Usual Suspects Lead Class Heading Into Euro 2012

LONDON — The long road to Poland and Ukraine is almost closed. Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are travelling superior class to Euro 2012, as they did to the previous tournaments. The Germans, still growing and still bringing fresh young talents through the ranks, closed out their qualification with a perfect 10th-straight victory Tuesday. Their 3-1 demolition of Belgium in Düsseldorf was proof, if proof was needed, that the new cosmopolitan Germany will not let up, even when the only thing at stake is pride in performance. Winning, they say, is too good a habit to break. Likewise, Spain. The reigning European and world champion fielded a few fringe players against Scotland at Alicante, but still won by the same score as Germany to keep up its own perfect run to the finals. A 5th goal in 10 national team games for Germany’s 20-year-old winger, André Schürrle, was typical of the fast, coordinated, athletic counterattack that epitomizes Germany. A 50th goal in his 80th international game by David Villa emphasized that Spanish hunger is far from sated. The two countries that contested the last European Championship and set the standards at the World Cup in South Africa a year ago, are playing with the confidence and the know-how of champions. Almost up to their level, but without the same depth of reserves, come the Dutch. The Netherlands also won every qualifying match that counted until this week when, in Sweden against a home side desperate for the points, a considerably weakened Dutch lineup succumbed, 3-2. The result didn’t mean a lot to the Netherlands, which had already qualified after nine consecutive victories. It meant everything to the Swedes, whose eighth victory in 10 games gave them the automatic right to play in the tournament finals as the best runner-up in any of the European groups. Maybe, just maybe, Scandinavian soccer is on the rise again. What Sweden could do in Stockholm, the Danes were more than prepared to match in Copenhagen, where they outran and largely outplayed Portugal. The 2-1 home victory scarcely did justice to Denmark’s greater collective determination. It flattered the Portuguese, who after five successive victories expected to top the group, but finished second. All that Portugal had to do was tie the final game. But Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and company said they were not going to Copenhagen to draw; they were sure they had the skills to win. Those boasts proved a spur to the Danes. With 38,000 roaring on the national team, the midfield players worked like dervishes to deny Portugal’s arguably finer artists the room to create. Denmark scored an unanswered, predatory goal from Michael Krohn-Dehli in the first half. It increased that lead with a well-rehearsed second, made by Dennis Rommedahl’s cross and scored by the foot of Nicklas Bendtner. And long before Ronaldo curled in one of his magical free kicks to score Portugal’s consolation goal in injury time, there could have been a landslide in the Danes’ favor. “We were playing against two of the best wingers in the world,” said Denmark’s captain, goalie Thomas Sorensen. “But we didn’t see much of them for almost the entire match.” Portugal thus has to go into the playoff draw Thursday in Krakow, Poland, to determine the pairings between eight nations who finished second in their groups but could yet qualify through playoff games to be contested, home and away, in mid-November. Those places include teams like Croatia and Turkey and Portugal, which expected to qualify in the first place. They include Estonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which represent the changing map of the Baltic and Balkan region. The Estonians qualified in second place in their group without even playing Tuesday. Their joy was Serbia’s despair because the Serbs, needing just a point in Slovenia, went down, 1-0. Nemanja Vidic, the captain of Manchester United, missed a penalty kick and, possibly in the emotion of failure, he and Serbia’s accomplished midfielder, Dejan Stankovic, indicated that they would now retire from the national team. “It’s time,” said Vidic, 29, “for a change of generations.” “It’s time,” said Stankovic, 33, “for me to turn to my tasks with Inter Milan.”