Euro 2012 Draw

The draw for the Euro 2012 Championship took place last Friday at the Ukraine Palace of Arts in Kiev, Ukraine. The hour-long ceremony decided the fate of the sixteen teams taking place in next summer's competition, which will take place in Ukraine and Poland. As expected the draw offered up some tantalising clashes for football fans all over the continent. As with the two previous draws for the 2004 and 2008 finals, the sixteen finalists were divided into four separate seeding pots. The individual seedings were calculated by using UEFA's national team coefficient ranking. England have cause for cautious optimism, they have been drawn in Group D against the co-hosts Ukraine, France and Sweden. The Republic of Ireland have a far bigger challenge ahead in Group C, having been drawn against the might of Spain, Italy, and Croatia. Meanwhile Group B, which includes Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark, is likely to be dubbed "The Group of Death", due to the large cluster of favourites drawn together. The first game of next summer's championships will involve the co-hosts Poland, who will play Greece in the curtain raiser on June 8 in Warsaw. Russia and the Czech Republic make up the rest of Group A, which is likely to see an underdog advancing to the knockout stages. Spain are the overwhelming favourites to regain their crown.