Euro 2012: Group B, a threeway with added bacon

Group B is the so called 'group of death' as it has 3 sides that are favourites to at least reach the semi finals in Germany, Portugal and Holland with Euro 1992 winners Denmark added into the mix as well. The fact one of those sides has to leave before the knock out stages isn't a blow to the tournament as it makes Group B the most competitive group of all to qualify from and some entertaining matches are in store.

Denmark
  Manager Morton Olsen has been at the helm of the Danish squad now for 12 years (in that time England have had 7) and continues to impress in getting Denmark to major tournaments. A fairly experienced has been selected for Denmark except in goal where back up goalkeeper Stephan Anderson who plays in France for Evian (4 of the team selected play for Evian) has only played 10 times for his country, Manchester United's Anders Lindergaard has been first choice but only has 5 caps and third choice is Kasper Schmeichel (son of the legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel) who has yet to make an appearance.
Denmark play a 4-3-3 formation, it's tried and tested for them and gets them overacheiving. Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner will be relied upon to get the goals and his ratio of 18 in 48 games suggests he can be a threat. Midfield see's the experience of Christian Poulsen and Thomas Kahlenberg who have almost 130 caps between them and provide the basis of the team play around them.
  Key player - Christian Eriksen, the Ajax midfielder is only 20 and already has played 23 games for Denmark, likened to Danish great Michael Laudrup, at the 2010 World Cup he was the youngest player though only made 2 brief substitute appearances and will be more of a key player in this tournament for the Danes.
  Prediction - Denmark are in the hardest group of all and will look to not lose all three games with maybe gaining a creditable draw against either Portugal, Germany or Spain but ultimately should finish bottom of the group and they won't get to sizzle like their bacon.

 Germany

Scarily, since the 2010 World Cup, Germany's style of play ha become MORE possession based as they look to control games through midfield and can quickly change positions around up front and if veteren Lazio striker Miroslav Klose is back fully fit and in form then Germany are potential champions. In recent games manager Joachim Lowe has slightly altered the dynamics of the style of play to make them less predictable to beat and should be that bit better than at the World Cup two years ago where they finished third. With players like Philipp Lahm, Mesut Ozil and Bastian Schweinsteiger, the Germans will be entertaining to watch and hard to beat.

  Key player - Mesut Ozil, the Real Madrid attacking midfielder exploded onto the global stage in South Africa at the World Cup two years ago and now with two more years experience, he is an integral part of the German team. He has already ammassed 33 caps and scored 8 goals for is country and should add to that over the next few weeks and he looks a bit like a bug.

  Prediction - Germany will AT LEAST expect to get to the quarter-finals and avoiding injuries and suspensions, they could win the tournament


Holland
  Holland play with two defensive midfielders which may seem unorthodox but has seen them succeed and get to the World Cup final two years ago. Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder's form is vastly improved going into this tournament and with fellow attackers Arjen Robben (Yeah ok, Robben is good, but let's face it, he's no Batman) and Robin Van Persie Holland are considered contenders to win this summer. One issue however is the formation means they play a lone striker which will be Van Persie where Klass-Jan Huntelaar has been in great form since regaining his confidence after moving to Schalke and always looks a danger in scoring.
   Key player - Robin Van Persie, the Arsenal striker scored 30 goals in last season's Premier League and won the Player Of The Year award in England as well, he has been in scintillating form and has almost every club after him right now should contract talks with Arsenal not work out (Details of Arsenal's contract offer to Robin van Persie have been leaked. He's to be offered £130,000-a-week wages, a £5mil signing on fee and a chiropractor to help his back from carrying the rest of the team all season)
   Prediction - It's between Holland and Portugal to get out of the group presuming Germany will and the game between the two will most likely decide it.


Portugal

 Portugal have slowly changed over the past year and a half under coach Paulo Bento, they now move the ball more fluidly and attack with a lot more ease, the key to this has simply been making Cristiano Ronaldo happy and adapting a formation around him. Portugal have a lot of experience going into this tournament and could be real dark horse contenders in winning the trophy. Goalkeeping is their weakness though it's not to say they don't have quality in youngster Rui Patricio though the 24 year old Sporting Lisbon player has only 11 games to his name. With the likes of Real Madrid's Pepe and Fabio Contrao in defence, Chelsea's Raul Meirelles and Nani from Manchester United providing attacking option from midfielder and arguably the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo (he was bowled over by his player of the year award. Even though slow-motion replays showed that it clearly never touched him), leading the attack, Portugal will do well in this tournament....if they get out of the group.

  Key player - Cristiano Ronaldo, the most expensive footballer of all time when Real Madrid paid £80m for his services from Manchester United, he has scored and outrageous 112 goals in 102 league games. Ronaldo  loves the limelight and it will be shining directly on him this summer, can he finally live up to his billing for Portugal?

  Prediction - If Portugal can get out of the group then they could go all the way to the final, no-one will want to face them, especially if Ronaldo is on form.

Racism and voilence set to be the abiding memory of Euro 2012

The 2012 European Championships hasn't even kicked off yet but has already been plunged into what looks to be its first racism controversy after the black players from the Holland squad were subjected to monkey chants while the team had an open training session on Thursday. This was in Krakow, the very same city were England will also be inviting the public to watch them train today (Friday).

    A crowd of several hundred from the 25,000 that attended the session at the home stadium of Wisla Krakow aimed the abuse at players such as Jetro Willems and Nigel de Jong.

Dutch captain Mark van Bommel reacted by moving the training to the other side of the ground and was quoted as saying "It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz (the Holland team visited the World War II concentration camp the previous day, Dutch players were so traumatised by Auschwitz they advised other squads not to go to the camp where a million Jewish people died.
Arsenal’s Robin van Persie was visibly shaken. Tottenham’s Rafael van der Vaart said: “It’s not something you forget. I’m not sure it was a good idea — the squad is in a state of shock.”, personally I have visited Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic and it's lived with me ever since) that you are confronted by this, we will take it up with UEFA and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to take us off the field"

The chants began as the Dutch players started to jog a lap of the pitch to warm up where at one end of the stadium, monkey noises and loud heckling was plain to hear. As they jogged round a second time, these jeers became more vocal and the players quite rightly decided not to circle the field a third time.

UEFA are trying to deny there is a racial motive to the taunts, they claim after checking with the Dutch contingent that the crowd were making themselves heard as Krakow wasn't selected as one of the host cities for the tournament or that some fans didn't want another side to train in their stadium, that it was for Wisla Krakow alone and were simply booing the Dutch players over these concerns.

   Back to Dutch captain Mark van Bommel who has since reacted angrily when it was suggested it wasn't a racial motive by saying "You need to open your ears, if you did hear it and don't want to hear it, then that is even worse" and it's evident PSV's veteran midfielder is clearly unhappy that the powers that be at UEFA are not treating this issue with more seriousness and this is coming as a HUGE embarrassment for UEFA before a ball has even been kicked and means all eyes will be on the Polish supporters when they open the tournament against Greece in Warsaw later today.

 The authorities in Poland are trying to ensure this tournament won't be remembered for racism and Donald Tusk, the country's prime minister has been on an extensive public relations exercise to stress this after BBC's Panorama showed the documentary called 'Stadiums Of Hate' that openly showed the racism and anti-Semitic abuse throughout club matches in Poland, focusing on the two major side's from Krakow, Wisla and Cracovia and also showing the same issue in Ukraine as well.

   UEFA president Michel Platini has said referee's have the power to take teams off the pitch if they feel there is serious racial abuse from the terraces though has made a point of saying after Italy's Mario Balotelli said he would walk of the pitch if he heard racial abuse, that any player leaving the pitch would be booked.  If racism is a serious issue throughout the tournament, there may be calls for Platini to step down as ultimately he's responsible for the games being played in Poland and the Ukraine. Hopefully this is the peak of the situation and we have three weeks of football as a talking point, not bigoted abuse from the hosts.