Croatia Draw Greece and Israel for Euro 2012 Qualifying

February 9, 2010

The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying groups took place Sunday morning in Warsaw, Poland. Croatia should be relieved to have not drawn England again, as they have for the last two qualifying campaigns. Instead, they have been seeded in Group F with Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, and Malta.

As of the last update by FIFA to the world ranking table, Croatia have dropped a place to 11th, their first time out of the top ten since June 2008, Greece are right behind them in 12th, Israel are 27th, Latvia 49th, Georgia 122nd, and Malta are 144th.

While Croatia have missed out on the World Cup after finishing third in their group by 1 point, Greece have sealed a spot in South Africa by finishing second in their group and by beating Ukraine, who were second place finishers in Croatia’s group, in the playoffs for the last few spots. Latvia and Israel finished third and fourth in the same group as Greece, so the three teams are quite familiar with each other. As for Georgia and Malta they both finished bottom of their groups as Italy and the Republic of Ireland and Denmark and Portugal advanced ahead of them.

Croatia made it to the quarter-finals of the Euro 2008 where they were beaten by Turkey on penalty kicks, after finishing first above Germany as Greece respectively bowed out in the group stages.

Croatia manager Slaven Bilić, expressing his happiness with the results of the draw said, “We have to admit the draw was good for us. We respect all the opponents in Group F, but we are pleased with the draw. Greece will be our toughest opponent in our efforts to qualify for the European Championships.”

Greece manager Otto Rehhagel is quite satisfied as well and is expecting a good campaign after the World Cup. He said, “We have played against all our rivals in Group F except Croatia in recent qualifying competitions. Theoretically, Croatia are the strongest team in the pack but we shouldn’t underestimate the rest. It’s a good group for us and we will fight for top spot or at least for second place, which would give us a shot at the play-offs.”

The rest of the groups for qualification are…

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
Group G: England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro
Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
Group I: Spain, Czech-Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein
Hosts: Poland and Ukraine automatically qualify

Jill Guthrie

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