As the Spanish were crowned World Cup winners in Johannesburg, the curtain fell on the 1st World Cup Tournament to be organised in Africa. European countries obtained a 1-2-3 with Spain beating The Netherlands in the World Cup final together with Germany getting third place after a 3-2 triumph against Uruguay.
This mostly goes to strengthen the case that European football is the strongest across the world and that the European Championships are a exceptional tournament. Qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 finals gets started in Sept and irrespective of finishing third, Germany should be one of the favourites to win Euro 2012. Their young team manufactured some splendid football during the Fifa World Cup with Thomas Muller winning lifting the Golden Boot with five goals and three assists. With the help of further young stars like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, Germany will be without doubt one of the sides to beat.
As World and European champions, Spain will undoubtedly be a difficult opponent. The vast majority of their team will still be young enough in 2012 to give difficult opposition and they will definitely be keen to defend their title.
At last Holland managed to leave their individual egos behind at the FIFA World Cup and thus, they made it to their third World Cup final defeating several peoples favourite, Brazil, en route. With more clinical finishing from Robben, Holland could well have won the World Cup as opposed to Spain and they will look to continue in the same vein during Euro 2012.
The traditionally strong nations of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and consequently, the curtain will surely come down on a good number of of the older footballers careers. England have many impressive young footballers to deliver to the international stage and if they can copy Germany, there will be increased hopes within the English fans.
The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both get big support but in the end, they most certainly undertake not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.
Tags: euro 2012, euro 2012 poland, uefa euro 2012, Ukraine euro 2012