Germany:



After winning the most recent World Cup, the German team is still a bit struggling to find back to old form. After the tournament, several players announced their national team retirement, including Philipp "Der Übermensch" Lahm and Per "Eistonne"/"BFG" Mertesacker. WHile the midfield and goalkeeper positions are still pretty stacked, the search for proper defenders for the Euro squad continues, the injuries of Boateng and Badstuber not really helping the cause either.
Up front, there's still discussion about playing someone like Müller or a true strike like Gomez, whose form might get him a place in the Starting XI again. The qualifying campaign wasn't as convincing as previous ones, but in the end, Germany finished first ahead of Group rivals Poland, and hope to repeat this at the final tournament as well - not losing to them, like they did in Warsaw.

Ukraine:



The Ukrainian squad consists mostly of domstic league players and is captained by 37-year-old, former Bayern player Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who is currently playing for Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan and closing in on 150 caps for his country - currently he sits at 142. Other known players are constant-EPL-targets Andriy Yarmolenko (Dinamo Kiev) and Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla). They only finished 3rd in their qualifying group, but managed to get past Slovenia in the playoff (3-1 aggregate) to claim their spot in France. Third is probably where they will finish in this group as well.

Poland:



Germany was really stupid to not stop after invading Poland in 1939. That way, they would now have a proper striker in the way the Polish do: Robert Lewandowski became top scorer in the qualifying campaign, netting a total of 13 goals, six of them against Gibraltar. He's the star of the team which also beat Germany in their home game during qualifying, finishing only a point behind them in the end. The rest of the squad is split pretty evenly between domestic league players and other leagues. If Lewa has his usual form, they should qualify for the group stage easily.

Northern Ireland:



Northern Ireland has already been at three(!) World Cups, but never made it to the Euros until now. They got here by winning the "Group of Life", beating out Romania and Hungary for the top spot. Their squad is a mix of SPL and lower English league players, with a few EPL players round it off. Northern Ireland's chances in the group are pretty slim, they will hope to finishing 3rd to advance this way.

DER MARKT:

To win the group: Germany 1.4, Poland 7, Ukraine 10, Northern Ireland 34
To qualify: Germany 1.08, Poland 1.85, Ukraine 2, Northern Ireland 4.75
To win the tournament: Germany 4.5, Poland 67, Ukraine 126, Northern Ireland 501

Schedule:

June 12, 18:00 CEST: Poland v Northern Ireland
June 12, 21:00 CEST: Germany v Ukraine
June 16, 18:00 CEST: Ukraine v Northern Ireland
June 16, 21:00 CEST: Germany v Poland
June 21, 18:00 CEST: Northern Ireland v Germany, Ukraine - Poland

LOL DEUTSCHLAND

First blow for the Germans, Gundogan out for up to a year with a dislocated knee cap.

Podolski in the squad. Baldi meltdown incoming.

GAWA!

At this stage even Poldi must know he's basically there as the entertainment

Who are the most likely to get cut?

sane weigl kimmich

Draxler is getting cut before Kimmich, imo.

Podolski must have incriminating video footage of Jogi to keep getting invited.

My first guess was that #24-27 are most likely to get cut.

If Poldi gets on the plane and Brandt doesn't I'm gonna lose it

Don't think Poldi will be a cut though, if Löw wasn't gonna take him, we would've known today imo

don't have seen that much of brandt but he probably should be ahead of schürrle in the pecking order as well

attack is difficult to guess again, i would go with this

Kimmich for Can and I approve.

Thanks for the heads-up in the other thread. The youngest players can still go to the Olympics when cut, so that's probably gonna happen. Germany hasn't been involved with the Olympics in a long, long time IIRC, so this is new and comes in handy. There's an off-chance Lahm goes to Rio even

think Can is valuable for that team with his physicality as with kroos/özil and boateng/hummels from deep there already is enough passing ability

Poldi would do everyone a favor by resigning, OTOH I can't think of anyone being truly ****ed over by his inclusion. Still up to him of course. But I can see how having Schweini and Poldi there is a good thing, even if they end up not playing much in France.

Only guy who's done wrong by this squad is Fährmann imo.

I wonder who would've been left out if Gündogan wasn't injured? I guess Kimmich.

first germany test today with what appears to be a back three including Kimmich

Gomez pen makes it 1-0

Man Draxler can be such an amazing player when fit. Pretty made about how it went with him

subbing

Draxler is an elite talent, no doubt. But too injury prone, I guess.

German sports coverage right there for you. Don't bother with football, show some Herbert Grönemeyer at half time!

Lol how free can you leave that guy on a corner.

Brandt, Rudy, Bellarabi, Reus out of the squad. The latter with significant health problems

So Reus will never play a tourney? Feel sad for the guy.