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

[Zackgeno96]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

[1714760300]

1714760300

[cygan]

the former belgian national coach Roberto Martinez has been appointed as the new coach of the portuguese national team and is expected to take them out of group j at the qualifying stage to qualify directly for this tournament.

[klidex]

I left betting on national teams after the World Cup ended but Germany were one of the best playing teams in the World Cup. They just had issues with finishing and said farewell to the tourney in group stage unluckily. I see Germans as favourites of the tourney with their host country advantage as a result.

don't get fooled by the fact that the Euro will be played in Germany, if you think Germany can win it as a team, it's fine you do you, but because they are the host it doesn't mean anything, we saw what happened to Brazil in 2014 world cup, it's rare where a host wins the tournament, who i actually think can win it is England, they have some young talents that can get them the trophy and it's been a long time since they won something.

It seems to me that German national football has been in crisis for a long time. After the 2014 world title in Brazil, they did nothing in the world competitions and were eliminated twice in a row in the group stage of the world championship, which is no coincidence.
Honestly, regardless of the fact that they are the hosts of the next European Championship, I don't see them as favorites for the title.
At the European Championship, I expect the most from the French, England, Spain and Italy.

That's right, after winning the World Cup title in Brazil 2014, Germany lost its glory in the World football competition.
I don't know what happened, but the quality of play from the German national team is no longer a team that other countries fear.
Maybe for the upcoming Euro 2024 Germany could host, but it will be difficult for Germany to survive playing until the final phase.
There are a number of countries that do have national soccer teams that are very strong and cannot be underestimated, such as Italy, France, Spain and England. They are very strong teams and it is difficult for Germany to beat these teams.

[LTU_btc]

^^
Martinez is very interesting choice for Portugal. He had golden generation of Belgium, but failed to achieve something big. Portugal have good generation now and they will have to learn how to play without Ronaldo.
Other related news. Hugo Lloris retires from French international team. It's surprise for me until I realized that he is already 36 years old
Gareth Bale retired from football at just 33 years old and now he can become full time golf player. He was amazing player, but it's sad that his career started to decline so early.

[Sithara007]

^^
Martinez is very interesting choice for Portugal. He had golden generation of Belgium, but failed to achieve something big. Portugal have good generation now and they will have to learn how to play without Ronaldo.
Other related news. Hugo Lloris retires from French international team. It's surprise for me until I realized that he is already 36 years old
Gareth Bale retired from football at just 33 years old and now he can become full time golf player. He was amazing player, but it's sad that his career started to decline so early.

Fernando Santos should have been kicked out earlier. If they had done that, then they would have performed better during Qatar 2022. But it is never too late. Roberto Martinez is a great replacement and he has more than one and half decade experience in managing teams at top level, including the Belgian national team, Wigan Athletic, Swansea City and Everton. Wigan won the FA cup for the first time in 2012-13, when Martinez was the manager. His tenure with Everton was not that bright though. But then everyone has their own ups and downs.

BTW, I was expecting the retirement of Gareth Bale. He helped his team (Wales) to qualify for the world cup after many decades of waiting. Although their performance in the group stage was not up to the mark, the very fact that they managed to qualify is a big achievement.

[jakdanyel]

It makes me happy that the tournament is in Germany. It is a country with enthusiastic fans, a high football culture, and also fun social activities. I am sure that the fans from different countries will have fun besides football. I believe it will be an enjoyable tournament.
Apart from that, the chances of winning the cup are a little low, even though Germany is the host. There are many favorite teams. Germany is also among them. But France, England and Spain are one step ahead. Especially the finalist of the World Cup, France, I think the strongest favorite of this tournament.

[hd49728]

Fernando Santos should have been kicked out earlier. If they had done that, then they would have performed better during Qatar 2022. But it is never too late. Roberto Martinez is a great replacement and he has more than one and half decade experience in managing teams at top level, including the Belgian national team, Wigan Athletic, Swansea City and Everton. Wigan won the FA cup for the first time in 2012-13, when Martinez was the manager. His tenure with Everton was not that bright though. But then everyone has their own ups and downs.

Fernando Santos is deserved to be sacked but what the hell happened with this decision. Martinez did his job bad enough with Belgium and now they chose him as their new coach. Portugal will waste this good player generation under Martinez management.

They have a good generation but a little bit worse than a golden one of Belgium which did not win any title with Martinez. How did they think he can help them to win Euro or World Cup?

BTW, I was expecting the retirement of Gareth Bale. He helped his team (Wales) to qualify for the world cup after many decades of waiting. Although their performance in the group stage was not up to the mark, the very fact that they managed to qualify is a big achievement.

Gareth Bale no longer had his big interest in football. It started in Real Madrid a few seasons ago and he focused more on golf. His retirement is not shocked at all and I was ready to receive his announcement in the past two years. If even in MLS, he could not have enough good fitness to play every week, he should retire.

To celebrate his retirement, we should give him a recognition that he is actually a big player who can change matches from Tottenham, Real Madrid to Wales and even in MLS too.

[Sithara007]

Fernando Santos is deserved to be sacked but what the hell happened with this decision. Martinez did his job bad enough with Belgium and now they chose him as their new coach. Portugal will waste this good player generation under Martinez management.

They have a good generation but a little bit worse than a golden one of Belgium which did not win any title with Martinez. How did they think he can help them to win Euro or World Cup?

I need to admit that I don't know much about Roberto Martinez, although I first heard about him more than a decade ago. But I still remember the improvement he brought to Wigan Athletic when he was the manager. I used to watch a few of the EPL matches back then, and Wigan made some big upsets. But then, his stints with Everton and Belgian national team didn't went well. Anyway, I would support anyone other than Fernando Santos, after what he did to Ronaldo during Qatar 2022. Let's see how it goes for the Portugal national team. Let' hope for the best.

[babo]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

[8rch7]

Fernando Santos should have been kicked out earlier. If they had done that, then they would have performed better during Qatar 2022. But it is never too late. Roberto Martinez is a great replacement and he has more than one and half decade experience in managing teams at top level, including the Belgian national team, Wigan Athletic, Swansea City and Everton. Wigan won the FA cup for the first time in 2012-13, when Martinez was the manager. His tenure with Everton was not that bright though.

Roberto Martinez's best achievement was able to make Belgium rank 3rd FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia and last edition at Euro 2020 and FIFA World Cup 2022 seems not having best achievement. I don't think his reputation and achievement with Belgium as best replacement for Portugal national team after sacking current manager Fernando Santos.

Having advantage with Roberto Martinez becoming Portugal national team manager because possibility there are not Cristiano Ronaldo due he plays with Asian team, I don't know many Portugal manager seems not happy and have huge pressure with Cristiano Ronaldo in the team list. Portugal will play at first match UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier against with Liechtenstein national team and looking how capacity with Roberto Martinez for his first match.

[slackovic]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

It amazes me how no one mentions Croatia when they are talking about favorites. I know that Croatia usually doesn't play great in UEFA Euro tournaments, but they finished last two FIFA World Cups in second and third place. They have few players that are suppose to leave the national team, but I think they could be considered as a hidden favorite.

[babo]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

It amazes me how no one mentions Croatia when they are talking about favorites. I know that Croatia usually doesn't play great in UEFA Euro tournaments, but they finished last two FIFA World Cups in second and third place. They have few players that are suppose to leave the national team, but I think they could be considered as a hidden favorite.

Well even Spain and Portugal are not to be underestimated and I agree with you, Croatia can give you a hard time
but also Holland, let's not forget, who play quite well
and how can we not forget little Switzerland
there are many difficult teams to face, we were only talking about who is slightly favourites

[slackovic]

Well even Spain and Portugal are not to be underestimated and I agree with you, Croatia can give you a hard time
but also Holland, let's not forget, who play quite well
and how can we not forget little Switzerland
there are many difficult teams to face, we were only talking about who is slightly favourites

That is why I like UEFA Euro much better than the FIFA World Cup. The competition is much stronger and games are more equal than in the World Cup.

[Juggy777]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

It amazes me how no one mentions Croatia when they are talking about favorites. I know that Croatia usually doesn't play great in UEFA Euro tournaments, but they finished last two FIFA World Cups in second and third place. They have few players that are suppose to leave the national team, but I think they could be considered as a hidden favorite.

Well even Spain and Portugal are not to be underestimated and I agree with you, Croatia can give you a hard time
but also Holland, let's not forget, who play quite well
and how can we not forget little Switzerland
there are many difficult teams to face, we were only talking about who is slightly favourites

@babo I’m kinda surprised as to why do people yet feel that Germany is the favourite to win this tournament, because even with the home advantage I’m pretty sure that they’ll be eliminated early because they no longer play the fearless football liked they used to play in the past. Furthermore for me it’s either France or England that’ll be winning this tournament, because both have excellent squad of player’s who can help them win this tournament.

[Fara Chan]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

It amazes me how no one mentions Croatia when they are talking about favorites. I know that Croatia usually doesn't play great in UEFA Euro tournaments, but they finished last two FIFA World Cups in second and third place. They have few players that are suppose to leave the national team, but I think they could be considered as a hidden favorite.

Yes, we agree, Croatia deserves to be in the favorite team category, after struggling in the two world cup matches yesterday 2018 and also 2022 they performed amazingly, maybe in the previous EURO matches Croatia never looked impressive but saw some improvements in yesterday's world cup game and by the time 2018 it will look like they are going to make new history in the EURO match.

crowd interest is going to the EURO rather than the World Cup, given that tighter/stronger team battles and equal team strength make matches more exciting.

[FanEagle]

I am not entirely sure if the troubles of Portugal national team is all about the manager. I get that it could be a bit related to him, but I believe that the team lost one of the greatest football players in the entire history of football and that could be a bigger reason. Normally Ronaldo was seen as either the best ever to play the game or second best at worst case, that is a serious situation and would be very difficult to cover when he gets older.

So, now that Ronaldo is at the near end of his career, that means you are not going to get that from him anymore and were they able to replace him with another star? No they haven't, which means it's normal for them to be not good anymore.

[Sithara007]

That is why I like UEFA Euro much better than the FIFA World Cup. The competition is much stronger and games are more equal than in the World Cup.

Here we go again..

Lets look back at the last edition of the Euro Cup. There were quite a few one-sided matches. A few examples are here:

Spain vs Slovakia (5-0)
Denmark vs Wales (4-0)
England vs Ukraine (4-0)
Denmark vs Russia (4-1)

One-sided matches can occur even when the top-10 teams play against each other. So it is not a valid reason not to increase the number of participants.

[slackovic]

Here we go again..

Lets look back at the last edition of the Euro Cup. There were quite a few one-sided matches. A few examples are here:

Spain vs Slovakia (5-0)
Denmark vs Wales (4-0)
England vs Ukraine (4-0)
Denmark vs Russia (4-1)

One-sided matches can occur even when the top-10 teams play against each other. So it is not a valid reason not to increase the number of participants.

Yeah, but that's 4 out of 51 matches that was played in the whole competition. That's not much (less than 10%). And in the World Cup last year there were 64 games played and about 5 or 6 of them ended with big goal difference. That's OK too. And how do you expect that nations who are not that strong will end up against strong nations? There probably will be few surprises but most of the games will be a one way street where a one team will attack and the other will defend. Is that a game that you will enjoy watching?

[Daniel91]

We could already speculate who the title favorites are. What is certain is that France is the absolute favorite. Followed by Germany, England, Italy. Then come countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and possibly Belgium. In Belgium it was known that a number of players are going to stop. I'm afraid you won't have much left of that world team from 2 years ago. Hazard will never be top again. De Bruijne can last a few more years. Germany has a huge advantage because all matches are played in Germany, but then they will have to play better. At the World Cup, they gave away the entire tournament against Japan in just 15 minutes. And they even trailed against Costa Rica. The glorious times seem to be over for this team that may be in need of rejuvenation/renewal.

I very much agree with you, France is the favourite
Germany plays well, but they don't have many people to put in the ball, if nobody scores a goal you don't win
Italy, let's leave it alone, it's been a broken team for years
they don't let young people who don't grow up play and therefore we have a broken team

It amazes me how no one mentions Croatia when they are talking about favorites. I know that Croatia usually doesn't play great in UEFA Euro tournaments, but they finished last two FIFA World Cups in second and third place. They have few players that are suppose to leave the national team, but I think they could be considered as a hidden favorite.

Yes, we agree, Croatia deserves to be in the favorite team category, after struggling in the two world cup matches yesterday 2018 and also 2022 they performed amazingly, maybe in the previous EURO matches Croatia never looked impressive but saw some improvements in yesterday's world cup game and by the time 2018 it will look like they are going to make new history in the EURO match.

crowd interest is going to the EURO rather than the World Cup, given that tighter/stronger team battles and equal team strength make matches more exciting.

Why do you think that Croatia was not impressive at the EURO, in contrast to its performance at the last 2 world cups?
In fact, at the last 2 EUROs, Croatia played at a very high level, both times they went to the knockout stage of the competition, and unfortunately lost in extra time to Portugal and Spain.
Should I remind you that in last year's League of Nations competition, Croatia won first place in its group ahead of France and Denmark, and in June they will participate in the final tournament of the League of Nations and have the opportunity to win their first trophy?
Croatia is high quality and strong enough to be one of the favorites in every competition 

[slackovic]

Why do you think that Croatia was not impressive at the EURO, in contrast to its performance at the last 2 world cups?
In fact, at the last 2 EUROs, Croatia played at a very high level, both times they went to the knockout stage of the competition, and unfortunately lost in extra time to Portugal and Spain.
Should I remind you that in last year's League of Nations competition, Croatia won first place in its group ahead of France and Denmark, and in June they will participate in the final tournament of the League of Nations and have the opportunity to win their first trophy?
Croatia is high quality and strong enough to be one of the favorites in every competition 

I think that he meant Croatia never advanced further than the first knockout game in the UEFA Euro competitions and they won three medals in the FIFA World Cup competitions. I dare to say that any team facing Croatia should not underestimate Croatia because we all saw what happened to Brazil a month ago.