Euro 2012 (R)

Draw is completed...

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Circle, circle, dot, dot...

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Group A (Warsaw/Wroclaw) Poland (co-hosts) Greece Russia Czech Republic

Group B (Kharkiv/Lviv) NetherlandsDenmarkGermany Portugal

Group C (Gdansk/Poznan) Spain Italy Republic of IrelandCroatia

Group D (Kyiv/Donetsk) Ukraine (co-hosts) Sweden France England

F June 8^th Poland V Greece Russia V Czech

Sa June 9^th Netherlands V Denmark Germany V Portugal

Sn June 10^th Ireland V Croatia Spain V Italy

Mn June 11^th France V England Ukraine V Sweden

Tu June 12^th Greece V Czech Rep Poland V Russia

W June 13^th Denmark V Portugal Netherlands V Germany

Th June 14^th Spain V Ireland Italy V Croatia

F June 15^th Sweden V England Ukraine V France

Sa June 16^th Czech Rep. V Poland Greece V Russia

Sn June 17^th Portugal V Netherlands Denmark V Germany

Mn June 18^th Italy V Ireland Spain V Croatia

Tu June 19^th England V Ukraine Sweden V France



QuarterFinals 21^st – 24^th One Match each day

Semi Finals 27^th & 28^th One Match each day

Finals July 1^st

Cahill out of England squad with broken jaw suffered in Belgium game.



seems that there are quite a few injuries for most of the teams

Games start this Friday!!!! woo hoo!!!!



(damn it is going to be a long night........two Euro games plus USA Qualie..........whew!)

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Quote :

Uefa president Michel Platini says that any players who walk off the pitch at Euro 2012 due to racial abuse will be booked.

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if he believed he was a victim.

But Platini said: "It's a yellow card. It's not a player - Mr Balotelli - who's in charge of refereeing."

As a follow-up...

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Italy forward [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] apologized on Tuesday for saying he hoped there were no homosexuals in the national team.

Asked at a Euro 2012 news conference earlier in the day
about media reports there were two "secret" gays in the Italy squad, he
said: "That's their problem. I hope there isn't one in the national
team."

gwar0127 wrote:

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Were they mouth-watering melons?

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Quote :

Through eight matches, ESPN is averaging 1,260,000 viewers for Euro 2012.
That's an increase of 183 percent compared to the first eight games of Euro 2008 (446,000 viewers).

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UEFA's system of placing extra linesmen on each
goalline won some rare praise after Italy beat Ireland 2-0 to reach the
Euro 2012 quarter-finals on Monday.

The officials, who UEFA president Michel Platini
believes offer an alternative to goalline technology, are rarely noticed
but Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said the first goal in the Group C
match might not have been awarded had they not been there.

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Quote :

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli was
warned yesterday by Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi that he must
behave and accept the authority of the coach Cesare Prandelli or risk
undermining his team in their Euro 2012 quarter-final against England on
Sunday.

The controversial 21-year-old was a prominent theme in yesterday's
press conference with De Rossi, in which the Roma midfielder made no
attempt to hide his occasional exasperation at Balotelli's inability to
control his emotions around football. "He's a great player, so if he
wants to grow up, he has to know how to react to this kind of
high-pressure game," De Rossi said.

Asked whether there was a
possibility that Balotelli could be at risk of a yellow card or worse
against an England defence that has been one of the best aspects of the
team in this tournament, De Rossi said: "Up to a certain point. We have
talked a lot about Balotelli."

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Quote :

Along some scintillating play in the group phase and the obligatory goal-line controversy, the story so far at Euro 2012 is, sadly, the specter of racist fan behavior bursting into the public awareness like never before.

UEFA has meted out fines to the national federations of Croatia and Russia for racist behavior by their fans, and was ridiculed for dinging Danish striker Nicolas Bendtner a much larger amount, $126,000, for displaying an unauthorized sponsor’s name on his underwear. I can appreciate the outrage over such a disparity, but in trying to regulate vile fan behavior, UEFA is grappling with a far greater problem than a few zealous skinheads. It is dealing with cultures and centuries of ingrained belief, not just some wayward malcontent off on his latest escapade.

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What does German soccer fan Julia Probst do for fun during national team games? Probst, who is deaf, reads the lips of German players and coaches and tweets what they have to say. What Germany coach Joachim Loew has been saying has made her feed a must-read for German media and allowed her to build up a Twitter following of 20,000.

Loew said he will watch his language during Friday's Germany-Greece game after learning about the 30-year-old Probst Twitter feed, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (A Feast for the Eyes)

"I have said some pretty hefty expletives, I have to admit that," he said. "So I will probably have to beware of that a little bit more in the future."

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After one big upset (condolences to our Germany friends), it's time to get ready for the finals. Here's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] you need.

España
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Italia
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European football's governing body UEFA has sparked outrage after it emerged that they manipulated footage of fans during the Euro 2012 semi-finals.

People across the world were touched when cameras zoomed in on a German fan in the crowd crying after Mario Balotelli put Italy two goals ahead in the first half of their match last week.

There was just one problem: the woman - a fan from Dusseldorf called Andrea - hadn't started crying at all, and was stunned to receive text messages from friends back home asking why she was blubbing with so much football left to play.

It turns out that Andrea had actually been overcome by emotion during the singing of the German national anthem before the match. The footage was recorded, then cut into the live feed sent to broadcasters around the world after the Italians went 2-0 up.

It turns out that it was not the only instance of UEFA pulling such a stunt: they also broadcast footage of Germany coach Joachim Loew jokingly pinching a ball from a ball boy during the group stage match against the Netherlands. It turned out that Loew wasn't relaxed and having fun during a key match against arch-rivals, but merely joshing with him during the pre-match warm-up.