Group C and D Wrap Up

The favorites from C and D have all advanced: Spain, Italy, England, and France are all through to the next round.  The stage is now set.

Czech Republic

v

Portugal

Spain

v

France

Germany 

v

Greece

England

v

Italy

Unfortunately for the neutral fan, a host nation has not advanced to the quarterfinals.  Both Poland and Ukraine have played some impressive football at times in the group stages.  They definitely gave their supporters some moments to get excited about (Lewandowski's opener, Shevchenko's brace come to mind),  but neither of the co-hosts proved to have that cutting edge to get out of the group.

Disappointment for the host nations, despite displaying some good football in the tournament.

The quarterfinals boast some very competitive match-ups.  Its difficult to see the Greeks overcoming the Germans, but each of the other nations should feel like they have a great chance to progress to the semifinals.    

The match-up that catches my eye is Spain v France.  Spain won their group, but are coming off of a less than impressive 1-0 win over Croatia.  The Spanish have not been as dangerous as many would like them to be, but the Spanish not at their best is still better than almost any team in the world.

Meanwhile, the French had appeared to be the class of Group A, up until their disappointing 0-2 loss to Sweden today. It will be interesting to see which of these nations will regain their form, and gain some confidence going into the semifinals of Euro 2012.