In a normal year, we would have already crowned the winners of UEFA’s European Championship by now and be looking forward to the World Cup in Qatar. But as things have panned out, we have just finished with the qualifiers as of last week. Nevertheless, we can start the build proper to the tournament, which UEFA still insists on calling Euro 2020 despite it behind held in the summer of 2021 (11th June – 11th July). So, who are the 24 teams that have qualified? Below is a break down of the Euro 2020 Groups:
Group A: Turkey, Italy, Wales, Switzerland
Group B: Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Russia
Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria, North Macedonia
Group D: England, Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic
Group E: Spain, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia
Group F: Hungary Portugal, France, Germany
Turkey and Italy will open the tournament on 11th June with a clash in Rome, and, as you are no doubt aware, the tournament will take place across several European countries, with some as far apart as Ireland and Azerbaijan. That’s all part of Michel Platini’s 60th-anniversary plans, which will seem a bit hair-brained to fans given the logistics of the tournament – it’s 5,000km from Dublin to Baku. Euro 2024 will revert to the standard format of having a host country – Germany.
However, if one team can indeed claim to have home advantage, it is England. The 3 Lions will play three Group D games at Wembley Stadium. And, if they make it that far, the Semi Final and Final will also be at Wembley. That home comfort, coupled with excellent form in qualifying, caused England to be inserted as favourites for the tournament for most of 2019 and 2020. However, with the latest odds at https://www.888sport.com/, we can see there has been some market movement, and Belgium are now seen the 11/2 favourites. England are slightly behind at 6/1.
England have struggled
Why the move in the markets? Well, England have been out of sorts of late, certainly struggling to recapture the awesome qualifying form that really made fans believe Gareth Southgate was building something special. All is not lost, for sure, and Southgate can still call upon some of the best young talent in world football, especially in attack. Problem positions like goalkeeper and central defence might curtail those ambitions. England also find themselves in a tougher-than-it-looks group, with recently-qualified Scotland, in particular, likely to go all out to inflict pain upon the Auld Enemy.
As for Belgium, it feels like this is the chance for the golden generation team. Players like De Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard (despite travails at Real Madrid) are considered at their peak, and it’s time for them to deliver on that promise. The Red Devils have also been given the easiest group. There are no prizes on guessing the so-called Group of Death, with France, Germany and Portugal all drawn together. World Cup winners France are seen as most likely to top out of Group F, but would anyone really be surprised to see them lose out to Portugal and Germany?
It’s worth remembering that there is a lifeline for teams who finish third, with four of the third-placed finishers from the six groups advancing the Last 16. The usual means of separating the teams will apply – points, goal difference, etc.
Can we point to a winner at this stage? It’s a tough, tough call, especially coming at a time when football is throwing up some of the strangest results in history. Indeed, you are probably going to see some tired legs on show given how the domestic seasons were played through the summer of 2020. In that sense, it’s all to play for – and it’s only around 200 days away.
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