Final Four Teams Complete Euro 2012 Line Up

Following the completion  of the Euro 2012 Qualifying Play-Offs, from which Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic and the Republic of Ireland all qualified this week, all sixteen teams that will be participating in Poland and the Ukraine next June are now known.

The Play-Offs saw the eight runners up of the qualifying groups comepte for the four remaining places at next year’s tournament and the outcomes of all the games proved reasonably predictable. Portugal knocked out Bosnia, Croatia beat Turkey, the Czech Republic proved too good for Montenegro and the Republic of Ireland fully deserved victory over Estonia. Croatia and Portugal have now been placed in third pot of seeds for next June’s tournament, whilst the Czech Republic  and Ireland will be drawn from pot four.

Following a goalless draw in Zenica, Bosnia were put to the sword in the second leg in Lisbon going down by a humiliating 6-2 to a rampant Portuguese team. Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and two more from former Spurs player, Helder Postiga put the visitors in a helpless position. They did score twice but being reduced to ten men early in the second half cost them dearly. Portugal in overall terms have found it hard work getting to the finals of Euro 2012 but based on this display, Paulo Bento’s side may well be a major force to be reckoned with in Poland and Ukraine come June and are already amongst the favourites in the updated Euro odds.

Croatia put this tie ‘to bed’ in the first leg, coming away from Turkey with a 3-0 advantage. The performance stunned a highly vociferous crowd in Istanbul who witnessed Croatia take a very early lead and who continued to threaten their hosts with almost every counter attack. At 2-0 up at half time with the goals coming from Olic and his strike partner, Mandzukic, Croatia never looked back. They scored through Vedran Corluka six minutes after the break and dealt comfortably from then on with anything Turkey threw at them in the second half.

The second leg was a slightly disappointing affair, with Croatia stubbornly defending their advantage while Turkey huffed and puffed without making a tie of it at anytime. The game ended 0-0, which gave Croatia a rite of passage to the finals and will once again be a force to be reckoned with.

The Czech Republic team proved too good for Montenegro over two legs, winning the first leg in Prague 2-0, with goals coming from Vaclav Pilai and Tomas Sivok. They made sure of qualification by taking the honours in Podgorica, winning 1-0 with a goal from Petr Jiracek.

It has to be said that the Michal Bilek’s team have much to thank keeper, Peter Cech for who pulled off a string of wonderful saves in the second leg, which effectively kept his team in the game. However, the Montenegrin hearts were well and truly broken when Jiracek’s late goal ended any lingering hopes they may have had.

In the final tie, Giovanni Trapattoni’s Irish team wrapped up their ticket to Euro 2012 in no uncertain terms in the away leg in Talinn, emphatically winning 4-0 with a brace from talisman and skipper, Robbie Keane. It was a hugely unexpected scoreline but a massive fillip for Ireland who of course were cheated out of qualification to the 2010 World Cup by France and Thierry Henry’s hand two years ago this week. The first leg win made the second leg in Dublin almost academic but Estonia came to try cause an upset and they fully deserved to score a goal. The match ended 1-1 and now Ireland will go forward to the Finals, for the first time since 1988 and their first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup.

The final line up for the competition looks like this, with the draw for the group stage being made on 2nd December with the groups being made up from the following seeds.

Pot 1 – Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands

Pot 2 – England, Germany, Italy, Russia

Pot 3 – Croatia, Greece, Sweden, Portugal

Pot 4 – Czech Republic, France, Republic of Ireland, Denmark

Related posts:

1. EURO 2008 Latest Results. Watch that quarter-final spot…
2. EURO Afterthought
3. EURO 2008 Results – Jun 11th.
4. EURO 08 Qualifiers – November 17 results.
5. Drawing Results for EURO 2008.