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The home nations are all involved in the Euro 2012 draw which takes place on Sunday. The big event, taking place in Warsaw, Poland will happen around 11am, and there is extra interest ahead of the draw, as some of the home nations could end up in the same qualifying group. In fact, with the seeding as it is, there could be one interesting group of England, Wales and either Scotland, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, which would certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of UK pride over national teams.

England, understandably are ranked among the top seeds for the qualifying draw, which means they will avoid other powerhouses such as Spain, Germany, France and Italy. With 51 teams involved in qualifying, there is a race for just 14 places to reach the 2012 finals, which are held jointly by Poland and the Ukraine. The draw will place teams in nine groups, with the winners of those nine groups automatically qualifying. The best of the runner’s up will also get automatic qualification, with the remaining other eight runners-up going into a two-leg play, much the same as what happened for Qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the European Zone. Poland and Ukraine naturally have already secured their spots as hosts.

England aside, the other home nations will be quickly keen to get back into action and put the disappointment of missing the World Cup behind them. Wales had a poor World Cup qualifying campaign, and it has been over a decade since Scotland were involved in the finals of a major tournament. New boss Craig Levein is hoping to change all that, and has spoken of how keen he is to pit his wits against the auld enemy, England. The Republic of Ireland of course, will be looking to redress all the furore surrounding their World Cup play-off loss against France, after Thierry Henry clearly handled the ball in the build up to France’s crucial winning goal. Northern Ireland performed will in a tough group with World Cup qualifying on the line, but they just could not battle their way into a runner’s-up spot.

There is hope there for all home nations, with Scotland, Northern and Republic of Ireland, all together in seeding pot number 3 for the draw. Wales will be drawn from seeding pot four. While there will be hope and optimism ahead of the qualification, the level of quality throughout the top four seeded groups is quite fierce. As shown during European qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, there are going to be no easy rides, although the likes of Germany, Italy, England and Spain will be favourites to book safe passage. Spain won the 2008 European Championships, thanks to a goal from Liverpool’s Fernando Torres against Germany in the final. The European champions are looking favourites to add the World Cup to their reign of football power.

The qualifiers for the 2012 European Championships, will take place between September 2010 and October 2011, and all seedings have been based on the UEFA national team coefficient system.

Pot 1: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia

Pot 2: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania

Pot 3: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot 4: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus

Pot 5: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein

Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

Latest Outright 2010 Prices:
Spain – 6/1 at SkyBet
Germany – 8/1 at SkyBet
Italy – 9/1 at Stan James
Holland – 10/1 at Boylesports
England – 12/1 at Bwin

There will be plenty of nerves on display in Lisbon, Athens, Dublin and Moscow this coming Saturday, with eight teams battling it out for four World Cup places. These matches are sure to be popular as far as pre-match and In-Play betting is concerned, so we’ve taken a look at our favourite bookmakers to find some top promotions.

Over at bet365, they are running their usual Bore Draw Money Back offer, where correct score, HT / FT and Scorecast bets are refunded if a match finishes 0-0. We would say that these type of matches have a much stronger chance of finishing goalless, especially as the first leg games are bound to be tight and cagey. Teams will be afraid of conceding and you can bet that the likes of Bosnia and Slovenia will be setting up defensively against Portugal and Russia respectively.

Meanwhile, Paddy Power have come up with a typically crazy promotion for the Ireland v France match, which ties in with the X Factor! John and Edward are one of the favourites to be eliminated and, if they are evicted on Sunday, then your losing First Goalscorer, Correct Score and Scorecast bets will be refunded. The pair were close to being axed last week so this could be a popular promotion.

Meanwhile, although Ladbrokes don’t have any set promotions for the four matches, they are providing a unique type of bet. The Quatro enables to you to select a combination of the winning team and the amount of goals scored. For example, they offer odds of 2.50 that Ukraine win or draw in Greece PLUS there are two goals or less in the match. Similarly, Ladbrokes offer Goal Time Quatro, so for example you can back Republic of Ireland to score first PLUS the first goal being scored after the 27th minute. At odds of 4.00, it’s not a bad shout.

My personal hunch is that the matches are likely to be low-scoring. If you look at the previous first leg scores in the play-offs, there are often few goals involved and it could therefore be worth looking at the Under 2.5 Goals prices. Stan James are offering some great odds on this market, going best price for the Greece v Ukraine and the Ireland v France matches. Doing four lines of trebles on the quartet of games would return a profit if three involve two goals or less and the Bosnia manager has already stated his intention to pack out the midfield in Portugal.

Over at Unibet, they have priced up some goalscorer match bets, with Kevin Doyle being paired with Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane going head-to-head with Nicolas Anelka. Meanwhile, Canbet customers should be aware that you get a 10% bonus on any winnings from a multiple bet. Providing you include at least three selections and that your accumulator amounts to odds of at least 6.00, you can get 10% added to the pay-out.

Of course, all of the bookmakers we mention will be offering In-Play betting on the four World Cup qualifying matches, while bet365 will be streaming the games from Moscow, Lisbon and Athens so that you can watch and bet on the action!