euro 2012

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Euro 2012 Reaches Knock-Out Stages

With the Group Stages complete, the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine have so far been a resounding success. Beautiful football, tactical battles, nervy finishes and unexpected upsets have made for a thrilling fortnight of football. With the competition reaching it's crunch knock-out stages, we look at the four Quarter Finals and see how each team has reached them.

Czech Republic vs Portugal (Thursday 21st June)

The Czech Republic somehow topped their group with a negative goal difference. On a mad last day in Group A, the two favourites (Poland and Russia) both managed to lose and go out of the tournament. Portugal also needed to win their last game, and did so against the Netherlands, securing their qualification from a very tough group.

Portugal will go into this one as favourites, and certainly won't be afraid of playing the Czech Republic after already facing Germany. Both defences can look fragile so there will probably be goals. As ever with Portugal, it really depends on whether Cristiano Ronaldo turns up or not.

Prediction: 3-1 Portugal win

Germany vs Greece (Friday 22nd June)

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Euro 2012 Kicks-Off in Poland and Ukraine

Football fans across Europe are bursting with excitement, as Euro 2012 starts today. The international tournament is being held in Poland and Ukraine, and it is the former who will kick things off against Greece in Warsaw at 7.45pm (GMT) this evening.

The tournament starts with four groups of four teams, and there are some tasty looking groups. World champions and current holders of the European cup, Spain, are in the same group as Italy, whilst other favourites Germany and the Netherlands have been placed in a group alongside Portugal. After the teams have all played each other, two teams from each group will go through to the quarter-finals, when the straight knock-out part of the tournament begins.

Most people have one of Spain, Netherlands or Germany to win the tournament, though France and Italy are sure to provide strong competition. However, as Greece showed at Euro 2004, there is always room for a major upset at the Euros.

The Host Nations

Poland and Ukraine are hosting an international football tournament for the first time and have been preparing for five years. Six brand new stadiums have been built, the countries' infrastructure improved and transport links developed. Roughly half of the games will be played in Poland and the other half in Ukraine.

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New England Football Kit Unveiled

The kit the England football team will wear for Euro 2012 this summer has been unveiled to a mixed reception. According to kit makers Umbro, the new kit (seen above) is steeped in tradition and English history, taking inspiration from everything from the St George's flag, to the 1966 World Cup winning team.

The shirt is the first ever to be purely white and red. The traditional blue badge has been replaced by a red one, therefore matching the colours of the country's flag. The shirt also sports an unusual collar, which looks far more like the kits of the 1960s than of this century. Supposedly the red design of the collar was "inspired by Sir Alf Ramsey's [the only manager to have won the World Cup with England] iconic 1966 jacket and the St George's flag".

However, this is not even the most ridiculous statement about the kit, as Umbro go on to describe the new shorts as "shaped to move with the player and give minimal interference during the game". Nice.

For all the grand statements are inspiration and tradition, ultimately the only thing that matters is, does it look good? Though the new design has certainly been met by a mixed reception, in our opinion, it is the best England shirt in years. Simple, elegant, classy.

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The Football Season Gathers Pace

This weekend saw the latest round of football fixtures for the FA Cup in England. It brought the normal mixture of upsets (or ‘Cupsets' if you like that sort of thing), giant killings and rivalries, cutting the competition from 32 teams, to just 20 still standing. The competition that each year goes against all football betting hasn't disappointed this year.  

The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and is very much a part of English history and culture. A huge range of teams are allowed to enter, meaning everyone from the best in the country to local amateur sides have a chance to enjoy the ‘magic of the cup' (a favourite phrase of football commentators and journalists).

This year, some of the country's most successful teams have been drawn against each other, meaning that whilst Manchester United and Manchester City (who won it last year- above) are both out, teams like Crawley and Stevenage are going strong.

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