Which teams will reach the EURO 2012 Final?

Photo Credit: UEFA.com

With EURO 2012 quickly approaching, are you getting excited? Hopefully your country does well! Imagine if they advanced to the finals and you had the opportunity to attend! If they do, would you buy some Euro 2012 final tickets? The final will be held in Kyiv on 1 July.

By the way, the design for the tickets has been revealed at presentation ceremonies at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium and the National Stadium in Warsaw on 23 April. While tickets have sold out in Poland, Martin Kallen reminded fans still interested in matches to be staged in Ukraine that they will get one last chance to purchase tickets next month. "More than 95% of the tickets have been sold," he said. "About 50,000 tickets will be on sale from the beginning of May, because not all the participating federations have taken their full allocation."

No fewer than 1.4 million fans will be expected at the stadiums during the entire tournament and the matches will be broadcast live in more than 200 territories around the world. Do you think that past winners like Spain, Greece, France or Germany are favorites to go all the way again?
Which teams do you think will make it to the final?

Maybe this is the year that England advances to the finals for the first time ever! England midfielder Frank Lampard has told UEFA that he is "excited" by the prospect of playing in a major tournament he concedes is likely to be one of his last this summer. "Realistically, it's going to be one of my last tournaments, so I'd love to be part of an England squad that starts well and looks like we can go all the way; and then hopefully my part can be big in that, and I can help the team." he said.

To tie this with FM, I am sure that plenty of Football Manager 2012 gamers would have passed the EURO 2012 dates on their save games. It would be interesting to know which teams made it to the final in your games and who won. Perhaps you were in charge of one of those teams that made it there?

#49534 stam : Photo Credit: UEFA.com

With EURO 2012 quickly approaching, are you getting excited? Hopefully your country does well! Imagine if they advanced to the finals and you had the opportunity to attend! If they do, would you buy some Euro 2012 final tickets? The final will be held in Kyiv on 1 July.

By the way, the design for the tickets has been revealed at presentation ceremonies at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium and the National Stadium in Warsaw on 23 April. While tickets have sold out in Poland, Martin Kallen reminded fans still interested in matches to be staged in Ukraine that they will get one last chance to purchase tickets next month. "More than 95% of the tickets have been sold," he said. "About 50,000 tickets will be on sale from the beginning of May, because not all the participating federations have taken their full allocation."

No fewer than 1.4 million fans will be expected at the stadiums during the entire tournament and the matches will be broadcast live in more than 200 territories around the world. Do you think that past winners like Spain, Greece, France or Germany are favorites to go all the way again?
Which teams do you think will make it to the final?

Maybe this is the year that England advances to the finals for the first time ever! England midfielder Frank Lampard has told UEFA that he is "excited" by the prospect of playing in a major tournament he concedes is likely to be one of his last this summer. "Realistically, it's going to be one of my last tournaments, so I'd love to be part of an England squad that starts well and looks like we can go all the way; and then hopefully my part can be big in that, and I can help the team." he said.

To tie this with FM, I am sure that plenty of Football Manager 2012 gamers would have passed the EURO 2012 dates on their save games. It would be interesting to know which teams made it to the final in your games and who won. Perhaps you were in charge of one of those teams that made it there?

I hope England will finally win something.

Lets repeat it again Stam ? ^_^

I think it will be Spain again although I have a funny feeling England will do well with no real pressure on them this time.

In my FM11 game Hibernian-then-Leverkusen still ongoing (only so much time to play, sigh), Spain didn't even make it out of the group stage!!!! In a group with Slovakia, Croatia, Spain and Montenegro the first three divided the spoils, each finishing with six points, and in the arcane three-way tie-break they lost out. Croatia went on to the final and lost it to Italy on an 89th minute penalty, 1-0. Slovakia was a losing semifinalist along with France, both semis decided on penalties after 0-0. Realistic? Hmmm. But certainly extremely tight.

England, real life: we haven't seen the squad yet, but no matter who makes the cut, there just seem to be too many shortcomings. I'd plump for Spain v Germany, but of course the group outcomes have to support that matchup becoming possible.

I've got a bet with a friend that Denmark will knock Holland out and make it to the semi-final, with Germany taking it all. Realistically... that's all I want at the point. I don't think Spain has it in them anymore... Germany is ridiculously overpowered, and their coach is brilliant, so, for me, there's no other contender...

Croatia, also in my opinion... which is odd since I live here, will probably be last in the group. The Coach is dismal, the tactics, and the players don't have the inspiration.

It's interesting, two times in long running FM games I've been asked to become the Croatia manager, and it's been a difficult job. Although two years apart in terms of the FM database I've worked with, they were consistent in presenting a challenge (for me) to pick a working tactical setup, there seem to be an abundance of attacking midfielders, or at least midfielders who want to be attacking, not a lot of depth in defense along with no great answer at left back, and no really natural wide players which tends to reduce the flexibility in setting things up. How does that compare to real life? Of course many of the players are familiar but it's not like we get a lot of news of the Croatia national team elsewhere...