Professional Sports Commentary: With underdogs and unexpected results in the qualifiers, Euro 2024 shapes up to be an exciting tournament
May 6, 2024
By Ariston Nishevci
Staff Writer
Euro 2024 is upon us, and it is destined to be a great one. It is being held in Germany and the opening game will be on June 14 with Germany facing off against Scotland. There are going to be many incredible teams filled with stars. It’s possible for just about anyone to win because of how unpredictable each team is.
The tournament includes six groups with four teams in each. The top two teams from each group will immediately go to the knockout stage, and the four third place teams with the most points go through as well.
The teams in Group A are Germany, Hungary, Scotland and Switzerland. Germany is the host of Euro 2024. Historically, Germany has been a strong team, but it has not been performing well recently. In the 2018 World Cup, it was knocked out in the group stage, and then in Euro 2020, it lost in the round of 16. It again got knocked out of the 2022 World Cup in the group stage.
Despite this, Germany still has a good chance to win the whole tournament. It has goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and it has a strong defense with Antonio Rüdiger, Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Süle. Germany is most talented in the midfield with stars including Ilkay Gündogan, Kai Havertz, Joshua Kimmich, Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz.
It should be mentioned that Kroos came out of retirement from international soccer just for this tournament. Germany is the weakest in attack, with its best option being Niclas Füllkrug and its backup being Timo Werner, who is notorious for consistently missing easy chances.
Germany should easily finish first in its group.
Hungary is one of the four dark horses in the tournament because it had a successful qualifying campaign. Its best and only notable players are midfielder Marto Dardai, goalkeeper Peter Gulácsi, full-back Milos Kerkez, defender Attila Szalai and the best one of them all, Dominik Szoboszlai.
International tournaments always bring great excitement, and I anticipate this tournament will be full of surprises and upsets.
Szoboszlai has been Hungary’s main source of goal production, with three goals and three assists in eight qualifying games. Hungary is a force to be reckoned with, as it was in the most difficult group of Euro 2020 and almost made it out. Since then, the team has become much better.
I think Hungary will finish second, but it could put up a fight against Germany for first place.
Scotland had an impressive qualifying campaign, even beating Spain. Its three best players are midfielder John McGinn, midfielder Scott McTominay and full-back Andrew Robertson. Mctominay has been Scotland’s best performer with seven goals and one assist in the qualifiers.
Scotland hasn’t been a successful team in its tournaments, but that can change in the coming years. This tournament may be a building block for its future but nothing more.
Scotland is likely to finish last in its group but not by a huge margin as it can put up a good fight.
The second dark horse of the tournament, Switzerland, is a talented and consistent team. Its six best players are defender Manuel Akanji, defender Fabian Schär, midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, goalkeeper Yann Sommer, midfielder Granit Xhaka and midfielder Denis Zakaria.
Switzerland is consistently performing in big tournaments but seems to be cursed when it gets to the round of 16 as it rarely ever gets past it. However, there is hope because, in Euro 2020, Switzerland beat powerhouse France to advance to the quarterfinals.
Switzerland will surely be one of the top four third-place teams because it is an unpredictable team that puts up a fight in every game it plays.
Group B consists of Albania, Croatia, Italy and Spain.
Albania is the third dark horse in the tournament and has had a great run to qualify for its second-ever Euros. It has an underrated squad.
Goalkeeper Etrit Berisha is by far the most experienced player on the team. Defenders Iván Balliu, Berat Djimsiti, Elseid Hysaj and Marash Kumbulla have been good. The midfield has talented players as well, such as Kristjan Asllani, Nedim Bajrami, and Keidi Bare. Up front, it has Jasir Asani, Amando Broja and Myrto Uzuni.
Albania is the weakest team in the group, but it can surprise people as it did throughout the qualifiers. It may even finish third and shock everyone.
Croatia has proven itself to be one of the best teams in every tournament it has competed in. Its best players are defender Joŝko Gvardiol, goalkeeper Dominik Livacović and midfielder Luka Modrić. Croatia can go far in this tournament and finish second in this group.
Italy is the reigning champion, and fan expect it to do well. That being said, I don’t think it will. It has a few good players like midfielder Nicolo Barella, defender Alessandro Bastoni and winger Frederico Chiesa. Other than that, it has not been particularly impressive in the qualifiers as it even failed to beat North Macedonia.
I think Italy will finish fourth in this group because it has been performing poorly.
Group C contains England, Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia.
Slovenia is arguably the smallest team in this group. Its only other appearance in the Euros was back in 2000 when it didn’t make it out of the group. It has shown improvement in the past few years being led by its two best players, goalkeeper Jan Oblak and striker Benjamin Ŝeŝko.
I think Slovenia will finish third in this group.
Denmark is the fourth dark horse in the tournament and is not a team to be overlooked as it not only has incredible talent, but it also won the whole tournament back in 1992 after it failed to qualify because of the civil war in Yugoslavia. It was replaced with Denmark. Defender Andreas Christensen and midfielder Christian Eriksson are the leaders of this team and by far the most talented.
Denmark will finish second in the group
This is Serbia’s first time competing in the Euros. That being said, it is going to struggle in this tournament. With its best player being striker Aleksandr Mitrović, it does not have high-end talent. There is no doubt in my mind that Serbia will do terribly at this tournament.
Serbia will finish fourth in the group.
England is a favorite to win the tournament because of its unbelievable talent. Midfielder Jude Bellingham, winger Phil Foden, Striker Harry Kane and midfielder Declan Rice are just some of the amazing players on this team. It went to the final in 2020 but lost 2-3 to Italy on penalties.
England is looking for redemption and will finish first in the group with ease.
Group D is made up of Austria, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
Poland is the weakest team in this group. It has good players, but they are aging. Striker Robert Lewandowski and goalkeeper Wojlczech Sczeney are not the same world-class players they used to be.
Poland will finish fourth in this group.
Austria is a decent team that doesn’t have that many standout players. Defender David Alaba is well past his prime, but he is still leading the team well.
I predict Austria will finish third in this group.
The Netherlands is a good team with some great players. Defender Virgil Van Dijk is the most talented player on the team, and the Netherlands is one of the favorites.
I predict the Netherlands will finish second.
France is one of the favorites to win the tournament as it has the best squad by far. Forward Kylian Mbappé is looking to redeem himself as he and his team lost on penalties to Switzerland in Euro 2020.
France will finish first in the group without question.
I predict Group E will finish like this:
1. Belgium
2. Ukraine
3. Romania
4. Slovakia
And here are my predictions for Group F:
1. Portugal
2. Turkiye
3. Czechia
4. Georgia
International tournaments always bring great excitement, and I anticipate this tournament will be full of surprises and upsets.
I think France will most likely be the winner of the entire tournament, but I am not certain because many other teams like England and Germany can make an impact in the tournament.
Albania will be the biggest surprise in the tournament, and I believe it can go far and cause some upsets.
Mbappé, Kane and Wirtz will be the best players in the tournament because of their ability on and off the ball. A surprise performer, however, may be Albania’s Asllani since he has been pivotal for Albania, and his club team, Inter Milan, as he led them to the league title this year.
This tournament cannot come soon enough, and it will surely be one to remember.
