Holland, Germany, Spain and Italy look in supreme shape ahead of next summer's finals
The Euro 2012 finals are more than eight months away but a depressing pattern has already been established. Where England scrap, other major nations shine. Friday night will be a case in point. Fabio Capello's side could qualify for the finals in Poland and Ukraine but they will have to do it the hard way by getting at least a point in the less-than-friendly environment of Podgorica, in Montenegro. Compare that to the situation of already-qualified Spain, Italy, Germany and Holland who ? with the smugness of someone who has finished their Christmas shopping in November ? can put their feet up, and try out some new players and simply observe the other nations' mad, exhausting rush for late points.
So even if England do qualify for the Euro 2012 finals there is still a long way to go before they can call themselves genuine contenders to win the tournament. Here is a look at how Capello's side rate among their competitors (based on Euro 2012 qualifiers).
Holland
Bert van Marwijk's side have responded to the criticism they received for their negative attitude in the World Cup final against Spain by producing some heart-warmingly attractive football on their way to eight wins in eight games. They are averaging more than four goals a game and have three players among the top eight goalscorers in qualifying ? Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (10), Robin van Persie (6) and Dirk Kuyt (5). True, 16 goals have come in the two games against San Marino, but beating second-placed Sweden 4-1 and third-placed Hungary 5-3 was impressive. The core of the team remains the same but Erik Pieters has replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst at left-back and Barcelona's attacking midfielder Ibrahim Afellay has had more of a role to play. Van Marwijk has also been able to flaunt the depth of his squad by refusing to pick Nigel de Jong after the Manchester City midfielder's leg-breaking tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa, while Arjen Robben has yet to feature in this qualifying campaign because of injuries.
Germany
Joachim L�w's team, which so brutally exposed England's limitations at the 2010 World Cup, is continuing to evolve. They too have a 100% record after winning all of their eight matches in Group A with a goal difference of 28-5. Beating Austria 6-2 and Turkey 3-0 have been the highlights of a campaign that has seen Bayern Munich's 21-year-old midfielder Toni Kroos establish himself in the starting XI. Voted player of the tournament at the Under-17 World Cup in 2007, Kroos is a player whose trajectory has actually matched the hype of his teenage years. He forms a formidable deep-lying midfield shield with Bastian Schweinsteiger and the emergence of Mario G�tze (19, Borussia Dortmund) and Andr� Sch�rrle (20, Bayer Leverkusen) has put pressure on the attack-minded players in the team. So far, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski are hanging on to their places with nine and three goals respectively in qualifying but the fact that Mario Gomez, the Bayern striker who scored twice against Manchester City in the Champions League, is struggling to get in the team is an accurate picture of the vast array of talent at L�w's disposal. "This is the best Germany team I have ever been part of," Klose said recently. High praise indeed, considering that the striker made his debut in 2001.
Spain
The world and European champions have continued their unbeaten run in competitive matches with six wins out of six in Group I, but there have been unusual defensive lapses as well as a few friendly defeats (Argentina, Portugal and Italy). The only clean sheets in qualifying have come against Liechtenstein. Hardly a crisis ? and key players such as Carles Puyol have been missing because of injury ? but they have yet to hit top form in this qualifying campaign. Fernando Torres continues ? as he does at Chelsea ? to be a talking point. He has been selected in the squad to face the Czech Republic and Scotland and the coach, Vicente Del Bosque, defended the striker this week but also, ominously, warned that there is a lot of competition for places up front. He is not wrong. Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo both appear to be ahead of Torres in the pecking order ? the Chelsea player was not even on the bench for the game against Liechtenstein ? and it is surely only a question of time before Valencia's Roberto Soldado is selected. Then Torres may well lose his place in the squad. Barcelona's outstanding prospect Thiago Alc�ntara has made his competitive debut, coming on for Sergio Ramos in the 6-0 win over Liechtenstein, with his former Under-21 colleague Javi Mart�nez making an equally seamless transition to the senior set-up in midfield.
Italy
Cesare Prandelli has given Italy fresh impetus after the disastrous re-appointment of Marcello Lippi and subsequent failure at last year's World Cup. Only nine players from South Africa made the new coach's first squad with the likes of Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso retiring and Antonio Di Natale and Gianluca Zambrotta being left out. Prandelli also vowed to give trouble-makers their chance and promptly selected Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli. Cassano has played well up front with Giuseppe Rossi and is the team's leading goalscorer in qualifying. Balotelli, meanwhile, has courted more controversy than he has scored goals with his decision to bring his iPad to the substitutes' bench for the game against the Faroe Islands. And earlier in qualifying, he was omitted by Prandelli for two matches after a high tackle earned him a red card while playing for Manchester City against Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League. Some of the older players remain, such as Andrea Pirlo and Gianluigi Buffon, but there is a new spring in the Italians' steps with defender Leonardo Bonucci, midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and forward Giampaolo Pazzini given ample chances during qualifying. Defensively they are frighteningly robust. Prandelli's team has conceded only once in eight games and only dropped two points.
Teams who have not qualified yet but are expected to do so in the next five days
5. France
Laurent Blanc had an almost impossible task when he took over from Raymond Domenech, dealing with the fallout from the 2010 World Cup. Patrice Evra, Franck Rib�ry and J�r�my Toulalan were suspended, with sentences varying from five to one matches, and the first game, at home against Belarus, was lost. But Blanc has managed stamp his own mark on the team, restoring Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri ? both omitted from the World Cup squad ? and the selection of Adil Rami and Philippe Mex�s in central defence and the emergence of the holding midfielder Yann M'Vila has reinvigorated the side. However, potential problems still remain. Nasri's best position is yet to be found and Florent Malouda appears unhappy to have been shifted to the right with Rib�ry occupying the wide-left position.
6. England
Indifferent form at home has tarnished an otherwise productive qualifying campaign and there is a feeling that Fabio Capello's players lack the quality to challenge the very best. Wayne Rooney's early-season form has been impressive, as has that of his Manchester United colleagues Ashley Young and Phil Jones. A fit Jack Wilshere could be a revelation in Poland and Ukraine, should England qualify, but can the likes of John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand finally excel at a major tournament? Several question marks remain.
7. Portugal
Have recovered well from disastrous start with draw against Cyprus, defeat by Norway and the dismissal of Carlos Queiroz ? all within a week ? but may still miss out on the finals if they lose in Denmark on Tuesday. Paulo Bento has an extremely gifted first XI to choose from ? including Pepe, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Raul Meireles and F�bio Coentr�o ? but the squad may not be good enough to go all the way. They have also lost Ricardo Carvalho for a year after the Real Madrid defender walked out of the training camp before the game against Cyprus.
8. Croatia
The team has not changed hugely since meeting England in the qualifying campaigns for Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. There is a nucleus of extremely talented players ? such as Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Danijel Pranjic and Ivan Rakitic ? but not all of them are playing at club level and Slaven Bilic dropped Pranjic for the crucial qualifier against Greece on Friday because of the player's lack of first-team appearances at Bayern this season. There are several players with Premier League or Scottish Premier League experience in Bilic's squads with names such as Nikola Kalinic, Nikica Jelevic, Ivan Klasnic, Eduardo da Silva and Vedran Corluka featuring heavily.
9. Russia
Dick Advocaat's team has responded well to the disappointment of not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and top their difficult group ? which includes the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia ? with two games remaining. It is not a vintage Russia side with players such as Andrey Arshavin, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Roman Pavlyuchenko struggling to get into their club sides. Friendly defeats against Iran and Belgium have not helped Advocaat's position.
10. Turkey
Not the force they once were and the coach, Guus Hiddink, has criticised Turkish clubs for being "unprofessional" during the delay to the Turkish league because of recent match-fixing allegations. The clubs let their players have time off, leaving them in poor shape ahead of the crucial qualifiers against Germany and Azerbaijan, according to Hiddink. There is plenty of talent in the squad but the players ? such as Emre Belozoglu and the Altintop brothers ? are not getting younger. The loss of the playmaker Nuri Sahin, who joined Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, because of a knee injury, has restricted Hiddink's options in midfield.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/oct/05/euro2012-holland-germany-italy-spain
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