⚽ UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany ⚽ - Qualifiers👉Group Stage

[LUCKMCFLY]

It's not strange that most European teams are composed of players in their late 20s and early 30s. That is the period when a player should be in his top form. It's rare that a player in his early 20s becomes an irreplaceable part of the team. Young players need older, more experienced players in the team to look up to.

I agree with the argument that most of the players will be in their late 20s or 30s. But in the previous editions, most of the European teams had good players in their early 20s. However this time (Qatar 2022) only a few of the European teams had such players. Some of the teams do have players who are 20 or 21 years old, but they are no match for the more experienced players. Players of the calibre of Erling Håland or Ronaldo of 2006 are extremely rare nowadays. Let's take the example of Germany. They have a few - Karim Adeyemi, Youssoufa Moukoko and Lukas Nmecha. But these players are not even regulars in the playing XI. Most of the attack is being done by Müller, Gnabry and Gündogan.

We can bet on the youth, and it's a good strategy, but let's just look at the example of Spain in Qatar, all the youngsters led, almost a Barcelona, and what did they win? nothing, go away, why? because the youngsters do not have experience, they do not know how to deal with certain eventualities that arise on the field of play, it is partly the fault of Luis Enrique who did not know how to choose a team and left the best without playing, this is because I did it due to a lack of maturity despite the fact that he is already old, so I would not bet on having a team of young people alone, that is why it is better that they focus on the championships of the sub-20 category, it is better, the professional is something else.

We need a mix of younger and more experienced players. Spain lost out, because players such as Sergio Busquets and Álvaro Morata didn't performed. To their credit, they have one of the most talented younger player in the UEFA (Ferran Torres).

Yes, in fact I am one of those who is very convinced that the teams already need their replacement generation, but for Spain it was a mistake not to take Sergio Ramos, Lucas, and in one of the games that Hakimi won, he let him know his mistake to Luis Enrique for not having taken them precisely when he did the penguin dance as a celebration when he scored the goal since he always does it at PSG with Sergio Ramos, that day was epic, just seeing Luis Enrique's face was a pleasure, without However, I am one of those who think when it comes to good players, you have to mature that rivalry for the simple fact of playing for Real Madrid.

In this sense, I believe that a technical director must mature, I prefer that Luis Enrique dedicates himself simply to being an influencer on Twitch.

[1714792213]

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[1714792213]

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[Daniel91]

However, the best football is still played in Europe, both national team and club football, and Europe still invests the most in football.

I might agree the best football is with club football, but I actually can't say I watch a lot of non-European football these days. But a lot of that is because of non-European players playing in those leagues.

But national teams? Surely the World Cups prove that the home of the best football is arguable. I think I've seen plenty of the past 2 or 3, and even when stretching back my memory to 1998 and 2002, some of the worst football is played by European teams, the very best from South America, while we get exciting moments from Asia and Africa.

Of course, what is "best" is subjective. I personally like physicality and positive play. I watched some of the worst top football in recent memory seeing England, Germany, Belgium, even Spain minus their first game... but I loved how Japan served powerful dogged battles in every game. Hell, even Morocco was adrenaline-inducing most of their games. I believe it's more common than that small sample.

There is a very simple way to recognize the best national teams in the world, and that is based on the results at the world cups. That is the only objective criterion and everything else is subjective.
Yes, I can agree with you that Morocco and Japan played well at the World Cup in Qatar and achieved some surprising victories, but in the end it is obvious that the best football was played by Argentina and France, and that the best football players were Messi and Mbappe.
At every world cup, some national team surprises and achieves some unexpected victory, but only the national teams that continuously achieve top results, such as Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, can be considered a football superpower.
However, I agree that the difference in quality between Europe and other continents is slowly decreasing.
Germany seems to have dropped out of this group of top national teams, so this EURO will be very interesting from that point of view. Will we finally see the return of Germany to the top of European and world football?

[drwoo]

However, the best football is still played in Europe, both national team and club football, and Europe still invests the most in football.

I might agree the best football is with club football, but I actually can't say I watch a lot of non-European football these days. But a lot of that is because of non-European players playing in those leagues.

But national teams? Surely the World Cups prove that the home of the best football is arguable. I think I've seen plenty of the past 2 or 3, and even when stretching back my memory to 1998 and 2002, some of the worst football is played by European teams, the very best from South America, while we get exciting moments from Asia and Africa.

Of course, what is "best" is subjective. I personally like physicality and positive play. I watched some of the worst top football in recent memory seeing England, Germany, Belgium, even Spain minus their first game... but I loved how Japan served powerful dogged battles in every game. Hell, even Morocco was adrenaline-inducing most of their games. I believe it's more common than that small sample.

There is a very simple way to recognize the best national teams in the world, and that is based on the results at the world cups. That is the only objective criterion and everything else is subjective.
Yes, I can agree with you that Morocco and Japan played well at the World Cup in Qatar and achieved some surprising victories, but in the end it is obvious that the best football was played by Argentina and France, and that the best football players were Messi and Mbappe.
At every world cup, some national team surprises and achieves some unexpected victory, but only the national teams that continuously achieve top results, such as Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, can be considered a football superpower.
However, I agree that the difference in quality between Europe and other continents is slowly decreasing.
Germany seems to have dropped out of this group of top national teams, so this EURO will be very interesting from that point of view. Will we finally see the return of Germany to the top of European and world football?

Why is it just the World Cups? Wouldn't you agree that a team that wins one or even two consecutive EURO tournaments probably also is a pretty strong team?

Even though when France lost against Argentina I still believe that they are the strongest team in Europe and probably in the whole world. You can still lose even when you are stronger on paper. Argentina lost against Saudi Arabia but that doesn't mean anything. Germany will have to change lots of things before they can be counted into the circle of the strongest contenders for the EURO title. Since the cup will be in Germany they will be extra motivated, but they will still need a higher quality in the team.

[Slow death]

It's not strange that most European teams are composed of players in their late 20s and early 30s. That is the period when a player should be in his top form. It's rare that a player in his early 20s becomes an irreplaceable part of the team. Young players need older, more experienced players in the team to look up to.

I agree with the argument that most of the players will be in their late 20s or 30s. But in the previous editions, most of the European teams had good players in their early 20s. However this time (Qatar 2022) only a few of the European teams had such players. Some of the teams do have players who are 20 or 21 years old, but they are no match for the more experienced players. Players of the calibre of Erling Håland or Ronaldo of 2006 are extremely rare nowadays. Let's take the example of Germany. They have a few - Karim Adeyemi, Youssoufa Moukoko and Lukas Nmecha. But these players are not even regulars in the playing XI. Most of the attack is being done by Müller, Gnabry and Gündogan.

We can bet on the youth, and it's a good strategy, but let's just look at the example of Spain in Qatar, all the youngsters led, almost a Barcelona, and what did they win? nothing, go away, why? because the youngsters do not have experience, they do not know how to deal with certain eventualities that arise on the field of play, it is partly the fault of Luis Enrique who did not know how to choose a team and left the best without playing, this is because I did it due to a lack of maturity despite the fact that he is already old, so I would not bet on having a team of young people alone, that is why it is better that they focus on the championships of the sub-20 category, it is better, the professional is something else.

We need a mix of younger and more experienced players. Spain lost out, because players such as Sergio Busquets and Álvaro Morata didn't performed. To their credit, they have one of the most talented younger player in the UEFA (Ferran Torres).

Yes, in fact I am one of those who is very convinced that the teams already need their replacement generation, but for Spain it was a mistake not to take Sergio Ramos, Lucas, and in one of the games that Hakimi won, he let him know his mistake to Luis Enrique for not having taken them precisely when he did the penguin dance as a celebration when he scored the goal since he always does it at PSG with Sergio Ramos, that day was epic, just seeing Luis Enrique's face was a pleasure, without However, I am one of those who think when it comes to good players, you have to mature that rivalry for the simple fact of playing for Real Madrid.

In this sense, I believe that a technical director must mature, I prefer that Luis Enrique dedicates himself simply to being an influencer on Twitch.

this thought that some coaches have to choose young players because they think the team needs young players to be with good results for many years and a very wrong way of thinking we saw this with barcelona when they removed many players because of their advanced age, we saw the brazil that somehow didn't call up certain players because they weren't very young, what these coaches must realize is that in a team the most important thing is to have good players, it doesn't matter if they are old players, what matters is that they bring good results

while the team is bringing good results everything is fine, but unfortunately in the soccer market another big business has entered, I'm talking about the sale of players, so the teams have already seen that just by selling players it already gives them a lot of profit to the point of not having to win nothing, that's why the race started by putting very young players in the teams, when a team puts a young player with great talent, that team will sell that player for a high price, and the other team that bought the player will sell the player after a few years for a high price, but when the player gets old, even if he has great talent, nobody will want to buy him for fear of buying someone who is about to retire and they won't be able to sell him

[Rabi3]

I was not impressed by France and I don't see them as favorites in the European Championship, at least not as main favourites.
At the last European Championship, they were very bad and lost to Switzerland, and in the last edition of the League of Nations, they also played very badly and almost dropped out of the elite group.
At the world cup, they managed to reach the final, but they were not very convincing to me and they were also lucky.
It seems to me that the relations between individual players are not the best, especially between Mbappe and Benzema and this conflict probably affects the whole team.
I think that England, Holland and Italy will also have a great chance at the European Championship.

Will be interesting to watch Italy, after they failed to qualify for Qatar 2022. England and Netherlands disappointed their fans during Qatar 2022. England went down against France in the quarter-finals and during that match there was a lot of issues in co-ordination between the players. And before that, they performed poorly during Euro 2020 as well. Now coming to Netherlands, the thing that irritates me the most is that they always resort to rough play. The Dutch needs to realize that football is not like kickboxing or MMA. Remember the foul made by Frenkie de Jong against Cheikhou Kouyaté? De Jong intentionally crushed the private parts of Kouyaté and the latter had to be carried off the field in a stretcher. And the Dutch do this everytime. Battle of Nuremberg is still in everyone's memory.

the choice of the image though anywas, I'm going to expect a lot from teams that failed to perform good in the World Cup, or even didn't qualify like Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal...etc i have doubts on Germany though, i don't think playing in their home country will get them the trophy, they need more than that, i was not impressed at all with their world cup performance and i didn't see something in them that could make things different in Euro 2024.

[Sithara007]

the choice of the image though anywas, I'm going to expect a lot from teams that failed to perform good in the World Cup, or even didn't qualify like Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal...etc i have doubts on Germany though, i don't think playing in their home country will get them the trophy, they need more than that, i was not impressed at all with their world cup performance and i didn't see something in them that could make things different in Euro 2024.

That is why I am saying that European countries are stagnating. England, Spain, France and Portugal (?) are exceptions, but the European dominance in general is declining or starting to decline. Some of the countries really performed pathetically during Qatar 2022. I am not talking about Spain or Netherlands. I am talking about teams such as Danmark, Germany and Belgium, who couldn't even get past the group phase. Before the kickoff, who would have thought that Germany would fail to make it to the round of 16? It was pathetic. 

[slackovic]

anywas, I'm going to expect a lot from teams that failed to perform good in the World Cup, or even didn't qualify like Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal...etc i have doubts on Germany though, i don't think playing in their home country will get them the trophy, they need more than that, i was not impressed at all with their world cup performance and i didn't see something in them that could make things different in Euro 2024.

I really don't believe that Germany has what it takes to win the UEFA Euro 2024 title. It can happen because surprises are always a part of every competition like this. But there are a lot of better teams that will compete. Teams like Spain, Portugal, France... They all seem much better than Germany at this time.

[Daniel91]

anywas, I'm going to expect a lot from teams that failed to perform good in the World Cup, or even didn't qualify like Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal...etc i have doubts on Germany though, i don't think playing in their home country will get them the trophy, they need more than that, i was not impressed at all with their world cup performance and i didn't see something in them that could make things different in Euro 2024.

I really don't believe that Germany has what it takes to win the UEFA Euro 2024 title. It can happen because surprises are always a part of every competition like this. But there are a lot of better teams that will compete. Teams like Spain, Portugal, France... They all seem much better than Germany at this time.

I have to agree with this and it is not really clear to me what has been happening with the German national team for the last 10 years. Practically since the 2014 world cup, when they were world champions, they have not achieved any notable results at world and European competitions.
On the other hand, the German league is still strong and German clubs play a prominent role in European club competitions.
They even played a very good game against Spain at the world cup, but they were definitely disappointing against Japan.
Could this string of poor results at major competitions finally be reversed at next year's European Championship? We'll see, but I'm not optimistic.

[KTChampions]

I really don't believe that Germany has what it takes to win the UEFA Euro 2024 title. It can happen because surprises are always a part of every competition like this. But there are a lot of better teams that will compete. Teams like Spain, Portugal, France... They all seem much better than Germany at this time.

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

[shogun47]

I really don't believe that Germany has what it takes to win the UEFA Euro 2024 title. It can happen because surprises are always a part of every competition like this. But there are a lot of better teams that will compete. Teams like Spain, Portugal, France... They all seem much better than Germany at this time.

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

Let's say they are random to a certain degree. The last big surprise where it was really random was when Greece won the Euro in 2004. Other than that it is mostly the favorites who win it, but saying that one team is going to win it for sure is not possible. That is where it becomes random. Just as the Euro 2020 you mentioned when France was 3:1 ahead of Switzerland until the 81st minute, nobody in his right mind thought that 50 minutes later after a penalty shootout Switzerland would be in the 1/4 finals. But that is why we all love the sport and especially games where different nations play against each other. By now there are almost no easy games anymore. I remember that even Iceland was hard to beat and they have 375k inhabitants. At the Euro 2016, guess what happened. They were one goal down against England in the 1/8 final and turned it around in regular time, but then lost against France in the 1/4 final.

[Sithara007]

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

[slackovic]

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

I don't like talking about favorites because they tend to disappoint. Look at what happened to Brazil at the last World Cup in Qatar. France definitely has what it takes to win the title. But I agree that Spain and England may be slightly better teams. It's just that I don't like England and their "it's coming home". It's annoying. They are repeating that same phrase in every championship and then they get kicked out.

[darewaller]

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

The guys who almost won the World Cup just a few months ago and lost because of the penalty shootout, have some vulnerabilities? I mean sure they might, but I am sure that it must be less than any other team if you ask me, they are still by far the best team in Europe, which they proved just a few months ago and not too long ago, and in 1.5 years time, they won't be having too much changes neither.

They won't even need Benzema in this case, because they would have Mbappe playing striker and that is more than enough for them. They have so many amazingly talented players and that is good enough for them in the long run, can't see any better team right now.

[KTChampions]

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

I don't know where you get such subjective observations from, in my opinion (also subjective) the French team plays very unitedly. Spain, England (and Germany and defending champions Italy) are good teams, but objectively France is doing better and, judging by the individuality of the players, they are also stronger. In my opinion, France looks better both in terms of names and in terms of play.

[slackovic]

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

I don't know where you get such subjective observations from, in my opinion (also subjective) the French team plays very unitedly. Spain, England (and Germany and defending champions Italy) are good teams, but objectively France is doing better and, judging by the individuality of the players, they are also stronger. In my opinion, France looks better both in terms of names and in terms of play.

There is no need to discuss about favorites or which is a better team between the top teams in Europe. All of those teams have what it takes to win the title and it doesn't matter which team is 5% better when one red card or one penalty in the game can decide the winner and send another team home. That's the beauty of this kind of competition where every team has to give their best performance in every game.

[Sithara007]

I don't know where you get such subjective observations from, in my opinion (also subjective) the French team plays very unitedly. Spain, England (and Germany and defending champions Italy) are good teams, but objectively France is doing better and, judging by the individuality of the players, they are also stronger. In my opinion, France looks better both in terms of names and in terms of play.

I can't agree with your observations. French team had all sort of problems when they played during the last Euro Cup. And then the spat went out in public, as the parents of the players were fighting it out in the open. I don't know how much the situation has changed after that, but even during the Qatar edition of the world cup last year, I couldn't find a lot of improvement in team bonding and cohesion. There seems to be a lot of ego issues between the different players, and time and again it comes to the surface in a very ugly way.

[KTChampions]

I don't know where you get such subjective observations from, in my opinion (also subjective) the French team plays very unitedly. Spain, England (and Germany and defending champions Italy) are good teams, but objectively France is doing better and, judging by the individuality of the players, they are also stronger. In my opinion, France looks better both in terms of names and in terms of play.

I can't agree with your observations. French team had all sort of problems when they played during the last Euro Cup. And then the spat went out in public, as the parents of the players were fighting it out in the open. I don't know how much the situation has changed after that, but even during the Qatar edition of the world cup last year, I couldn't find a lot of improvement in team bonding and cohesion. There seems to be a lot of ego issues between the different players, and time and again it comes to the surface in a very ugly way.

These are all subjective arguments, there are just as many scandals, intrigues and other things in small teams, but who cares about them because these are small teams, and all attention is focused on tops like France. For example, the story of Valbuena and Benzema did not prevent France from becoming World Champions and taking silver from the European Championship. Ego, squabbling and competition is normal - we are talking about the top level and without it it is impossible, here the competition is aggravated to the limit in every sense. At the same time, France consistently shows high results despite the loss of any players (Pogba, Benzema, etc.).

[Daniel91]

After the previous World Cup, everyone thought that France would be at least among the winners of the next Euro, but in the end they lost right away in the 1/8 finals. Such short tournaments are always random, but the fact is that we are now in an era of French dominance and they will be the biggest favorites to win the European Championship.

I am not sure whether the French will be the favorites to win Euro 2024. I could see a lot of vulnerabilities in their performance during Qatar 2022. IMO, Spain and England are far better teams, although they couldn't perform well during the last world cup. Regarding France, I always had this opinion that their players are overrated. Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema are good players and maybe some of the best in the world. But they don't know how to play as a team and the team cohesion is lacking in the French team whenever they play.

I can agree with this.
The French national team already has a long tradition of disagreements and conflicts in the team, such as this latest conflict with Benzema at the World Cup in Qatar.
Because of this, they did not achieve the results they could, considering the great individual quality of their players.
At the last European championship, they were very bad precisely because of the big conflict between the players, which reflected on the whole team.
France may have the best players in the world, but they don't have a team and that's their problem.

[KTChampions]

I can agree with this.
The French national team already has a long tradition of disagreements and conflicts in the team, such as this latest conflict with Benzema at the World Cup in Qatar.
Because of this, they did not achieve the results they could, considering the great individual quality of their players.
At the last European championship, they were very bad precisely because of the big conflict between the players, which reflected on the whole team.
France may have the best players in the world, but they don't have a team and that's their problem.

I would like to know what results the French team should achieve so that you consider this a good achievement. Win several World Cups and European Championships in a row? This is, to put it mildly, a rare event (to win the Euro and the World in a row) and does not at all indicate the weakness of the team. In addition, there is no limit to perfection and you can say about any team that they could perform better. For example, there are also questions for the Golden Generation of Spain 

[Daniel91]

I can agree with this.
The French national team already has a long tradition of disagreements and conflicts in the team, such as this latest conflict with Benzema at the World Cup in Qatar.
Because of this, they did not achieve the results they could, considering the great individual quality of their players.
At the last European championship, they were very bad precisely because of the big conflict between the players, which reflected on the whole team.
France may have the best players in the world, but they don't have a team and that's their problem.

I would like to know what results the French team should achieve so that you consider this a good achievement. Win several World Cups and European Championships in a row? This is, to put it mildly, a rare event (to win the Euro and the World in a row) and does not at all indicate the weakness of the team. In addition, there is no limit to perfection and you can say about any team that they could perform better. For example, there are also questions for the Golden Generation of Spain 

Spain's golden generation was twice European champion and once world champion in the period 2008-2012.
This generation of France, in terms of player names and individual quality, is the strongest French national team in history, at the level of that Spanish national team, but they won much less than them, only one title.
At the last European Championship, the players came quarreling with each other and played very poorly, disappointingly losing out already in the round of 16 against Switzerland.
At the European Championship before that in France, they lost in the final against Portugal.
At this World Cup in Qatar, the players again came to quarrel with each other, with a big conflict between Benzema and other players and in the end they failed to win the trophy again.
Spain's golden generation was united and without internal conflicts, and because of that they managed to win three trophies in a row, although in terms of quality they may have been even weaker than this French national team.