Group D

Most England fans were fairly happy with being drawn in Group D at Euro 2012, it is clearly not the easiest of groups but the teams in Group D managed to avoid Spain, Germany and Holland which they will certainly be pleased about. England v France could decide which of those teams top the group and if there is a loser in that game the pressure will certainly be on them in their remaining two games against hosts Ukraine (playing the hosts is never easy) and also Sweden.

The opening Group D fixtures at Euro 2012 will take place on June 11th.

Click here for statistical analysis of previous Group Stage results which should help with your group betting.

Group D Winner Odds

This looks very much between England and France, Ukraine have home advantage but we saw four years ago that in both the Switzerland and Austria groups both teams gained the least amount of points so when the host nation is a smaller nation they often struggle (Belgium also eliminated at the group stage in 2000). Sweden are a decent team but they didn't qualify for the most recent World Cup and went out at the group stage at Euro 2008 so can't be relied upon to upset the odds.

Euro 2012 - Group D

Group Betting

	Odds	Bookie
England	2.80
France	2.80
Ukraine	5.50
Sweden	7.50

England have been pretty reliable for backers in the group stage, the only time they have gone out at the group stage in their last seven major tournaments was in 2000 when they were drawn in the group of death. Compare that to France who have put in some desperate recent group stage performances, they have not only failed to qualify from their last two major tournament group stages, they have finished bottom in both groups and also went out at the group stage in the 2002 World Cup. France seem a bit better under Laurent Blanc but can't be relied upon not to bottle it at the group stage.

Group D To Qualify Odds

France have performed horribly in recent major tournament group stages as previously mentioned but Sweden and Ukraine haven't done any better, Ukraine haven't even qualifed for a European Championships before and as stated above, being the host nation is no guarantee they'll get out of the group. France won a decent qualifying group and went unbeaten in their final nine qualifying matches so although they are not the team they were just over ten years ago when they were winning this competition, they should have improved enough to finish above Sweden and Ukraine.

Other Group D Bets

There doesn't appear to be a great deal of value in backing the straight forecast in this group as the teams might be a little more closely matched than the bookies are predicting. The worse team in the group could end up being Ukraine, despite the fact that they are hosts. They have never earned a place here through qualifying before and at the last European Championships the hosts finished bottom of the group and joint bottom so it should pay to go against what the bookies think and back Ukraine to finish bottom.

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