The Host Nations’ Chances in the UEFA Euro 2012
Poland and Ukraine share the duties this year of hosting the UEFA Euro Championship. Neither of the sides would be called favourites to win the final, but what does stand in their favour is this statistic: Only once in the history of the UEFA Euro competition has a host nation not passed onto the knockout stages from the group stages.
Ukraine had a difficult time leading up to the June launch of the Euro. Poland’s Euro 2012 chief says he expected more from Ukraine in terms of finishing off construction of stadia, hotels and the like. To be fair, the country has suffered from the economic collapse in 2008, whereas Poland had the cushion of being a member of the EU.
Politics and economics aside, the Ukrainian Euro 2012 team isn’t without its stars. Andriy Shevchenko, now slightly aged at 35, will certainly get picked to slot one away for Ukraine, increasing the likelihood of Euro 2012 predictions favouring the co-hosts. The real striker to watch out for, though, is Andriy Yarmolenko. Over their last five matches they won four and drawn one, with Germany.: A sterling track record for a team whose prospects seemed pretty dim, aside from the benefit of automatically qualifying as a host nation. They are expected to play their games with either a 4-4-2 or a more down-the-middle type game with a 4-2-1-3 formation that their coach, Oleg Blohkin, toyed around with in their 3-2 away victory against Israel.
Poland’s Euro 2012 team looks a little more headstrong going into the group stage of the competition. Placed into group A, alongside Russia, Czech Republic and Greece, Poland have a far better chance than if they were in any other group, each of which has at least one team that seems a favourite to win the competition. Granted, any team entering the competition is considered a favourite to win by someone, Group A’s strongest side is Russia, and even they are looking slightly thread-bare in terms of selection. Perhaps the most exciting player on the squad for Poland is the Arsenal-trained Wojciech Szczesny, who, though slightly inexperienced, certainly knows how to anticipate and stop a shot.
Szczesny played a part in managing to fend off Portugal’s onslaught of attempts on goal at the game they played at home. With one man striking in that game, many were reminded of the bitter taste they had in their mouths: two of Polands best strikers, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, have both been appropriated from the Polish side to play with the German national side, and are both contenders for the top goalscorer moniker. They may have their own back though in that they have a German trained striker playing on their side, Sebastian Boenisch.
Friday the 8th of June sees the first of Poland’s Euro 2012 fixtures, when they face off against 2004 champions Greece. Ukraine take on Sweden on Monday, June 11th.
