As the whole football world already knows, the much-awaited Euro 2024 is just over four months away, where the best players from one of the most cutthroat football continents put on the best sporting event on the globe for 30 days.
The host nation, Germany, automatically put themselves in Group A and are expected to compete in the first match of the tournament, given that they’re also considered team A1. They’ll be aiming to become the first host nation to win the European Championship since France in 1984.
Currently, Spain and Germany are tied with three European titles, the most of any European nation. But Julian Nagelsmann hopes to give Germany their fourth European Championship, which will make them the winningest nation since the competition began.
Easier said than done, though, as the draw for the tournament placed them with a bunch of assassins, who are very capable of claiming their own bids for the 2024 title.
So far, this is what the groupings are looking like:
Group A: Germany, Scotland, Hungary, and Switzerland
Group B: Spain, Croatia, Italy, and Albania
Group C: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, and England
Group D: Netherlands, Austria, France, play-off winner A
Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, play-off winner B
Group F: Turkey, Portugal, Czech Republic, play-off winner C
Tournament play-offs
Play-off A: Poland, Estonia, Wales, or Finland
Play-off B: Israel, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Ukraine
Play-off C: Georgia, Luxembourg, Greece, or Kazakhstan
As of now, France and England are the pre-tournament Euros 2024 odds favourites, and football fans all over the world are holding their breaths for a potential France vs England semifinal bout if they both champion their respective clusters.
Meanwhile, Julian Nagelsmann and Germany’s road to glory isn’t as straight forward as the other European giants. Clustered with Scotland, Hungary, and Switzerland, Germany will have a tough road ahead of them, and if they do win Group A, they will either face Spain or the defending champions, Italy, in the semifinals. Talk about getting the short end of the stick.
Can Nagelsmann lead the Germans out of a tough cluster?
As I’ve stated above, Germany is automatically placed in Group A, and with them are Scotland, Hungary, and Switzerland. This is a tough cluster to be in, to say the least, but SBOTOP still has the German squad as the favourites to conquer Group A.
Nagelsmann’s outfit has an abundance of talent, something the football world has gotten accustomed to. Germany have always been a football powerhouse in Europe and even the world. But this particular squad has been in a rut, losing five of their past eight matches.
Nagelsmann, who was appointed to the role just a few months back, is known for his role-driven football philosophy, using and exhausting every capability his player can offer in a certain role. And this kind of structure could be very potent, especially in the final third.
He would often opt to go with a central-heavy attack—a clustered, well-timed, and surgical attack that would often overwhelm the opposing defence. This type of holistic and role-driven style of play could only reach its effectiveness if it’s backed up by sufficient talent, and luckily for Nagelsmann and the Germans, their squad is stacked with talent.
Ilkay Gündogan, Joshua Kimmich, Leroy Sané, and Jamal Musiala, among others, will headline Germany’s squad. Not too shabby, if you ask me. They will face Scotland in the first game of the tournament, which is everything but a cakewalk for the host country.
Steve Clarke and his Scottish outfit have shown immense grit in the qualifying stage and finished in second place in Group A. Clarke is widely known for being a defencive-minded coach, but he’s adamant on not putting too much light on labels and just doing his best to win football matches with the personnel he’s given.
“With the fact we can win matches and play attractive football is down to the quality of the players.” Clarke exclaimed.
Germany’s clash with Scotland will surely be a grand opener for the much-anticipated tournament that will put the entire football world on notice.
Luis de la Fuente’s Spain vs Luciano Spalletti’s Italy
At first glance, Group B could definitely have the moniker of the Group of Death in this version of the European Championship.
The decorated outfits of Spain, Italy, Croatia, and the underdogs Albania will all have to earn every point in the group stages as their cluster boasts, in my opinion, the most talent among every other group in the tournament.
But the marquee matchup to keep an eye on in this particular group will be the chess match between Luis de la Fuente and Luciano Spalletti.
De la Fuente, a 4-3-3 maestro, is keen on building on the fact that Spain beat Mancini’s Italy twice in the Nations League and qualified ahead of them in the 2022 World Cup. True to the Spanish style of football, de la Fuente also enjoys a possession-based, surgical style of play.
Meanwhile, Italy and their fans were stunned by the sudden departure of Roberto Mancini, their head coach, during their championship run in the last version of the Euros.
Mancini’s predecessor, Luciano Spalletti, now holds the reins for gli Azzurri and is hoping that his possession and attacking style of play will lead his team not just past Spain and the rest of Group B but also headline Euro 2024 news stories and claim back-to-back European Championships for the football-crazed nation of Italy.
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