UEFA announced its top 23 man squad and there are some eyebrow raisers with Steve Gerrard and Daniele De Rossi included.
If we had to select an Englishman, then John Terry should have been a top choice and he finds a place in Soccerblog’s XI. As centre back, Terry was brilliant against Italy and Ukraine. He probably single handedly forced Italy to the penalty shootout with at least 6 blocks of his own.
Why is Joao Moutinho so underrated? He can be Portugal’s Deco or drop back deeper and hold midfield. The versatile midfielder did not have one poor game impressing in the opener against Germany and then organizing the attack against Spain in the semi-finals.
Euro 2012 didn’t exactly shine a light on any particular right back. Philipp Lahm should have been a top choice but he was shown up by Mario Balotelli in the semi-finals as he was four years ago against Fernando Torres. Great going forward, questionable in his tracking back and taking care of business. Theodor Gebre Selassie made news as a target of racial abuse and that unsavoury bit aside, he shut down Ronaldo in the quarterfinals, as Portugal laboured to score. He provided the assist for Vaclav Pilar’s goal that won the Czechs their match against Greece breathing new life into them and his energetic presence against Poland caught the eye as the co-hosts crashed out of the competition on Petr Jiracek’s goal.
The rest of the selections are pretty self explanatory.
Soccerblog’s Euro 2012 squad:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Spain), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Stipe Pletikosa (Croatia)
Defenders: Theodor Gebre Selassie (Czech Republic), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Mats Hummels (Germany), John Terry (England), Jordi Alba (Spain), Fabio Coentrao (Portugal)
Midfielders: Andres Iniesta (Spain), Xavi (Spain), Joao Moutinho (Portugal), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Mesut Oezil (Germany), Sami Khedira (Germany), Vaclav Pilar (Czech Republic), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Luka Modric (Croatia), Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
Strikers: Mario Balotelli (Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Marco Reus (Germany), Alan Dzagoev( Russia)