As Spain were crowned World Champions in Johannesburg, the curtain came down on the very first World Cup to be staged in Africa. European nations completed a 1-2-3 with Spain beating Holland in the final as well as Germany taking third place after a 3-2 success over Uruguay.
This simply backs up the discussion that European football is the best in the world and that the European Championships are a wonderful tournament. Qualifying matches for the Euro 2012 finals will start in Sept and regardless of finishing third, Germany will, no doubt be among the favourites to win the title. Their young side produced some vibrant football all the way through the World Cup with Thomas Muller getting the Golden Boot with 5 goals and three assists. With some other young stars like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, Germany will be one of the teams to look out for.
As current World and European champions, Spain is certainly a really difficult competitor. A good number of their team will still be young enough in 2012 to give solid opposition and they will definitely be wanting to defend their title.
For once Netherlands was able to abandon their individual egos at home at the FIFA World Cup and subsequently, the Dutch made it to their third World Cup final conquering numerous peoples favourite, Brazil, en route. With more clinical shooting from Robben, Netherlands could well have won the tournament as opposed to Spain and they will look to carry on in the same vein in the course of Euro 2012.
The typically strong teams of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and consequently, the curtain will absolutely come down on many of the older footballers careers. England have a number of fascinating young players to take to the international stage and if they can replicate Germany, there will be high hopes amidst the English supporters.
The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both see massive support but in due course, they most certainly achieve not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.
Tags: euro 2012, euro 2012 poland, uefa euro 2012, Ukraine euro 2012