Euro 2012 seeding

TheMooseHunter wrote:

I Andy I wrote:

Nope, it's A and C - B and D so they can avoid Ukraine and poland facing eachother

It's C - D.

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2012/matches/round=15173/index.html

That's just as bad

ResurrectionRooney wrote:Most of the English seem pretty optimistic, I'm not sure why. Ukraine have home advantage, Sweden are virtually unbeatable as far as England are concerned and France are a team who are probably about as good as England.

Think we will beat Sweden and France though. Gotta remember away from home we are pretty good.

Muhkoo wrote:Well we're boned. Atleast Christian Eriksen got what he wanted, playing Netherlands and his idol Özil with Germany.

Judging from how you played against Portugal in your last qualifier I'd say you have a pretty fair chance at getting second tbh. That is if you can manage to play like that throughout the qualifier

Sammys_Tekkers wrote:So, Portugal and Denmark were in the same qualifying group aswell?

Yep, and the qualification for world cup too. Oh and same group as Netherlands in the world cup. We haven't played Germany for anything important since 1992 or so.

Portugal were awful against us in the last match, we still haven't played our best vs their best. Over the last 5 matches we have only lost once, where half our team was injured nearly against them in Portugal, 3-1 at the beginning of this qualification. I have doubts how we will fare if their best are all ready for the tournament. That is if Ricardo Cavalho and the likes are back on the team, their defense is all kinds of crap with Rolando etc.

James wrote:

ResurrectionRooney wrote:Most of the English seem pretty optimistic, I'm not sure why. Ukraine have home advantage, Sweden are virtually unbeatable as far as England are concerned and France are a team who are probably about as good as England.

Think we will beat Sweden and France though. Gotta remember away from home we are pretty good.

France looked a class above England when they faced them at Wembley not so long ago.

Is it 1000 miles from the hotel to our first match?

We're optimistic because it could have been a lot worse. Ukraine will be tough no doubt, especially at home, but we do seem to do well away from Wembley in Europe. Sweden we beat a couple of weeks ago with a 'weakened' side, still will be tough but they are beatable. France are beatable as well, they're not as great as they used to be. We can beat them, if we set out defensively like we did against Spain. Though would take a draw from that and win the other two. I think 7 points is a realistic target from our group.

We have a fairly difficult group.
Not sure why people are saying its easy.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

James wrote:


Think we will beat Sweden and France though. Gotta remember away from home we are pretty good.

France looked a class above England when they faced them at Wembley not so long ago.

Fairly sure France still had a number of players banned in that game aswell.

If Rooney is out for all three games England will not get through.

Guardian

"Zlatan Ibrahimovic"
"The influential Internazionale striker remains the only true world class talent in the squad."

Laurencio wrote:Guardian

"Zlatan Ibrahimovic"
"The influential Internazionale striker remains the only true world class talent in the squad."

Keanoo wrote:

Laurencio wrote:Guardian

"Zlatan Ibrahimovic"
"The influential Internazionale striker remains the only true world class talent in the squad."

World class team ruiner in the squad.

Sweden will go far if he gets injured, Elmander Toivonen, Bajrami and John Guidetti, are better for the team

grenade187 wrote:We have a fairly difficult group.
Not sure why people are saying its easy.

Compared to groups B and C, it's pretty fucking easy.

Muhkoo wrote:

Keanoo wrote:

World class team ruiner in the squad.

Sweden will go far if he gets injured, Elmander Toivonen, Bajrami and John Guidetti, are better for the team

Nonsense. Ibrahimovic provides something no other player does. Sweden might play well without him at times, but when he's in form and "on" he's one of the best players on the planet.

Not to worry for England, our group is EASY

England
Arseholes
Sweden
Youkraine

Laurencio wrote:

Muhkoo wrote:

World class team ruiner in the squad.

Sweden will go far if he gets injured, Elmander Toivonen, Bajrami and John Guidetti, are better for the team

Nonsense. Ibrahimovic provides something no other player does. Sweden might play well without him at times, but when he's in form and "on" he's one of the best players on the planet.

Its not nonsense, most Swedish realistic football fans would agree with it, 1 out of 10 he may do well and get that game winner for Sweden, seen it happen in Euro 2004 and 2008 as i recall, but in the rest he seems to be mostly in the way. He was breaking the ball well in the match against Denmark recently but instead of playing Elmander or Kålstrøm he lost it again, it has been like that more times than the Swedish fans care for.

LFC_Grunners wrote:

Weather130 wrote:ESPN has some way to predict who is more likely to advance from each group they have Poland at 55.7% chance at advancing.

Link me?

I cannot quite find a link for this, but it has to do with Soccer Power Index (SPI) that the American ESPN created this year.

Some of the rankings;

1 Germany

2 Spain

3 Brazil

4 Portugal

5 Netherlands

6 Uruguay

7. England

8 Argentina

9 Mexico

10 Ivory Coast..

12 Sweden (6th in UEFA)

13 Croatia (7th in UEFA)

14 France (8th in UEFA)

16 Russia (9th in UEFA)

17 Italy (10th in UEFA)

20 Czech Republic (12th in UEFA)

21 Ukraine (13th in UEFA)

25 Denmark (14th in UEFA)

30 ROI (15th in UEFA)

41 Poland (21st in UEFA)

45 Greece (23rd in UEFA)

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/spi/rankings?cc=5901

This ranking system from ESPN is quite interesting Andorra 143rd San Marino 186th even when neither team beats anyone and then you have American Samoa 212th

Says a lot when Elmander is actually better than Ibra.

Marvin wrote:Says a lot when Elmander is actually better than Ibra.

Better for the team*

I thought Elmander was quite good for Bolton, certainly a big part of them not being where they are now last season. I agree with Laurencio that if Ibra is fully fit and motivated for the games, he is better than all of those (although partnership with Toivonen would be something to reckon with)

Denmark is having a collective, Oh well at the moment, We were fairly lucky with our group in last euro 2004, but in 2000 we crashed out with 0-8 goal difference, against France, Netherlands & Czech. Worried that we'll get a repeat performance although i have to say our current best XI are better than they were then.

Very good draw for England, if look at other groups it could've been a lot worse.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

James wrote:


Think we will beat Sweden and France though. Gotta remember away from home we are pretty good.

France looked a class above England when they faced them at Wembley not so long ago.

An England team without Glen, and also the best midfielder in the world, Scott bloody Parker.

Group B is amazing, looking forward to seeing the outcome of that.

ROI also going out at the group stage then.

Group A
Russia
Greece
Poland
Czech Republic

Group B
Germany
Netherlands
Portugal
Denmark

Group C
Spain
Italy
Croatia
Ireland

Group D
France
England
Ukraine
Sweden

Quarterfinals
Russia v Netherlands
Spain v England
Germany v Greece
France v Italy

Semifinals
Netherlands v Spain
Germany v France

Final
Spain v Germany

BAM!

Still believe Germany will win the whole thing.

I'm glad we avoided Spain and Germany

Spain wont win. They had luck on their side in the World Cup. Could easily have lost against Paraguay and Holland.

James wrote:Spain wont win. They had luck on their side in the World Cup. Could easily have lost against Paraguay and Holland.

What's football without luck?

Muhkoo wrote:

Laurencio wrote:

Nonsense. Ibrahimovic provides something no other player does. Sweden might play well without him at times, but when he's in form and "on" he's one of the best players on the planet.

Its not nonsense, most Swedish realistic football fans would agree with it, 1 out of 10 he may do well and get that game winner for Sweden, seen it happen in Euro 2004 and 2008 as i recall, but in the rest he seems to be mostly in the way. He was breaking the ball well in the match against Denmark recently but instead of playing Elmander or Kålstrøm he lost it again, it has been like that more times than the Swedish fans care for.

9 out of 10 coaches, including Morten Olsen, Erik Hamren, Egil Olsen, Ståle Solbakken and Michael Laudrup would want someone like Ibrahimovic in their team. His talent is unquestionable, and there is no statistical evidence to support the claim that Sweden is better without him.