The European Football Championship is held every four years and is one of the most prestigious tournaments in this sport. The final games of Euro 2012 will take place in Poland and Ukraine. Teams of a dozen countries fought for the right to participate in them in the qualifying round, but only sixteen of them will be able to compete for the title of the strongest team in Europe.
Instructions
Step 1
The 2012 UEFA European Championship is the last, with sixteen teams participating in the finals. Starting in 2016, 24 teams will play in the final. The qualifying matches of the current championship began in 2010, 51 countries fought for fourteen tickets to the final of the European championship. Two teams, Ukraine and Poland, received the right to participate in the final as host countries of the tournament back in 2007, after winning their bid for the right to host the championship.
Step 2
In the qualifying tournament, the countries were divided into nine groups. Five groups consisted of nine teams, one - six. Seats in the groups were distributed by lot, but countries between which complicated political relations were established were divorced in advance into different groups. That is why, for example, the national teams of Russia and Georgia could not meet at the qualifying tournament.
Step 3
Nine group winners and one best runner-up team went directly to the final stage of the European Championship. The remaining four places were played in play-offs between the eight runners-up teams in their groups.
Step 4
The teams of the following countries will take part in the final part of the tournament: England, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Sweden. All sixteen teams were divided into four baskets by a draw that took place on December 2, 2011 in Kiev.
Step 5
The first basket (A) includes teams from Poland, Russia, Greece, and the Czech Republic. In the second (B) teams from the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Denmark. The national teams of Spain, Italy, Croatia, Ireland will play in Group C. Finally, the teams of Ukraine, England, Sweden and France will converge in Group D.
Step 6
Analyzing the composition of the groups, we can conclude that the Russian national team was lucky, it got not the strongest rivals, therefore, group A can be considered quite "passing". The situation in other groups is much more complicated. So, Ukraine, which got into group D, got the formidable teams of England and France as rivals. The situation is no less dramatic in Group C, where very strong teams from Spain, Italy and Croatia will fight for reaching the quarterfinals. You will not envy the Danish national team, which will have to play with the teams of Germany, Portugal and Holland.
Step 7
Starting with the quarterfinals, in which eight teams will advance, the elimination games will begin - the losing team leaves the European Championship. The quarterfinals will take place from June 21 to 24. Four winning teams in two matches, and they will take place on June 27 and 28, will compete for the right to compete in the final for the title of the strongest team in Europe. The final will take place in Kiev on July 1.
