Preview: Italy vs Ireland

It's now or never for Italy as they look for their first win of the ongoing European Championships.

Italy boss Cesare Prandelli will be keen to welcome back Andrea Barzagli into the mix after the Juventus defender missed the first two games of the tournament with a thigh injury. Prandelli will likely revert back to a four-man defence, should the centre-back pass a late fitness test. 

Mario Balotelli limped out of Saturday's training session with a knee problem and will undergo further tests to determine the extent of his injury. If the Manchester City man is not passed fit then Antonio Di Natale will likely be given the nod up front alongside Antonio Cassano. 

Meanwhile, Ireland have already been eliminated from the tournament following their error prone show in the 4-0 loss to Spain on Thursday and will have only pride to play for.


Goalkeeper Shay Given could make his final appearance for the Boys in Green on Monday after admitting that he is contemplating retirement from international football.

Preview: Spain vs Croatia

After brushing aside a listless Ireland side 4-0, defending champions Spain may find Croatia a tougher opposition when they meet in Gdansk on Monday in a game that will decide who tops Group C in the ongoing European Championship.

A 2-2 draw would put both sides into the quarter-finals even if third-placed Italy beat Ireland and a defeat would probably mean an early flight home.

Spain played sparkling football against Ireland when the recalled Fernando Torres scored twice but the world champions are wary of a dangerous Croatia side who are unlikely to stand around watching Iberian artistry.

In midfield playmaker Luka Modric, heavily linked with a move to Manchester United, and the tournament's joint top scorer with three goals Mario Mandzukic, Croatia have the quality in key areas to cause problems for Spain.

"We watched the two matches they played here and they fully deserve the four points they have," Spain defender Raul Albiol said on Saturday. "Croatia have always had talented players and they are going to make it very tough for us."

Only needing to avoid defeat to reach the last eight, Spain coach Vicente del Bosque will be toying with the decision about whether to retain Torres or revert to the strikerless line-up he put out in the 1-1 opening draw with Italy.

Germany End Group Stage with another Win

An off colour Germany advanced to the quarterfinals after grinding out a 2-1 victory over Denmark at the European Championship.

The Danes were eliminated after the two teams finished their Group B campaigns.

Lukas Podolski opened the scoring for Germany in the 19th minute and Lars Bender slotted home the winner in the 80th after Michael Krohn-Dehli had equalized for Denmark in the first half on Sunday.

"It's absolutely a day of joy," Bender said. "I'll be thinking back to this day a long, long time. We have a positive spirit in the team."

Germany controlled possession and were never really challenged by the Danes, who go home after stunning the Netherlands in the first match but losing to Portugal in the second.

"We can be satisfied with our effort but not with the result," Denmark midfielder William Kvist said. "I think we proved that we can play against the big teams. We won (against the Netherlands) and we didn't lose big. We showed that we can play against the best."

Germany seized the initiative from the kickoff and came close twice before Podolski, playing his 100th international match, scored his first goal of the tournament.

Mario Gomez set him up with a back heel touch following Thomas Mueller`s low cross from the right flank.

Denmark came back just five minutes later with Krohn-Dehli heading in the equalizer from a set piece that stunned the German defense. A corner found Nicklas Bendtner who headed the ball into the area where Krohn-Dehli nodded home his second goal at Euro 2012.

England knocks Sweden out of Euro

The journey of Sweden in Euro 2012 came to an end after their second successive loss, the latest one being the 3-2 loss against England yesterday.

England now joins France on the top of the table with 4 points, and with the return of Rooney in the next match, they look even stronger.

Andy Carroll put England in front in the 24th minute. The Liverpool forward powered an unstoppable header of the floating pass received from Gerrand.

But the joy was short lived for Hodgson, as in the 49th minute English defender Johnson scored an own goal to equalize for the Swedish side. English keeper Joe Hart palmed the shot from Mellberg, but it hit the body of the defender and went into the net, despite his desperate attempt to stop it.

Pressure increased further on England when Mellberg doubled the score just after the start of the final half in the 59th minute.

Two minutes later England substituted Milner with Walcott, which proved lucky for Hodgson as the later went on to score in the 64th minute to bring England back into the game. Walcott netted the ball well out of the box, after the English corner was cleared of the edge of the box.

The victory for England was sealed in the 78th minute as Welbeck guided the ball into the corner with a glorious spinning back heel.

Though there was a late attempt from Sweden in the stoppage time, but Olsson missed the target, clearing the road for England.

Unlucky Swedish coach Erik Hamren was surely disappointed by the teams exit from the tournament as he said, "I'm really disappointed. So far we have played two really good halves, one OK half, and one bad one, and we're here with zero points."

However on an optimistic note he added, "It was a good game, we played well and I'm really proud of the players, we showed the mentality, the attitude I wanted to see. And we had the courage to play our way."

Hodgson on the other side seemed very happy as he said, "I am delighted to be going into the last game knowing a positive result will see us through and if we do that I will be more than satisfied because it was a very difficult group.

End of Ukrainian Euphoria

Co hosts Ukraine's euphoria ended yesterday as they lost to the mighty France 2-0 in their Group D encounter.

Ukrainian fans were on high after their 2-1 victory over Sweden in their opener, and their fans were hoping for the same result against France. 

 The Ukranian coach Oleh Blokhin, however has already indicated about the teams position against France, and his talks were very clear after the loss as he said, "As I said, the win against Sweden didn't mean anything, so if we thought we were through, we were wrong. I think some players thought that, and we'll have a serious conversation with them."

French on the other hand were delighted as their long wait for a win in a major tournament finally ended.

Though the match started in the scheduled time, but it was stopped just 4 minutes after the kick off, thanks to torrential rain and lightening.

The match resumed after a break of almost one hour, and Benzema was on attack right away as he shot one form the left of the box, but the home goal keeper Pyatov saved it.

The Laurent Blanc side had the clear intention of getting a lead in the first half, desperately attacked the Ukrainian goal line.

Home goalkeeper Pyatov proved to be hurdle for the Les Bleus, as he brilliant saved Philippe Mexes header away from the top corner following Samir Nasri's free-kick delivery in the 39th minute.

The first half ended goalless, much to the delight of the home fans and disappointment of the French side.

The second half stared with increased tempos of both the side, as they looked for an opening. Hero of the last match against Sweden, Shevchenko narrowly missed the target in the 49th minute, which surely got Laurent to the edge of his seat.

The wait finally ended for France in the 53rd minute when Jeremy Menez took one touch to knock Karim Benzema's pass onto his left foot, and then fired the ball low and hard into the bottom right corner.

The victory for French was sealed just 3 minutes later as Cabaye doubled the score, which silenced the home fans.

Though there were attacks form the Ukrainian side towards the dying moments, but there was no significant development that could bring them back into the match.

Group D Preview

Though Ukraine tops group B with 3 points but it's going to be a big test for them tonight as they face mighty France. 

The 52nd rank Ukraine, who made its debut in the Euro Cup this year as co-hosts, won their first match against Sweden 2-1, but the road to the quarters won't be easy for them as they are yet to face France and England.

Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin seemed to agree as he said, "I think England and France are leaders of world football". Further he added, "I said after our game against Sweden that we hadn't achieved anything. My main task is to give strength to the players so that they can get through the group stage, and I do everything possible to give them energy." 

Ukraine do understand that a win against France would take them to the quarter finals, leaving England, Sweden and the French to battle it out for the other qualification place. 

But their concern is that tonight they are playing against a side which has been unbeaten in 22 games and have thrashed Ukraine 4-1 in their last outing in 2011. 

Meanwhile, France coach Laurent Blanc admits he was left frustrated after the 1-1 draw with England on Monday. He also admits the win for Ukraine has galvanized the host country and that could make things even tougher for Les Bleus. 

Further the French coach indicated about the home advantage of the Ukrainian team as he said, "The country is in a state of euphoria, the people will be behind the team more than ever now." 

"It's going to be a hard game, there's no doubt about it, but we will prepare ourselves in the same way we have planned." He added further. 

The second game of the day would see England face Sweden. The English team should be confident about their performance as they managed to put up decent show against France despite having multiple injury problems. While Sweden would only be hoping for a miracle, as lost their opener against debutant Ukraine 2-1. 

Hodgson seemed quite certain of fielding the same team that played against France as he said, "There won't be wholesale changes, that's for certain because we don't have any injury problems and the players who did well against France are all hoping to get picked to play again," 

"You'll see a much more determined England side." He added further. 

Swedish coach Erik Hamren is certainly unhappy with the way team played in their opener and said, "We're not reaching the level we want to and that's my responsibility as a coach." 

Both the teams are most likely field an unchanged squad, Skipper Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker are set to continue in England's midfield after recovering from the clash with France. 

For Sweden, striker Johan Elmander recovered from a fractured metatarsal to feature as a second-half substitute in the defeat to Ukraine and coach Hamren could be tempted to start the former Bolton star as he searches for a win.

El Nino silences critics

Spain, the defending champions of Euro are on their way to qualify for the quarter-finals after registering an emphatic 4-0 win over Republic of Ireland with goals coming from Fernando Torres, David Silva and super-sub Cesc Fabregas.

After being omitted from the opening match; Torres came back with a bang and scored a brace to give Spain a win that ensures their entry to last eight. Chelsea striker fired Spain ahead just after four minutes and then, David Silva had enthralled the Irish defence to make it 2-0 four minutes just after coming back from break.

The clash demonstrated a reprimanding occurrence for the Ireland, who conceded a fourth late on when substitute Fabregas unruffled his second goal of the tournament.

Spain made 859 passes in the game and midfielder Xavi surpassed Dutch legend Ronald Koeman's most attempted passes(117) in European championship (1992 against Denmark); he attempted 136 passes and completed 127.

Spain fashioned another of those performances which left the opposition chasing shadows. It was far too easy for them.

Spain coach Del Bosque said "That is a very good win for us"

"We brought in Torres to score goals, which is what he did and if we stay with this defensive line we will have things easy. It will be dangerous to play for the draw against Croatia and we won't play for the draw."

"I thought we played a complete game. We had the majority of possession tonight."

Meanwhile Del Bosque's contrary number Giovanni Trapattoni was left melancholic what he illustrated as another error-speckled show from his team, who are now eliminated.

He said "The mistakes we made came as a blow. We don't see these types of errors in training"

"Just as we did in the game against Croatia, we conceded a very early goal which immediately throws the pre-match plan out of the window." 

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