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00:00The 2024 European Championship tournament has started and, as expected, it's been full
00:05of amazing displays and some scary teams have started to perform.
00:11After wonderful displays by European players and immense talents coming onto the scene,
00:16the bookies, pundits and punters were all of the view, whether you agree or not, which
00:21we don't by the way, that France and England had the best squads and were considered the
00:27top favourites for Euro 2024 and were subsequently rated slightly above the likes of Germany,
00:33Portugal and Spain as the favourites to win the trophy before the tournament started.
00:38This is of course understandable because of the form these teams were in and the level
00:43of talent they have is ridiculous, however, both England and France have not been performing
00:49to their expected levels as of yet, England scraped through a 1-0 win over Serbia and
00:55managed a draw against Denmark before drawing again with Slovenia and finishing top of the
01:00group despite lacklustre performances and dire attacking displays.
01:06France meanwhile have been only slightly better by beating Austria 1-0, also in a game where
01:11Austria were unlucky not to score, before drawing to a resolute Dutch team without their
01:16main man Mbappe.
01:18The French then drew to a surprisingly strong looking Dutch side and then disappointingly
01:23drew again to Poland on matchday 3 and finished second in the group.
01:29Unsurprisingly, Germany the host team have been playing well but what has been surprising
01:34is that they came out of the block so fast and have been on fire, on opening day Germany
01:40exceeded expectations, now by scoring 3 goals in the first half, Germany also became only
01:46the second team to score 3 or more goals in the first half of a Euro match after France
01:51who achieved this against Belgium in 1984 and also Iceland in 2016.
01:57After this initial match one thing was clear, Germany didn't just come to the Euros to
02:02play but there were still doubts, many argued that the German team may have won their first
02:08match not because they played beautifully but because Scotland were below par.
02:13The German national team put those doubts to death when they then humiliated Hungary
02:18in the second round.
02:19The team played excellently against Hungary and defeated them by 2 goals to nil.
02:24With this win they mathematically qualified for the knockout stages becoming the first
02:28team to do so.
02:29At this point all doubts were gone and Germany were crowned favourites to win the Euros.
02:35Now after beautiful displays in their first two matches the German team has gone ahead
02:40of France and England in people's predictions to win the tournament.
02:43A draw against Switzerland in the third matchday didn't really reduce how highly rated the
02:48German team were because they already mathematically qualified for the knockout stage before the
02:53match and with the draw they topped their group despite probably deserving to win against
02:59a very strong, very defensive Swiss unit.
03:03The host nation have been outstanding in the European Championship tournament so far and
03:07this can be attributed to the beautiful displays their players are dishing out.
03:13And in hindsight it makes sense that Germany's players have hit the ground running as many
03:17of the starting eleven have already had incredibly successful seasons for Real Madrid and Bayer
03:23Leverkusen and more of the squad players have also had excellent seasons with Dortmund and
03:27Stuttgart.
03:29Now without a doubt one of the stars of Germany's squad is Ilkay Gundogan.
03:33The Germany captain has been beyond amazing.
03:36He won a penalty in the first match against Scotland and had two goal contributions in
03:40the 2-0 win against Hungary, winning player of the match.
03:44Florian Wurz has continued his beautiful form from his season with Xabi Alonso and
03:48Bayer Leverkusen.
03:49He's arguably Germany's best young player currently.
03:53So far the youngster has been replicating his beautiful form in Leverkusen for Germany.
03:58He scored Germany's first goal of the tournament and it's been raining goals for them since
04:03then.
04:04His strike for Germany in the first match at 9 minutes and 54 seconds is actually the
04:08second fastest in the opening match of the Euros after Georgios Karagounis' goal for
04:13Greece in 2004, which was 5 minutes and 57 seconds.
04:18Wurz has been beyond amazing so far.
04:21He was an integral part of the German sides that defeated both Scotland and Hungary.
04:26Jamal Musiala is another German 21-year-old who's in excellent shape.
04:31Musiala, who has been dubbed the future Messi, has been outstanding for Germany since the
04:35start of the 2024 Euros, just as we predicted on this channel.
04:40Musiala was selected Player of the Match following a standout performance against Scotland in
04:45the first match.
04:46He also maintained his impressive form in the 2-0 victory over Hungary in the second
04:50match.
04:51With two goals, Musiala, along with Volkrog and a couple of other Germans, are in fine
04:55goal-scoring form.
04:57Both Wurz and Musiala have been in top form.
05:01On the first matchday, they both scored, setting a record.
05:04For the first time at the Men's European Championships, two players aged 21 or under
05:09scored for the same team in a single game, when Florian scored the opening goal and then
05:14Jamal doubled the lead, both being, of course, aged 21.
05:18Next up is the Madrid men.
05:20Antonio Rudiger and Toni Kroos are also continuing their fine form.
05:25Kroos has been in the news, actually, as he completed 99% and 99 out of his 102 attempted
05:32passes against Scotland, the highest completion rate on record since 1980 by any player to
05:39attempt 100 or more passes in a game at the Euros.
05:42He was equally exceptional in the second and third matches, with people questioning why
05:46on earth a man of that quality is retiring this summer.
05:51Jonathan Tarr and Robert Andrick, both key components of Xabi Alonso's stellar Leverkusen
05:56side, are proving to be equally key for Germany.
05:59Tarr and Rudiger are proving hard to get past.
06:02They're both strong and fast centre-backs who are not afraid to get involved in crunching
06:07tackles and hot-tempered battles.
06:10They were a great pairing on paper before the tournament and are proving to be worth
06:13their weight in gold so far.
06:16Andrick will go under the radar, whatever happens to Germany this year, but he complements
06:20Kroos excellently and has been a hidden gem in European football this year.
06:25Up top, Kai Havertz is also playing well and has been getting into key positions and could
06:29be deemed unlucky not to have more goals under his belt.
06:33Notably, he is on penalties for the Germans, which shows the trust and belief that Nagelsmann
06:37has in the Arsenal man.
06:39Now, perhaps an underrated player who's been a bit of a shock to some so far is Nikolaus
06:44Fulkrug.
06:45The German has cemented himself in history as a super sub.
06:49All three of Fulkrug's major tournament goals, World Cups and Euros, have been as
06:54a substitute, a joint record for a European nation, along with Hungary's Laszlo Kiss,
06:59Portugal's Rui Costa and Germany's AndrĂ© SchĂŒrrle.
07:04To crown all of this, Fulkrug also scored the equaliser against Switzerland in round
07:093 after coming in as a substitute in the 76th minute, and we think there is much more to
07:14come from him to keep up his astounding German goalscoring record.
07:18Having qualified for the round of 16, the German team is three wins away from the Euro
07:222024 finals, with their first knockout game being against Denmark and a likely monster
07:29battle against Spain in the quarterfinals, and most likely Portugal or France in the
07:33semi-finals.
07:34Well, wins here would be amazing, yet not surprising judging by the way they've played
07:40so far.
07:42France also started their tournament on a beautiful note when they defeated Austria
07:46by one goal to nil, but fans were not satisfied as they expected more from the World Cup finalists.
07:52The hype behind France winning the tournament really dropped after their poor starts to
07:57the tournament, but were they really that bad?
08:00We don't think so.
08:02France had a good start against Austria, and against the Netherlands, they played wonderfully,
08:06they just weren't able to score, and this was largely because they were without their
08:10injured talisman, Kylian Mbappe.
08:12Regardless, losing to the Netherlands shouldn't mean necessarily they're having a bad start
08:17to the tournament, however, upon the return to the starting eleven, fans did think Mbappe
08:23would lead France to a win against Poland, and this was not to be the case.
08:27However, with in-form players like Mbappe, Kante, Griezmann, Dembele, Koundé, and many
08:35more still in the France national team, surely the team is still one of the favourites to
08:40win the European Championship tournament this year, so never count them out, but right now
08:45they are rightly behind the most in-form team, Germany.
08:49England were above Germany in the ranks of the favourites to win the Euros this year,
08:54this was a surprise to some, but not to many, as on paper they are a team that have great,
09:00great players, like Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Harry Kane,
09:06and just a host of other top players and young, fresh talent, so they'll surely be a favourite
09:11at any tournament they play, and they could still turn it around, but England's team
09:16have not been having a good tournament, especially with the class of players they have, and the
09:21form they were in coming into the tournament.
09:24Now they are still one of the favourites to win the thing, but they're slipping with
09:27each game played, and are rightly now behind the hosts, Germany, and actually maybe other
09:32countries like Portugal and Spain.
09:35Germany's route to the final is now likely Denmark in the round of 16, a huge match against
09:40Spain in the quarters, and then a monster clash against either Portugal or France in
09:45the semis.
09:46So the big question is, can the hosts do it?