The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the last one to be sixteen teams as the future one in 2016 will expand to twenty-four teams. Poland and Ukraine beat Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the competition.
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The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish towns to host games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
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The final will be held in Kiev which will also have a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the leading stadiums and sporting complexes in the world. The new stadium in Warsaw is also being built and promises to be a state of the art venue.
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The draw for the tournament has already been done and qualifying games will get going following the 2010 World Cup. Every one of the 9 group winners and the best runner-up will get direct entry into the finals. Following that the remaining eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.
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From Group A you would consider Germany and Turkey would be too powerful with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.
Group B looks to be a 3 way race with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.
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In Group C it looks like it will be effortless for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take second.
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There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should really be Netherlands and Sweden.
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Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers in terms of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.
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From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and lastly from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.
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Qualifying comes to an end in October 2011 by which time excitement and anticipation for the Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.
Tags: euro 2012, euro 2012 poland, uefa euro 2012, Ukraine euro 2012