Euro 2012 Preview: England

30May 2012

EURO2012

There have been troubled times of late for the Three Lions of England and when Fabio Capello was announced as the new manager towards the end of 2007 then it was seen as a new dawn for English football and its national team. But a good qualifying campaign was followed by an utterly dismal World Cup and Fabio Capello resigned as manager in February.

This left England with little time to prepare and it was only recently that new manager Roy Hodgson was given the job of taking England into the 2012 European Championships. Hodgson had the first big blow of his reign this week with the news that Gareth Barry will miss the tournament after picking up an injury in the 1-0 win in Oslo last weekend.

England have not had a very good tournament since reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96. A string of second round and quarter final exits coupled with failing to qualify for the finals of the 2008 European Championships have led to many English fans becoming disgruntled with following the national side. So expectations amongst the English people are low going into this tournament and being grouped in with France, Ukraine and Sweden will leave Roy Hodgson with his work cut out just to get out of the group.