Champions League 2012-13: All 32 arrived

As it is easy to notice, we are full house now – the last 10 teams have joined to complete the final list of 2012-13 Champions League group stage. The 32 teams represent 17 European countries. Spain and England have 4 participants; Germany, France and Portugal will send 3 teams; Italy, Ukraine and Russia will have 2 and Netherlands, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Denmark, Greece and Scotland – 1 representatives. The draw will take place on Thursday, the results of which we will discuss next week.

But before the draw,

Champions League 2012-13: The first El Classico of the season

The Dutch Ajax started showing its class only in the second round of Eredivisie. The champions moved with a course of a goal per 10 minutes until the score became 5-0. For the remaining time the opponent received some air to breath. The final score is

Champions League 2012-13: FC Zenit St. Petersburg and FC Shakhtar Donetsk

Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia

UEFA Ranking: 24

Champions League participations: 2 (2008-09, 2011-12)- best result - 1/8 finals (2011-12)

Total transfer amount of all players: 146,4 mln €

The most expensive players:

Champions League 2012-13: The Top Supercups Allocated

The previous weekend gave us lots of exciting supercup matches with a large number of goals scored.

On Saturday the Italian champion met the national cup winner in Beijing. This was the first match for Antonio Conte to be absent due to his disqualification. Another important name missing in the Juve squad was Giorgio Chiellini. This could be the reason why Napoli found it too easy to pass through the Turin side defense. After some beautiful goals from both sides the score was 2-2 before the teams went on to the extra time.

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?