ESPN’s comprehensive coverage of the UEFA European Football Championship (June 8-July 1) will feature all 31 matches televised live and in high definition in English on ESPN and ESPN2, as well as 27 matches live with four tape-delayed in Spanish on ESPN Deportes.   Additional coverage includes ESPN3, WatchESPN, ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN Deportes Radio.  Today, ESPN senior vice president and executive producer Jed Drake announced the ESPN commentator assignments for the group stage of the tournament. Highlights:

Key matchups in the group stage:

• On Saturday, June 9, at 2:45 p.m., Derek Rae and Kasey Keller (ESPN), and Jorge Ramos and Hernan Pereyra (ESPN Deportes) will call Germany vs. Portugal.  Germany has beaten Portugal in their last two matches – at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2008.  Each team will need a result in the first of their three Group B matches.
• Spain vs. Italy (Sun, June 10 at 12 p.m. on ESPN) – a matchup between the last two FIFA World Cup champions in their first Group C match, where both teams are favored to advance – will feature Ian Darke and Steve McManaman (English), and Fernando Palomo and Rafa Puente (Spanish).
• Traditional powers in European soccer – France vs. England – are entering the tournament with a recent history of underachieving in marquee tournaments. Monday, June 11, telecast on ESPN will feature Darke and McManaman at 12 p.m.  Ramos and Pereyra will call the match on ESPN Deportes.
• Darke and McManaman (ESPN) and Palomo and Puente (ESPN Deportes) will call Netherlands vs. Germany on Wed., June 13, at 2:45 p.m. ET – the matchup of traditional European rivals and two of the top teams in the world playing in the second of three matches in Group B, the tournament’s “group of death.”
• Adrian Healey and Robbie Mustoe (ESPN2), and Ramos and Pereyra (ESPN Deportes) will call the Italy vs. Republic of Ireland match on Monday, June 18 – a rematch of the 1994 FIFA World Cup when Ireland upset Italy at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.

UEFA EURO 2012 will mark most comprehensive coverage of the three-week competition by any media company in the United States. In 2008, ESPN2, ESPN, ESPN Classic and ABC combined to present live all 31 matches of the UEFA European Football Championship.  ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language home of the championship, also televised all 31 matches – four on tape-delay.

Match schedule (Subject to change):

* ESPN Deportes match coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

* ESPN and ESPN match coverage begins at 11:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

* Each of the two commentator teams – Darke and McManaman, and Healey and Mustoe – will call the matches

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