The Road To Euro 2012

3 Sep 2010

This weekend sees the opening round of matches for the 2012 European Championships, as fifty-one European countries prepare their national sides to engage in what will be a tense qualifying campaign; particularly for those sides who vastly underperformed at this summer’s World Cup.

Though their stiffest opposition in Qualifying Group G comes no stronger than Switzerland, each of England’s opponents must fancy their chances of rocking the foundations of an England side embroiled in the largest shake-up of a generation; John Terry and Frank Lampard are likely to be replaced tonight by Phil Jagielka and Theo Walcott. Though Fabio Capello has survived calls to resign (for the time being at least) he might find it hard to focus on putting together the side most capable of progressing to the finals in Poland and Ukraine.

This week’s brace of withdrawals from Capello’s squad won’t help matters any; West Brom keeper Scott Carson has been released from duty due to a family bereavement, while striker Peter Crouch has had to withdraw with back problems. Despite these setbacks, manager Capello is confident that he has his first-choice side in place.
"The training on Thursday was really good,” he told the BBC. “The players are okay and some problems we had in the last two days are getting better."

England (1/41) and Switzerland (7/10) are the favourites with Bwin for a top two finish, while SportingBet offer odds of 12-1 that England can go all the way and be the European champions. If that’s not a tasty enough bet for you, SkyBet will pay out at 10-1 if England wins every single game of their qualifying campaign. The pressure may be on a fledgling England side to prove it’s their time, but Group G of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign should pose no real threat to them.