Who’ll Shine at the Euros?
Who’ll Shine at the Euros?
rnrnThere is nothing that the host nation would like more than to enjoy victory in front of a home crowd on July 14. To get there they will have to overcome group stage opponents including Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland and they have shown some vulnerabilities recently. One only has to look at defeats by Turkey and Austria to see their fallibility.rnrnHowever, they have plenty to prove, and it will mean a lot to both players and management if they can achieve this on home soil. To help them get there, the talents of players like Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane, Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala mean that they have a good chance achieving their aim. Top this off with the canny management style of Julian Nagelsmann and they could surprise us all.rnrnSpainrnrnSpain finds themselves in what is arguably the toughest group of all alongside Italy, Croatia and Albania. They have also been struck by the potentially devastating news that injury has all-but ruled Gavi out of the tournament. Manager Luis de la Fuente is also a relative newcomer at this level so he may have his work cut out to steady the ship.rnrnHowever, they were semi-finalists last time and have a good chance of making it through to this stage again if they come out firing on all cylinders. Instrumental in this are likely to be Rodri and Pedri but it’s all going to be dependent on not finding any potential banana skins as they negotiate the group stage.rnrnPortugalrnrnPortugal come into the tournament with a perfect ten out of ten win record in the qualification stages and it’s expected that the group stage should be equally easy for them. Possibly the biggest threat comes from Turkey who have surprised opponents like Germany and Croatia in recent times.rnrnTheir not-so-secret weapon continues to be Cristiano Ronaldo, although his skills may have been a little blunted by facing not such great opposition in the Saudi league. But, with the back-up of others including Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Portugal will remain a formidable force to be overcome.rnrnOf course, in a tournament like this there will also be room for surprises like the ones delivered by Denmark in 1992 and Greece in 2004. So this could well be the story of the tournament in 2024. But, whoever does go on to win, we’re promised a spectacle of fantastic action to light up the summer.
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