By Habeeb Akinfegbe
The 15th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organized by UEFA is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016 and Spain are two-time defending champions by virtue of winning the 2008 and 2012 editions.
For the first time, the European Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. 19 teams (the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team) joined France who qualified automatically as hosts; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four spots at the final tournament.
France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals. The matches will be played in ten stadia in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne and Toulouse.
It will be the third time that France hosts the tournament, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. The French team have won the European Championship twice: in 1984 and 2000.
The winning team earns the right to compete at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup to be hosted by Russia.
The draw for the finals took place at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris on 12 December 2015, 18:00 CET. The 24 qualified teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts France being automatically placed in position A1. The remaining teams were seeded into four pots of five (Pot 1) or six teams (Pots 2, 3 and 4). As the title holders, Spain were seeded in Pot 1, while the other 22 teams were seeded according to the UEFA National team coefficients updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), which were released by UEFA on 14 October 2015.
Each team has a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams will train and reside in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. From an initial list of 66 bases, the 24 participating teams had to confirm their selection with UEFA by 31 January 2016.
The selected team base camps were announced on 2 March 2016 as follow:
Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.
France is one of the most successful nations at the UEFA European Football Championship having won two titles in 1984 and 2000. The team is just below Spain and Germany who have won three titles each. France hosted the inaugural competition
in 1960 and have appeared in seven UEFA European Championship
tournaments, tied on fourth-best. The team won their first title on
home soil in 1984 and were led by Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini. In 2000, the team, led by FIFA World Player of the Year
Zinedine Zidane, won its second title in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The team's worst result in the competition was a first-round elimination
in 1992 and 2008. France were drawn in Group D of UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying along with Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania and Luxembourg.
France got off to a disastrous start in their first qualifier where
they surprisingly lost 0–1 to Belarus at home. However, this loss was
followed by three successive wins against Romania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Luxembourg.
France eventually topped their group, thus automatically qualifying for Euro 2012. In the finals in Poland and Ukraine, France were in Group D along with rivals England, Sweden and Ukraine. France began Euro 2012 with a 1–1 draw against England which was followed by a 2-0 win over co-hosts Ukraine. Although France lost their final group game 0–2 to Sweden, they ended second in their group and qualified for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by eventual champions Spain. Following the tournament, coach Laurent Blanc resigned and was succeeded by Didier Deschamps who captained France to glory in 1998 world cup and 2000 Euro cup.
Romania's sole successful qualifying campaign was for the Europ
ean Championships in 1984 in France. At the finals, Romania were drawn with regular rivals Spain, holders West Germany and dark horses Portugal. Under head coach Mircea Lucescu, an encouraging opening game in Saint-Étienne saw them draw with the Spanish. Francisco José Carrasco opened the scoring from the penalty spot but Romania equalized before half time with a goal from Laszlo Bölöni. Against the Germans in Lens, Marcel Coraș scored an equalizer in the first minute of the second half in response to Rudi Völler's opener, but Völler would score a winning goal. Their last match in Nantes was a must-win match, but Nené's late winner meant Portugal progressed with Spain, who netted a dramatic late winner against West Germany at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Romania stuttered throughout the rest of the decade, but a stronger squad at the end of the decade saw them qualify for their fifth World Cup at Italia 90. A win over Denmark in their last match took Emerich Jenei's side to the finals for the first time in twenty years. At the European Championships, Romania's best performance was in 2000 when they advanced to the quarter-finals from a group with Germany, Portugal and England before falling to eventual runners-up Italy. They also reached the last eight in 1960 and 1972, and qualified for the 1984, 1996, 2008 and 2016 tournaments.
Albania was the winner of the 1946 Balkan Cup and the Malta Rothmans International Tournament 2000, but had never participated in any major UEFA or FIFA tournament, until UEFA Euro 2016, which will be Albania's first ever appearance at the continental tournament and at a major men's football tournament.
In 2006, Switzerland set a FIFA World Cup record by being eliminated from the competition despite not conceding a goal, losing to Ukraine in a penalty shootout in the last 16, by failing to score a single penalty – becoming the first national team in Cup history to do this. They would not concede a goal until their second group stage game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, giving up a goal in the 74th minute against Chile, setting a World Cup Finals record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. Switzerland co-hosted Euro 2008 with Austria, making their third appearance in the competition. As with the two previous appearances, they did not clear the group stages.
Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia and Ireland. After a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France, and thus ended on the last place in group B of the main tournament. Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, beating the record (set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney) by three months. Switzerland were drawn in qualifying Group G. Switzerland booked their berth at UEFA Euro 2016 with a 7-0 win over San Marino on 9 October 2015.
This piece will continue until the commencement of the championship.
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The 15th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organized by UEFA is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016 and Spain are two-time defending champions by virtue of winning the 2008 and 2012 editions.
For the first time, the European Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. 19 teams (the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team) joined France who qualified automatically as hosts; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four spots at the final tournament.
France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals. The matches will be played in ten stadia in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne and Toulouse.
It will be the third time that France hosts the tournament, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. The French team have won the European Championship twice: in 1984 and 2000.The winning team earns the right to compete at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup to be hosted by Russia.
The draw for the finals took place at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris on 12 December 2015, 18:00 CET. The 24 qualified teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts France being automatically placed in position A1. The remaining teams were seeded into four pots of five (Pot 1) or six teams (Pots 2, 3 and 4). As the title holders, Spain were seeded in Pot 1, while the other 22 teams were seeded according to the UEFA National team coefficients updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), which were released by UEFA on 14 October 2015.
Each team has a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams will train and reside in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. From an initial list of 66 bases, the 24 participating teams had to confirm their selection with UEFA by 31 January 2016.
The selected team base camps were announced on 2 March 2016 as follow:
Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.
GROUP A
 |
| HUGO LLORIS, CAPTAIN OF FRANCE |
France eventually topped their group, thus automatically qualifying for Euro 2012. In the finals in Poland and Ukraine, France were in Group D along with rivals England, Sweden and Ukraine. France began Euro 2012 with a 1–1 draw against England which was followed by a 2-0 win over co-hosts Ukraine. Although France lost their final group game 0–2 to Sweden, they ended second in their group and qualified for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by eventual champions Spain. Following the tournament, coach Laurent Blanc resigned and was succeeded by Didier Deschamps who captained France to glory in 1998 world cup and 2000 Euro cup.
Romania's sole successful qualifying campaign was for the Europ
ean Championships in 1984 in France. At the finals, Romania were drawn with regular rivals Spain, holders West Germany and dark horses Portugal. Under head coach Mircea Lucescu, an encouraging opening game in Saint-Étienne saw them draw with the Spanish. Francisco José Carrasco opened the scoring from the penalty spot but Romania equalized before half time with a goal from Laszlo Bölöni. Against the Germans in Lens, Marcel Coraș scored an equalizer in the first minute of the second half in response to Rudi Völler's opener, but Völler would score a winning goal. Their last match in Nantes was a must-win match, but Nené's late winner meant Portugal progressed with Spain, who netted a dramatic late winner against West Germany at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Romania stuttered throughout the rest of the decade, but a stronger squad at the end of the decade saw them qualify for their fifth World Cup at Italia 90. A win over Denmark in their last match took Emerich Jenei's side to the finals for the first time in twenty years. At the European Championships, Romania's best performance was in 2000 when they advanced to the quarter-finals from a group with Germany, Portugal and England before falling to eventual runners-up Italy. They also reached the last eight in 1960 and 1972, and qualified for the 1984, 1996, 2008 and 2016 tournaments.
Albania was the winner of the 1946 Balkan Cup and the Malta Rothmans International Tournament 2000, but had never participated in any major UEFA or FIFA tournament, until UEFA Euro 2016, which will be Albania's first ever appearance at the continental tournament and at a major men's football tournament.
In 2006, Switzerland set a FIFA World Cup record by being eliminated from the competition despite not conceding a goal, losing to Ukraine in a penalty shootout in the last 16, by failing to score a single penalty – becoming the first national team in Cup history to do this. They would not concede a goal until their second group stage game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, giving up a goal in the 74th minute against Chile, setting a World Cup Finals record for consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. Switzerland co-hosted Euro 2008 with Austria, making their third appearance in the competition. As with the two previous appearances, they did not clear the group stages.
Switzerland qualified for the Euro 2004 in Portugal by finishing first in group 10 of the qualifying, ahead of Russia and Ireland. After a 0–0 draw against Croatia, they lost 0–3 against England and 1–3 against France, and thus ended on the last place in group B of the main tournament. Johann Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the Euro championships when he equalised against France, beating the record (set only four days earlier by Wayne Rooney) by three months. Switzerland were drawn in qualifying Group G. Switzerland booked their berth at UEFA Euro 2016 with a 7-0 win over San Marino on 9 October 2015.
This piece will continue until the commencement of the championship.
FOLLOW US
Twitter: @bizarre_comms
Facebook: Bizarre Communications
Email: bizarrecommunications@gmail.com
Nice Article!
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