Will France emerge triumphant? Are England really the best team in the tournament? Our panel look at the teams in with a chance of winning Euro 2024.
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00:00with Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland. I do wonder if they're, you know, maybe should be
00:04sort of spoken about in the same breath as France and England. Now, I don't want to go into too much
00:08detail about England in general because we did talk about them last week. If you want to catch
00:12up on the episode at home, just go to shotsofub.com, by the way. We talked a lot about England and
00:16Scotland's preparations for the tournament and their chances, but they are obviously down with
00:21one of the bookmakers' favourites, the alleged Opta supercomputer, which I'm convinced is just
00:25an Excel spreadsheet at this point, has England as marginal favourites for the whole tournament
00:30ahead of France. Will, do you think England are sort of genuinely the top favourites for this,
00:34or are we maybe getting a little bit overhyped because of, well, we're English, a lot of us,
00:39at least in this conversation, that we can be a little bit biased?
00:47Hello, I'm Matthew Gregory. Welcome to We Can Be Euros. This week with the opening game just
00:52a few days away, we're going to check in on some of the favourites and impossible car courses
00:56and ask who will emerge triumphant in Germany. To help me out, I'm joined, as always, by some
01:01expert guests, Liverpool World Football reporter Will Rooney and Three Added Minutes' Jason Jones.
01:06Jason, I'll come to you first. If you were placing a bet on the Euros today, who would your money be on?
01:15It's a big question, Matthew. It's a big question. I think, going to my head right now,
01:21I'd be tempted to go France, to be perfectly honest with you. I think that for any team in
01:27this tournament to beat France, it's going to take something pretty special. I mean,
01:34you know, they haven't necessarily headed into Euro 2024 in the best of form. I mean, recently,
01:39they drew with Canada and they obviously lost to Germany not too long ago as well.
01:44But if you just look at the amount of strength and depth that Didier Deschamps has at his
01:50disposal, and obviously the fact that they have pretty good experience of going very,
01:55very far and winning major international tournaments, I think it's really, really
01:59difficult to look past the French as favourites for it. I don't think they're necessarily
02:06infallible. I think they are beatable. But I think if a team is going to go and
02:10beat them, then they're going to have to be at their very, very best to do so.
02:14Yeah, they've obviously got incredible strength and depth. There's also this sort of,
02:18it always looks to me, and this is going to sound very harsh on the poor guy,
02:20but there's a part of me that thinks you've got this team with so many world-class players,
02:23you know, absolutely unquestionable quality. And then you sort of wonder how Olivier Giroud
02:28is still up front. And there's a couple of players like that where maybe, and I should say,
02:31I really do rate Giroud, he's a wonderful player. But I think at the same time, when you look at the
02:36sheer quality they've got elsewhere, I mean, what do you think of France, Will? Because I'm in that
02:40sort of place where, I don't know, they've obviously got a ton of great players, but it's
02:43hard to see how much of an edge they might have over other good teams like, you know, England,
02:48Spain, Portugal, and so on. Yeah, I mean, it always comes down to when
02:52Bath beats us, doesn't it? And is there too much of an eagle there? You know, we've seen obviously
02:59PSG sort of run the rule for a couple of years. And is it similar with France? He's wearing the
03:06captain's armbands. And is it there or are the players going to stand up and say, no, look,
03:11we're a team, we're going to do that? And you'd like to think there's enough players in there.
03:15You know, you've got the players like Griezmann, who's been there, done that. You know, we've got
03:21Camavinger, Chioumeny, who are playing at the biggest club in the world, and Real Madrid,
03:25Phil and Mendy as well. And then you've got big players, you know, we've seen Olivier Giroud's
03:30been, you know, top striker for years now. So you'd like to think they have got the characters
03:34to say, no, this isn't just the Kylian Mbappe show, this is the France show. But that's always
03:39in the back of my mind with France, a little bit like when Ronaldo and Portugal play. And is there
03:44too much of an individuality there that takes over? And maybe there might be a little bit of
03:51friction. I don't know. We'll have to see. You mentioned Portugal. They've got a hell of a squad
03:56as well. They came through qualifying, not just unbeaten, but winning every single game, 10 from
04:0010. There's not too many weaknesses in that squad either, is there, Will? I mean, are they a team
04:05that you can see going all the way again? Yeah, I like them too. Honestly, with Portugal, I think
04:09if I was having a bet, they'd be my one. But again, I've come down to it, it's the Cristiano
04:13Ronaldo factor again. I mean, if you're not playing Cristiano Ronaldo, I think we all know
04:18that he's not great to have on the camp now, as he may be, you know, I've seen that year in Man United
04:24when he come back. But as he matures a little bit more, now he's playing out in Sarri and he
04:30realises that he's come to the end of the career. Will he maybe realise that he has a different role?
04:34I don't know. But as you say, they've got plenty of quality there. I mean, he likes Diogo Jota,
04:40who's back-fitting now, and Joao Felix up front. And in midfield, you know, Bernardo Silva and
04:45Joao Pellina complement each other really well. And at the back, plenty of depth as well. But again,
04:53Roberto MartÃnez, the manager there, he didn't get it done with Belgium when he has an abundance
04:58of talents, did he? So has he got the acumen to take Portugal all the way?
05:04Yeah, I mean, chasing another country worth mentioning, I know we're sort of doing a bit
05:07of a whistle-stop tour of some of the favourites here. It's obviously worth talking about the
05:11hosts, let's be honest. I mean, Germany, for so many years, they were sort of struggling,
05:15quite frankly, at least by their high standards under Yogi Lowe in the last years of his brain.
05:19It's been a good sort of three or four years since they've really felt like a team that could
05:22threaten a major tournament. But they have felt like they're sort of on the way back,
05:26recent results have definitely been a bit of an uptick.
05:29What are you rate of their chances on home soil?
05:36Yeah, it feels as if Germany have turned a little bit of a corner, doesn't it,
05:40under Nils? I mean, obviously, they're, like you said, the Qatar World Cup was
05:45a little bit of a catastrophe by their own standards. And it's almost uncharacteristic
05:51to see Germany maybe implode is a harsh word, but certainly not sort of give a good account
05:56of themselves at a major tournament like they did in the Middle East. But you're absolutely right,
06:00you know, they're coming in in a really good place. They're unbeaten in 2024. During that run,
06:05they've beaten France, beaten the Netherlands, had a draw with Ukraine as well, who, you know,
06:10they're not a bad team, by any means, Ukraine, you know, could potentially get a shot later on
06:14when we're talking about dark horses. And, you know, this is a Germany team who seem to be
06:19in a much better place than they were 18 months ago. And also, I really don't think you can rule
06:25out the impact of that home factor, you know, a tournament on home soil with a team who had
06:31just sort of coming into a nice run of form. It could be a really great tournament for Germany
06:36for that reason alone, you know, a little bit of optimism, obviously, they've got some
06:39wonderfully talented players, good mix of experience, then you look at young, exciting
06:44players like Jamal Musiala coming through. And I think that this Germany squad has a really good
06:49chance of going quite a distance in this tournament. And even though they obviously have the profile
06:55that they have, maybe surprising a few people as well, because I don't think they're necessarily
06:59anybody's first pick to win it. But I don't see any reason why they couldn't be challenging for
07:04it come mid July. Yeah, certainly on form. You know, you look at a lot of the other favorites,
07:09and you look at their recent games, you know, whether it's the end of qualifying,
07:12couple of the friendlies, there's a couple of dodgy results in there for most of the teams.
07:16But Germany, they really have just been a bit of a machine over the last sort of
07:20six, seven months or so. And yes, it's all friendlies, they obviously didn't have to
07:23play in qualifying. But yeah, one of the teams I if I was putting my money on, and we've sort of,
07:27you know, talked about in those terms, they might be the team I go for, because I just,
07:31as you say, they're just one of those teams, they have so much of inbuilt sort of almost like
07:35psychological advantage, because they're one of those countries that are just so used to doing
07:38well and winning and progressing a little bit like France in recent years, which I do think helps. And
07:44yeah, when you stick in some home soil advantage, and that sort of that run of really good form,
07:48coming into it, and what looks like a relatively gentle group with Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland,
07:52I do wonder if they're, you know, maybe should be sort of spoken about in the same breath as
07:56France and England. Now, I don't want to go into too much detail about England in general, because
08:01we did talk about them last week. If you want to catch up that episode at home, just go to
08:04shots.tv.com. By the way, we talked a lot about England and Scotland's preparation to the tournament
08:08and their chances. But they are obviously down as one of the bookmakers favourites, the
08:13alleged Opta supercomputer, which I'm convinced is just an Excel spreadsheet at this point,
08:18has England as marginal favourites for the whole tournament ahead of France.
08:21Will, do you think England are sort of genuinely the top favourites for this? Or are we maybe
08:26getting a little bit overhyped because of, well, we're English, a lot of us, at least in this
08:31conversation, and we can be a little bit biased? Well, you can see why. I mean, there's an
08:35abundance of quality in the team, certainly in the attacking sense. But there are some
08:41question marks over the centre back situation. There's not an awful lot of confidence, I don't
08:47think, personally. The left back situation, obviously, if Luke Shaw comes back from injury,
08:51there's not another out-and-out option there. And then in centre midfield as well, I mean,
08:57you look at that Iceland game, what does Gareth Southgate do? Well, by report, it's suggested
09:04he's going to play Trent Alexander-Arnold in there. Now, Trent Alexander-Arnold's a wonderful
09:08footballer, but he hasn't played a lot in centre midfield, certainly in his club career. He's
09:15moved into the early games and he's played the hybrid role. But on the international stage,
09:20when you're playing top-quality opposition, we've seen him get exposed defensively at right
09:25back. Is the same going to happen in midfield? So there are some question marks that Gareth
09:31Southgate's got to answer, and there's question marks, obviously, over Gareth Southgate himself.
09:38Yeah, I mean, Jason, I don't know if you sort of have any further thoughts on England,
09:42just as you weren't here last week. So obviously it'd be good if you've got any sort of
09:46insight of your own. I mean, do you think the problems are going to make things too
09:51problematic, I suppose, for England? Or do you think they've got the quality to come through
09:54those selection issues? I mean, I sort of echo everything that Will just said, to be honest with
10:01you. There is obviously an abundance of attacking talent. Whether or not that attacking talent will
10:07click and purr in the way that it should on paper remains to be seen. You know, I think
10:14for all of you Jude Bellinghams and you Phil Fordens, England still have a tendency to be
10:18a little bit stodgy and struggle against teams who set out to frustrate them. And I think that
10:23could be something that we see more and more occasion over the course of the tournament. But
10:28I absolutely agree that that backline worries me. I think, you know, Kieran Trippier has been a
10:35wonderful servant for England. I don't think he's the same player that he was a year ago,
10:4118 months ago. I think in an ideal world, Luke Shaw would be starting at left back. The issue
10:46you've got there is that obviously he is injured. And I think as soon as you start to put any
10:50significant amount of faith in a player who is heading into a tournament
10:55presently injured, that's never a good recipe. And also, you know, it should be said that if
11:01you look at that centre back partnership, we presume it's going to be Stones and Gaye.
11:05John Stones has not played a lot of football this season. Mark Gaye himself is coming off the back
11:10of an injury and has looked just a little bit shaky. And I do think where he's concerned,
11:14there maybe has to be a slight sort of mental recalibration. He's gone from being a squad player
11:19who would barely see any minutes, you're presumed to be in the main man, the starting centre back
11:24in the wake of Harry Maguire's injury. And I do think that that's going to have to be an adjustment
11:28that he comes to terms with very, very quickly. Because for all of England's talent, I do worry
11:34that it might not come together in the way that it could. And for that reason, as much as I'd love to
11:40be wrong, I don't see us as one of the genuine favourites. Obviously, we're going to be in that
11:46conversation. Do I see us ahead of a France or a Germany at this present moment in time? No, I don't.
11:58Welcome back to We Can Be Euros where we're discussing the favourites for Euro 2024.
12:16There's a few more countries that a lot of people think have a really good chance of winning Euro
12:202024 we haven't talked about yet. Two of them in the same group, Italy and Spain, both in the same
12:25group, along with Croatia and Albania, which could look like a really tough group, especially
12:28if you're the unfortunate Albanians. Italy, obviously the reigning champions. I know not
12:33many people have them down as particularly big favourites this time round, but they're on pretty
12:37good form. Do you think they stand a chance of coming out with a slightly surprising repeat?
12:43I don't personally. I look at the scores and I think how many players in the team will get into
12:52your France's, your England's, your Germany's. If you're assessing the squads, maybe Donnarama
12:59in a couple of them, but would he even? I'm struggling looking at the squad now to think
13:05Nicola Barella, class player, maybe he might get in. Jorginho does what he does for Arsenal, but
13:13is he really an elite player anymore? Probably not. The forward line as well, there's not an
13:20awful lot there. So for that reason, they might get out of the group. It might be even a little
13:24bit of a struggle, but I don't think they'll be defensively down this time. Yes, definitely. I
13:29mean, it's a real meat grinder of a group with sort of, you know, a very good chance that one
13:34out of Italy, Spain and Croatia doesn't make it through to the next round. And that's before we
13:37even factor in whether Albania can throw an upset somewhere. Jason, I'll chuck Spain at you. What
13:43are your thoughts on their chances of success? They've also come into this tournament in pretty
13:47good nick since Luis de la Fuente took over. They lost a game early on in his tenure against
13:52Scotland and there was a lot of question marks, especially with the way they went out of the last
13:55World Cup. But I believe I'm correct in saying they're unbeaten since then. Got, you know,
13:59really talented young players like Luminia Mal coming through. What are your thoughts on their
14:03chances this time around? Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right about their form, their free
14:09scoring at the moment. They've scored three or more goals in five of their last six games. So
14:14you would assume that they're going to cause a fair amount of bother for whoever they come up
14:20against. Whether or not they can go all the way with it, I'm not hugely convinced. I think that
14:28this is a squad that has a lot of very exciting, very young talent in it. I wonder if maybe their
14:34time will come in a couple of years, four years. You know, I think this Spain group is a group that
14:40can really cause some issues further down the line. I think it might be a little bit too soon
14:44for them in terms of Euro 2024. I think so much of Spain's success and how far they go this summer
14:51is going to depend on Rodri. I think you take him out of that team and the whole thing sort of
14:57collapses a little bit like a house of cards. I think that if they can keep Rodri fit and if
15:02they can get the best version of Rodri that we see week in week out for Manchester City,
15:06then that's going to be a huge advantage for them. But any sort of hindrance there,
15:10I think that Spain's chances will be massively, massively hindered. So yeah, I mean, obviously
15:17they're a great team and we're talking about experience of winning tournaments. I know it was
15:20quite a while ago now, but you know, it's not that long ago that Spain were going out and
15:25lifting these trophies on the regular. So they do have that within them, but whether or not they're
15:30going to be able to do it this summer, I'm not massively convinced. I think, you know, good run,
15:34but probably not winners, not winners. What do you think about Spain, Willem? I think that's
15:39also close to you as well. The Netherlands, it's one country who are sort of, you know,
15:43in most people's top sort of seven or eight countries for this, heading into this tournament.
15:47You know, where do you see either of those sides coming? I quite fancied the Netherlands to be
15:52honest with you, but I think in the last friendly they've picked up more injuries now. Frankie
15:59de Jong has left the camp and Tien Koopminus as well, two big, big players for the Netherlands.
16:04They've got issues in the midfields. I think it was De Roon as well, who has missed out,
16:09who has a good season for Atalanta and that's brought Ryan Gravenberch into the folds, who
16:14didn't have a bad season at Liverpool in his maiden campaign, but he didn't light anything
16:19up and I don't think he'd have been going if it weren't for injuries. They've been struck down
16:23quite badly, to be honest with you, in the midfield area. There are some good players
16:28there. They've got a really good defensive line with Van Dijk and De Ligt and Micky van der
16:35Ven and Dumfries. They've got some good players, Cozy Gaspo's in there, but I don't think the
16:42midfield is going to be strong enough and that's the most important area of the pitch. So, yeah,
16:47they might get through the group. Fairly tricky with Poland and Austria in there, but I think
16:52the midfield won't let them down. Yeah, definitely a tricky group and I think they've got a similar
16:57situation, perhaps not quite as severe as the one Italy and Spain have in terms of having a
17:01difficult group and that does bring me, I suppose, too. I think we're sort of drifting into the
17:05territory. We're moving our clear-cut favourites perhaps towards dark horses a little bit. I was
17:09going to mention Croatia as well. Jason, it'd be interesting to get your thoughts. They haven't
17:13really sort of generated too much hype before this tournament, but they've got a really strong
17:16midfield with a lot of experience. You know, Luka Modric, Brozovic is in there, Mateo Kovacic from
17:21Manchester City. On Saturday, they beat Portugal 2-1 in one of the warm-up friendlies with goals
17:26from Modric, Janda and Boudamir. Are they sort of one of those teams that might just bring a
17:30little bit of a surprise and make it towards the end of the tournament, Jason?
17:38I mean, they have a tendency to do so, don't they? Let's be honest. You know, it was only
17:4218 months ago that they came third in Qatar. You know, you're talking about experience. I mean,
17:47it's an absolute wealth of experience, isn't it? I think this is, in some respects, a sort of last
17:53hurrah for a lot of that talent. This feels like the end of a cycle for Croatia. You know,
17:57you mentioned Luka Modric there. This is very probably going to be his sort of swan song
18:02at international level. That being said, in the here and now, can they still cause bother? Can
18:09they still, you know, bloody a few noses? Yeah, of course they can. It's Croatia. You know,
18:13they're always going to be a thorn in the side of anybody they come up against. And on their day,
18:18they do have the capability to beat anybody. You know, we've seen it multiple times. You know,
18:25like I said, third in Qatar, World Cup finalists in 2018. They're a country who sort of
18:31fly under the radar a little bit, but who always seem to turn up when it matters. And yeah,
18:37you know, I do think that even though those legs in midfield might be ageing a little bit,
18:42maybe not quite as sprightly as they once were, they've still got an abundance of quality in
18:46there. And I do think that Croatia will be ones to watch, provided they can get out of that group,
18:51because the group is a ridiculously difficult one. You know, Spain and Italy,
18:56we're going to lose. Obviously, it's a little bit different this time around,
18:59but there's a good chance that we will lose one of the big names out of that group. And it could
19:04be Croatia, but if they can find a way of getting through, then I think they absolutely have a
19:07chance of going quite away in the tournament. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned sort of teams that
19:13are getting a little bit older. I suppose that brings us on quite neatly to Belgium, Will.
19:17You know, it's still just about the golden generation. There's a few players who won't
19:21be there, including Thibaut Courtois, which isn't for injury or fitness reasons. He's just fallen
19:25out with the coach, Domenico Tedesco. Do you think Belgium still got what it takes when you look at
19:30sort of the, you know, the ageing legs of a few players? Lukaku, Vertonghen, De Bruyne are still
19:34there. What do you reckon of their chances? Yeah, if there are a couple who are coming through,
19:40obviously Amadou Onana at Everton, who seems to do a lot better for his country rather than his
19:45club. I mean, he's covering Everton and he's so frustrating because he's got so much talent,
19:49which you see on the international stage, but you don't see it a lot at the club. And
19:54look, without being cynical, he might be playing for a move away in the summer,
19:57so he might turn up. And then Jordi Tielemans has ended the season really well for Aston Villa.
20:02Trossard has a good season for Arsenal. You know, you've got Jeremy Dohu in there.
20:09You can't rule them out, can you, because there is talent there, but maybe, say, you're looking
20:13at that defence and there's not a lot of names where you think they'll keep a top size out.
20:19Goalkeeping situation as well isn't fantastic. I think that's probably where the short...
20:24They've got a decent seven, eight players, but is the squad good enough? Probably not.
20:28Well, I think that's most of the sort of clear-cut favourites, certainly the teams that,
20:32you know, right at the top of the book, he's odds that we've mentioned so far.
20:35Jason, I've got to ask, though, are there any sort of countries that you can see as a dark horse?
20:38Because I'm sure most of us remember that about three years ago, a lot of us journalists were,
20:43you know, talking up Turkey's chances, only to be proven to be talking Turkey.
20:48I don't know if there's any team this time you'd like to mention as having a bit of an
20:52outside shout of at least having a deep run, if not necessarily winning the whole thing.
20:55It feels as if Turkey get it every time, don't they? I think you might find a few people who
21:00sort of throw them in as dark horse again this time. I mean, to be fair to Turkey,
21:03they finished above Croatia in qualifying, you know. They're not a bad team by any means,
21:08they just never seem to produce it when it matters. My dark horses would probably be
21:14Austria under Ralf Ragnik. Now, I know that during his tenure with Manchester United,
21:19he became a big fan of Ralf Ragnik, but I don't know if there's any other team that
21:25became a little bit of a punchline, became a little bit sort of memefied,
21:29for want of a better word. But he's doing really good things with Austria, you know.
21:33They're obviously in a tricky group alongside the likes of France and Netherlands and Poland,
21:39who aren't necessarily to be trifled with either, but they're on a good run of form.
21:43They beat Germany recently, they put six past Turkey, to mention them again, back in March.
21:51This is a team who really come into it in a good place and who have the potential to
21:56really cause some upsets if push comes to shove. Obviously, the big blow to them is that David
22:01Alaba is out injured with a fairly serious knee injury, and that's going to be a huge loss for
22:06them because we know how influential he is. He's kind of been the talisman of this Austrian team
22:10for a long, long time now. But even taking that into account, I think there is a good amount of
22:16talent in this Austrian team. And I think that on their day, they seem to be saying this about a
22:20lot of countries, but on their day, they can do a job, you know. Yeah, I think Radnick should be
22:25praised for what he's done. I think Austria should be viewed with caution. And I think that if they
22:31can get out of that group, it's another tricky group, but if they can finish above the Netherlands
22:34in particular and come second in that group, then yeah, anything can happen in the knockouts,
22:39can't it? So Austria would probably be my pick for a dark horse.
22:43Yeah, I mean, a few injuries, unfortunately for them. David Alaba's won, Zava Slaga from RB Leipzig
22:49has gone as well. First choice goalkeeper, Alex Slaga, who I believe is no relation, he's out as
22:52well. Is there anyone you'd like to sort of mention briefly, Will, any sort of outside chances that
22:58you've got an eye on? Yeah, you know what, I'll put Denmark in there, if they can get out of that
23:02group second with England. Obviously, they played them three years ago, didn't they, in the
23:07semi-finals. I don't think the squad's as bad as some of us, to be honest with you. I mean, looking
23:12at it, you know, it's obviously got Rasmus Huygen leading the line and, all right, Christian
23:16Eriksen, that's another great season for Man United and it'd be quite emotional for them,
23:21I'm sure, given what happens at the last Euros for them. But they've got a lot of talent there,
23:26you know, like Norgaard and Damsgaard. It seems like half of Brentford's team's in it, doesn't
23:31it? But no, I think just looking at it, there's a lot of players playing at a very good level in
23:39the squad. Andreas Christensen, obviously, still at Barcelona. So, I think if they can get through
23:47the group, you know, who knows what might happen.