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Germany, Netherlands drawn together into Group of Death for Euro 2012

GermanyDutch (Reuters Pictures)

With co-hosts Poland and Ukraine placed in the first pot of the Euro 2012 draw, there was bound to be at least one brutally-tough group in next summer's tournament.

Group B gets the distinction as being the Group of Death, as the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Denmark will vie for two spots in the knockout round. All four are ranked among the top 11 teams in the world, and even though Denmark won its qualifying group, which included Portugal, the Danes are considered the underdog to make it out of the treacherous group.

Group C isn't much easier, with defending champion Spain being drawn with Italy, Croatia and Robbie Keane's Republic of Ireland. The group gives Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni the opportunity to go against his native Italy.

As for England, the Three Lions dodged being in the toughest group but still have to go up against host Ukraine, France and a Sweden side that it hasn't beaten in seven competitive meetings all-time (0-2-5).

Here are the four groups for Euro 2012:

EURO 2012 TOURNAMENT FIELD

GROUP A – Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic

GROUP B – Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal

GROUP C – Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia

GROUP D – Ukraine, Sweden, France, England

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What do you think of the draw? Which teams do you see advancing from Group B? How do you think the other groups will play out?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. cmon man, you and I both know international friendlies dont mean anything. Not to mention Portugal do not have the history of doing that well in tournaments. Take a look at their qualifying games, not exactly them dancing through their opponents. Iceland scored 3 on them.

    I will be shocked if they beat out the dutch, who have a history of being dysfunctional but seem to be on a positive roll as of recent and the germans who won all of their qualifying games and have some of the best young players in the world

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  2. for scorers youre not too off.
    Dont think Klose will stay fit long enough.
    God id love it if he did.
    Would also love to see Gomez finally produce on the national stage.

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  3. I’d have love for Italy, Spain, Germany and Croatia to be in the same group and Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Czech Republic in another. Let the facists/nazis on one side and the commies in the other to fight among themselves 🙂

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  4. I think people underestimate both Poland and Ukraine.

    We all know the kind of boost a team gets from being the host country. Take this into account and Group D starts looking pretty tough too.

    I say ([group winner], [runner up]):
    Russia, CR (barely over Poland)
    Germany, Ned
    Spain, Italy
    England, Ukraine

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  5. Beat the Czech team on a corner kick after time expired. They probably had the fewest shots on goal of any champion in history. Only scoring they did was on set pieces.

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  6. RESPECT!!!
    You never count them out and like the 2006 World Cup they weren’t even considered. You think more people would have learned from history but…well we know that’s not the case.

    P.S.
    I like Italia

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  7. At a world cup, neutral is exactly what we are. When the field is narrowed to 32 teams, we aren’t elite. But we’re also not garbage. There’s a middle ground and it’s populated by us, ghana, mexico, and a host of other nations. All of whom can beat the elite or lose to a long shot depending on the day.

    You know who else didn’t “put games out of reach” in south africa? Almost everyone. Espana had a string of 1-0 victories, including chile in a knockout match where chile had a chance to take a late lead with a penalty kick. It’s the world cup. Crazy sh-t happens.

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  8. Silly me, all this time I never realized the goal was to create sitters, not actually score them and put the game out of reach. I feel so much better now that I know the US wasn’t garbage, we just had 45 minutes of good soccer in us and did a whole bunch of ‘driving in neutral’ with the rest of the time. I guess we can call that outcome whatever you like

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  9. You realize there are degrees of quality between ‘late-seventies-dutch-swirl’ and ‘garbage’ right?

    A more rational assessment:

    England – As neutral as football gets. Certainly not a game of wild swings. We created one very good chance (altidore) and scored on dempsey’s less-than-half chance. England only created a few chances of their own.

    Slovenia – We were taken to task for 45 minutes. Probably the only span in the tournament we were truly poor. The second 45 we were dominant.

    Algeria – We were garbage for 89 minutes? Really? We created a half dozen sitters against a team that (disgracefully, given they still could have advanced with a win) showed no ambition to do anything but defend with 10. Yes our situation was dire, but the dramatic goal was hardly our only bright play of the game.

    Ghana – Ghana punished us for our one first half mistake. Once edu entered things were neutral till half. Benny’s entry tipped the scales back in our favor for the second half. Then ghana punished us again on our lone mistake in extra time.

    But hey, it’s easier to just say: We didn’t get as far as I wanted us to, so we were total garbage.

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  10. +1 for honesty and objectivity. You’ve been paying attention as well. Italy is playing very good and attractive soccer and won their group easily. unfortunately most of the American Anglophiles will never admit as much as it is easier to just hate blindly and pick schmuck teams like Ireland and Croatia

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  11. amazing what mediocrity you’ll accept happily when you wander through life wearing rose-colored glasses. I took mine off, and everyone’s so happy to crush you when you tell them how you see things. If you don’t call the display from the US garbage, what do you call it? Should the US draw with Slovenia on a regular basis, and escape thru a miracle goal against lowly Algeria? What’s the acceptable standard for US soccer on the world’s biggest stage?

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