Euro 2012 - Group B Ones to watch
The Euros kicked off last night with two wildly different games. Poland vs Greece was a story of two red cards, Poland should have killed the game off in the first and were made to pay for their profligacy as Dimitris Salpingdis levelled Robert Lewandowski's first half header. It could have been much worse for Poland as Karagounis also missed a spot kick after Salpingdis was hauled down by Szczesny just after half time.
Russia vs Czech Republic was a masterclass from Advocaats team. He looks to have found a system which best utilizes the mercurial talents of Arshavin and Dzagoev. If Kerzakhovs finishing had been a little better then this could have been a cricket score. As it was 4-1 was well deserved and the Czechs have it all to do now.
Today we have Group B. Germany, Holland, Portugal and Denmark. The Group of Death. Every tournament involves a 'group of death', on this occasion they may be correct (although for me, Group A is a lot more cut throat due to the lack of a TOP team and therefore probably more difficult to qualify from)
Each team has their own merits and stars however I thought it might be worthwhile to pick out a player from each team who may not be as well known as their countrymen.
Andre Schurrle - Germany
Schurrle is an extremely intelligent inside forward who favours playing on the left side of an attacking midfield trio. Mario Gotze is currently the darling of Die Mannschaft and rightly so however Schurrle is making leaps and bounds under the radar. Indeed, he has more chance of starting tonight's match against Portugal than Gotze does. Schurrle is in direct competition with Arsenal new boy Lukas Podolski who has just completed a difficult season with Koln (they have been relegated to Bundesliga 2.)Schurrle started his career with Mainz in Germany. His big move to Leverkusen came in 2011 for £6.5m. He has since racked up 30 league appearances and scored 7 goals. Not bad for a Leverkusen team who were firmly in the Champions League Hunt until spring. In his 14 games for the national team he has grabbed 7 goals - a tremendous return of a goal ever other game. Gotze may go on to be the bigger star and grab all the headlines but, whatever the future holds for Schurrle (he has been linked with a £15m move to Chelsea) you can be sure it will be successful.
Christian Eriksen - Denmark
Probably the most well known of the quartet, Eriksen is the crown prince of Morten Olsens latest Denmark reincarnation. Eriksen started his professional career with Odense in his homeland before moving to Ajax in 2008 aged 16 for the princely sum of £1m . Now aged 20 he comes into the Euros after 3 full seasons in the Ajax first team, two Eredivisie titles and the recipient of Dutch Player of the Year 2011. Despite only just having turned 20 he is the undisputed star of the Ajax team which has dazzled fans this season under the tutelage of Frank De Boer and the Danish national team (outwith Nicklas Bendtner's head). Eriksen is a traditional number 10, the type Ajax always seem to produce (most recently his Group B counterparts Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart).
Eriksen appears to have his feet firmly on the ground and is looking to finish his development with Ajax for at least another season before having his pick of Europes biggest clubs. A real talent who has been provided with a tough group in which to showcase his talents. It will be interesting to see how he handles this but if his career so far is to to by it will be with his typical grounded intelliget approach and fantastic eye for a pass.
Ibrahim Affelay - Netherlands
It actually shocked me when researching this blog to discover that Affelay is 26 years old. He still appears unable to shake off the 'wonder kid' tag which followed him about in his younger days. Affelay started out at PSV, like so many other Dutch players. The difference is he stayed for 8 years, moving only to Barcelona 18 months ago for the fairly insignificant sum of £2.5m. As we know, only a certain type of player is deemed worthy of being able to integrate themselves into a team brimming with natural 'Barca DNA' Affelay adapted immediately and according to some Barca coaches played like he had been there since he was 13. He made a steady start to his Barcelona career including a debut against Arsenal in the Champions League and setting up Messi to score the second goal in April 2011's 2-0 Clasico victory in the semi final. In September his first full season was cut short with an anterior cruciate ligament injury which he has only recently recovered from.I didn't expect Affelay to be included in the squad for the Euro's or at best I believed he would be used mainly as an impact sub similar to Euro 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa. It seems however, Bert Van Marwijk, is intent in using him ahead of Dirk Kuyt in his first 11. Affelay has been man of the match in 2 of the Netherlands warm up games including 2 goals in the recently 6-0 mauling of Northern Ireland.
Joao Moutinho - Portugal
Portugal only have one player right? No chance. Joao Moutinho is my kind of player. Another modern midfielder with the capability of playing anywhere, I find he really comes to life in a midfield three. Moutinho started his career at Sporting in 2005 and played for 5 years before making the surprising step of signing for Porto. He encountered huge amounts of criticism for this as he was Sporting's captain and star player. He enjoyed a hugely successful debut season for Porto under Andres Vilas Boas collecting the Portuguese league, cup and the UEFA cup.Porto stalled last season on the back of this but still managed to recover to claim their third league title in 3 years. Linked heavily with Arsenal 3 years and ago still only 25, Moutinho will be hoping Portugal can discover a lethal touch in front of goal and start to shoot the bullets he loves to provide.
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