Group C Winner) versus England (Group D Runner-up)
Winner of Germany (Group B Winner) versus Czech Republic (Group A Runner-up) plays winner of France (Group D Winner) versus Italy (Group C Runner-up)

I'm going to tip Italy. Like France they're a lot better than they were in 2010, plus there's another match-fixing scandal like there was in 2006! I just feel they might revert to Good Italy for the tournament. Germany are an obvious threat. Spain will be there or thereabouts but I think they might find one team too good this time round. And I think England might go out in the group stage, with France and Sweden making it out of the group. Not too sure if there'll be a dark horse yet, Poland could be boosted by home advantage as mentioned though. And they have a good group to start with.

In most of these tournaments the team that everyone raves about during the group stage never wins it (in contrast Greece and Denmark both won just one group match when they went on to win the tournament), so whoever gets off to a flyer, don't expect them to go all the way.