France and Bosnia-Herzegovina face off in Group D
France and Bosnia-Herzegovina are favourites to win Group D of the 2012 European Championship qualifiers.
The victor of each group qualifies directly to the tournament, where they are joined by the best runner-up of the lot.
Four of the eight remaining runners-up qualify through play-offs, while Poland and the Ukraine are automatically qualified as hosts to the tournament.
Aside from France and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the group includes Romania, Belarus, Albania and Luxembourg. Out of these, Romania is the only likely candidate to challenge for second place.
Blanc to rebuild France team
With several players serving international bans following France's tumultuous World Cup campaign, new manager Laurent Blanc has included only nine players from the squad that travelled to South Africa for France's first two games against Belarus and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Among the players Blanc has now called upon that were not in South Africa are AS Roma's Philippe Mexes, Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and Stade Rennes' young prospect Yann M'Vila.
Blanc is under pressure to build a strong French team from a new generation of players, and his squad selection signals his intent to do so.
The manager has also invited Zinedine Zidane to talk to the French players during their training camp ahead of the game against Belarus to remind them of the importance of playing for the national team.
Blanc's team should have little trouble overcoming Belarus in Paris.
While the team is coached by German manager Bernd Stange, a man with plenty of international experience, Belarus would be lucky to claim any points away from home during the qualifiers.
Bosnia-Herzegovina to enter first tournament?
Bosnia-Herzegovina were eliminated by the 2010 World Cup qualifying play-offs by Portugal and will be eager to qualify for the nation's first major tournament this time around.
Among the stars in the team is VfL Wolfsburg's captain Edin Dzeko, the 24-year-old striker who was nominated for the 2009 Ballon d'Or. In his three seasons playing for Wolfsburg, Dzeko has scored 59 goals in 96 games.
Bosnia-Herzegovina begin their qualifying campaign against Luxembourg on 3 September. Ranked at 117 in the world by FIFA, Luc Holtz's Luxembourg team should pose no threat to Dzeko and his team.
Romania outsiders of the group
Romania, captained by Roma defender Christian Chivu, could challenge Bosnia-Herzegovina and France for second place in the group.
Romania fought hard in the "Group of Death" of the 2008 European Championships, drawing both Italy and France before losing to the Netherlands in the final game of the group stage.
While qualification would be a long shot for a small nation like Albania, the team managed to draw against both Sweden and Portugal during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
No great things should be expected from the team, but France or Bosnia-Herzegovina should be careful not to drop valuable points when they visit the Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana.
Albania face Romania in Bucharest on 3 September, where they will do well to salvage a point.
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