I believe this is how it looks at the moment (assuming current group-leaders and best 5 second-place teams qualify): Note that Spain is guaranteed a top seed if they qualify, so realistically only 1 top seed up for grabs. Pot 1: Poland (Group A) Ukraine (Group D) Spain Netherlands Pot 2: Germany England Italy Croatia Pot 3: France Greece Portugal Norway Pot 4: Slovakia Czech Republic Montenegro Belgium Possible Group of Death: Spain, Germany, France, Czech Republic
Damn, in this case it's probably better to be in the 2nd pot than in the 1st. I'd much rather have a 50% chance of getting Ukraine or Poland than a 75% chance of getting one of Germany, England and Italy, assuming the seeding ends up like that of course.
Italy & England = meh. And playing Ukraine in Ukraine could be tricky. I'd be more worried about Germany, Holland and Spain. So I think its still slightly better to be a top seed (unlike for Euro 2008 when Austria and Greece were guaranteed #1 seeds).
Yeah, it was really funny when Netherlands and Germany realized how bad it was to be in pot one and they desperately tried to avoid to become the last seeded team. I just told the story in the Netherlands forum, when somebody complained about that "strange" loss against Belarus during the 2008 qualifiers.
It was by the way so cool it turned out the way it went. Putting us in the group of death. I watched some BBC I believe and all of them were picking France and Italy to go trough from the group Netherlands, Italy, France and Roemania. Haha. We won that group with 9 points. 9 goals for and 1 against. I don't even know if we ever had a more succesfull group stage in a Euro tournement or in any tournement at all (Gonne check that out tomorrow). I will never forget the face of Henry. Holland was at 2-0. Henry makes 2-1. Trying to come back. v Basten immidiatly puts in Robben. Bang. 3-1. From an impossible angel. WTF face from Henry. Hahah . That's what happens when Holland are made the underdog. Hiddink knows that, so he made Holland the big favourite against Russia. Smart move from Guus and a great result for his team in the quarters against us.
Yeah I remember in 2008 I expected Italy and France to go through and then bam! Netherlands raped everyone in their group, I was worried about Spain facing Netherlands in the SF but luckily for us Russia eliminated you in the extra time.
If using UEFA Castrols Calculations of the group results and thereby the qualifiers and you use the probable seeding the pots will be like this: Pot 1: Ukraine Poland Spain Netherlands Pot 2: Germany England Italy Croatia Pot 3: Russia Greece France Portugal Pot 4: Sweden Turkey Norway Ireland The closest teams to qualify: Czech Republic(pot 4), Denmark(pot 4), Serbia(Pot 4) and Montenegro(Pot 4)
Yeh we're clearly at our best when no-one believes in us. So the Netherlands, what a shite team eh. Put them in pot three I say.
It would be kinda funny if they lose the #1 seed for the Euro 2012 draw due to that loss to Belarus 4 years earlier. Just shows that it's never a good idea to throw a game.
It doesnot matter being in pot 1 or 2. It might even be better to be in pot 2 for us. Anyway, Dirk Kuijt recently said in an interview that you can smell the fear our opponents have for us.
I don't think Holland threw that game to be honest. We always want to win and Belarus away is always difficult for Holland for some reason.
That's right. If you're a pot 2 team you have a 50/50 chance of getting Poland or Ukraine as your #1, instead of a top level opponent.
Updated info from world-results.net http://www.world-results.net/uefa/ranking.html The pots look much like they looked in April, but Russia seem to have taken the pot 2 spot from Croatia after the Croats lost to Greece. Croatia now need to win 3 matches, that is win against Latvia & then two play-off matches, to have a shot at passing Russia (who will get ~33,200 points with a 4-5 goal win over Andorra) Also if France only get the draw at home against Bosnia & Hercegovina, they'll win the group, but could still finish behind Sweden & Denmark if the Scandinavians do well on Tuesday and/or in play-offs. Pot 3 could look like Croatia, Portugal, Greece, highest ranked of Sweden/Denmark/France.
To begin with sorry for posting in this thread (I know it's off topic) but I want to make aware as many people as possible about this issue. Hi guys, I'm writing here to give u a warning about selling tickets on the resale platform. DON'T SELL ANY TICKETS unless you want to wait for your money for weeks or even months!!! I sold a couple of tickets 4 weeks ago and I still haven't got my money back, despite the fact that according to the terms of resale I should have got money back within 7 days! When I wrote an e-mail to uefa to ask what's going on with my money they just answerd me with some stupid auto-reply. They said that there were some "unexpected problems" and they will return the money asap. Of course I still haven't got anyting. Further e-mails were just ignored and unanswered. And I'm not the only one with such problem. Actually everybody I talked to that sold tickets via platform didn't get money return. Just keep the tickets and sell them during the turnament. Not only will you get money instantly but you will also make nice profit at black market. There is a huge demand for the tickets (exept for some matches at Kiev and Donetsk stadium which is probably caused by the distance and problem with accomodation in these cities).
The fact that 2 average European nations, as hosts, get seeded could eventually lead to a group of death like: Spain Germany Portugal France This is why I don't like it when 2 nations host the cup, especially when neither is a top tier footballing nation. The same thing happened in Euro 2008. Course, both France and Portugal could not even qualify for the Euro, but that is another matter...
I don't care. We're there to win the whole thing, so we have to beat any team anyway. People whining about draws go home early.
hehe love the attitude, so german machine, really hope Germany goes all the way playing like they did until the semi in south africa. don't think the euro 2008 suffered from having switzerland and austria being top seed. Germany and Croatia went through without breaking a sweat and Swiss group was the most exciting group of the whole tournament. Except for the swiss team Group of death? Yes please!
I loved Germany's group in 1996. Russia, Czech Republic and Italy. Considering that both teams that progressed from this group also met in the final, it was probably the group of death.
Bring on Oranje vs Germany in one group. We need to set the standard for the EC2012 for the rest With this German team it is bound to be a memorable match again that will be talked about for a long time.
Group A: Germany - Belgium 3-1 Turkey - Azerbaijan 1-0 1 Germany 10 27 30 2 Turkey 10 2 17 3 Belgium 10 6 15 That's what we call a Klassenunterschied. Germany, Spain and Holland seem to be on a different level than anybody else today; two of them would probably play in the final, if the tournament were in October 2011 Well, it's in June/July 2012 in the end.
not today, holland is playing bad hehe. i rather had see my neighbours belgium at the euros, but on the other hand, they began to have a big mouth about how talented they were etc. sssst