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

[rdluffy]

I believe that France will win the upcoming European Championship. They are currently the strongest team on the continent. I probably can't name any other team that can stand up to France. Maybe England, but they did poorly in the last World Cup, so I don't think they can compete with France either.

To me, the rank of the favorites are:

• 1 France
• 2 Croatia
• 3 Spain
• 4 England
• 5 Italy
• 5 Germany
• 5 Portugal
• 6 Netherlands
• 7 Belgium

A year in advance, this is my list, but it may change by the time the Euro starts
France is the best team without a doubt, but it depends a lot on Mbapée, without him I don't think they would be that much better than Croatia and Spain right now
I put Italy, Germany and Portugal in 5th place because I think they are at the same level. England is a little better than those 3.

I hope Scotland can qualify and make a good Euro and surprise all of us, but at the moment, even with good results on qualifiers, Scotland need to prove that is capable to play against teams above at the same level in a championship.

[slapper]

This is indeed the status quo in Germany. There was a golden era that never got replaced with players of equal quality. And what you said about sticking to old players, for instance when they have been successful in the past, is a big problem that many teams have. it is difficult for coaches to make the right call at the right time when it is time for a big change because there will always be criticism from those who think that the player still deserves to play and there will be criticism from those who think it is about time to bring in younger players and give them a chance. But for Germany this is a real golden era problem and now they have issues on a lot of positions.

I guess the issue is with the local league. Have you ever wondered why France and England are so strong, despite the ongoing decline with many of the other UEFA teams? IMO, it is due to the exceptional quality of the national leagues (Ligue 1 in case of France and the English Premier League for England). During the last few years, teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Chelsea have poured in huge amounts of money to retain high quality players and this helps to maintain the standards. No such thing happened with the Bundesliga and the quality seems to go down with every passing year.

@Sithar007 Bundesliga is one of the most competitive league despite Bayern winning it most time’s and Ligue 1 can’t even be compared to it because it’s one of the most easy leagues to play in. Furthermore the problem with Germany was partly down to the coach as he failed to make a squad for the long term but it’s yet not too late for them and if they can yet work out a good tactical plan then they’ll definitely make a good impact once this tournament starts.

Yes, Bayern has often reigned supreme in the Bundesliga, and many contend that the path of Ligue 1 is less challenging. Yet, isn't it essential to remember that the gulf between these leagues is not as vast as it's sometimes perceived? Consider this, Bundesliga proudly stands as the third-best league worldwide, with Ligue 1 trailing not far behind in the fifth spot. Isn't it conceivable that the chasm between them is less significant than some envision?

As for Germany, the role of the coach's foresight and strategies is irrefutably pivotal. Thus, crafting a future-oriented blueprint and a sturdy tactical roadmap becomes the cornerstone of Germany's aspirations to leave a profound footprint on forthcoming tournaments.

[Sithara007]

To me, the rank of the favorites are:

• 1 France
• 2 Croatia
• 3 Spain
• 4 England
• 5 Italy
• 5 Germany
• 5 Portugal
• 6 Netherlands
• 7 Belgium

✂

I don't know.. are you sure that you want to place Croatia ahead of England? Unlike some of the other posters here, I usually don't underestimate Croatia. But I still believe that at this point France and England are the two strongest teams from the UEFA confederation. I would rather place Croatia at no.3. Spain and Italy are rebuilding their teams after the retirement of their senior players, so it will take some time to catch up with the top-3. BTW, Germany is now #15 in the FIFA rankings, which is three spots below Switzerland. I would think twice before placing them with Italy.

[Lucius]

I don't know.. are you sure that you want to place Croatia ahead of England?
~snip~

This is his personal choice, and I know that he is one of the biggest fans of the Croatian national football team, at least as far as those members who are not from Croatia are concerned

I personally see Croatia back at the top and I hope that it will reach at least the semi-finals, although in 1 year a lot can happen that will affect every national team. England has a strong team, but it is still a fact that Croatia beat them in 2018 despite all their arrogance and underestimating the opponent, and England did not show much in Qatar either.

[el kaka22]

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

If we see any team outside of that three nations win it, that would be a shock to me in the sense that I wouldn't be expecting it, but also in general any team could win any tournament with a lucky shot or a save. France however has provided a million times what good of a team they have been and I think that's quite important to remember that we are going to probably end up seeing something similar in that mindset for sure.

[tusandii]

I don't know.. are you sure that you want to place Croatia ahead of England?
~snip~

This is his personal choice, and I know that he is one of the biggest fans of the Croatian national football team, at least as far as those members who are not from Croatia are concerned

I personally see Croatia back at the top and I hope that it will reach at least the semi-finals, although in 1 year a lot can happen that will affect every national team. England has a strong team, but it is still a fact that Croatia beat them in 2018 despite all their arrogance and underestimating the opponent, and England did not show much in Qatar either.

Croatia has so far prepared their national team for the Euros and the upcoming World Cup.
I see the statistics of players from Croatia are increasing and there are some great young players who have joined to replace the old players who have lost their playing skills.
It is possible that at Euro 2024 Germany Croatia can be superior to England but to be able to get the title there seems to be little chance that Croatia has.

[Distraction]

To me, the rank of the favorites are:

• 1 France
• 2 Croatia
• 3 Spain
• 4 England
• 5 Italy
• 5 Germany
• 5 Portugal
• 6 Netherlands
• 7 Belgium

...

I liked your choices in general. Belgium should definitely be at the bottom because they don't give hope to people anymore. They had a great generation to take advantage of but they couldn't. They had to struggle with serious private issues between many players in the squad. It is said that there are still players who don't talk to each other for this reason.

I would have put Croatia to the 3rd or 4th place. Because Spain have proven a couple of times in their head-to-heads that they are still the better side. Of course I still admire Croatia about their fighting really hard with very experienced players. As for a comparison between England and Croatia for now they are at similar levels in terms of successes.

England have such a potential to win many titles with an amazing squad of them. But only the squad itself isn't enough to win a tournament of course.

[Daniel91]

To me, the rank of the favorites are:

• 1 France
• 2 Croatia
• 3 Spain
• 4 England
• 5 Italy
• 5 Germany
• 5 Portugal
• 6 Netherlands
• 7 Belgium

✂

I don't know.. are you sure that you want to place Croatia ahead of England? Unlike some of the other posters here, I usually don't underestimate Croatia. But I still believe that at this point France and England are the two strongest teams from the UEFA confederation. I would rather place Croatia at no.3. Spain and Italy are rebuilding their teams after the retirement of their senior players, so it will take some time to catch up with the top-3. BTW, Germany is now #15 in the FIFA rankings, which is three spots below Switzerland. I would think twice before placing them with Italy.

Croatia was very good at the last 2 world championships, but I would still give France and England more chances to win the trophy for now.
Croatia is currently very good in defense and midfield, but it lacks a real, deadly striker, and this was clearly visible in Croatia's last matches.
It is very difficult to win in an uncertain and open game if you don't have a top striker like Mbappe or Kane.
Croatia has not yet recovered after the departure of Mandzukic from the national team, but it will always be a difficult and unpleasant team for any national team in the world and loses games very hard.

[snipie]

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

I don't think England to be superior from Croatia although they have better players but Croatia have better team play. It is not names that make team successful but the way they playing, otherwise Morocco wouldn't play in advanced stage in Qatar World Cup.
So I will go with France, Croatia, Spain then the others depending from their performance in each game.

[LUCKMCFLY]

OK guys... finally after a three month long wait, we are back to action. These are the matches that are scheduled for today (16th June 2023):

1. Gibraltar vs France
2. Republic of Ireland vs Greece
3. Malta vs England
4. North Macedonia vs Ukraine
5. Latvia vs Turkey
6. Wales vs Armenia
7. Finland vs Slovenia
8. Northern Ireland vs Danmark
9. Kazakhstan vs San Marino
10. Switzerland vs Andorra
11. Belarus vs Israel
12. Kosovo vs Romania

A dozen or so matches are scheduled to be played for tomorrow as well, but for now we will focus on today's matches. The most exciting one is obviously the match between Republic of Ireland and Greece. The one between North Macedonia and Ukraine should be close as well.

I've noted a few interesting matches for myself... Finland vs Slovenia, North Macedonia vs Ukraine, Greece vs Ireland... I think there will be good battles here... Probably it is better not to place bets on the first qualifying matches as there may be many surprises and expectations may not come true...

With all the selection it is difficult to make bets , it is Better to see what level each of the teams have, it takes a long time to make bets at Once, we don't know how much some teams have improved, anything can happen here, Let's remember that Macedonia did great things to get even better than Italy in the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar , so here as far as I'm concerned I prefer to wait and see how they continue to perform , but generally things with the teams that we Consider great They are the most Promising.

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

I don't think England to be superior from Croatia although they have better players but Croatia have better team play. It is not names that make team successful but the way they playing, otherwise Morocco wouldn't play in advanced stage in Qatar World Cup.
So I will go with France, Croatia, Spain then the others depending from their performance in each game.

It is interesting to see that they have these preferences, I know that England is a very big team and that they have good players, well, the case of Harry Kane is quite peculiar because he is a player who has everything to be successful, but I don't know how he performs with the other players to put it there, but it is urgently needed for the England team to have good results, I remember the era when Beckham was there, he was very good, and they had everything to be champions, except that in the World Cups when they met Brazil, Argenita there was nothing to do.

The teams that I see as the strongest are for me 3, France, Croatia and Portugal, many will say why Portugal? Well, we have a CR7 that doesn't want to waste any more football opportunities and I'm sure that this player will give everything in each competition, because they have that hunger to do things very well and have great victories, every minute that CR7 plays in the Portugal team will not waste it.

We also have that the technical director of Portugal will not make the mistakes of the previous coach, who was a friend of CR7 and earned the hatred of an entire country.

In another aspect, Croatia is a country that has shown a lot, and they have to take advantage of Modric as much as possible, he is a legend, he can do anything in his team and according to his age he knows that he is burning the last cartridges he has as a player in his team, that's why it seems to me that things will get very good in the Euro.

[rdluffy]

I don't know.. are you sure that you want to place Croatia ahead of England? Unlike some of the other posters here, I usually don't underestimate Croatia. But I still believe that at this point France and England are the two strongest teams from the UEFA confederation. I would rather place Croatia at no.3. Spain and Italy are rebuilding their teams after the retirement of their senior players, so it will take some time to catch up with the top-3. BTW, Germany is now #15 in the FIFA rankings, which is three spots below Switzerland. I would think twice before placing them with Italy.

Croatia as 3rd favorite also makes sense, I respect your opinion.
England is a great team but I still think Croatia is more consistent with their results
About Germany I believe that at any moment they will be able to put together a strong team again. It is quite strange that a country with so many good players is not being able to deliver a good level of soccer.

By the way, if you analyze Brazil, Italy and Germany, they are 3 extremely victorious teams, with 13 world titles together, and they all go through the same situations, in some years they have unbeatable teams, and in other years they have VERY bad campaigns.

This is his personal choice, and I know that he is one of the biggest fans of the Croatian national football team, at least as far as those members who are not from Croatia are concerned

I personally see Croatia back at the top and I hope that it will reach at least the semi-finals, although in 1 year a lot can happen that will affect every national team. England has a strong team, but it is still a fact that Croatia beat them in 2018 despite all their arrogance and underestimating the opponent, and England did not show much in Qatar either.

And I take your comment to complement the answer.
What I have admired about Croatia's national team is the consistency they have achieved in the championships.
A cup final, a semi final, now they are runner up in the Nations League, and still the media can't give them enough credit, at least is what I see
It is always the same teams that they give more value, and Croatia maybe because it is a smaller country, or because it is not the country that has such a strong media as England and Spain, it is always considered a smaller team.


In short, while there is a lot of talk about the other teams, Croatia goes out there and plays its best soccer, and I admire that very much.

[Daniel91]

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

I don't think England to be superior from Croatia although they have better players but Croatia have better team play. It is not names that make team successful but the way they playing, otherwise Morocco wouldn't play in advanced stage in Qatar World Cup.
So I will go with France, Croatia, Spain then the others depending from their performance in each game.

I totally agree with this.
It is actually interesting that the countries with the strongest leagues and clubs, English, Spanish and Italian, have so little success in world competitions in recent years.
On the other hand, the Croatian league is very weak, but their footballers play for the best clubs in the world, such as Real, Inter, Bayern, and now Manchester City.
However, such a Croatia regularly achieves great results at major competitions.
The same goes for Morocco.
Is the reason for their national team failures that the main roles in English, Spanish and Italian clubs are played by foreigners and that local footballers are not used to taking responsibility and being leaders on the field?
Or some other reason?

[swogerino]

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

I don't think England to be superior from Croatia although they have better players but Croatia have better team play. It is not names that make team successful but the way they playing, otherwise Morocco wouldn't play in advanced stage in Qatar World Cup.
So I will go with France, Croatia, Spain then the others depending from their performance in each game.

Croatia is a great team but unfortunately their best players are old in age and I don't think the new ones who will replace them in Euro 2024 will be at the same level of them.Also if Croatia plays with these players will have one of the oldest average age as a team and this is not looking promising at all for them to be winning against teams like England,France or Spain for that matter who has a really young team eager to do well and much better than they did in the World Cup last November.

I think that Croatia will go far but I doubt they will be able to win the Euro 2024,we have also Germany playing at home who I think has gone through a complete remake of the team after their miserable fail in the World Cup.

[3meek]

I would put England over others aside from France, I would say it's France first, England second, Croatia third and so forth, rest could be similar because I believe one of those three will win it and rest do not have much chance. Obviously this is a tournament and anything could happen and we shouldn't really talk big about this.

I don't think England to be superior from Croatia although they have better players but Croatia have better team play. It is not names that make team successful but the way they playing, otherwise Morocco wouldn't play in advanced stage in Qatar World Cup.
So I will go with France, Croatia, Spain then the others depending from their performance in each game.

Croatia is a great team but unfortunately their best players are old in age and I don't think the new ones who will replace them in Euro 2024 will be at the same level of them.Also if Croatia plays with these players will have one of the oldest average age as a team and this is not looking promising at all for them to be winning against teams like England,France or Spain for that matter who has a really young team eager to do well and much better than they did in the World Cup last November.

I think that Croatia will go far but I doubt they will be able to win the Euro 2024,we have also Germany playing at home who I think has gone through a complete remake of the team after their miserable fail in the World Cup.

Last World Cup Croatia did better than England or Spain... 2018 they also proved to be better than the other teams... They were only unlucky against France... So I think that although Croatia are the oldest in Europe, they can make it to the final this time too... The recent Conference League confirmed that Croatia have a lot of strength...

[temple]

This is indeed the status quo in Germany. There was a golden era that never got replaced with players of equal quality. And what you said about sticking to old players, for instance when they have been successful in the past, is a big problem that many teams have. it is difficult for coaches to make the right call at the right time when it is time for a big change because there will always be criticism from those who think that the player still deserves to play and there will be criticism from those who think it is about time to bring in younger players and give them a chance. But for Germany this is a real golden era problem and now they have issues on a lot of positions.

I guess the issue is with the local league. Have you ever wondered why France and England are so strong, despite the ongoing decline with many of the other UEFA teams? IMO, it is due to the exceptional quality of the national leagues (Ligue 1 in case of France and the English Premier League for England). During the last few years, teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Chelsea have poured in huge amounts of money to retain high quality players and this helps to maintain the standards. No such thing happened with the Bundesliga and the quality seems to go down with every passing year.

@Sithar007 Bundesliga is one of the most competitive league despite Bayern winning it most time’s and Ligue 1 can’t even be compared to it because it’s one of the most easy leagues to play in. Furthermore the problem with Germany was partly down to the coach as he failed to make a squad for the long term but it’s yet not too late for them and if they can yet work out a good tactical plan then they’ll definitely make a good impact once this tournament starts.

Yes, Bayern has often reigned supreme in the Bundesliga, and many contend that the path of Ligue 1 is less challenging. Yet, isn't it essential to remember that the gulf between these leagues is not as vast as it's sometimes perceived? Consider this, Bundesliga proudly stands as the third-best league worldwide, with Ligue 1 trailing not far behind in the fifth spot. Isn't it conceivable that the chasm between them is less significant than some envision?

As for Germany, the role of the coach's foresight and strategies is irrefutably pivotal. Thus, crafting a future-oriented blueprint and a sturdy tactical roadmap becomes the cornerstone of Germany's aspirations to leave a profound footprint on forthcoming tournaments.

This is a good question and I think one way to approach this question is to have some cross comparison between maybe the first four to five teams from Ligue 1 and the first four to five teams from the Bundesliga. It is not that the Bundesliga is the far better league, but I would assume that if we ran an experiment where the first five play against each other, we would get a distribution that is somewhere around 60:40 for the Bundesliga clubs.

The comparison for the national teams is trickier as a lot of players from the French national team play abroad with Mbappe being the exception given what a player he is. They are still the favorite at the Euro 2024, or maybe exactly because of the many players who are playing abroad.

[Slow death]

I believe that France will win the upcoming European Championship. They are currently the strongest team on the continent. I probably can't name any other team that can stand up to France. Maybe England, but they did poorly in the last World Cup, so I don't think they can compete with France either.

To me, the rank of the favorites are:

• 1 France
• 2 Croatia
• 3 Spain
• 4 England
• 5 Italy
• 5 Germany
• 5 Portugal
• 6 Netherlands
• 7 Belgium

A year in advance, this is my list, but it may change by the time the Euro starts
France is the best team without a doubt, but it depends a lot on Mbapée, without him I don't think they would be that much better than Croatia and Spain right now
I put Italy, Germany and Portugal in 5th place because I think they are at the same level. England is a little better than those 3.

I hope Scotland can qualify and make a good Euro and surprise all of us, but at the moment, even with good results on qualifiers, Scotland need to prove that is capable to play against teams above at the same level in a championship.

I think this is a list that underestimates some teams and puts certain teams in a place that right now, given their weakness, they don't deserve to be where you put them. I agree that Franca is the best team in Europe right now, but England also has a good team and then comes Portugal. look at the roster of players from england and portugal, you will see that they have many good players like france currently have. In Portugal there are: Ronaldo, Rafael Leao, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and others. portugal has many players of high technical level, and england too

just see that england has harry kane, Saka, rashford, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden and other good players. both portugal and england had 4 games and 4 wins and lead their group with 12 points. In my opinion I only see:

1 - France
2 - England
3 - Portugal

as favorites to win the euro.

Croatia is also strong and could have a chance if it manages to qualify. now about spain, germany, italy, belgium and netherlands... honestly they are unstable teams that even turkey has been doing better than them. spain stopped in time, there were times when it was a great team, today they are nothing. in spain's group despite spain having 2 games less, they played 2 games, with 1 win, 1 loss and guess how many goals spain scored in 2 games? It's unbelievable that even being in a group of weak teams in 2 games spain only scored 3 goals. Netherlands is also in the same situation as spain, italy is also in the same situation as spain, croatia is also in the same situation as spain.

[Pulsar77]

Croatia are a really successful team in the World Cup recently. We have all seen how good they were in the last one as well. However there isn't the same look when it comes to Euro tournaments. I have checked all the tournaments since Euro 2000. There isn't a single time that they even made it to the semi finals. Hence while placing them in the rankings for next Euro tournament I wouldn't put them in the first places. But they would still be like 5th or 6th team for me in top 10.

Because I still like their effective team play. The experienced players in the team like Modric are still playing a huge role.

[rdluffy]

I think this is a list that underestimates some teams and puts certain teams in a place that right now, given their weakness, they don't deserve to be where you put them. I agree that Franca is the best team in Europe right now, but England also has a good team and then comes Portugal. look at the roster of players from england and portugal, you will see that they have many good players like france currently have. In Portugal there are: Ronaldo, Rafael Leao, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and others. portugal has many players of high technical level, and england too

just see that england has harry kane, Saka, rashford, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden and other good players. both portugal and england had 4 games and 4 wins and lead their group with 12 points. In my opinion I only see:

1 - France
2 - England
3 - Portugal

as favorites to win the euro.

Croatia is also strong and could have a chance if it manages to qualify. now about spain, germany, italy, belgium and netherlands... honestly they are unstable teams that even turkey has been doing better than them. spain stopped in time, there were times when it was a great team, today they are nothing. in spain's group despite spain having 2 games less, they played 2 games, with 1 win, 1 loss and guess how many goals spain scored in 2 games? It's unbelievable that even being in a group of weak teams in 2 games spain only scored 3 goals. Netherlands is also in the same situation as spain, italy is also in the same situation as spain, croatia is also in the same situation as spain.

I also respect your list, I won't talk about Croatia anymore because I have already talked too much hehehe

About the other teams, Italy and Germany are unstable, as I mentioned in my previous message, and at any moment they can reach a good shape and become unbeatable, but they suffer from inconsistency, they are teams like Brazil that are champions one year and can't even qualify the next, they lack consistency

Spain I disagree with you a little, after all they have just been champions of the League, it is a more settled team, they know how to play and are gaining experience. It is not a messed team, I believe they will have a good Euro 2024 and possibly an even better World Cup

England is a case apart, I know that the team is strong, several good players individually, they play good matches, but it seems that when they face a decisive match they can't keep up the good level soccer (or football hehe)

Now that the league of nations is over, we will be able to see better about each team, as some teams have only played 2 games so far, others have played 4...

But I keep my list. I'll save in a text here and I'll compare in the end of the qualifiers and in the end of Euro, let's see if my predictions are good 

[Lucius]

@rdluffy, maybe you'll be interested in how Croatian institutions treat some Croatian players and how they time indictments in order to try at all costs to force Modric to no longer play for the national team. These days it is unbelievable to see some Croatian media calling for a boycott of the national team and are particularly cruel towards Modric and Lovren.

Of course, you should know that many in Croatia hate everything that has to do with any national team, but that's the case in a country ruled by the children of communists and fans of one of the greatest criminals in the history, Broz Tito.

https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2023/07/03/modric-lovren-face-new-croatian-trial-transfer-fraud/

[CLS63]

Modric is a big factor in Croatia's good run so far. His performance was quite impressive in the latest Nations League tournament as well. But he might be on the verge of retiring from national football on one hand. Actually I would really like to see him playing in Euro 2024 to make this big tournament his last one in his career. But for now he is silent about the future of his career. If he retires earlier then there will be alternatives to him like Brozovic, Kovacic and Majer to fill his place in Euro 2024.

According to their current formation and the choices of Dalic, Kovacic and Brozovic are already in the starting eleven. In this case Dalic will need to look for whether there is a better replacement than Majer for Modric's position.