Euro 2012, TNA and then Euro 2012 again

Dear ITV, you know why Hodgson's hunches work. It's because Roy Hodgson's selections aren't hunches, they're not feelings, they're ideas based on who he's got in his team and who the opponents have in theirs and respective strengths and weaknesses.

Dear Wayne Rooney, remember it's Andy Carroll you're now playing with. Less clever, clever may be advised. And this isn't me picking on Rooney or Carroll, I said the same thing to Youri Djorkaeff in 1998 re: Guivarc'h and Dugarry.

Poor Scott Parker took one heck of a whack. As did whichever poor Ukrainian just got landed on by Carroll.

Dear lord, I have just seen England play the German defensive diamond formation of 2002. Roy Hodgson has worked marvels. This is not meant to be sarcastic, it's difficult to do. (Both the formation and getting England to stick to it.)

That Yarmolenko is not a bad little player.

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( TNA )

In short, TNA are doing that thing again where half of it is promising and the other half is dreadful.
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Euro 2012 - quarter final diagram



Obviously, it's less spread out.

Bayern Munich no longer contribute the most players, Real Madrid do, as all 11 of their players are still in, while 4 of Bayern Munich's players have been eliminated.

The divide between Greece, Germany and the Czech Republic and everyone else is still there, which is interesting, as Croatia, Russia and Ukraine are all out, and I thought it was the links to them that were pulling Greece, Germany and the Czech Republic up and out. It's obviously not.

Interestingly, if you look at it using modularity as the partition, Chelsea becomes it's own group, alone amongst the other teams.