Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championship will be fierce with every team desperate to make it. There are nine groups in total. The nine group winners and the best runner-up will receive direct entry into the tournament. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.Â
One of the main groups of interest in Group G which contains England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro. England will be the favourites to win the group. But having said that, they did miss qualification for the last tournament.Â
The main competition will come from Switzerland and Bulgaria. Switzerland have appeared in three of the last four finals but failed to reach the knock out stages. They were co-hosts of the last tournament along with Austria. There is nothing special about them but they are a solid team. Â
Bulgaria have only qualified for the tournament twice, the last of which was in 2004. They have never progressed past the group stage. They used to be a regular at the World Cup attending every one from 1962 to 1974 and then in 1986 and 1994 where it finished fourth. That last time is was back was 1988.Â
Its big name players are Stiliyan Petrov who plays for Aston Villa and Dimitar Berbatov who plays for Manchester United. Â
Wales only previous experience with this tournament was in 1976 and that was when it using a completely different format. The eight group winners of which Wales was one were drawn into two-legged playoffs and those winners went through to the finals which were in Yugoslavia. They were the team that beat Wales in the playoffs. This was the last time Wales was in a major international tournament and it’s hard to see that change now.Â
Montenegro is only three years old. It used to be part of Yugoslavia and then Serbia and Montenegro. They will struggle to do well in the Euro 2012 Group G.
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