Germany face Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland in the group stage of EURO 2016. DFB.de profiles the three teams here.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The recent qualification stage saw Northern Ireland show the world their footballing prowess once again. They played good football, were dynamic and never let nerves get the bottom of them, so they deservedly topped Group F to reach the tournament for the first time. They lost just one qualifier – despite facing tough opposition in the form of Romania, Hungary and former Champions Greece.
The team receive huge backing at home and abroad. The players are portrayed as national heroes, green shirts can be seen everywhere on a matchday and there’s never a spare ticket to be had! Every home qualifier sold out and the demand for tickets for next year’s tournament is expected to be high.
Despite this enthusiasm, you can’t escape the fact that they are rank outsiders and have been placed in a very tough group. They have the lowest UEFA coefficient out of all qualifiers (22.61) and were consequently put in pot four. However, O’Neils’ men are hoping to upset the odds. They have no real star names in their squad, but there’s plenty of spirit and desire. “We want to make the people proud,” explained the head coach.
POLAND
Poland impressed on the way to the tournament and will be hoping to put in similarly strong performance in France. Goalscoring supremo Robert Lewandowski is their main man and he’s happy with how things of gone: “It’s great to have reached EURO 2016. We want to play reach our potential in the competition,” explained the striker ahead of the draw.
Their confidence has grown in recent years, partly down to the form of Lewandowski. The FC Bayern striker netted 13 times in qualifying and is one of Europe’s most lethal strikers – his five-goal haul off the bench against Wolfsburg a couple of months ago has achieved legendary status. The Polish newspapers describe the 27-year-old as "Superman" or the "Terminator".
Germany face Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland in the group stage of EURO 2016. DFB.de profiles the three teams here.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The recent qualification stage saw Northern Ireland show the world their footballing prowess once again. They played good football, were dynamic and never let nerves get the bottom of them, so they deservedly topped Group F to reach the tournament for the first time. They lost just one qualifier – despite facing tough opposition in the form of Romania, Hungary and former Champions Greece.
The team receive huge backing at home and abroad. The players are portrayed as national heroes, green shirts can be seen everywhere on a matchday and there’s never a spare ticket to be had! Every home qualifier sold out and the demand for tickets for next year’s tournament is expected to be high.
Despite this enthusiasm, you can’t escape the fact that they are rank outsiders and have been placed in a very tough group. They have the lowest UEFA coefficient out of all qualifiers (22.61) and were consequently put in pot four. However, O’Neils’ men are hoping to upset the odds. They have no real star names in their squad, but there’s plenty of spirit and desire. “We want to make the people proud,” explained the head coach.
POLAND
Poland impressed on the way to the tournament and will be hoping to put in similarly strong performance in France. Goalscoring supremo Robert Lewandowski is their main man and he’s happy with how things of gone: “It’s great to have reached EURO 2016. We want to play reach our potential in the competition,” explained the striker ahead of the draw.
Their confidence has grown in recent years, partly down to the form of Lewandowski. The FC Bayern striker netted 13 times in qualifying and is one of Europe’s most lethal strikers – his five-goal haul off the bench against Wolfsburg a couple of months ago has achieved legendary status. The Polish newspapers describe the 27-year-old as "Superman" or the "Terminator".
They have reached the championship on three occasions (1960, 2008 and 2012) but have only made it out of the group stage once. Their aim this time around will be to make it to at least the quarter finals and if Lewandowski is in form going into the tournament, there’s no reason why this can’t happen.
UKRAINE
This is the first time that Ukraine have reached their tournament via the qualification round (they qualified automatically as hosts in 2012). The fans are hoping for a successful campaign but this will depend on the form of superstars Yevhen Konoplyanka and Andriy Yarmolenko, who have picked up from where Andriy Shevchenko left off. The duo are central to many of Ukraine’s attacks and will need to be at their best should they wish to progress from a challenging group.
They will be hoping to make it out of the group and after beating Slovenia in the play-offs, you can’t rule it out. This will be only the third major tournament they’ve played as in independent nation though – they contested the World Cup in 2006 and the last EUROs.
