Euro Cup 2012 Is Underway: Prizes Are Up to $34 Million

Euro Cup 2012 is a must watch. Except for title a Whooping! $34 million prize money, what can we expect to the upcoming games, Fierce! Thoughts?

source: Euro Cup 2012

spain has no reason not to win it again.

Originally posted by randomname
spain has no reason not to win it again.

Your telling about the 6-2 standing's of Spain vs England last season. Yes that's a big win from Spain, but for me there are 4 teams preponderant in this tournament, Spain,England,Germany tbh the dark horse Portugal.

As much as it pains me to say this but anything better than a Quarter-final finish will be a good result for England.
We are a team in transition and may be a better bet for the 2014 Worl Cup.

Obviously Spain, Holland and Germany have real chances with Spain being rightful favourites.

I think France are worth a little punt at 14/1 with some bookies.

As an outside bet I wouldn't be too surprised if Russia make it through to the Semi's and are available at 25/1 with Betfair.
Definately worth a daft couple of quid.

for me Germany,England and of course the Euro 2008 champs Spain have a pretty high chance for winning this tournament. And Czech Republic being the dark horse.

For me the Euro's are superior to the World Cup. A better standard of football and played at a much higher tempo and there are no poor teams.

I don't see Spain winning it, just down to statistical probability more than anything. The luck will turn against them at some point, no team has ever won a combination of Euros, WC, Euros. I see the Dutch winning it, they have an absolute abundance of attacking players.

Obviously the Germans look strong. I also expect the Irish to get out of their group. When they make it to a tournament finals they always seem to perform, I see the Italians who are mired in another match fixing crisis missing out on a QF berth as a result.

Now to ENG-ER-LAND. Who knows? This stuff with Rio is an embarrassment and is becoming a scandal he should have been in the squad. We really need to finish top of the group to avoid Spain in the Quarters, possibly as a result then coming up against the Irish, which would be a massive game.

My starting 11 vs France. 4-4-1-1 Hart, Cole, Johnson, Jagielka(# Terry), Lescott, Parker, Gerrard, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlein, Young and Carroll.

Style of Play: Up the wings with Gerrard and Parker playing deep and feeding Young.

I think realistically there are only three teams in with a massive chance of winning the Euro this time around and they are, in no order: Netherlands, Spain and Germany.

The teams worth a cheeky fiver down the bookies are obviously England, Portugal, France and Russia though.

Luckily I am half English and half Dutch so I have two teams to cheer on and hope one of those wins

My team for England:

GK: Hart
Def: Cole, Lescott, Terry, Johnson
Mid: Milner, Gerrard, Parker, Walcott
Att: Young playing behind Carroll/Rooney when he returns.

But I have to say this is one of the poorest England teams I have ever seen!

My starting 11 for the England team:

GK: Hart (obviously)

DEF: Cole, Terry, Lescott and then Johnson.

MID: Parker and Gerrard in the middle.

Young and Walcott on the wing with Gerrard in a center, attacking role.

Striker: Carroll

With Rooney coming back I'd place him in the attacking midfielders role (He needs to be in the game and he just can't hack being on his own up there for England imo) with Gerrard going into the middle, and Milner replacing Walcott on the right hand side.

Honestly, I don't think this is a bad team at all. We have absolute quality players in Parker, Gerrard, Hart, Lescott, Terry and Cole for example.. and the rest aren't exactly bad players either. We also now have a good coach although a new coach and yes, expectations are low but that's potentially an advantage in my opinion. The players aren't exactly learning anything new here, they're just now being guided in a slightly different direction to what they had before and as far as we've seen, It's worked - 2 clean sheets in 2 games isn't a bad record. And in regards to the expectations.. well, taking the pressure off is obviously going to be a welcomed change for these guys.

Whether we'll do extremely well in this tournament, who knows, all we can do is hope. Taking England out of the equation however.. Well, there's plenty of good teams here. Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, and so on and on. If I had to choose a winner I'd probably have to go with, unfortunately, Spain..

reply to post by Rising Against


So confident in that team that you are playing a 4-4-1 mate?

Either that or you are hoping Gerrard turns into twice the player he is now

reply to post by ThorsBrother


It's been a long day at work, so sue me.

Ok, Milner in the midfield with Parker, not Gerrard. He's a little bit further up.

reply to post by Rising Against


I liked Parker and Gerrard playing deep against Belgium, feeding the wings and Young.

Think it keeps us tight, which is what we need to do. I would start with Oxlade-Chamberlein, we need some intent on BOTH of the wings and him and Walcott interchanging could cause some terror for defences.

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


I like Gerard and Parker together in the centre.
I'd start with Young wide on the left, Walcott on the right and Wellbeck and Carroll up front in the temporary absence of Rooney.

Unfortunately we aren't that blessed with talent and skill at present so I don't think we can realistically play anything too different from 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1.

The goalkeeper and back four more or less pick themselves now......I really think that's our weak spot.......Terry has always been found out against top class opposition and Lescott, whilst being solid enough, is unspectacular and not top drawer.

I was more than prepared to offer Hodgson my support etc and realise that he's had almost no time whatsoever to prepare for this tournament but his handling of the 'Rio' situation has proven what many suspected - that he is nothing but a FA 'Yes man' and his squad replacements selections can only be described as baffling.

Personally if selection was based purely on footballing reasons then I would select Ferdinand before Terry every time.
Whilst there is no doubting Terry's commitment he is slow and get's caught out of position far too often against top class opposition.
Ferdinand is a better reader of the game, whilst not as fast as he was he is still faster and more mobile than Terry, and he is a far better footballer who can bring the ball out of defence.

Subsequent events have made a mockery of Hodgson's statement that Ferdinands non-selection was for 'footballing reasons'.

Hodgson should at least have the decency and honesty to state that it's because the FA are pissed off with Rio's brother for taking Terry to court, (and that is by no means a personal endorsement of Anton Ferdinand's action ora criticism of terry etc).

When Barry, a midfielder, had to withdraw from the squad he was replaced with a centre half in Phil Jagielka....then Lampard was replaced with the remarkably mediocre and under-achieving Jordan Henderson and then the baffling replacement for centre half Cahill with Liverpool second string Martin Kelly, who is a definate good prospect for the future but.....?????

I'm not too sure of his fitness etc but if fit I would have liked to have seen Tom Cleverley called up.
He has had a great season with Man Utd and has emerged as a quality midfielder with a great future.
If he is unfit then Michael Carrick should have been called up.

I feel sorry for Kelly who has been needlessly placed under an enormous amount of pressure.

What I can't understand is even if we accept the Rio decision was made for footballing reasons why wasn't Micah Richards called up?
He's had a good season at Man City, can play at right back and centre half and has never let England down whenever selected.
His omission is quite unbelievable.

All in all a disappointing start to Hodgson reign and it doesn't bode well for England.
I can accept the boring 1-0 victories.
I could accept a poor performance in the Euro Championship as he starts to find his way in the job and build up for the next World Cup etc.
But I can't accept his baffling squad selection and his apparent blind acceptance of FA dictates and policy.

It's time for strong and decisive leadership not mild mannered submissiveness.

ETA
Apologies to everyone for the rant like nature of the post - just venting some frustration......I'll still be cheering for England no matter what, (but I also have a nice little slip with Russia at 25/1 on it! )

The EUro's always have the potential to throw up surprise winners like Denmark and Greece. A lot of the Spanish players have played more games than English players this year. I fancy Germany. England will do well to get out of the group stage.

Was hoping someone was going to set up a fantasy league for this. I'm not really sure how you set up a group, anyone want to set one up. I'll be up for joining

reply to post by woodwardjnr

Was hoping someone was going to set up a fantasy league for this. I'm not really sure how you set up a group, anyone want to set one up. I'll be up for joining

That sounds cool. I'll open up a staff thread a little bit later on and see if I can get 'something' organized and then set up on ATS, maybe some rewards for winners too. It could be really fun.

Any ideas or inquiries, send a PM.

reply to post by Rising Against


Apparently the Telegraph has quite a good system for Fantasy Football.

Yeah I'm up for Fantasy Football


Freeborn, me and LF08 did rather well in the last one IIRC



Bring it on (But quickly, it starts in 2 days )

reply to post by woodwardjnr

Apparently the Telegraph has quite a good system for Fantasy Football.

..Which you have to pay for it seems. And that's not happening.

Picking the scores of games and the goalscorers themselves is something that could work I think.

reply to post by Rising Against


I think sky sports do a free one. i would set it up but am out for the rest of the day. so maybe someone else could quickly knock up a private league. if not i'll do it when i get in tonight.

reply to post by Rising Against


The SUN do a fantasy league for the EUROs mate. You can pay for extra teams but one team is free and thats all we need for a bit of a laugh. I'm already in one with a few mates.

The SUN Dream Team EURO 2012

Ahh If the Sun are doing one and It's free then that''s much more like It. Thanks for the heads up from both of you.

I'll see if I can set something up soon..