The 14th edition of the European Championships kicks off on Saturday morning as Poland and Ukraine play hosts to the best soccer nations in UEFA.
nzherald.co.nz's Cameron McMillan takes a look at the four groups and how the first stage could play out. Today: Group D.
Yesterday: Group C
Wednesday: Group B
Tuesday: Group A
GROUP D
Ukraine (FIFA ranking 56, UEFA ranking 14)
England (7, 5)
France (16, 12)
Sweden (17, 9)
Breakdown:
The pressure is off England as for once the fans and media have stripped them of their usual high expectations - aka pretty much given up all hope. That cannot be said for France though who are expected to bounce back after winning just one game in their last two major tournaments. A recent 2-1 friendly win over Germany is an indication that they could reach the previous heights that saw them hold the both World Cup and the Euro titles in 2000. Sweden and Ukraine certainly aren't making up the numbers and could easily slip into the quarterfinals. Sweden ended Netherlands' streak of 17 consecutive wins in qualifying and have a handy strike duo of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tobias Hysen. Ukraine have home advantage and that's about it.
Favourite:
France: They face a Rooney-less England first-up. Chalk up three points there. Then the Ukraine - that's another three points and suddenly they're on their way to the quarterfinals. With Florent Malouda and Franck Ribery in the midfield and Samir Nasri and Karim Benzem up front, France shouldn't have any troubles finding the back of the net, especially against an England back four ravaged with injury and John Terry. Keep an eye out for Montpellier striker Olivier Giroud who scored 25 goals in their Ligue 1 title campaign.
Dark horse:
England: Without Wayne Rooney for the opening two games, arguably two of the toughest fixtures against France and Sweden, and with Lampard, Barry and Cahill missing out on the tournament due to injury - England are expected to fail miserably. But with all those expectations off their shoulders it could be just the tonic (or should that be ale?) needed for England to finally progress deep in a tournament.
Fixture of the group:
France v England, June 12: Another great game to start the group. France didn't win a game at Euro 2008 while England weren't even there. France stole a famous win when these two met in the opening game eight years ago coming back from 1-0 down to score two goals in injury time courtesy of Zinedine Zidane.
TAB odds - to win group/win tournament:
France $2.60/$11
England $2.70/$11
Ukraine $5.00/$50
Sweden $6.00/$60