Spain, the Netherlands and co-hosts Poland and Ukraine are top seeds for the finals draw at 18.00CET on Friday in Kyiv. UEFA has announced the seedings for the UEFA EURO 2012 finals draw at the Palace of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine at 18.00CET (19.00 local time) on Friday 2 December. UEFA.com will have full coverage direct from the Ukrainian capital from Thursday morning in our DrawCentre with video, stats and live updates. The 16 teams will been drawn into four groups of four teams each (Groups A to D). Four seeding pots will be created, with the host associations Poland and Ukraine being top seeds. Poland will be automatically placed in Group A as A1, Ukraine in Group D as D1. The reigning champions Spain will be placed in Pot 1, together with the Netherlands, the team with the highest national team coefficient, as established at the conclusion of the play-off matches. The other 12 qualifiers have been allocated to the remaining three pots according to their respective coefficients. Pot 1: Spain, Netherlands Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland Full coefficient list The draw will start with Pot 1 in order to fill position one in Groups B and C. The draw will continue with Pot 4, from which a team will be allocated to each group consecutively, from Group A to Group D. This procedure will then be repeated for Pot 3 and finally for Pot 2. The position of each team within its group (2, 3 or 4) will also be determined during the draw. UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino will conduct the draw, and the ceremony will be hosted by Olga Freimut and Piotr Sobczynski – two renowned TV presenters in the UEFA EURO 2012 host countries. The show will include three entertainment acts: the P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble, Ukrainian singer Jamala and a surprise international artist. Furthermore, and supporting the motto 'Creating History Together', UEFA has invited legendary players from all previous editions of the tournament to participate in the show. In addition, the official match ball of UEFA EURO 2012 will be unveiled during the ceremony. The draw will be shown live by more than 70 broadcast partners, covering more than 150 territories around the world. Supporters of the qualified teams will have the chance to apply for tickets reserved for their respective association via UEFA.com once the match schedule has been finalised. The finals schedule has been confirmed with Poland starting the tournament against Greece and other opening games including Germany v Portugal, Spain v Italy and England v France. The schedule for UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine has been confirmed following the draw in Kyiv. Poland will launch the tournament on Friday 8 June at 18.00CET against Greece in Warsaw followed by the other Group A opener between Russia and the Czech Republic at 20.45CET. The next day the Netherlands face Denmark in Kharkiv and Germany take on Portugal in Lviv to begin Group B, and on 10 June Group C starts as holders Spain play Italy and the Republic of Ireland are matched with Croatia. Ukraine are involved in the last of the opening set of fixtures, meeting Sweden in Group D in Kyiv after England tackle France in Donetsk. The group stage runs until 19 June, then, after a rest day, the quarter-finals take place over four consecutive nights. The semi-finals are on 29 June in Donetsk and the following evening in Warsaw, before Kyiv stages the 1 July decider. Match schedule All kick-offs CET, Ukrainian time is one hour ahead Friday 8 June 2012 #1: POL v GRE, 18.00CET, Warsaw #2: RUS v CZE, 20.45CET, Wroclaw Saturday 9 June 2012 #3: NED v DEN, 18.00CET, Kharkiv #4: GER v POR, 20.45CET, Lviv Sunday 10 June 2012 #5: ESP v ITA, 18.00CET, Gdansk #6: IRL v CRO, 20.45CET, Poznan Monday 11 June 2012 #7: FRA v ENG, 18.00CET, Donetsk #8: UKR v SWE, 20.45CET, Kyiv Tuesday 12 June 2012 #9: GRE v CZE, 18.00CET, Wroclaw #10: POL v RUS, 20.45CET, Warsaw Wednesday 13 June 2012 #11: DEN v POR, 18.00CET, Lviv #12: NED v GER, 20.45CET, Kharkiv Thursday 14 June 2012 #13: ITA v CRO, 18.00CET, Poznan #14: ESP v IRL, 20.45CET, Gdansk Friday 15 June 2012 #15: SWE v ENG, 20.45CET, Kyiv #16: UKR v FRA, 18.00CET, Donetsk Saturday 16 June 2012 #17: CZE v POL, 20.45CET, Wroclaw #18: GRE v RUS, 20.45CET, Warsaw Sunday 17 June 2012 #19: POR v NED, 20.45CET, Kharkiv #20: DEN v GER, 20.45CET, Lviv Monday 18 June 2012 #21: CRO v ESP, 20.45CET, Gdansk #22: ITA v IRL, 20.45CET, Poznan Tuesday 19 June 2012 #23: ENG v UKR, 20.45CET, Donetsk #24: SWE v FRA, 20.45CET, Kyiv Wednesday 20 June 2012 No matches Thursday 21 June 2012 #25: 1A v 2B, 20.45CET, Warsaw Friday 22 June 2012 #26: 1B v 2A, 20.45CET, Gdansk Saturday 23 June 2012 #27: 1C v 2D, 20.45CET, Donetsk Sunday 24 June 2012 #28: 1D v 2C, 20.45CET, Kyiv Monday 25 June 2012 No matches Tuesday 26 June 2012 No matches Wednesday 27 June 2012 #29: W#25 v W#27, 20.45CET, Donetsk Thursday 28 June 2012 #30: W#26 v W#28, 20.45CET, Warsaw Friday 29 June 2012 No matches Saturday 30 June 2012 No matches Sunday 1 July 2012 #31: W#29 v W#30, 20.45CET, Kyiv Croatian opponents: Spain national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain_national_football_team Italy national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_national_football_team Republic of Ireland national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_football_team Croatia national football team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia_national_football_team Croatia against their opponents through history: 23.03.1994., Valencia, Friendly match, Spain - Croatia, 0:2 (0:1) Prosinečki (6'), Šuker (51') 05.05.1999. , Sevilla, Friendly match, Spain - Croatia, 3:1 (1:1) Šuker (9') 23.02.2000., Split, Friendly match, Croatia - Spain, 0:0 (0:0) 07.06.2006. , Geneva, Friendly match, Spain - Croatia, 2:1 (0:1) Kranjčar (14') 16.11.1994., Palermo, EURO 1996 Qualifications, Italy - Croatia, 1:2 (0:1) Šuker (32'), Šuker (59') 08.10.1995., Split, EURO 1996 Qualifications, Croatia - Italy, 1:1 (0:1) Šuker (48') 28.04.1999. Zagreb, Friendly match, Croatia - Italy, 0:0 (0:0) 08.06.2002., Ibaraki, Japan, World Cup 2002, Italy - Croatia, 1:2 (0:0) Olić (73'), Rapaić (76') 16.08.2006. , Livorno, Friendly match, Italy - Croatia, 0:2 (0:2) Da Silva (18'), Modrić (42') 02.06.1996., Dublin, Friendly match, Ireland - Croatia, 2:2 (1:2) Šuker (14'), Boban (45') 05.09.1998., Dublin, EURO 2000 Qualifications, Ireland - Croatia, 2:0 (2:0) 04.09.1999., Zagreb, EURO 2000 Qualifications, Croatia - Ireland, 1:0 (0:0) Šuker (90') 15.08.2001., Dublin, Friendly match, Ireland - Croatia, 2:2 (1:0) Vugrinec (80'), Šuker (90') 16.11.2004., Dublin, Friendly match, Ireland - Croatia, 1:0 (1:0) 10.08.2011., Dublin, Friendly match, Ireland - Croatia, 0:0 (0:0) Participants of Croatian national team through history: http://www.hns-cff.hr/?ln=hr&w=statistike Croatian results through history A - team, choose A in the near of reprezentacije, than click on PRIKAŽI there: http://www.hns-cff.hr/?ln=hr&w=statistike&d=rezultati Njemačka is Germany in Croatian. SAD is USA in Croatian. Mađarska is Hungary in Croatian. Španjolska is Spain in Croatian. Grčka is Greece in Croatian. Nizozemska is Holland in Croatian. Škotska is Scotland in Croatian. Irska is Republic of Ireland in Croatian. Others you could understand I think. I think that we got good and interesting group, teams that wont play defensive like our ususal opponents in qualifications. Against Italy we have good history score, against Ireland we saw everything, this defeat in 1998. was just after Croatian bronze medal World Cup 1998. Against Spain we always played good, I remember this last defeat 2-1, we received goal in last minute I think. We could play for second place against Italy, after all we have best score against them. We play in Poland, even though Croatian team wanted to live in the Donetsk, Ukraine camp. They will probably transfer in Gdansk probably. Germany is there also. I thought that we will be in the Pot 2, but we were in the Pot 3. I think that EURO must have 24 teams in the future, not 16.
Love how nobody is giving us a chance. Which is perfect. We fly under the radar and the teams doesn't have their heads high as a kite thinking more of themselves. Perfect. Round 2 here we come
It is a difficult group but one i think we can pass..We have a good history against the Italians and the Spanish are not playing as well like they did the passed couple of years..We have better team then the Irish but they will be difficult to break down with Trappatoni as there coach..First game against Irish is key..We must win this game..
Italy has never won against us. But they played on two big competitions under their achievement (Euro 2008, World Cuo 2010), so now they could be well motivated against us. And we won in a match on World Cup 2002 with many referee errors. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUOl4FP1iGg&feature=related"]Croatia - Italy, WC 2002 - YouTube[/ame] Italy - Croatia video 0-2: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SILHlU9H30&feature=related"]Italy : Croatia 0:2 - YouTube[/ame] Italy - Croatia video 1-2: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzsEv7b_ACs"]Italy - Croatia, Euro 1996 qualifications - YouTube[/ame] Spain - Croatia video 0-2: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ucFTJTRfc"]Croatia vs Spain 2-0 - YouTube[/ame] We played against Spain only friendly matches. Its good that we play against Spain in the third match. Italy would be hard as usual. They played very well in last qualifications, 1-1 in Belgrade, against Serbia. We cant include their victory of 3-0, because the match was interrupted because of violence. I think that its harder to play against Ireland than against Italy. Irish players like to run, they have a lot of energy, always well motivated, especially now after that match against France (hand of Thierry Henry).
Football experts said that Germany and Netherlands are the candidates for the first place because its hard to defend the title and maybe Spanish players wont be so motivated like 2008. and 2010. It would be better that we have entered in the group A, with Poland.
The results in this group are very hard to predict. I think that in the "face to face" games, Croatia is better than Italy, and Italy is better than Spain. I'm not sure what happens in the other cases: CRO-SPA, CRO-IRE, IRE-ITA and SPA-IRE.
I think that we will have triangle here. At least we all know about Spain and Italy, but against Ireland we had problems. Also Italy played against Ireland for World Cup 2010 qualifications. Ireland finished second, but without defeat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_UEFA_Group_8 I think that Croatia would have more problems against Ireland than against Italy. Croatian players are taller than Spanish players, but probably slower. Croatian technique was always good, except against to much defensive teams. We have problems in defense, because we received weird goals against Greece, Georgia. Everyone is underrating us in this group. During recent history Italy and Spain did not have to much problems in their groups on World Cups or European Championships, except Italian adventure in South Africa and Spanish matches in France 1998. We will have motivation in all three matches. We played the last match against Ireland 0-0. It was friendly, but Ireland plays always 100%. Croatia also understands friendly matches very serious.