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 A.
GROUP A
Poland (FIFA ranking:
65, UEFA ranking: 28)
Greece (14, 8)
Russia (11, 6)
Czech Republic (26, 15)
Breakdown:
Arguably the weakest group in the tournament with no teams ranked in the world's top 10, however Group A does feature three previous champions - Greece (2004), Czech Republic (1976), as Czechoslovakia and Russia (1960), as Soviet Union. It will be Poland's second ever European Championships having only qualified for the first time four years ago when they picked up a solitary point after a draw with Austria. Meanwhile the Czech Republic will be hard to score against with the world's best keeper Petr Cech in goal.
Favourite:
Russia - As Winston Churchill famously said 73 years ago "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". Semifinalists four years ago Russia cruised into this year's tournament after topping a very weak qualifying group which contained Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, Armenia, Macedonia and Andorra. Ask any disgruntled Arsenal or Tottenham fan whether Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko will be reliable in front of goal and you'll probably get the same answer but the duo were key in the side's run in 2008 when they finished second in their group including a 1-0 win over Greece, a 2-0 win over Sweden and a 3-1 extratime victory over Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
