Champions League 2012-13: The Domestic Leagues Start This Weekend

After a beautiful Euro 2012 and great Olympic Games sport fans will only demand high quality tournaments. Here we go - the group stage of the biggest club tournament on Earth called Champions League is not too far. 22 of the overall 32 participants are already known. The last 10 clubs will join them by the end of August.

We need to get ready for this amazing tournament as well. I will try to follow up the teams participating in Champions League until their exit at any stage. From time to time I will prepare articles about teams showing anything extraordinary either in their domestic leagues or in the Champions League.

But for now there is not much to say, but to get acquainted to the list of clubs ready to enter this glorious tournament.   

EURO 2012: Tournament of Broken Stereotypes

Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine is over. For the first time in history the reigning kings successfully defended their title, winning 3 major tournaments in a row. As statistics suggests, in the last 6 years we have seen the best ever national team of all generations. Congratulations to Spain!

As expected, there have been lots of bright moments. Recalling them is the only pleasure left after the cup was handed in to Iker Casillas. So let’s see what this European Championship could teach us.

First of all, each and every European Championship assumes maximum of 7 teams, which historically deserve to be called main favorites. These nations are England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: England

England

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group D: 11-06-12: France – England, 15-06-12: Sweden – England, 19-06-12: England - Ukraine

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 6

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004

Qualifying record: 8+5=3-0 17-5

Interesting facts: England has already been led by three different managers this year – Fabio Capello, Stuart Pearce, and Roy Hodgson.

All of the 23-squad members represent the domestic Premier League.

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After successfully sending the two non-English managers home, The Football Association hired an Englishman Roy Hodgson to lead the English team at the Euro 2012. He only had 2 months to research the playing style of Capello's England, choose a new captain and, of course, gather a 23-man squad and prepare it to the competition.

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: Spain

Spain

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group C: 10-06-12: Spain-Italy, 14-06-12: Spain - Rep. of Ireland, 18-06-12: Croatia -Spain

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 1

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 8+8=0-0 26-6

Interesting facts: Spain won all of their 8 matches to directly qualify for the Euro 2012.

Iker Casillas holds the all-time record for the most matches played for Spain. He has been a part of a match 131 times so far.

Spain has the chance to become the first ever team to win three major trophies in a row.

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Spain has shown incredible football at the last two major tournaments. The previous coach Luis Aragones decided to focus on the technical abilities of the players as the Spanish players turned to be weaker in physical duels. The strategy brought much more than expected – two trophies in a row. Of course, the current manager Vicente Del Bosque would not change much in the tactics for the World Cup to follow the Euro 2008 triumph. He just added a little bit of pragmatism – his team won the World Cup for the first time, scoring only 8 and conceding 2 goals in 7 matches. However, they scored more than 3 goals on an average game during their qualification to Euro 2012. Considering the absence of their main goalscorer David Villa, the final number of goals scored at Euro 2012 should be comparable to the one at the previous World Cup.

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: Italy

Italy

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group C: 10-06-12: Spain-Italy, 14-06-12: Italy - Croatia, 18-06-12: Italy - Rep. of Ireland

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 12

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1968, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+8=2-0 20-2

Interesting facts: In 1988 Italy, then 3-time world champions, qualified for European Championships for the first time: previously they only participated in the tournament on their home soil, where no qualification is needed.

Italy conceded only 2 goals during the qualification, which is the best result among all the participants.

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It has only gone the wrong way for Italy since they won the World Cup in 2006. Huge scandals in the Italian football are accompanied by injuries of crucial players. After The catastrophic results of the 2010 World Cup edition, Italy needs to get together and show a decent performance. History shows that the Italian national squads of 1982 and 2006 got motivated by the match-fixing scandals around the team and went on to win the tournaments. Will it happen for the third time?

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: Germany

Germany

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group B: 09-06-12: Germany –Portugal, 13-06-12: Netherlands – Germany, 17-06-12: Denmark - Germany

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 2

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+10=0-0 34-7

Interesting facts:  (West) Germany, three-time champions and three-time runners-up, is the most successful team in the European Championships history.

Germany, along with Spain, won all of the matches during the Euro 2012 qualification. 

Germany is the youngest team at Euro 2012.

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In 6 out of 10 participations Germany played in the tournament last match, thus registering an unprecedented record of European Championships. 1972, 1980 and 1996 have become golden years for them. Traditional favorites of any major tournament, Germans have the strongest team in history, as legendary Franz Beckenbauer claims.

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: Portugal

Portugal

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group B: 09-06-12: Germany –Portugal, 13-06-12: Denmark – Portugal, 17-06-12: Portugal - Netherlands

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 5

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+6=2-2 27-14

Interesting facts: Paulo Bento, 42, is the youngest coach at Euro 2012.  

Despite their decent scoring record, Portugal is the team that conceded most goals on their road to Euro 2012.

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Portugal has been a major candidate to take the trophy in any of big tournaments for the last decade. They even reached the final once, but every time they had to leave the tournament without the Cup. They have collected another ambitious team to conquer the European Championship. If asked, the official statistics doesn’t mind the Portuguese to win this time: they are ranked as the 4^th best European team in FIFA Ranking. The problem is that the 2^nd and 3^rd best teams are their contestants in Euro 2012 Group B.

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: France

France

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group D: 11-06-12: France – England, 15-06-12: Ukraine – France, 19-06-12: Sweden - France

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 16

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+6=3-1 15-4

Interesting facts: France is the only reigning World Cup winner (1998) to win a European Championship (2000).

After Euro 2016 France will become the country hosting the European Championship the most times: 3 out of 13 tournaments.

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The shameful World Cup 2010 campaign led to thorough reconstruction in the whole French Football Federation. One of the “golden generation” heroes, Laurent Blanc, was appointed as national team head coach, after spending a couple of great seasons in charge of Bordeaux.  

EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: the Netherlands

Netherlands

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group B: 09-06-12: Netherlands – Denmark, 13-06-12: Netherlands – Germany, 17-06-12: Portugal - Netherlands

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 4

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+9=0-1 37-8

Interesting facts: Netherlands was the team to score most goals on their way to qualify to Euro 2012, 37 goals in 10 games.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar was the top scorer in the Euro 2012 qualification round with 12 goals.

Netherlands is the only national team to top the FIFA World Ranking (August-September), without actually having won it.

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They say that 31 teams come to win the World Cup and only the Dutch come to teach the others play. This saying has always been actual and the current team is not an exception. Their scoring average was 3,7 per game during the qualification, where the Netherlands registered the biggest ever win in their history; 11-0 against San Marino.