UEFA Euro 2012 in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified automatically, along with the highest ranked second placed team. The remaining eight-second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four winners qualified for the finals. Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008. England and Denmark made their return to the Euro, having last participated in 2004, while Republic of Ireland returned after a twenty-four-year absence to make their second appearance at a European Championship. One of the co-hosts, Ukraine, made their debut as an independent nation (before 1992 Ukraine participated as part of the Soviet Union). With
2012 Copa Sudamericana Finals 2012 Copa Sudamericana Finals The 2012 Copa Sudamericana Finals were the final two-legged tie that decided the winner of the 2012 Copa Sudamericana, the 11th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary international club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. The matches were played on December 5 and 12, 2012 between Tigre of Argentina and São Paulo of Brazil. After a goalless first leg, São Paulo was leading 2–0 when the second leg was abandoned after 45 minutes by the referee, as the Tigre players refused to come back to play the rest of the match after incidents at halftime.