2012 European Championships

By Darbitrage

Warsaw, Poland played host to the drawing of the qualifying groups for Euro 2012 that Poland will co-host with Ukraine. The majority of the top seed will have been happy with who they were drawn with and once the World Cup has concluded in July, focus will turn to a qualifying campaign starting in September 2010. The groups were drawn as follows:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H	Group 1
Germany	Russia	Italy	France	Holland	Croatia	England	Portugal	Spain
Turkey	Slovakia	Serbia	Romania	Sweden	Greece	Switzerland	Denmark	Czech Republic
Austria	Rep of Ireland	Northern Ireland	Bosnia	Finland	Israel	Bulgaria	Norway	Scotland
Belgium	Macedonia	Slovenia	Belarus	Hungary	Latvia	Wales	Cyprus	Lithuania
Kazakhstan	Armenia	Estonia	Albania	Moldova	Georgia	Montenegro	Iceland	Liechtenstein
Azerbaijan	Andorra	Faroe Islands	Luxembourg	San Marino	Malta

Bookmakers were quick to price up the groups and now may be a good time to sniff out a bit of early value before firms rethink their standpoint.

Group C

Current world champions Italy would be relatively happy with their draw. Serbia pose a strong threat to top spot but it’s the same story every time with Italy – nobody really rates them to do much but they eventually go deep into tournaments. They are rightly favourites to win the group with most firms going around 1.40.

Bwin go a stand out 1.6 about Italy and this is a great price in my eyes. William Hill have gone way too short on Italy and Northern Ireland and as a result are offering 4.3 about Serbia who will be Italy's closest challengers. This price too is too generous so we will be taking it as a saver.

Selections:

5pts – Italy to win Group C – 1.6 – Bwin

2pts – Serbia to win Group C – 4.33 – William Hill

Group G

England find themselves in one of the 3 groups containing only 5 teams. Their closest rivals will be Switzerland but in truth if England perform how they did in qualification for this years World Cup then top spot should be sewn up with at least a game to spare. However, these smaller groups can be trickier as any negative result can seem more serious as there are fewer games to recuperate. England lost away in Ukraine this year and a similar off day against the Swiss or Bulgaria could let either of them in.

Albeit a short price, England seem good value to get on at 1.4. Other firms have differing opinions and Coral go as short 1.17 on England pushing Switzerland out to a very generous 8.0.

Selections:

5pts – England to win Group G – 1.4 – PaddyPower, William Hill

0.75pts – Switzerland to win Group G – 8.0 – Coral

Darbitrage