Germany comfortable Group C favorite as Ukraine and Poland meet again

With the expanded 24-team European Championship set to kick off on Friday in France, we continue our group-bygroup breakdown with Group C.

GERMANY

The German side setting its sights on Euro 2016, 20 years after its last continental trophy, may be completely different from the one that won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Although coach Joachim Loew has kept a core of the players who won the country’s fourth World Cup, he will need to mould them back into a tournament team if they are to knock holder Spain off the champion’s pedestal after eight years.

The manager will also need to quickly integrate a group of younger players, including the talented but uncapped Joshua Kimmich and Julian Weigl among others, to deliver a competitive unit.

The manager’s biggest headache is his back-line, where the qualifiers exposed an alarming lack of consistency. Germany conceded five goals in its last four games and left it unexpectedly late to top its group.

Central defender Jerome Boateng has only just come back for Bayern Munich after more than three months out injured. Fellow defender Benedikt Hoewedes also missed much of 2016 through injury, returning to action only weeks ago for Schalke.

Loew has another headache in front of the defense, with captain Bastian Schweinsteiger racing to overcome an injury and fellow holding midfielder Ilkay Guendogan already ruled out with a knee cap injury.

Germany’s midfield, overflowing with talent, remains awe-inspiring, with players such as Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Karim Bellarabi, Lukas Podolski and Andre Schuerrle jostling for position alongside definite starters Sami Khedira and Toni Kroos.

Thomas Mueller, who has enjoyed his most prolific scoring season at Bayern having produced 20 league goals, will lead the German attack along with in-form Mario Gomez and World Cup final scorer Mario Goetze, desperate for games after spending most of the season on the Bayern bench.

Few expect the Germans to have any problems in a group which it is the overwhelming favorite of. Beyond that, much will depend on what sort of team Loew can field.

POLAND

If Poland is to progress beyond the group stages at the European Championship for the first time, its top strikers Robert Lewandowski and Arkadiusz Milik must provide the inspiration so obviously lacking when the Poles crashed out of Euro 2012, the tournament they co-hosted with Ukraine.

On that occasion, Poland finished bottom of its group and now, as the lowest-ranked team in Euro 2016 Group C, it will have to be at their best to make it through a pool clouded by clashes against traditional rivals Germany and Ukraine.

Poland FA chief Zbigniew Boniek, one of the country’s greatest players, revels in the underdog status that does not altogether equate with a team that impressed in qualifying for what will be its third straight European Championship finals.

Ranked 27th in the world by FIFA, Poland is one spot below group rival and Euro newcomer Northern Ireland, with Ukraine at 22 and Germany at No. 5.

If Poland does advance, much of the credit will go to manager Adam Nawalka, the 58-year-old former international, who has seen the side lose just three of 23 games under his tenure.

Leading the line will be the Bundesliga’s leading scorer Lewandowski, who has scored 47 times for Bayern Munich this season, and Ajax Amsterdam striker Milik, who has netted 24.

On paper the two look to be one of the tournament’s most lethal striking partnerships, powering Poland to the finals with 19 goals.

Even that was not enough to top the group, however, and Poland finished behind Germany despite beating the Germans for the first time, a result that suggests that the traditional gap between neighbors is narrowing.

UKRAINE

As if Ukraine was not beset with enough problems off the pitch, an unseemly row between two high-profile players is threatening to disrupt the country’s Euro 2016 campaign.

Taras Stepanenko recently announced that his friendship with Ukraine teammate Andriy Yarmolenko was over after the pair was involved in a spat during a league game this month.

Dynamo Kiev winger Yarmolenko kicked out at the Shakhtar Donetsk star with both players subsequently being dismissed following a melee between the teams that provide the bulk of Ukraine’s squad.

Ukraine manager Mykhaylo Fomenko has said the issues need to be sorted out and there are fears about the knock-on effect for the team which already faces a tough Group C challenge against Germany, Northern Ireland and Poland, its co-host for Euro 2012 with whom it was also drawn in the 2014 World Cup qualifying group.

On that occasion Ukraine twice beat its neighbor and observers believe a repeat is possible, particularly if it looks to be positive and vary its normal counter-attacking style.

With Slovakia also finishing above it in the group, five-time playoff failure Ukraine enjoyed an unaccustomed 3-1 success against Slovenia to qualify for the finals for the first time and ensure the 67-year-old Fomenko kept his job.

The coach is under pressure to adopt a less conservative approach and will have Ukrainian hero Andriy Shevchenko, who is touted as a possible successor, alongside him on the bench.

Ukraine could probably do with Shevchenko on the field as well: his two goals in the victory over Sweden in the opening game of Euro 2012 were as good as it got for a team that failed to get out of their group.

While Germany, which it has never beaten, will provide stiff opposition, the games against Poland and Northern Ireland offer hope, particularly with four third-place teams going through under the new qualifying format.

NORTHERN IRELAND

It has been so long since Northern Ireland appeared at the finals of a major tournament that fewer than a handful of Michael O’Neill’s squad for the European Championship had been born when the country last graced the game’s greatest stages.

When Billy Bingham led Northern Ireland to the World Cup in 1986, only Roy Carroll, Aaron Hughes and Gareth McAuley were of primary school age as against-the-odds heroics from Pat Jennings, Norman Whiteside and Gerry Armstrong entered into local folklore.

While the cherished memories of days gone by remain strong, manager Michael O’Neill and his team have been busy making history of their own over the last two years.

Qualification for the Euros, achieved as the winner of its group, is not only the country’s first appearance at a major event in 30 years, it is also the first time Northern Ireland has ever booked a berth at the continental championship.

Along the way, O’Neill has steered the team on a run of 10 consecutive games without defeat.

Built on a strong team ethic that O’Neill has instilled within a squad drawn from the various divisions of English and Scottish soccer, but which boasts the Premier League core of McAuley, Jonny Evans and Steven Davis, the former Newcastle midfielder takes his team to France 2016 in a buoyant mood.

Since qualification was achieved with an emotional 3-1 win over Greece at Windsor Park in November, O’Neill has been working to add depth and tactical flexibility to his squad.

England-born striker Conor Washington scored the winner against Slovenia in only his second appearance, and the Queens Park Rangers man is the kind of player O’Neill is keen to use to bolster his lineup as he tries to lessen the load on Kyle Lafferty, Northern Ireland’s main scorer with seven goals in qualifying.