European Football Championship 2012

European Football Championship 2012
UEFA EURO 2012
Number of nations	16  (of 53 applicants)
European champion	Spain (3rd title)
venue	Poland Ukraine
Opening game	June 8, 2012 ( Warsaw )
Endgame	July 1, 2012 ( Kiev )
Games	31
Gates	76  (⌀: 2.45 per game)
spectator	1,440,896  (⌀: 46,481 per game)
Top scorer	Fernando Torres (3)
Best player	Andrés Iniesta
yellow cards	119  (⌀: 3.84 per game)
Yellow-red cards	2  (⌀: 0.06 per game)
Red cards	1  (⌀: 0.03 per game)

Results of the participants:

European champion

final

Semifinals

Quarter finals

Preliminary round

The final round of the 14th European Football Championship 2012 (officially UEFA EURO 2012 ; Polish Mistrzostwa Europy w Piłce Nożnej 2012 ; Ukrainian Чемпіонат Європи з футболу 2012 ) took place from June 8 to July 1, 2012 in Poland and Ukraine . For the time being, it was the last European Football Championship (EM), which was held with 16 teams. The final round has been contested with 24 teams since 2016 .

The European champions were the Spanish national team , which defeated Italy 4-0 in the final in Kiev. The Spanish national team is the first team to defend their European Championship title since the tournament was held for the first time in 1960. The European title qualified for participation in the Confederations Cup 2013 . Since Spain was already qualified as world champion, the European championship spot fell to the defeated finalists Italy.

Germany , which won the 15th competitive game in a row by beating Greece in the quarter-finals and thus set a new record previously held by France, Spain and the Netherlands, failed in the semi-finals. The Switzerland and Austria already failed in qualifying. Both host teams were eliminated in the group stage - as in the previous European Championship tournament in 2008 Austria and Switzerland. The top scorer was the Spaniard Fernando Torres , who became the first player to score in two European Championship finals, with three tournament goals.

Award

Logo of the candidacy

For the European Football Championship 2012, the application period was divided into two phases. This was intended to reduce costs for UEFA and the applicants.

By the application deadline on February 1, 2005, ten national football associations submitted eight applications to host the European Championship finals. Azerbaijan , Greece , Italy , Romania , Russia and Turkey applied individually, Croatia and Hungary as well as Poland and Ukraine each submitted joint applications. After examining the documents, the applications from Azerbaijan, Romania and Russia were rejected.

After the first vote on November 8, 2005, the field of applicants was reduced to Italy (eleven votes), Croatia / Hungary (nine votes) and Poland / Ukraine (seven votes). Turkey (six votes) and Greece (two votes) were eliminated from the application.

On April 18, 2007, the UEFA Executive Committee in Cardiff announced that Poland and Ukraine had won a joint bid. Of the twelve votes cast by the members of the Executive Committee, Poland and Ukraine got eight, while the remaining four went to Italy.

Preparations

After the award, the preparations in both countries were initially slow. UEFA expressed concern about the delays on several occasions, but did not take any action for a long time. On January 30, 2008, UEFA asked the states to speed up the process by providing financial support for the projects. UEFA General Secretary David Taylor made it clear that if too little progress was made in the next six months, UEFA would be forced to take action.

After visiting Poland and Ukraine at the beginning of July 2008, UEFA President Michel Platini announced that Polish preparations were going much better than in Ukraine and that if necessary, the proportions of the game could be changed. Poland would get 75 percent of the games (18 group, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final), while Ukraine would only play Group D games. There was speculation about further consequences, such as a complete withdrawal of the event in Ukraine.

Germany came up again and again as co-host of the EM 2012, when UEFA President Michel Platini asked the German Football Association about it. This was rejected several times by the DFB.

A UEFA delegation headed by David Taylor checked the state of preparations and the infrastructure in Ukraine from February 2 to 6, 2009.

At its meeting on May 13, 2009, the UEFA Executive Committee confirmed the Polish cities of Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw as the official hosts of the European Championship. Of the Ukrainian cities, only Kiev received the status of an official host city, but was not initially confirmed as a final location. Like the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv, Kiev was given the opportunity to meet the requirements by November 30, 2009. At a conference in Madeira on December 11, 2009, UEFA confirmed all four Ukrainian cities as host cities and awarded the final to Kiev.

On January 24, 2011, it became known that UEFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke threatened to withdraw the European Championship in a letter to the Ukrainian Football Association (FFU) because, according to FIFA, the Ukrainian government interfered inadmissibly in the affairs of the Ukrainian Football Association. If the FFU does not stop the planned restructuring by the government by February 4, FIFA is ready to exclude Ukraine from their competitions. This exclusion would no longer make it possible to host the European Championship in Ukraine. Shortly before the end of the ultimatum, the Ukrainian Football Association (FFU) declared that the government would not reform. The FFU assured FIFA in a letter that politics had no influence on the preparations for the European Championship. This has been confirmed by UEFA CEO Michel Platini and FIFA President Sepp Blatter . Thus, Ukraine remained as the second host country.

There were also backlogs in the construction of stadiums and infrastructure in both Poland and Ukraine. The schedule was exceeded again. By January 2011, only three of the eight venues had been completed. For the remaining stadiums, UEFA had set a deadline of June 2011, which was met in Poland except for the Narodowy stadium in Warsaw and in Ukraine except for the stadiums in Kiev and Lviv.

Venues

Poland

Warsaw Warszawa	Poznan Poznań	Warsaw Poses Wroclaw Danzig	Wroclaw Wroclaw	Gdansk Gdańsk
Narodowy Stadium Capacity: 58,580	Stadion Miejski Capacity: 43,269		Stadion Miejski Capacity: 44,416	PGE Arena Gdańsk Capacity: 43,615
3 preliminary round games (opening round) 1 quarter-final, 1 semi-final	3 preliminary round matches		3 preliminary round matches	3 preliminary round games 1 quarter-finals

The opening game was played in the Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw , and there were also two more preliminary round matches, as well as a quarter-final and a semi-final. Since the stadium was not operational by the scheduled completion date in autumn 2011, the test international match between Poland and Germany scheduled for the opening had to be relocated to Gdansk on September 6, 2011. The stadium was finally inaugurated on January 29, 2012 with a music festival. The stadium can be converted into an athletics stadium by raising the playing field to the level of the middle tier.

A new stadium for the European Championship was built in Gdansk and opened on August 14, 2011 with the game Lechia Gdańsk against KS Cracovia . The complex was called PGE Arena Gdańsk and had a capacity of 44,000 spectators. Gdansk was scheduled for three group matches and a quarter-finals of the tournament. The new stadium will also be used by the Lechia Gdańsk football club.

In the stadium Miejski in Poznan , home of Lech Poznan , three preliminary round matches of the European Championship took place. The venue was completely rebuilt, including a complete roofing of the grandstands with integrated floodlights and was opened on September 20, 2010 with a concert by the singer Sting . The stadium has a capacity of 43,090 seats. It is the only stadium of the four venues in Poland that already existed when the final round was awarded.

In Wroclaw was Stadion Miejski built and has a capacity of 43,000 seats. There were three preliminary round matches in Wroclaw. Work on the new arena was completed at the end of August 2011. On September 10, 2011, at the opening of the stadium, the WBC World Championship heavyweight boxing match between the Ukrainian world champion Vitali Klitschko and the Polish challenger Tomasz Adamek took place. The stadium includes, among other things, prayer rooms and detention areas. It is fully monitored.

Tendering and awarding of contracts

Chinese construction companies were particularly interested in the tenders for the construction contracts . If they had won the bid, they would have brought the workers they needed with them from China. Under the impression of the labor shortage in the construction industry, the government of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz had approved significant contingents of workers from China in 2006. Only European companies were awarded contracts.

Infrastructure

The most important airports in the cities of Gdansk , Katowice , Krakow , Warsaw , Wroclaw and Poznan were expanded and modernized for the European Championship . In the area of ​​rail transport, the railway stations in Kraków Główny , Poznań Główny , Katowice and Warszawa Zachodnia were newly built and Wrocław Główny , Gdynia Główna , Warszawa Centralna , Warszawa Stadion and Warszawa Wschodnia were completely modernized. In addition, sections of the railway lines E20 Warsaw - Łódź , E30: Zgorzelec - Medyka , E59: Wroclaw - Posen , E65: Warszawa - Gdynia , No. 8: Warsaw - Krakow with a total length of 940 kilometers were modernized.

The road network was originally supposed to be expanded with an additional approximately 4,000 kilometers of motorways and expressways . The most important transport projects included the completion of the A1 , A4 , A6 , A8 , A18 motorways and the extension of the A2 to Warsaw . In addition, the expressways S1 , S2 , S7 , S8 should be completed completely, the S3 and S17 in large parts. It was announced early on that none of these plans could be realized by 2012. After long delays on the A1 , only a few sections from Pyrzowice to Świerklany were opened. The connection from Toruń to Łódź to the A2 was not completed in time for the European Championship. There were very long delays on the A4 motorway due to floods and financial problems, with the result that none of the ten sections of the route from Krakow to the Ukrainian border was opened until the EM 2012. The Polish road administration authority GDDKiA assumes that the majority of fans traveling to Lviv will forego driving and use the plane. Due to financial problems of two construction companies in the construction of the A2 motorway from Łódź to Warsaw, delays occurred, which were reduced by the following companies by accelerating the construction work for a few months so that the motorway connection could be opened on June 6, 2012. The A8 was opened in 2011 after a three-year construction period. The modernization of the A18 was canceled during the 2010 tender and is again being planned. In the area of ​​the expressways, only a few sections were released before the European Championship: the S8 in the Warsaw area, the S7 in the Gdansk area , the S5 as an east bypass and one of three sections of the S11 as a west bypass of Poznan.

Ukraine

Kiev Київ	Donetsk Донецьк	Kiev Donetsk Kharkiv Lviv	Kharkiv Харків	Lviv Львів
Kiev Olympic Stadium Capacity: 70,050	Donbass Arena Capacity: 51,504		Metalist Stadium Capacity: 38,633	Arena Lviv Capacity: 34,915
3 preliminary round games 1 quarter-finals, final	3 preliminary round games, 1 quarter-final, 1 semi-final		3 preliminary round matches	3 preliminary round matches

The final was played in the Olympic Stadium in Kiev , and there were also three preliminary round matches and a quarter-final. For this purpose, the stadium , which was built in its original form from 1936 and used for the soccer tournament of the 1980 Summer Olympics , was completely rebuilt by the German architecture firm Gerkan, Marg and Partner . Among other things, the grandstands were completely covered with an integrated floodlight system and 70,050 seats are available for visitors. After a delay of several months, the stadium opened on October 8, 2011.

A new stadium was built in Donetsk between 2006 and 2009. The complex is called Donbass Arena , was financed by the Ukrainian entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov and has a capacity of 51,504 seats. In Donetsk, three group matches as well as a quarter-final and a semi-final were played. In the Ukrainian championship , the stadium was used by Shakhtar Donetsk . Just five years after completion, the stadium was badly damaged in the fall of 2014 during the war in Ukraine .

In the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv , the home stadium of Metalist Kharkiv , three preliminary round matches of the European Championship took place. The venue was completely renovated between 2008 and 2009 and has had a capacity of 41,307 seats since then. Kharkiv stepped in as a replacement for Dnepropetrovsk .

In Lviv was Arena Lviv built, which has a capacity of 34,915 seats. Three preliminary round matches took place here. The city could not implement the project without financial support from abroad. In addition, the domestic political crisis made it difficult to find suitable investors. After a construction stop in early 2010, completion was delayed considerably. The stadium, which has not yet been fully completed, was inaugurated on October 29, 2011; on November 15, 2011, the opening match between the national teams of Ukraine and Austria took place.

Tendering and awarding of contracts

The National Stadium in Kiev was originally supposed to be renovated by the Taiwanese firm Archasia Design Group. In June 2008, the contract was terminated due to a lack of experience in the construction industry. The German architecture firm Gerkan, Marg und Partner , which had already renovated the Olympic Stadium in Berlin for the 2006 World Cup, won the award. Other applicants included the British architect Norman Foster . The construction work was completed in 2011.

Infrastructure

In terms of infrastructure, Ukraine was well behind Poland. The government intended to build nearly 3,000 km of motorways and expressways . Investments in railways, airports and hotels of all classes were also needed. The Kiev metro should also be expanded. Numerous new hotels had to be built. The Accor Group (France), the Rezidor Hotel Group (Belgium) and the InterContinental Hotels Group (Great Britain) announced in mid-2008 that they would build up to 40 hotels in Ukraine. As a special campaign for the 2012 European Football Championship, the search engine group Google enabled a virtual tour of all eight European Championship stadiums via Google Street View in a 360-degree perspective.

mode

Tournament form

The final round started with four groups of four participants each. Within each group, each team played against each other team. The first two teams each qualified for the final round. From there on, the game was played in the knockout system (quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals). If there was no winner in the knockout games after 90 minutes, there was an extension of 15 minutes twice. If there was still a tie after extra time, the winner was determined on penalties . A sudden death rule, as was the case in earlier tournaments, which automatically stopped a game in overtime if a goal was scored ( golden goal ) and decided in favor of the respective team, did not exist at this European Championship.

Decision criteria for the group stage

The winner of a game received three points; in the event of a tie, each team received one point. The table placement was primarily based on the higher number of points. In the event of a tie between two or more teams, the following criteria decided on the placement in this order:

1. Higher number of points in direct comparison .
2. Better goal difference in direct comparison.
3. Higher number of goals scored in direct comparison.
4. If two teams had still occupied the same place after applying the previous criteria, the first criterion would have been reapplied to determine their final placement, but only for the face-to-face meeting between the two teams concerned.
5. Better goal difference from all group matches.
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches.
7. Higher UEFA group stage draw coefficient .
8. Better fair play behavior during the finals.
9. Drawing of lots.

The last two criteria could not be applied at this European Championship because all participating teams had different UEFA coefficients.

Ultimately, only criterion 1 was used when deciding on the placements in groups A and D, although for group D this had no influence on qualification for the quarter-finals.

If two teams had faced each other in the final group match with the same number of points, goal difference and number of goals, and had there been no winner in that match, a penalty shoot-out would have decided the placement, if not another team would have been tied. But this did not happen either.

Game suspension

If a player received a yellow card for the second time in the course of the tournament , he was suspended for the following game. Individual yellow cards were canceled after the quarter-finals. As a result, all players went to the semi-finals unencumbered. After receiving a yellow-red card , the player was suspended for the next game. In the event of a red card , the player was also automatically banned from the following game, whereby the Control and Disciplinary Commission could issue a higher penalty.

Attendees

qualification

→ Main article : Qualifying for the 2012 European Football Championship

In addition to the two hosts, who automatically took part in the tournament, 14 other teams had qualified for the finals.

Final round draw

The draw for the four groups of four in the final round took place on December 2, 2011 in the Ukrajina Palace in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. In addition to the hosts Poland (group A) and Ukraine (group D), the two strongest qualified teams were set as group heads of groups B and C (defending champions Spain and the Netherlands). The remaining teams were divided into three pots according to the UEFA coefficient and one team from each pot was drawn from each group.

• Pot 1: Poland (A1), Ukraine (D1), Spain, Netherlands
• Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia
• Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden
• Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Ireland

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Poland ( squad )	Netherlands ( squad )	Spain ( squad )	Ukraine ( squad )
Greece ( squad )	Denmark ( squad )	Italy ( squad )	Sweden ( squad )
Russia ( squad )	Germany ( squad )	Ireland ( squad )	France ( squad )
Czech Republic ( squad )	Portugal ( squad )	Croatia ( squad )	England ( squad )

Preliminary round

Group A

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Czech Republic	3	2	0	1	004: 500	−1	06th
2.	Greece	3	1	1	1	003: 300	± 0	04th
3.	Russia	3	1	1	1	005: 300	+2	04th
4th	Poland	3	0	2	1	002: 300	−1	02
The direct comparison is decisive for placing 2 and 3 (see mode ).

Friday, June 8, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. in Warsaw
Poland	-	Greece	1: 1 (1: 0)
Friday, June 8, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Wroclaw
Russia	-	Czech Republic	4: 1 (2: 0)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. in Wroclaw
Greece	-	Czech Republic	1: 2 (0: 2)
Tue., June 12, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Poland	-	Russia	1: 1 (0: 1)
Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Greece	-	Russia	1: 0 (1: 0)
Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Wroclaw
Czech Republic	-	Poland	1: 0 (0: 0)

The Czech Republic got off to a very bad start to the tournament and deservedly lost 4-1 to the Russian team in Wroclaw . However, the Czechs were leading 2-0 against Greece after just six minutes and were able to achieve a 2-1 victory in the end. Thanks to a lucky 1-0 win in the last group game against co-hosts Poland thanks to Petr Jiráček 's winning goal , the team was even able to celebrate the group victory because Russia surprisingly lost to Greece in the parallel game.

Greece , the European champions of 2004, defied the favored Poles in the opening game from a 1-1 draw, with Giorgos Karagounis losing the chance for the winner when he failed with a penalty in the 71st minute to Przemysław Tytoń . After losing to the Czech Republic, the Greeks needed a win against Russia to advance, but went into the game as a clear underdog. Greece managed to save Karagounis' opening goal from stoppage time in the first half over time and surprisingly move into the quarter-finals.

After the convincing 4-1 win against the Czech Republic, Russia was already considered a secret favorite for the title, but did not live up to the growing expectations. After the draw against Poland, a draw against Greece would have been enough to make it into the quarter-finals, but the offensive series against the Czech Republic, no matter how highly praised, was unable to break through the Greek defensive bulwark after the 0-1 deficit.

As a co-host, Poland was confronted with high expectations from the local public from the start. However, after a furious initial phase against Greece, the Polish team collapsed and had to be satisfied with the 1-1 draw in the end. In the explosive duel with arch rivals Russia, a dream goal by Jakub Błaszczykowski saved the draw. In the decisive final group game against the Czech Republic, the co-hosts were unhappy with 0: 1 and thus eliminated from the bottom of the group.

Group B

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Germany	3	3	0	0	005: 200	+3	09
2.	Portugal	3	2	0	1	005: 400	+1	06th
3.	Denmark	3	1	0	2	004: 500	−1	03
4th	Netherlands	3	0	0	3	002: 500	−3	00

Sat., June 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in Kharkiv (6:00 p.m. CEST )
Netherlands	-	Denmark	0: 1 (0: 1)
Sat., June 9, 2012 at 9.45 p.m. in Lviv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Germany	-	Portugal	1: 0 (0: 0)
Wed., June 13, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in Lviv (6:00 p.m. CEST)
Denmark	-	Portugal	2: 3 (1: 2)
Wed., June 13, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kharkiv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Netherlands	-	Germany	1: 2 (0: 2)
Sun., June 17, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kharkiv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Portugal	-	Netherlands	2: 1 (1: 1)
Sun., June 17, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Lviv (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Denmark	-	Germany	1: 2 (1: 1)

Germany , which, along with the Netherlands, was the favorite in “group B”, started the tournament with a hard-fought 1-0 win against Portugal. The not undisputed striker Mario Gómez scored the "golden goal" in the 73rd minute. Also in the duel with the Dutch arch rival Gómez advanced to the match winner as a double goal scorer. The national team showed a significant improvement compared to the opening game, and the Dutch were still well served with the 1: 2 defeat. Against Denmark a close game developed, only with Lars Bender's winning goal in the 80th minute Germany secured progress and ultimately the group victory.

After the unfortunate opening defeat against Germany, Portugal retained the upper hand 3-2 in a spectacular game against the Danes at times. In the decisive group match against the Netherlands, superstar Cristiano Ronaldo , who had not convinced until then , turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 win with a brace , which meant that Portugal qualified for the quarter-finals in second place.

Denmark went as a clear outsider into the strong group B, but immediately set an exclamation point with a 1-0 win against the Dutch in Kharkiv . Even after the 3-2 defeat against Portugal they still had every chance of reaching the quarter-finals, and in the last group game the Danes gave the Germans a tough duel, but were defeated 2-1 in the end and were thus eliminated as third in the group.

The Netherlands were probably the biggest disappointment of this European Championship. Started as one of the favorites in the tournament, the team around superstars such as Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie fell out without a single point win. As a consequence, coach Bert van Marwijk , who had led the Dutch to the World Cup final two years earlier, had to resign after the tournament.

Group C

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	3	2	1	0	006: 100	+5	07th
2.	Italy	3	1	2	0	004: 200	+2	05
3.	Croatia	3	1	1	1	004: 300	+1	04th
4th	Ireland	3	0	0	3	001: 900	−8	00

Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. in Gdansk
Spain	-	Italy	1: 1 (0: 0)
Sun., June 10, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Poznan
Ireland	-	Croatia	1: 3 (1: 2)
Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. in Poznan
Italy	-	Croatia	1: 1 (1: 0)
Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Gdansk
Spain	-	Ireland	4: 0 (1: 0)
Mon., June 18, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Gdansk
Croatia	-	Spain	0: 1 (0: 0)
Mon., June 18, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Poznan
Italy	-	Ireland	2: 0 (1: 0)

As the reigning world and European champions, Spain was considered the top favorite for the title, but had to accept the failure of its striker David Villa before the tournament began . Coach Vicente del Bosque then played a system without a classic center forward and deployed Cesc Fàbregas as the so-called "wrong nine". Against Italy, however, the Spaniards had to be content with a 1-1 draw after a hard-fought game. Against outsiders Ireland, del Bosque used a center forward Fernando Torres again, and the world champions came to an undisputed 4-0 win. The last group game against Croatia was again much closer and more balanced, only two minutes before the end Jesús Navas made the decision in favor of Spain.

Italy , which has not won a European championship since 1968 , was one of the tournament favorites despite its modest appearances at the 2010 World Cup . In the 1-1 game against the Spaniards, the Squadra Azzura was able to convince with a strong defensive performance. The 1-1 draw in the second game against Croatia was seen as a disappointment due to the large number of missed scoring opportunities. With a 2-0 win against Ireland, Italy ultimately qualified confidently for the quarter-finals.

Croatia gave the Irish no chance in their 3-1 opening win, especially star striker Mario Mandžukić was able to convince with a brace. Due to the rather happy 1-1 draw against Italy, the Croatians kept their chance of the quarter-finals. After the 0-1 defeat in the decisive match against Spain, Croatia struggled above all with the performance of German referee Wolfgang Stark , who was accused of refusing the 1998 World Cup third party a clear penalty in the 27th minute.

Ireland had traveled to Poland as an outsider and could not compete with any of the other teams permanently. However, the atmospheric performances of the Irish fans were remembered .

Group D

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	England	3	2	1	0	005: 300	+2	07th
2.	France	3	1	1	1	003: 300	± 0	04th
3.	Ukraine	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03
4th	Sweden	3	1	0	2	005: 500	± 0	03
The direct comparison is decisive for placing 3 and 4 (see mode ).

Mon., June 11, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in Donetsk (6:00 p.m. CEST )
France	-	England	1: 1 (1: 1)
Mon., June 11, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Ukraine	-	Sweden	2: 1 (0: 0)
Friday, June 15, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in Donetsk (6:00 p.m. CEST)
Ukraine	-	France	0: 2 (0: 0)
Friday, June 15, 2012 at 10:00 p.m. in Kiev (9:00 p.m. CEST)
Sweden	-	England	2: 3 (0: 1)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST)
Sweden	-	France	2: 0 (0: 0)
Tue., June 19, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Donetsk (8:45 p.m. CEST)
England	-	Ukraine	1: 0 (0: 0)

England were not among the favorites to win the tournament after their rather weak performances in previous tournaments, but turned out to be the strongest team in Group D. In a modest game against France, it was enough in the end to a 1-1 before the Swedes thanks to a spectacular Tores by Danny Welbeck could be defeated 3-2. The English were lucky against the Ukraine, because a regular goal by the co-host was not recognized, and it was ultimately enough to win 1-0 and win the group.

France was traded as one of the secret favorites for the title, but was only able to convince to a limited extent. After the draw against England, the French defeated Ukraine 2-0 in Donetsk after the game had to be interrupted due to a heavy storm. The 0: 2 against Sweden in the last group match cost the Équipe tricolore the group victory .

Co-hosts Ukraine started the tournament euphorically after they beat Sweden 2-1 thanks to a brace from veteran Andrij Shevchenko . In the game against France, in which they lost 2-0 without a chance, however, the rapid disillusionment followed. In the decisive game against the English, the Ukrainians lost 1-0 and, like co-hosts Poland, failed in the preliminary round. The blame for this was mainly the team of referees, who refused to recognize a regular goal by Marko Dević despite a goal judge.

Sweden around their superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović lost their games against the Ukraine and England very tightly and were thus eliminated after two matchdays. The 2-0 win against France was ultimately meaningless, as they were still bottom of the table due to the lost direct comparison against the Ukraine.

Final round

In the final round only the winners progressed, the tournament was over for the losing teams. Further placements were not played out.

	Quarter finals				Semifinals				final
	June 21 - Warsaw
	Czech Republic	0
					June 27 - Donetsk
	Portugal	1
					Portugal	0 (2)
	June 23 - Donetsk
					Spain	0 (4) 1
	Spain	2
									July 1 - Kiev
	France	0
									Spain	4th
	June 22nd - Gdansk
									Italy	0
	Germany	4th
					June 28 - Warsaw
	Greece	2
					Germany	1
	June 24 - Kiev
					Italy	2
	England	0 (2)
	Italy	0 (4) 1

¹ win on penalties

Quarter finals

Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Czech Republic	-	Portugal	0: 1 (0: 0)
Friday, June 22, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Gdansk
Germany	-	Greece	4: 2 (1: 0)
Sat., June 23, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Donetsk (8:45 p.m. CEST )
Spain	-	France	2: 0 (1: 0)
Sun., June 24, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST)
England	-	Italy	0: 0 a.d., 2: 4 i. E.

The first quarter-final between the Czech Republic and Portugal in Warsaw was a mediocre game for long periods. The favored Portuguese only had significant chances to score thanks to their star Cristiano Ronaldo , who hit the post twice. In the 79th minute, Ronaldo headed a cross from Joao Moutinho for the only goal of the day and the fourth semi-final for the Portuguese at a European Championship.

The duel between Germany and Greece was politically explosive in view of the current German-Greek conflict in the course of the euro crisis . The German team, in which national coach Joachim Löw , Miroslav Klose , André Schürrle and Marco Reus used three new offensive forces, dominated the action from the start. After several good chances had already been missed, captain Philipp Lahm gave Germany a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute. In the 55th minute Giorgos Samaras equalized after a Greek counterattack to make it 1-1, but Miroslav Klose, Sami Khedira and Marco Reus scored three goals within 13 minutes for the decision in favor of Germany. Dimitrios Salpingidis converted a hand penalty shortly before the end.

Spain defeated France thanks to second gates of Xabi Alonso with 2: 0th As in the preliminary round match against Italy, the world champion competed with Cesc Fàbregas as the "wrong nine" and thus in the 4-6-0 system without a classic striker.

The most exciting duel of the quarter-finals developed between England and Italy . After it was 0-0 after 120 minutes despite numerous chances on both sides, the penalty shoot-out decided the semi-finals. With shots from Ashley Young and Ashley Cole , the English failed for the sixth time in a major tournament on penalties.

Semifinals

Wed., June 27, 2012 at 9:45 p.m. in Donetsk (8:45 p.m. CEST )
Portugal	-	Spain	0: 0 a.d., 2: 4 i. E.
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Germany	-	Italy	1: 2 (0: 2)

The "Iberian Derby" between Portugal and Spain did not meet the fans' high expectations. Portugal was defensively solid and repeatedly suppressed the Spanish short passing game with high running effort, but hardly got any offensive actions themselves. After 120 uneventful minutes, Spain prevailed 4-2 on penalties after misses by João Moutinho and Bruno Alves .

As in 1970 and 2006 , Germany faced “feared opponents” Italy in the semi-finals of a major tournament . After the tournament so far, the German team was slightly favored, but the Italians took the lead after twenty minutes through Mario Balotelli . Germany looked shocked and Balotelli increased to 2-0 in the 36th minute after a long pass in front of Manuel Neuer . The German team only managed to hit the next goal with a penalty taken by Mesut Özil in stoppage time. After the game, national coach Joachim Löw was heavily criticized, especially because of his personnel policy. So he had taken the convincing Klose, Schürrle and Reus against Greece in favor of the disappointing Gómez, Podolski and Kroos from the starting XI.

final

Spain		Italy		Lineup
	final July 1, 2012 at 8:47 pm (CEST) in Kiev ( Kiev Olympic Stadium ) Result: 4: 0 Spectators: 63,170 Referee: Pedro Proença ( Portugal )   Match report
	Iker Casillas - Jordi Alba , Sergio Ramos , Gerard Piqué , Álvaro Arbeloa - Xabi Alonso , Sergio Busquets , Xavi - Andrés Iniesta (86th Juan Mata ), Cesc Fàbregas (75th Fernando Torres ), David Silva (59th Pedro ) Trainers: Vicente del Bosque	Gianluigi Buffon - Ignazio Abate , Andrea Barzagli , Leonardo Bonucci , Giorgio Chiellini (21st Federico Balzaretti ) - Daniele De Rossi , Andrea Pirlo , Claudio Marchisio - Antonio Cassano (46th Antonio Di Natale ), Riccardo Montolivo (57th Thiago Motta ), Mario Balotelli Coach: Cesare Prandelli
	1-0 Silva (14th) 2-0 Alba (41st) 3-0 Torres (84th) 4-0 Mata (89th)
	Piqué (25.)	Barzagli (44.)
		Thiago Motta (61st, as the exchange contingent was already exhausted)
	Player of the Match: Andrés Iniesta (Spain)

Spain was favored before the final against Italy , but was not able to convince in terms of play compared to the previous tournaments. In the final, however, the world champions, who once again played in the 4-6-0 system, shone with their notorious Tiki-Taka . Driven by the congenial duo Xavi and Andrés Iniesta , Spain took a 2-0 lead before the break thanks to goals from David Silva and Jordi Alba . After Thiago Motta was seriously injured in the 61st minute, but the Italian contingent had already been exhausted, the Azzurri had to compete in the minority. In the closing stages Fernando Torres and Juan Mata increased to 4-0 for the defending champion. Spain was thus the first European champion to defend its title.

Best goal scorers

For the complete list of goalscorers see European Football Championship 2012 / Statistics / Torjäger .

The ranking corresponds to the official UEFA rules, according to which the number of assists and minutes of play were decisive for the first time when determining the top scorer with the same number of goals.

rank player Gates templates Playtime 1  Fernando Torres 3 1 189 2  Mario Gomez 3 1 282 3  Alan Dzagoyev 3 0 253 4th  Mario Mandžukić 3 0 270 5  Mario Balotelli 3 0 421 6th  Cristiano Ronaldo 3 0 480 7th  David Silva 2 3 411 8th  Nicklas Bendtner 2 1 270 8th  Michael Krohn-Dehli 2 1 270 10  Dimitrios Salpingidis 2 1 307 11  Cesc Fàbregas 2 1 315 12  Andrij Shevchenko 2 0 191 13  Zlatan Ibrahimović 2 0 270 14th  Petr Jiráček 2 0 340 15th  Václav Pilař 2 0 358 16  Xabi Alonso 2 0 545 17th  Mesut Özil 1 3 438 ... 21st  Miroslav Klose 1 1 182 25th  Sami Khedira 1 1 450 29  Lars Bender 1 0 92 31  Marco Reus 1 0 125 47  Lukas Podolski 1 0 289 51  Philipp Lahm 1 0 450 ...

In addition to the 23 players listed with 45 goals, there were another 30 players with one goal each and an own goal by Englishman Glen Johnson .

The top scorer of the entire competition was the Dutchman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar with 12 goals, all of which he scored in qualifying .

UEFA All Star Team

For this selection, which has been made since the 1996 European Championship , an eleven-member UEFA expert committee selected the 23 best players in the tournament. In addition to Iniesta, who was also named best player, nine other European champions, four players from the defeated finalist Italy, four Germans, three Portuguese and one English and one Swede each were appointed to the All-Star team. Zlatan Ibrahimović is the only player in the selection whose team was eliminated in the preliminary round.

goalkeeper	Defense	midfield	striker
Iker Casillas Gianluigi Buffon Manuel Neuer	Jordi Alba Gerard Piqué Sergio Ramos Philipp Lahm Fábio Coentrão Pepe	Xabi Alonso Sergio Busquets Andrés Iniesta Xavi Daniele De Rossi Andrea Pirlo Sami Khedira Mesut Özil Steven Gerrard	Cesc Fàbregas David Silva Mario Balotelli Cristiano Ronaldo Zlatan Ibrahimović

referee

On December 20, 2011, the officials of the 2012 European Football Championship were announced. The UEFA Referees Committee appointed twelve referee teams . For the first time goal referees were used at an EM . Howard Webb is the only referee to have appeared at a previous European Championship (2008). He also directed the last World Cup final . Damir Skomina was the first Slovenian referee to appear in a European Championship finals. The opening game was directed by the Spaniard Carlos Velasco Carballo , the Portuguese Pedro Proença whistled the final. He was the first Portuguese to lead a European Championship final and also the first referee to lead the UEFA Champions League and European Championship finals in a year .

referee	Games	Games (4th opening)					Assistants	Substitute assistant	Goal referee
Cüneyt Çakır	3 1 2 3	2	16	1	/		Bahatta Duran Tarık Ongun	Mustafa Emre Eyisoy	Hüseyin Göçek * Bülent Yıldırım
Jonas Eriksson	2 1 2	1	9	/	/		Stefan Wittberg Mathias Klasenius	Fredrik Nilsson	Markus Strömbergsson Stefan Johannesson
Viktor Kassai	2 1 2	/	12	/	/		Gábor Erős György Ring	Róbert Kispál	István Vad * Tamás Bognár
Bjorn Kuipers	2 1 2	/	8th	/	/		Sander Van Roekel Erwin Zeinstra	Norbertus Simons	Pol van Boekel * Richard Liesveld *
Stéphane Lannoy	3 1 2 3	1	15th	/	/		Éric Dansault Frédéric Cano	Michael Annonier	Fredy Fautrel * Ruddy Buquet
Pedro Proença	4 1 2 3 4	/	12	/	/		Bertino Miranda Ricardo Santos	José Tiago Trigo	Manuel Jorge de Sousa * Duarte Gomes
Nicola Rizzoli	3 1 2 3	/	8th	/	/		Renato Faverani Andrea Stefani	Luca Maggiani	Gianluca Rocchi * Paolo Tagliavento
Damir Skomina	3 1 2 3	1	9	/	/		Primož Arhar Marko Stančin	Matej Žunič	Matej Jug * Slavko Vinčič
Wolfgang Stark	2 1 2	/	10	/	/		Jan-Hendrik Salver Mike Pickel	Mark Borsch	Florian Meyer * Deniz Aytekin
Craig A. Thomson	2 1 2	1	12	/	/		Alasdair Ross Derek Rose	Graham Chambers	William Collum * Euan Norris
Carlos Velasco Carballo	2 1 2	/	2	1	1		Roberto Alonso Fernández Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez	Jesús Calvo Guadamuro	David Fernández Borbalán Carlos Clos Gómez
Howard Webb	3 1 2 3	1	9	/	/		Michael Mullarkey Peter Kirkup	Stephen Child	Martin Atkinson * Mark Clattenburg *

* These goal referees were each appointed once as fourth official.

The following fourth officials, from associations that did not provide any of the twelve referees, were considered and each had three appearances.

Marcin Borski  Tom Harald Hagen  Pavel Královec  Viktor Schwezow

UEFA also nominated four replacement assistants. These also came from associations that did not have a referee team:

Damien MacGraith  Marcin Borkowski  Roman Slyško  Olexander Wojtjuk

Banned players

The following players have been banned from one or more games because of one red, one yellow-red or two yellow cards in different games or the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body:

player	Offense	In-game suspension	comment
Wayne Rooney	in Euro qualification against Montenegro	Group D vs. France Group D vs. Sweden	2 games suspension after red card in the last qualifying game of group G
Socratis	in group A vs. Poland	Group A vs. Czech Republic
Wojciech Szczęsny	in group A vs. Greece	Group A vs. Russia
Jerome Boateng	in group B against Portugal in group B against the Netherlands	Group B vs. Denmark
Giorgos Karagounis	in group A against Poland in group A against Russia	Quarter-finals vs. Germany
José Holebas	in group A against Poland in group A against Russia	Quarter-finals vs. Germany
Keith Andrews	in group C vs. Italy	World Cup qualification against Kazakhstan
Philippe Mexès	in group D against Ukraine in group D against Sweden	Quarter-finals vs. Spain
Nicklas Bendtner	Inappropriate behavior (surreptitious advertising) in the game against Portugal	World Cup qualification against the Czech Republic	In addition to the suspension, the UEFA Disciplinary Body imposed a fine of € 100,000 .
Christian Maggio	in group C against Spain in the quarterfinals against England	Semi-finals vs. Germany

Impact on the FIFA World Ranking

With the European Championship victory, Spain secured first place in the FIFA world rankings published on July 4, 2012, the other semi-finalists improved: Italy by six places in 6th place, Portugal by five places in 5th place and Germany by one place in place 2. Of the quarter-finalists, England moved up two places to fourth, Greece three places to 12th and the Czech Republic nine places to 18th, while France stayed 14th. The Dutch lost four places, Denmark and Croatia lost one place and Ireland eight places. Despite being eliminated in the preliminary round, Ukraine improved by six and Poland by eight places. At the same time, record world champion Brazil fell from the top ten to 11th place for the first time, but this is mainly due to the regular devaluation of the successful Brazilian June results of recent years (e.g. World Cup 2010 ) and only to a minor extent to the European Championship.

Organization and environment

Cue ball

→ Main article : Tango 12

The Tango 12 was the official match ball of the 2012 European Football Championship. The ball, manufactured by Adidas , was officially presented at the group draw on December 2, 2011 in Kiev .

mascot

Slavek and Slavko, the official mascots of EURO 2012

The official mascots of the championship - Slavek and Slavko - were presented on November 16, 2010 in the Polish Theater in Warsaw (pln. Teatr Polski w Warszawie ). The American company Warner Bros. Entertainment is responsible for the implementation of the project . The mascots in the shape of twins - a Pole and a Ukrainian - are dressed in soccer jerseys in the national colors of their teams.

Similar to EURO 2008, the names of the mascots were chosen by fans from all over the world who had a choice of three proposals submitted by UEFA and the Organizing Committee. Voting was possible on the official UEFA website, in McDonald’s restaurants in Poland and Ukraine, as well as at special presentations by the mascots in the eight host cities of EURO 2012. The voting took place between November 16 and December 3, 2010 instead of. The result was announced on December 4, 2010 in Kiev. The winning proposal received 56% of the vote, 29% for Siemko and Strimko and 15% for Klemek and Ladko. 39,233 people took part in the vote. Criticism arose with regard to the selection of possible names, which do not exist in this form in either Poland or Ukraine.

tickets

As in previous editions of the tournament, tickets were raffled on the basis of a complex application process on the organizers' website or distributed by the national football associations of the 16 main round participants. The application process for the EURO tickets took place from March 1st to March 31st, 2011, the actual raffle took place towards the end of April 2011. The total number of tickets is around 1.4 million for 31 final matches, 41% of which were sold directly. The tickets could be purchased through advance orders or lotteries from the sponsors. Over 12 million inquiries were received, which is an increase of 17% compared to EURO 2008 and is a record in the history of the European Football Championship.

The price range - depending on the grandstand seat - ranged from 30 euros (behind the goal) to 600 euros (for the best seat in the final in Kiev). In addition to the tickets for the individual matches, the fans were able to purchase packages for several games that, for example, only affect their team.

Prize money

Prize money totaling 200 million euros was distributed. In addition, 100 million euros was paid as a bonus to the clubs that sent their players to the tournament. This contrasted with income of more than 1.3 billion euros from the sale of marketing and television rights as well as admission tickets.

Television broadcast

Germany

group		Main program	Division program
A.	ZDF	CZE - POL	GRE - RUS
B.	ARD	DEN - GER	POR - NED
C.	ZDF	CRO - ESP	ITA - IRL
D.	ARD	ENG - UKR	SWE - FRA

In Germany all games were broadcast by the public broadcasters, usually on Erste or ZDF . The first broadcast the opening game, the ZDF broadcast the final. As both games of each group took place at the same time on the third day of the preliminary round, one of the games was shown on ZDFinfo and the other on Einsfestival . The knockout games were distributed at short notice.

The RBB repeated all previous German games at night. Further repetitions took place sporadically in the morning program of the first. Repetitions were spontaneously set up in the night program.

The pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport showed recordings of all games mostly one day later, with some games being repeated more often. A 30-minute EURO 2012 show was broadcast every day at 8 p.m. as a panel of experts with Rafael Benítez , Thomas Berthold , Fredi Bobic and Patrick Kluivert .

Austria

All games were shown live on ORF Eins , the games on the 3rd match day were broadcast in a conference call, with one main game live, the other uncut shortly after midnight.

Switzerland

All games were broadcast live on SF Zwei. On matchday 3 of the group stage, one game was shown on SF two, the other on SF info .

United States

The US sports broadcaster ESPN broadcast all European Championship games in the USA. There, interest in the 31 games was comparatively high, with an average of 1.3 million viewers per game. The final between Spain and Italy saw around four million viewers. This surpassed the previous record, the 2008 final between Germany and Spain with 3.8 million viewers.

Radio broadcast

Germany

The WDR produced with six reporters under the direction of Sabine Töpperwien of all games live reports that each ARD radio stations were to take over disposal. Full-length reports were produced with two reporters each from all games with German participation and from all games from the quarter-finals. There were also short reports from a reporter every few minutes from all games. Numerous ARD radio stations took over the short reports, the full reports were broadcast by stations with a high proportion of words and on special channels on medium wave and on the Internet, for example from WDR Event , SWRinfo , Antenne Saar or MDR Info . Even the Germany radio broadcast the Germany games in full on medium and long wave and on a special channel on the Internet.

The private broadcaster 90elf also commented on the games.

public viewing

Free public viewing event on the Waterlooplatz in Hanover

Some cities had announced for the EM 2012 that they would not set up any public viewing screens this year , as the immense costs were no longer affordable and sponsors were withdrawing. Despite this fact, there were very many locations where public viewing took place.

The ZDF broadcast its live coverage of the Heringsdorf pier on Usedom . Around 1,000 holidaymakers should be able to watch all the EM games in the beach arena (including on ARD broadcast days). For this they had to pay an entrance fee of at least ten euros. The organizers were hoping for a German-Polish football festival on the beach of the Baltic Sea . There was clear criticism of the quality of the reporting in some media.

music

The official theme song of the 2012 European Football Championship was Endless Summer by the German soul and pop singer Oceana . The song was played instrumentally at the beginning, at the end and in the breaks of the live broadcasts.

At the entry of the teams, Heart Of Courage from Two Steps from Hell was played in the stadiums .

Riots

Occasionally there was violence between various hooligan groups and the police. In particular, before the preliminary round match between Poland and Russia, several people were injured and 184 were arrested after Russian fans, who themselves attracted attention through political provocations, were attacked by Polish hooligans and right-wing extremists.

The Russian football association RFS was fined a total of 185,000 euros for misconduct by its fans during the preliminary round, as well as a six-point deduction on probation for the next European Championship qualification.

The Croatian federation was fined 80,000 euros for racist abuse against the dark-skinned Italian player Mario Balotelli in the match between Italy and Croatia on June 14 and spectators throwing Bengalos onto the field. Before that, Croatia had been fined because fans set off fireworks in the first group match against Ireland and a speedster had run across the field in the 90th minute of the game.

Sponsors

The following companies appeared as sponsors of Euro 2012: Canon (electronics company), Adidas (sporting goods manufacturer), Castrol (lubricant manufacturer), Coca-Cola (soft drink manufacturer), Hyundai Motor Group (car manufacturer), Carlsberg (brewery group), McDonald’s (fast food chain) , Sharp (electronics company), Orange (telecommunications company), Epicenter K (hardware store chain), E. Wedel (luxury goods manufacturer), Ukrtelecom (telecommunications company) and Continental (tire manufacturer).

criticism

Criticism of the host country Ukraine

Corruption is widespread in Ukraine. It meant that the planned costs for the new stadium buildings multiplied. The Ukrainian government now expects total infrastructure costs of around ten billion euros. That would be roughly 16 times the amount from the last tournament in 2008 in Austria and Switzerland (approx. 620 million euros).

The prices for accommodation in Ukrainian hostels are several times the normal price. In November 2011, too few hotel beds were forecast in Ukraine. The visitors are threatened with an overnight stay in tents.

Since the end of April 2012, because of the imprisonment of the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, German politicians have been considering boycotting the EM. From the political side, a sporting boycott or a postponement of the tournament were sometimes called for; the responsible football associations rejected this. On May 3, 2012, the EU Commission declared that Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the 26 EU Commissioners had no intention of traveling to the Ukraine for the European Football Championship. This is a signal "that one is not satisfied with the way in which (the opposition leader) Yulia Tymoshenko is dealt with". EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy joined the protest, which was expressly not a “ boycott ” .

Demands for a boycott were criticized by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and co-host Poland on behalf of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronisław Komorowski . The human rights organization Amnesty International also considered a boycott of the European Championship games in Ukraine to be wrong. Politicians and sports officials should travel to the country and “draw attention to the serious human rights violations […]”. Likewise, in an interview, Leipzig sports philosopher Arno Müller thought a sporting boycott was the wrong way to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government's approach to cruelly killing abandoned dogs and cats in the venues in preparation for the European Championship was publicly criticized. At the instigation of UEFA, the responsible minister promised to end this practice in November 2011, which, according to the animal welfare organization WSPA, has been poorly or not implemented.

Criticism of the television broadcast

The broadcasters generally use the organizer's worldview . Some scenes were cut in or cut out and not broadcast at all. For example, it was not shown that two German Green MPs in Kharkiv held up a banner before Germany's game against the Netherlands, on which fair play was also demanded in politics. On instructions from UEFA , it was also prohibited to show empty places of honor or ranks. In addition, the impression was given that a scene in which the German coach Joachim Löw steals the ball from a ball boy could have taken place live. However, the scene took place before the game. The same applies to a crying German viewer, who was shown after Italy's 2-0 lead in the semi-finals, but was recorded before the start of the game while the German national anthem was playing. The German television companies had repeatedly complained to UEFA about this practice.

Others

• Nicklas Bendtner (Denmark) was punished by UEFA for banned advertising with a € 100,000 fine and a game suspension because he pulled his pants down a little after his goal in the game against Portugal, so that a large lettering of an Irish betting company was visible on the pants.
• The most discussed referee mistakes were the missed penalty after a foul by Sergio Ramos on Mario Mandžukić in the game Spain against Croatia and the missed goal by Marko Dević (Ukraine) against England when the ball crossed the goal line.
• The game between Ukraine and France had to be interrupted for almost an hour in the fifth minute due to a heavy downpour.
• Immediately before the European Championship, a betting scandal caused unrest among the Italian team. Domenico Criscito was removed from the list, and Leonardo Bonucci and Gianluigi Buffon were also suspected of fraud.
• Lukas Podolski (Germany) made his 100th international match against Denmark. He was the youngest player in Europe to reach this mark.
• After the Irish fans sang the anthem The Fields of Athenry for minutes in the game against Spain despite a 4-0 deficit of their team , they were awarded a special prize by UEFA, among other things, with which the association recognized the exemplary behavior of the fans and rewarded the spread of an impressively positive mood.
• For the first time, the last two world champions met in the final.

See also

• European Football Championship 2012 / Statistics

Web links

Commons : European Football Championship 2012  - collection of images

 Wikinews: European Football Championship 2012  - in the news

Wikivoyage: UEFA EURO 2012  travel guide

• Official UEFA website for Euro 2012
• Official schedule UEFA Euro 2012 (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jens Hungermann and Florian Haupt: 4-0 against Italy, Spain defend their title. In: welt.de . July 1, 2012, accessed September 30, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Sports news from the Rhein-Main area, national and international - Echo Online. (No longer available online.) In: echo-online.de. September 30, 2015, archived from the original on July 1, 2012 ; accessed on September 30, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Second host eliminated. In: FAZ.net . June 20, 2012, accessed September 30, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Support for 2012. UEFA, January 31, 2008, archived from original on February 1, 2008 ; Retrieved June 2, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Germany continues in conversation as co-host. stern.de, May 10, 2010, accessed on February 7, 2011 . 
6. ↑ Офіційна делегація УЄФА в Україні. ffu.org.ua, February 2, 2009, accessed February 7, 2011 (Ukrainian). 
7. ↑ УЄФА висловлює подяку. ffu.org.ua, February 11, 2009, accessed February 7, 2011 (Ukrainian). 
8. ↑ Choice of hosts for UEFA EURO 2012. UEFA, May 14, 2009, archived from the original on May 17, 2009 ; Retrieved May 14, 2009 . 
9. ^ Letter from UEFA to the Ukrainian Football Association. (PDF; 94 kB) ffu.org.ua, January 24, 2011, accessed on June 2, 2012 (English). 
10. ↑ Ukraine gives in to EM dispute. (No longer available online.) News.de, February 2, 2011, archived from the original on May 10, 2016 ; Retrieved June 2, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Ukraine rejects interference. sport1.de, February 2, 2011, accessed on February 7, 2011 . 
12. ↑ Concerns about EURO 2012. stadionwelt.de, January 31, 2011, accessed on February 1, 2011 . 
13. ↑ Arena not finished: test game postponed. NWZ Online, June 9, 2011, accessed June 9, 2011 . 
14. ↑ National Stadium Warsaw opened. UEFA, January 29, 2012, accessed May 26, 2012 . 
15. ^ Stadium construction in Gdansk. poland2012.net, December 10, 2008, archived from the original on March 12, 2010 ; Retrieved June 2, 2012 . 
16. ↑ European Championships 2012 - the stadium in Wroclaw will have a stand for almost 42,000 spectators. poland2012.net, January 31, 2009, archived from the original on February 20, 2009 ; accessed on June 2, 2012 . 
17. ↑ ^{a b} special edition of the main news of the 1st state television, April 18, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
18. ↑ Drogi na Euro 2012. (No longer available online.) Autocentrum.pl, February 15, 2008, archived from the original on December 10, 2011 ; Retrieved June 2, 2012 (Polish). 
19. ↑ Pojedziemy autostradą na Euro 2012? GDDKiA: Bez szans. Gazeta Rzeszów, September 12, 2011, accessed June 2, 2012 (Polish). 
20. ↑ Report: Czy na Euro pojedziemy autostradami? Motoryzacja, September 15, 2011, accessed June 2, 2012 (Polish). 
21. ↑ UEFA EURO 2012 final stadium opened. FIFA, October 8, 2011, accessed October 8, 2011 . 
22. ↑ Akhmetov's millions are having an effect. Kicker-Sportmagazin , May 18, 2009, accessed on May 18, 2009 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b} Only two venues in Ukraine. Kicker-Sportmagazin, May 10, 2010, accessed on September 3, 2010 . 
24. ↑ Information on the stadium in Lviv. stadionwelt.de, accessed on February 1, 2011 . 
25. ↑ Lviv Arena was officially opened, unfinished and accompanied by FEMEN protests. Medvedev Magazine, October 30, 2011, accessed November 3, 2011 . 
26. ↑ Update: First game in the European Championship stadium Lviv. stadionwelt.de, November 15, 2011, accessed on November 15, 2011 . 
27. ↑ "Loss of Euro 2012 would be a shame for the whole country". Die Presse , August 5, 2008, accessed August 5, 2008 . 
28. ^ Accor, Rezidor, InterContinental Plan Nationwide Hotel Development. (No longer available online.) Kievukraine.info, April 18, 2008, archived from the original on June 19, 2008 ; Retrieved April 18, 2008 (English). 
29. ↑ Explore the Euro 2012 stadiums with Google Streetview. (No longer available online.) T3n, May 30, 2012, archived from the original on June 1, 2012 ; Retrieved June 2, 2012 . 
30. ↑ Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship 2010-12, here point 8.07, as of March 23, 2012. (PDF) UEFA, 2012, p. 70 , accessed on June 16, 2012 (1.24 MB). 
31. ↑ Current ranking list after the European Championship qualification ; Status: October 12, 2011.
32. ↑ Disciplinary measures football-em-info.de, accessed on June 13, 2012
33. ↑ Spain leads the provisional UEFA coefficient for national teams. UEFA, June 30, 2011, accessed June 30, 2011 . 
34. ↑ ^{a b} The kick-off times for Games 15 (Ukraine – France) and 16 (Sweden – England) were swapped after the draw, see www.global-marcom.com ( Memento from March 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
35. ↑ Course of the game
36. ↑ UEFA EURO 2012 Statistics. Goals scored. In: uefa.com. UEFA , April 27, 2012, accessed July 10, 2014 . 
37. ↑ uefa.com: Tactical experts enthusiastic about UEFA EURO 2012
38. ↑ UEFA EURO 2012 All-Star Team UEFA.com, accessed July 2, 2012
39. ↑ UEFA EURO 2012 referees named. UEFA, December 20, 2011, accessed December 20, 2011 . 
40. ↑ List of referee teams. (PDF) UEFA, accessed December 20, 2011 . 
41. ↑ After cheering underwear, Danes don't sneak advertising - or do they? stern.de, June 15, 2012, accessed on June 20, 2012 . 
42. ^ Proceedings against Bendtner opened. UEFA, June 15, 2012, accessed June 20, 2012 . 
43. ^ Ban and fine for Bendtner. UEFA, June 18, 2012, accessed June 20, 2012 . 
44. ↑ FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking as of July 14, 2010
45. ↑ Spain remains sovereign - Italy on the rise FIFA.com, July 4, 2012, accessed on July 4, 2012
46. ↑ adidas Tango 12 unveiled as the official ball of EURO 2012. Information from uefa.com / adidas Baltics. In: lff.lv. Latvian Football Association , December 2, 2011, accessed May 7, 2013 . 
47. ↑ Maskotki UEFA EURO 2012 mają imiona ( Memento of April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). UEFA, December 4, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (Polish)
48. ↑ ^{a b} W Warszawie zaprezentowano maskotki  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . UEFA, November 16, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (Polish)  
49. ↑ Maskotkę Euro 2012 zrobi Warner Bros. . TVN24 , August 11, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (Polish)
50. ↑ Maskotki spotkają się z kibicami  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . UEFA, November 12, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (Polish)  
51. ↑ No Pole is called Slavek and no Ukrainian is Slavko . taz , April 2, 2012, accessed June 23, 2012
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