Group D of UEFA Euro 2012 began on 11 June 2012 and ended on 19 June 2012. The pool was made up of Ukraine, Sweden, France and England. The top two teams, England and France, progressed to the quarter-finals to play Italy and Spain respectively, while Ukraine and Sweden were eliminated from the tournament.
On the second matchday, on 15 June, the match between Ukraine and France that began at 19:00 local time was interrupted by heavy rainfall and a thunderstorm. The conditions forced the referee to suspend the game during the fifth minute, and play was only resumed 58 minutes later.[1] UEFA therefore delayed the match between Sweden and England to kick off 15 minutes later than originally scheduled, instead beginning at 22:00 local time, to avoid the matches overlapping.
On the final matchday, on 19 June, the match between England and Ukraine featured a ghost goal by Marko Dević. In the second half, with Ukraine losing 1–0 to a Wayne Rooney goal, Dević's shot was hooked clear from behind the England goal-line by John Terry under the eyes of the additional assistant referee standing beside the goal (as confirmed by video replays). The incident reopened football's goal-line technology debate.[2] [3] Although in the build-up to the incident, Dević's teammate Artem Milevskyi was in an offside position when the ball was played to him, which also went unnoticed by the match officials.[4] [5] UEFA and its chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina admitted on the following day that an error had been made and that Ukraine had been denied a legitimate goal.[6] [7]
| Draw position | Team | Pot | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | data-sort-type="number" | Finals appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance | UEFA Rankings November 2011 | FIFA Rankings June 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | 1 | Co-host | 18 April 2007 | 1st | — | data-sort-value="99" | Debut | 15 | 52 | ||
| D2 | 3 | 11 October 2011 | 5th | data-sort-value="3" | Semi-finals (1992) | 10 | 17 | ||||
| D3 | 4 | Group D winner | 11 October 2011 | 8th | data-sort-value="1" | Winners (1984, 2000) | 12 | 14 | |||
| D4 | 2 | Group G winner | 7 October 2011 | 8th | data-sort-value="3" | Third place (1968), Semi-finals (1996) | 5 | 6 |
Notes
In the quarter-finals,
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| Man of the Match: Samir Nasri (France) Assistant referees:[8] |
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| Man of the Match: Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)[9] Assistant referees:[10] |
At 19:05 EEST, in the 5th minute, the match was interrupted due to severe weather. The match resumed at 20:02 EEST.[11]
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| Man of the Match: Franck Ribéry (France) Assistant referees:[12] |
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| Man of the Match: Olof Mellberg (Sweden) Assistant referees:[13] |
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| Man of the Match: Steven Gerrard (England) Assistant referees:[14] |
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| Man of the Match: Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden) Assistant referees:[15] |