UEFA Euro Team Watch – England

English players have not been able to show their club form at the international level for a long time. It remains to be seen if this Hodgson's generation can disprove it to win the competition for the first time. However, with the growing injury list, the fans are afraid of seeing what they have been seeing in the past few years.

Group D opponents – Ukraine, Sweden, France

Past Records in Euro

England’s European campaign never seemed satisfactory. Starting from 1988, England lost every match to be eliminated from the tournament.

In Euro 1992, England was again eliminated from the group stage, this time with 2 draws and a loss.

However, the European championship held at England was a lucky break for the English team as they progressed to the semi-finals of the tournament, this being their best performance at European Championship.

Euro 2000 was again disappointing for England as they again failed to clear the group stage.

In Euro 2004, held in Portugal, England successfully reached the quarter-finals but failed to progress further.

One of the most disappointing failures for the England national football team was that it did not qualify for Euro 2008. Steve McClaren was sacked after this failure by FA, after just 16 months in charge.

Euro 2012

Road to Qualification

The road to qualification has been a successful one for England in Fabio Capello’s tenure. They finished top of the group with 18 points from 8 games.

                                                             Probable Line-up

Hart

Johnson - Terry – Lescott – Cole

Parker

Walcott – Gerrard(c) - Milner

Young

Rooney

Most capped Players

Ashley Cole – 94 caps (0 goals)

Steven Gerrard – 92 caps (19 goals)

Wayne Rooney – 74 caps (28 goals)

Top Goalscorers

Wayne Rooney – 28 goals

Steven Gerrard – 19 goals

Jermain Defoe – 15 goals

Man To Watch

                                                                John Terry

With Rooney out for first two games and Gerrard just returning from injury, John Terry will have to motivate the England team to achieve something from the competition. Terry recently won the Champions League with Chelsea as captain of the side and is in good form. However, he will have be mentally prepared for every game considering the controversies with Rio Ferdinand. Ferdinand was still not selected in the team with Barry and Cahill out. So, all eyes will be on Terry if he can overcome the difficulties he’s facing.