In 2012, the highly anticipated UEFA European Football Championship was played out in eight stadiums in Poland (with venues in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Wrocław and Poznań) and Ukraine (in Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Donetsk).
The first
of 31 matches in Euro 2012 kicked off on June 8, 2012 in Warsaw, on the
way to the quarter-finals leading to more intense semi-final
battles throughout the month.
Then it was on to the deciding game at Olympic Stadium
in Kiev on July 1, 2012.
Poland and Ukraine as official host countries were automatic qualifiers to participate in the Euro 2012 games. December 2, 2011 saw the final draw of 16 teams that secured a place to compete in Euro 2012. However, well before the official announcement easy predictions included Spain (as defending champions at Euro 2008) as well as Germany, France and Italy (see above for the official breakdown.)
No shocker, it was Spain - again - in an historic second Euro victory (along with taking the World Cup in 2010) winning over Italy 4-0.
More than a million tickets went on on sale on March 1, 2011 for the 31 matches played in Euro 2012, with the majority of tickets sold to the public directly via euro2012.com and participating vendors. Match tickets as well as team series ticket packages are available for each of the 16 participating teams.
Euro
2012 TV coverage
Even in a Summer Olympics year, more than a million fans attended the live matches in Poland and Ukraine with millions more watching live broadcasts in more than 200 countries worldwide.
As it happened during Euro 2008, ESPN was "Euro 2012 Central" for the bulk of cable television coverage. In the UK, ITV and the BBC provided full coverage of Euro 2012 championship matches leading up to the final. Setanta
Sports had covered in Australia.
Euro
2012 Schedule
All games were local Central European Summer Time (CEST) which in the UK translated into most games taking place an hour earlier at 17:00 (5PM) and 19:45 (7:45PM); and in the USA at 12 Noon and 2:45PM.
The Guardian - Euro 2012 - Check out the full recap including archived story articles and more current reports on what Euro 2012 meant to the host nations.
UEFA Euro 2012 - Wikipedia - Extensive coverage including schedules for qualifying games, knockout stages and finals, information & related photos of stadium locations, scoring bracket and more, with related references and resources.
SoccerStats - A quick overview of Who Won What along with Euro championship
results dating back to 1960, plus tool around the rest of the
site for more news, live scores, forums, quizzes.