Group B

Austria's European Championships Record

The Austrian Football team have qualified for seven World Cups, but never qualified for a European Championship. They will be making their first appearance in the competition in the Euro 2008, which they will host along with Switzerland. Austria are currently managed by Josef Hickersberger and captained by Panathinaikos player Andreas Ivanschitz, they qualified automatically for the European Championship of this year due to being co-hosts, not having to go through a qualifying campaign. Austria traditionally play their home international games in the Ernst-Happel Stadium in the beautiful city of Vienna, one of the stadiums that will be used in this year's European tournament. Playing at home will boost the players' morale and they stand a good chance of impressing in this tournament, in a group with Germany, Poland & Croatia.

Austria's Euro 2008 Fixtures:

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Croatia's European Championships Record

The history of Croatia is relatively new, since the team has been set up in 1990 and joined UEFA and FIFA in 1992, after Croatia was granted independence from Yugoslavia. Although very new, they possess a very strong team with an iron will to uphold their nation's pride. The first competitive matches for Croatia were the qualifying matches for the Euro 1996. They managed to qualify for this tournament, to record their first appearance in a major international tournament.

Croatia has rocketed up the FIFA ranking, qualified for every World Cup they entered, and until today won all competitive games they have played in Croatia. In the Euro 1996, they managed to reach the quarter-finals, winning two games and losing two. Croatia then failed to enter Euro 2000, but returned in the Portugal Euro 2004. However, the 2004 tournament was not a good one for Croatia which failed to win a single match. The 2008 event looks very promising for this nation, after they managed to defeat and eliminate super-giants England in the final qualifying match.

The team is currently managed by Slaven Bilic and captained by Niko Kovac (Salzburg midfielder). Croatia rank in the 12th position in the FIFA rankings, just 37 points away from England (as of February 2008). They are well-known for their attractive chequered red-and-white kits. They'll always be remembered as the team that stopped England qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals with their infamous 3-2 win at the Wembley on the 21st November 2007.

Croatia's Euro 2008 Fixtures:

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Germany's European Championships Record

Germany qualified for the Euro 2008 tournament by finishing runners up in group D to the Czech Republic, with 8 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat, and also breaking the record of biggest victory in qualifying with a 13-0 away win to San Marino. The main positive that Germany can take from their Euro 2008 qualification campaign is the fact that the transition from Klinsmann to new manager Löw has been so seamless. On taking control 'Jogi' insisted he would be looking to continue the attacking philosophy developed by Klinsmann and himself.

With Germany's record in Group D, it is hard to find negatives from their qualifying campaign. However, the main question mark over the team remains the goalkeeper. Jens Lehmann remains the first-choice even though he has been demoted to second-choice at his club side Arsenal and is struggling to feature for the gunners. The danger for Joachim Löw is that he goes into the finals with a keeper who has not had regular first team action. Designated second-choice Timo Hildebrand is in a similar situation over at Valencia, having not replaced Santi Canizares as first-choice following his summer transfer from Stuttgart.

Germany have been placed on group B of the euro 2008 finals along with Croatia, Austria and Poland, and should easily progress from the groups into the later stages of the competition. Germany will always be one of the favorites as they are one of the three most successful national teams at international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups and three European championships (no other team has won the European championship as many times, the most recent being in Euro 96), also Germany has not lost a penalty shootout in major international tournaments. In fact, the last penalty missed by a German player dates back to the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup.

Another factor not to be discounted is the venues of the finals in the summer. Although not home soil, the fact that the 2008 finals tournament is being shared by close neighbours Austria and Switzerland will surely be an added advantage for the German team.