The 2012 European Championship in Ukraine and Poland has begun. We should expect some great football...and some great looking footballers. Group A played its first fixtures yesterday: co-host Poland tied Greece 1-1 (with each team having a player sent off, and Poland's back-up keeper stopped a penalty), while Russia demolished the Czech Republic 4-1. Both matches were fairly entertaining, despite this group being the weakest of the four (on paper) by a wide margin. Here are a few players who caught the eye... Kostas Katsouranis - Greece Ludovic Obraniak - Poland Tomas Sivok - Czech Republic Jan Rezek - Czech Republic (not quite sure what's going on here, but I like it) Roman Shirokov - Russia Group B, the "group of death" - Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark - kicks off today.
Day 2 was slightly underwhelming, with two tense, cagey 1-0 wins for Denmark over the Netherlands (a surprise) and Germany over Portugal (less of a surprise). They didn't all bring their best games today, but they were looking good anyway. Welsey Sneijder - Netherlands Mats Hummels - Germany Benedikt Howedes - Germany Lukas Podolski - Germany Joao Moutinho - Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal
Day 3 saw Spain start sluggishly and Italy surpass expectations. Later, Croatia benefited from some scrappy play in the box to score three goals, while the luck was not with the Irish. Xabi Alonso - Spain Juan Mata - Spain Jesus Navas - Spain Raul Albiol - Spain Claudio Marchisio - Italy Niko Kranjcar - Croatia Shane Long - Ireland
The fourth and final group kicked off today. England and France drew 1-1, while 35-year old Andriy Shevchenko turned back the clock to give co-hosts Ukraine a 2-1 victory over Sweden. Andriy Shevchenko - Ukraine Bohdan Butko - Ukraine Marko Devic - Ukraine Olof Mellberg - Sweden Markus Rosenberg - Sweden Steven Gerrard - England Theo Walcott - England Mathieu Debuchy - France Alou Diarra - France Yohan Cabaye - France Olivier Giroud - France
Me and my friend text during every match deciding who gets the Golden Ass, it's so much fun. Oddly, I love so many sports I don't fit with the stereotypically gay at all. Still, how have you missed Van Persie?! He is cheddar gorge. Puns galore: "Oh vanny, please tell me you don't like fanny" Loving Euro2012!
I have little interest in football so I guess that's one stereotype I fill, but I did happen to see the first half of Ukraine vs France (till I got bored). That storm?! Bloody hell. I want one in Britain.
