UEFA 2012 European Championships - Group C

With the UEFA 2012 European championships set to kickoff in a few weeks time Sports Chat Place will have wall-to-wall coverage of all the matches leading up to the Final. In this series of articles I will preview all four groups and make my picks. Who are the favorites? Which nation is the “Dark Horse” and the most importantly who will be crowned champions?

We continue our UEFA Euro 2012 previews with a look at Group C, consisting of the defending European and World Champions Spain, Italy winners of the tournament back in 1969 and finalists in 2000, Republic of Ireland and Croatia.

Group C

Spain

Italy

Republic of Ireland

Croatia

Spain

The defending champions come into this tournament as heavy favorites to repeat, if they were to do so they would become the first side to win three successive major tournaments. However the squad comes in a little beat up as they will likely be without forward David Villa as well as defender Carles Puyol due to injury, it will be interesting to see how Coach Vicente del Bosque deals with this situation. The strength of this team lays in their compact, quick and creative players and their ability to pull off passing combinations to open up space, Spain have that in abundance with Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata and David Silva, however if this team has a major weakness it is in central defense and the fact that as champions they have done a crazy amount of traveling and playing games around the world. Outside of the already injured Carles Puyol this squad doesn’t have a recognized central defender, which may not be an issue in the group stage but could be a major problem as they advance. As for the travel, not only have they done it as a national side but many of these players play for either Barcelona or Real Madrid two sides that have played a ridiculous amount of matches.

Italy

This is a squad that looks night and day compared to the Marcelo Lippi’s squad in 2010 FIFA World Cup that suffered a disappointing group stage exit finishing bottom, now under Cesare Prandelli he has brought in a youth movement and it looks to be paying off as they went unbeaten during qualifying. There is a core group of veterans in the likes of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, defender Giorgio Chiellini and midfielder Daniele De Rossi who bring stability and leadership, the way Prandelli mixes these players with the likes of forwards Mario Balotelli and Sebasitan Giovinco as well as defender Dominico Criscito will go a long way to determining how they’ll do in this tournament. The play of Balotelli will be watch rather closely, not only due to his off field antics but also due to the fact that the squad will be without another young forward in Giuseppe Rossi due to injury. The main strength of this team is in their solid nature, they will be tested in this group not only going up against Spain in the first game but also a Repulic of Ireland side that is coached by a familiar face in Giovanni Trapattoni.

Republic of Ireland

After the heartbreak of failing to qualify for 2010 FIFA World Cup made infamous by the Thierry Henry handball during a playoff qualifier Ireland is back in the big time and under Italian Coach Giovanni Trapattoni they are expected at the very least to make life difficult for their group opposition. LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane leads the team and will have a vital role as chief goal scorer, if ROI are to do anything in this tournament he will need to be on his game. However this is quite a young group that has some good players plying their trade in the EPL, such as forward Shane Long, midfielders Stephen Hunt and Damien Duff as well as defenders John O’Shea and Richard Dunne. This is a side that although they are without the “sexy names” could cause a lot of problems and have an experienced coach that has seen it all, with many expecting them to finish bottom of the group they also have nothing to lose.

Croatia

The last time we saw Croatia competing in this tournament they were within inches of the Semifinals after scoring in the 119 th minute of extra time, however Turkey scored a minute later and forced the match to penalties where the Croats ultimately lost. Oddly enough Slaven Bilić’s men had to defeat the Turks via Playoffs in order to qualify this time around, this is a very interesting group with quality players capable of big things. The likes of midfielders Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitić as well as forwards Nikica Jelavić and Mario Mandžukić all provide something different, however the main threat is Modric who has rather quickly become one of the worlds best midfielders and will be priority #1 for the defense to shut down.

This is a very interesting group and one that may nor shake out as everyone thinks, in my opinion I don’t think Spain will be as good or dominant as most would have you believe as their key players are starting to age, the defense is a huge question mark and most of all the majority of players haven’t had a proper break in quite a long time. I still believe they will get out of the group stages but as runners up, I believe Italy has what it takes to win this group and look to have the perfect balance not only to get out of the group but also go far. Unfortunately for ROI and Croatia the two other sides are significantly stronger in key areas, however I wouldn’t rule them out to make this group a tight contest.