Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are the clear favorites going into Euro 2012. All three of these teams finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the last world cup and all three teams have probably gotten better since. Spain maybe not so much with the loss of David Villa. With that said none of these teams will have and easy path to the finals over the next three weeks. One or two draws in the group stage and a team can be knocked out. Italy, France, Portugal and England all bring some strong teams and any one of them could end up in the finals against one of the top three.
The Definitive Top 3:
Germany
The Germans have always been a powerful football nation but in the last 5 to 10 years they have gotten even better. Their current roster is loaded with great young players like Mesut Ozil, Thomas Mueller, Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira and they have even more waiting in the wings. They dominated qualification rounds going a perfect 10-0, scoring 34 goals along the way. German coach Joachim Low had this to say when asked about being one of the top teams. "We have really matured as a team and we have shown that we can play at a high level. There are more favorites, though. At least six, and two of them are in the same group as Germany with Netherlands and Portugal." While he's probably trying to
underplay the favorite card he does have a point. All four teams in that group are ranked in the top ten by Fifas world rankings.
Spain
Spain are the current European Champions as well as the current World Cup Champions. Enough said. Ranked number one by Fifa and rightfully so. This is definitely the team to beat on paper. The problem is this team has not been getting along and now they are without their top striker David Villa for the entire tournament. "Villa is irreplaceable" said Spain head coach Vicente del Bosque. Twelve players return from the team that won the European title in Vienna four years ago, including superstar Fernando Torres. Even with these concerns Spain is still the top dog with the Germans a close second.
Netherlands
The dutch have been a football powerhouse for a long time now. It's rather impressive how good they are when you consider the Netherlands have a rather small population. This team will include most of the players from their world cup run where the lost to Spain in the finals. Arsenal striker Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart are all returning and are looking for redemption after that gong show in the World Cup Finals. This team is loaded with firepower up front but their defense could be suspect. This team will score lots of goals no doubt. We could easily see the golden boot winner coming from the dutch squad.
