European Championship groups drawn to suit bigger nations

Before we’ve even had the World Cup, the draw for European Championships in 2012 has been made. Now what jumps out at me straight away is that there is a big name in each group. I know well worked out Einstein! However I do have a point (somewhere!).

Sure

I think the way the draw is made has a big hand in ensuring the bigger European football nations are at Euro 2012.

When you look at the draw it looks obvious that the top seeded team from each group will qualify for the finals in Ukraine and Poland.

However just like the World Cup qualifying there are always surprises along the way in qualifying, a big example being Russia falling in the play-offs to un-fancied Slovenia. The nine top seeded sides won’t all be strong enough to qualify for the finals.

However if they are not group winners they will also have the backup of the best runners-up spot. Then even the play-offs for the runners-up in each group. It seems that UEFA are aiming to have the biggest European teams and players at Ukraine/Poland 2012, at the expense of some the smaller nations.

Not Easy

England are in group G with Montenegro, Wales, Bulgaria and Switzerland. It doesn’t appear to be the hardest group at first glance. However none of the teams in the group are pushovers. I really don’t think any of the games will prove easy for the Three Lions.

The biggest threat in the group would be the Swiss. They were superb in World Cup qualifying and topped their group. They are now a well drilled side capable of competing with most European international sides.

Bulgaria have proven a bit of an enigma in recent qualifying and their performance in World Cup was disappointing. On the other hand they possess some really good players. Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov is their star turn. The former Tottenham star is his countries all time leading scorer and captain and is vital to his countries chances of success.

They also have the class of Stiliyan Petrov and Martin Petrov in midfield. However they are currently going through a transitional period and need to find some sort of stability and consistency that has been lacking in recent years.

Wales are another side in transition but have a group of good young players coming through. Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey is a talented youngster and will have a bit more experience under his belt by the time qualification comes around and will cause England problems.

Montenegro are seen as one of the weakest sides in the group. They shouldn’t be underestimated either. Their star player is Roma’s mercurial striker Mirko Vucinic. He is capable of producing the brilliant but at times his attitude can overshadow his talent.

The biggest team in danger of missing out from the top nine seeded teams are Croatia. The reason for this is their underperformance in World Cup qualifying and also because they have the tough Greeks in their group.

Greece are starting to come out of a slight slump after qualifying for the World Cup with a play-off victory over Ukraine. They now have a good mixture of youth and experience in their squad and could pull off a shock by topping group F.

In the past some of the Greek players have been as old as some of the statues in Athens. Their squad now has younger players coming through. The likes of striker Kostas Mitroglu and full-back Vasilis Torosidis are younger highly-rated players and could be set for moves to bigger leagues in the near future.

Shocks

In every qualifying campaign there are shock qualifiers. You only have to look at this year’s World Cup qualifying campaign for proof of that. The likes of Slovakia, Switzerland and Serbia all won their groups ahead of so called bigger footballing nations.

It’s the beauty of qualifying that it can prove so unpredictable. One of the bigger countries in Europe will probably miss out on Euro 2012, but which country will it be? I can’t see Fabio Capello letting it be England but it’s happened before and it could happen again.