The Euro 2008 Final Draw took place on Sunday December 2 at 12:00pm local time, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Soccerlens has covered the event LIVE, and now gives you the list of the 4 groups of Euro 2008.
Edit 4:52pm:
For post-draw reactions by Italian coach Roberto Donadoni and Netherlands coach Marco Van Basten, see this post.
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Group A . |
Group B . |
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Group C . |
Group D . |
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13:00: This concludes our presentation on Soccerlens. Full list of the groups after the jump.
12:58: Group D: Greece, Russia, Spain, and Sweden. All the groups have been drawn.
12:57: Group C: Netherlands, France, Romania… and ITALY!! The “Group of Death” is here boys…
12:56: Group B: Austria, Poland, Germany, and Croatia.
12:55: Group A: Switzerland, Turkey, Portugal, and Czech Republic.
12:53: Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden, Croatia are now left.
12:53: Group D: Greece, Russia… and Spain .
12:52: Group C: Netherlands, France…. and Romania.
12:51: Group B: Austria, Poland… and Germany.
12:50: Group A: Switzerland, Turkey… and Portugal.
12:45: So far: Group A: Switzerland, Turkey, Group B: Austria, Poland, Group C: Netherlands, France, Group D: Greece, Russia
12:43: After the drawing procedure has been explained, the draw can now begin!
12:40: Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: THE DRAW!
12:38: Presidents of the football federations of Switzerland and Austria are now appearing.
12:34: Now representatives of past Euro championships are set to be presented. Among others, Michel Platini, Dino Zoff, Marco Van Basten…
12:31: The official Adidas matchball is presented. It is called “Eurofast“”Europass”.
12:28: Some more musical performances.
12:25: Now tennis champion Roger Federer presenting his home country Switzerland (the country, not the team). Austria will be presented right after (by ski champion Hermann Maier if I understood correctly).
12:19: A presentation of the 16 participating teams of Euro 2008.
12:15: World tenor José Carreras now to perform.
12:13: Greece’s path to Euro 2004 glory is now being presented.
12:08: A brief look at history, with a video of past Euro tournaments.
12:00pm: The ceremony has begun. First a musical introduction by the Vienna boys’ choir, the draw of the groups will take place a little later. You can watch the whole thing unfold on the uefa.com site too by the way (audio & video).
As a reminder, the 16 qualified teams have been separated into 4 different pots, which will be utilized to determine the 4 groups of the tournament by drawing one team from each pot.
With the two co-host nations (Austria/Switzerland) already occupying positions A1 and B1 in the draw, Pot 1 will be formed by European champions Greece, and the team with the highest UEFA coefficient from the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 qualifying, in this case the Netherlands. The remaining pots have been filled in order of coefficient. The teams in Pot 2 will be Croatia, world champions Italy, the Czech Republic and Sweden, while Romania, Germany, Portugal and Spain will occupy Pot 3. Finally, Pot 4 contains Euro championship newcomers Poland, as well as France, Turkey and Russia.
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Switzerland (hosts) | ||
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Austria (hosts) | ||
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Greece (holders) | ||
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Netherlands | ||
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Croatia | ||
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Italy | ||
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Czech Republic | ||
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Sweden | ||
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Romania | ||
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Germany | ||
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Portugal | ||
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Spain | ||
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Poland | ||
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France | ||
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Turkey | ||
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Russia | ||
UEFA’s seedings give rise to interesting scenarios. Namely a “group of death” could potentially contain Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and France, while a “relatively easy” group could include Austria, Croatia, Romania, and Poland.
For more information on the methods used to determine the seedings, see our “Euro 2008 – Group Stage Draw Seedings” post.
Marco Pantanella writes for the mCalcio blog
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