Who are the favourites for Euro 2012?
As the World Cup in South Africa fades into the distance, many football fans around Europe will feel dismay, however, as one major international tournament dies, so another begins and now football fans all over the continent can begin to look forward to the 14th European Championship in two years time.
The tournament, to be held jointly in the Eastern European nations of Poland and Ukraine will be hoping to emulate the success of Austria and Switzerland's effort two years ago and with Europe's best players grappling for the title it looks to be an exciting prospect. Here are some of the favourites to win the tournament providing, of course, they make it through the qualifications stages!
Spain
The defending champions, and now World Champions, will almost certainly go into the tournament as favourites and with players such as Fernando Torres and Andres Iniesta heading to Poland and Ukraine, in what should be the prime of their careers, not many would bet against Spain being the first side to retain the trophy.
Germany
Germany's extremely young side impressed greatly in South Africa and with a couple of years extra experience playing at the top level, players such as Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Thomas Muller will be hoping that they can go one step further and reach their seventh European Championship final. http://www.betrescue.com are already compiling odds on Euro 2012.
Holland
The Dutch received an awful lot of criticism for their aggressive display in the World Cup final but there is no doubt that their squad is full of talented players. With superstars such as Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben in their team, coupled with young stars such as Elerio Elia they could be one to watch out for in 2012 as they attempt to emulate the successful 1988 side of Gullit, Rijkard and Van Basten.
Italy
With a new manager and a group of new young players Italy will be hoping to banish the demons of their awful showing in South Africa with a good display at Euro 2012. They finished even below minnows New Zealand in the World Cup but you can never count out the Italians as they hope to pick up their first European crown since 1968.
See the full list of OLBG's free Football Tips here.
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