No weak teams in next years European Championships

All the teams have now been confirmed for next years European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.

When you look at the list of teams there are no weak ones in the competition. There are no teams seen as prospective whipping boys.

Usually a smaller nation manages to surprise everybody and qualify for the tournament but this years qualification campaign has gone almost as people expected it would.

Heavyweights

All the European heavyweights will be at the competition,  a rare occurrence because usually at least one fails to qualify. This will make for a very interesting tournament as there will be no easy games. It will interesting to see how the groups are seeded as well.

Some groups may end up with two or even three big European nations fighting it out for a place in the knockout stages from the group stages.

Outsiders

Spain, Holland and Germany made qualification look like a piece of cake as we would expect. Portugal and Croatia however had to make do with the play-offs. However nobody will really want those two dangerous teams in their group.

Both teams won their play-offs ties at a canter in the end and are strong teams on paper. They have flattered to deceive at their last few tournament appearances though. Maybe Euro 2012 will be their chance to shine.

Portugal are helped by the fact they have one of the worlds best players in their team in Cristiano Ronaldo. He helped himself to a brace in last nights 6-2 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. I don’t think he has ever done himself justice in a major international tournament just like his country. Maybe next year he will.

Finally

The Republic of Ireland have qualified for their first European Championships since 1988. Their 5-1 aggregate play-off victory over Estonia showed what a solid team they are. Ireland head coach Giovanni Trappatoni has made his team hard to beat by making them a good defensive unit.

Their success was very much built on good defensive tactics and clean sheets. They managed seven clean sheets in qualification. The defensive tactics wasn’t loved by every Irish supporter but I’m sure they will be more popular now the country have qualified for a first major tournament in ten years.

Favourites

Despite their being no weak teams in the competition there is still three clear favourites for the tournaments. Spain, Holland and Germany are the teams that most people would consider favourites for Euro 2012.

We all know about Spain’s exploits in the last three or four years. They go into Euro 2012 as defending champions and also World Champions. Their squad now looks even stronger than at previous tournaments.

Players like David Silva and Juan Mata have improved in the last few years and become Premier League regulars. This is the sort of strength in depth that Spain possess. They will be difficult to dethrone as European Champions.

At the heart of that is one of best midfields in the world. The likes of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta have an almost telepathic understanding and are the engine of the team.

The Dutch are also dangerous though. They got to last years World Cup final and won their qualification group by a canter. Their performance in the World Cup final didn’t do them justice. They tried to stifle Spain instead of playing their own game.

Holland are a team that play good football. There is even arguments in the country that the current team is better than Johan Cruyff’s fantastic team of the 70’s. The likes of Robin Van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben would get into most international sides.

Germany have enjoyed something of a renaissance in the last couple of years. They have a young, talented hungry team that did really well in South Africa and qualified for Euro 2012 with ease. The German youth production line is churning out good young players at an incredible rate after the game seemed to be in a slight depression .

However that depression has well and truly finished and Germany’s young team could be ready to challenge the likes of Spain and Holland for the big trophies once again.

Transition

England, France and Italy all had relatively straight forward qualifications campaigns. However I would say all three nations are in a transitional state. All three have gone through a similar process of bringing through new players after dreadful World Cup campaigns.

The fact that all three qualified may suggest that their new players have settled into the teams. I think its too early to consider these three as potential winners though as there are far stronger teams in the competition.

Exciting

Every big tournament contains an element of excitement but I believe next years European Championship could be a big tournament just because the likes of Holland, Germany and Spain are so well matched.

They are ranked as the three best teams in world football by FIFA and next years tournament could be something really special. Let the games begin!

Who will win next years European Championships?