Some Words About Euro 2012

Euro 2012 begins on Friday (Poland v Greece, kick off 5pm, so you shouldn't have to sneak away from work too early), so I suppose I'd better share some musings about the upcoming soccerfest

Group A (Arshavin, Austerity, Ambition, Ach Who Cares?)
Arguably the weakest of the groups contains 4 fairly evenly-matched teams, all of whom will harbour realistic expectations of progression to the knockout stages. Russia are the strongest of the 4, and should top the group. They have a genuinely top class keeper in the fit-again Igor Akinfeev to compensate for a less-than world class defence, while a tough, workmanlike midfield will provide an attacking platform for 1 exciting young playmaker (Alan Dzagoev) and 1 older, less exciting playmaker (Andrei Arshavin) to create openings for the lone frontman, who will be 1 from Alexandr Kerzhakov, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Pavel Pogrebnyak. Co-hosts Poland should join them in the knockout stages- centre-forward Robert Lewandowski has established himself as one of Europe's best srikers and is well-fancied by many to be the tournament's top scorer, his price having moved from 40/1 to 20/1 in the last few weeks. Lewandowski's Borussia Dortmund club mates, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piczczek will line up down the right flank of a fairly standard 4-2-3-1 formation in which the 2 DMs, likely to be Dariusz Dudka and Rafal Murawski, will hold and do little else. Arsenal's Wojciech Szczesny will be in goals. Regarding the other 2 teams in the group, the Czech Republic's golden generation have now moved on, while their impressive Under 21 crop from last summer are not yet ready to step up, while Greece offer very little aside from dogged tenacity in defence and the hope of a set-piece at the other end- it's unlikely to be enough to see them past a slick, determined Russia and a decent Polish side on home soil

Group B (Bundesliga, Bacon, Bento, Boiler Suits)
Ah, the old "group of death". Germany go into the tournament as 2nd favourites behind Spain, with all the old Teutonic efficiency of old, but these days with a sparkling, powerful attacking game with young uberstars like Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos and the World Cup Golden Boot winner Thomas Muller. 2 of these 4 will likely make up the 3 man attacking midfield (Lukas Podolski, a Nationalmannschaft veteran at the age of 27, should take the left-sided forward role) support to the lone frontman, the ageless Miroslav Klose. Concerns remain about the defence (not only is the awful Benedikt Howedes in the squad, he may actually play) but they were imperious in qualifying (10 wins from 10) and are capable of making it through this group with relative ease. Very strong chance of going all the way. Behind them, all 3 teams could conceivably go through. The bacon-munching Danes go into the tournament in good form- the loss of goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen was a blow but not an insurmountable one- Man Utd's Anders Lindegaard is an able deputy, while their key attacking threats are all fit and raring to go. Coach Morten Olsen is a wily old fox who will know how to extract the maximum from his side. Holland's fans will flock to the tournament to a man dressed in bright orange boiler suits with a potent attack but question marks over the playing style and the defence- Arjen Robben's propensity to screw up in crucial games is also not to be discounted. Portugal, under Paulo Bento, are basically Cristiano Ronaldo + a useless rabble of 10 others, which admittedly means they've still got a chance

Groups C and D will follow soooooon