Vestnik Kavkaza presents its last part of materials on coming Euro 2012.
England
First time the English team is not a favorite in the championship. Roy Hodgson’s team will start the tournament without some key players. Wayne Rooney misses two first matches because of the red card. Barry, Lampard, Wilshere, and Cahill are injured. In such conditions England will hardly rely on attack. This squad has few players who can make something extraordinary on the pitch.
The goalkeeper is Joe Hart who played well in the new champion of English Premier League, Manchester City. Defense is sufficiently strong. But halfbacks and forwards are doubtful. Due to Rooney’s disqualification coaches have to rely on Caroll who played not well in the season.
Ukraine
As Ukraine hosts the Euro 2012, it was freed from participation in qualifying games. As well as Poland, Ukraine has had no official matches in recent 2 years. And it is difficult to analyze its playing.
The team has big problems with goalkeepers. Shovkovski and Dikan miss the tournament because of injuries, while Rybka was disqualified. At the moment Andrey Pyatov takes the position No1. But he is not always stable. The situation is worsened by injure of one of key defendants, Dmitry Chigrinsky.
France
The French team with the current squad is a team of mystery. Few people know its real abilities. The team experienced change of generations, and the head coach is a young man. France cannot be called a pronounced favorite, but the team can bring many surprises.
The biggest advantage of the team is easy substitutability of any player. Ambitions, strong enough squad, and the status of a shadow favorite make chances of France high in this tournament.
Sweden
Among teams of Group D, all national teams have equal chances for qualification, including Sweden. This team is able to surprise both audience and rivals.
Sweden is one of the most age teams in this tournament. The most vulnerable place of it is defense. Zlatan Ibragimovic is the major star of the team. Swedish success will highly depend on his playing.
At qualification matches the team demonstrated attacking football. They will probably continue this line in the group games.
