Euro 2012

[GoN_]

6-2 now.

Was there last night, and it was amazing. Ronaldo and Pepe were awesome the whole game.

[stokeriño]

I know it's largely because there are only 16 teams and therefore not so much opportunity for crap qualifiers, but there isn't a single combination of teams that I can think of where I'd say I was confident of England making it through the group.

[DFF]

I know it's largely because there are only 16 teams and therefore not so much opportunity for crap qualifiers, but there isn't a single combination of teams that I can think of where I'd say I was confident of England making it through the group.

Have you seen the proposed qualifying system for the next one? With the increase to 24 teams, the top two from each qualifying group will go through automatically and play-offs will be between 3rd place teams! Scotland might have a shout at qualifying next time around!

[Jimmy]

Ukraine or Poland, Sweden or Greece and Denamrk would probably my ideal group. Honestly think Ireland would be more up for it than we would be in a major tournament. The idea of getting Spain is horrible and hopefully we avoid them.

[stokeriño]

They should have taken the Spain '82 route. It's hard to top a clusterfuck quite as glorious as a second group stage featuring 3 teams, 1 match against each, winner goes through.

[DFF]

They should have taken the Spain '82 route. It's hard to top a clusterfuck quite as glorious as a second group stage featuring 3 teams, 1 match against each, winner goes through.

The qualifying campaign for that WC is quite... interesting. New Zealand ended up needing to win their final group game by five goals to tie with China, or six or more to progress (AWAY to Saudi Arabia).

New Zealand won 5-0, forcing a play-off on neutral ground with China. NZ won 2-1.

[TCO]

Last night wasn't spectacular but the job was already done, so I can't really complain. We're going to Poland/Ukraine!

Honestly think Ireland would be more up for it than we would be in a major tournament.

It's hard to imagine how gee'd up the players would be for a competitive tie agains England. I'd honestly facny our chances if we drew England, the motivation would be off the chart for all of the players in that game.

Ideal group would probably be Poland, Italy and Greece. The idea of drawing Spain, Germany and Portugal terrifies me though. Having two host nations getting 1 seeds in a 16 team cup really fucks the seeding up.

[Adam]

I really can see it now...

SPAIN

ENGLAND

PORTUGAL

FRANCE

And then to add further insult...

POLAND

RUSSIA

GREECE

DENMARK

It's a shame Ireland can't draw France in the group stage, in a way.

[new_era]

Pot 1: Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine

Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia

Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland

Really hoping for something along the lines of;

Group A: Spain, Germany, Greece, Czech Republic

Group B: Holland, Italy, Portugal, Denmark

Group C: Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, France

Groud D: Poland, England, Sweden, Ireland

We can dream....

Edited November 16, 2011 by new_era

[Hobo]

I'm just excited for it to finally be confirmed tonight. Seeing Ireland play in a major tournament is just so surreal to me at this poing. We've only been in 2 in my life time, one of which I was too young to remember and have never been to the Euros in my entire life. This summer is going to be fucking amazing even if we go out there and lose all 3 games.

Way to make me feel old! I've been around for all of them! But have more memories of the actual games in 1994 (I had a USA '94 mug and Ireland kit!) and 2002. I'm more apathetic towards Ireland games now, though. So while I can't say it makes me excited to think of Ireland in a major competition, it's going to be worth watching.

It's been quite a good year for Irish football between Shamrock Rovers getting into the Europa League and Ireland getting into the Euros.

[TCO]

I'm just excited for it to finally be confirmed tonight. Seeing Ireland play in a major tournament is just so surreal to me at this poing. We've only been in 2 in my life time, one of which I was too young to remember and have never been to the Euros in my entire life. This summer is going to be fucking amazing even if we go out there and lose all 3 games.

Way to make me feel old! I've been around for all of them! But have more memories of the actual games in 1994 (I had a USA '94 mug and Ireland kit!) and 2002. I'm more apathetic towards Ireland games now, though. So while I can't say it makes me excited to think of Ireland in a major competition, it's going to be worth watching.

I remember the 2002 World Cup very well, I was 10 and I remember getting up early on a Saturday for the Cameroon game and taking the day off school to watch the Germany game. Great memories. USA 94 I remember nothing though, just watching highlights years later.

This will also mark the first competition where I can drink! There was such a joyous atmosphere around town Tuesday night, Ireland shirts everywhere in the club and after the music stopped around 2am, everyone refused to leave and started doing Irish chants. I'd never thought I'd see a drunken "Ooh Ahh Paul McGrath!" chant being sung in a nightclub!

Such a wonderfully Irish night that was

[The Quasi Juice]

Please don't give Holland the group of death again please, thanks. Even though we did very well last time.

[EddieG]

Hardly a group of death considering what the other teams have done since, and the fact we then went on to lose to Russia.

[Starvinho]

Draw day tomorrow, hopefully we get an 'easy' group but I'm not sure there will be any easy games in the finals, no matter the draw we'll have to play well to get out of the group. Avoiding Spain/Netherlands would be nice and being on the other side of the draw as the Germans would be good too, quite fancy a crack at the Irish to be honest though.

My predicted group Poland, England, Sweden, Ireland.

[Lineker]

How the hell can you predict a randomly drawn group!! >_<

[Matt]

Well, you can, it's just quite pointless to

Netherlands, England, Greece, Denmark

[Adam]

How the hell can you predict a randomly drawn group!! >_<

It's quite simple...basically you pick one team from each pot and say 'I think this is what will happen to one of the groups'.

Poland, Sweden and Ireland would be a heavenly group to get considering the possibilities to be honest.

[Lineker]

England fans will be allocated just 5,000 official tickets for the quarter and semi-finals of Euro 2012 should their team get that far, Uefa has said.

European football's governing body normally reserve 20% of the stadium's capacity for each competing nation.

But, in recognising the logistical difficulties of transporting supporters around host nations Poland and Ukraine, Uefa has opted to reduce the numbers.

The draw for the group stages takes place in Kiev on Friday.

"We have reduced the capacity of supporters to 5,000 each," stated Martin Kallen, Uefa's operations director for Euro 2012.

"It makes it easier logistically than when we have 20% of the capacity for each.

"With England there is not this problem but some countries do not have as many supporters and we want to give local people a chance to ensure we have full stadiums."

For the first time in European Championship history, teams and supporters who have played exclusively in one country could find themselves playing in another in the knockout stages.

Of the eight venues to be used, five have been specifically built for the first major football tournament to be staged in eastern Europe.

The Ukrainian capital Kiev is scheduled to host the final and one of the four quarter-finals in its renovated 70,050-capacity Olympic Stadium.

The other three quarter-finals will be played in Warsaw's National Stadium, which holds 58,145 fans, Gdansk's 44,636-capacity PGE Arena and the 51,504-capacity Donbass Arena in Donetsk.

The semi-finals are due to be played in Warsaw and Donetsk.

[Colly]

How the hell can you predict a randomly drawn group!! >_<

Bookies actually offer odds on them sometimes, obviously slightly worse than the probability of actually getting that outcome. It's like getting worse than 2:1 odds on a coin toss.

[stokeriño]

And because people will place bets on their own random predictions, bookies will consequently move the odds to cover themselves based on the amount of money bet on each outcome.