UEFA EURO 2012 - easy peasy?

How easy is it for a team to qualify for EURO 2012? Generally this depends on the team… some countries have been waiting almost 50 years, others qualify just after first round of games, others play sometimes, depending of luck. There is also a group of favourites and they practically always go through to play in the finals and end up with the medals.  

Poland (who got to third place in the World Cup in 1974 and1982) is a good example of a team, which took 48 years (almost 13 elimination rounds) to qualify for EURO 2012. They almost achieved this 4 and 8 years prior to this. They lost to England in the qualifying stages of EURO 2000 and to Latvia for EURO 2004. Latvia carried on to play Turkey and after a victory qualified in November 2003 to their first appearance in the EURO championships. Poland had to wait another 4 years for their chance.  

Northern Ireland is another team still waiting to qualify. They have been trying since 1964 and, unfortunately, so far have not managed to get to get to the final tournament.  

Finland, like Poland have been waiting since 1968 to qualify for the EURO championships. They were in the same qualifying group as Poland and Portugal, but unfortunately lost their chance after losing games to Armenia and Azerbaijan.  

Cyprus had a chance to qualify 8 years before Poland. Although they beat Spain in the qualifying stages of EURO 2000, they missed the tournament by only 2 points. 

Another country close to qualifying to play in the EURO championships is Wales (in 1976, 1984 and 2004). They lost 1-3 to the former Yugoslavia in the qualifying game in 1973 and again in the qualifying stage of EURO 1984.  

Israel, who have taken part in the EURO championships since 1991, were hoping to make their first appearance in 2008. Unfortunately, they missed the tournament stage by 1 point, although they have had many occasions to achieve much better results.