England should be winning EURO 2024 - but will they?

Karan Ahgun

— 3 min read
England should be winning EURO 2024 - but will they?
Photo by Winston Tjia / Unsplash

The European Championships begin in Germany on Friday night, with hosts Germany facing Scotland. The tournaments squads have been released and finalised and in my opinion, there are 4 clear favourites. England, France and Portugal have the best squads in terms of squad depth and quality. Germany are up their due to the host nation factor and I think that we forget the quality they have due to their recent tournament performances. As usual, the English media are hyping up the team and there exists a certain expectation that this could be Southgate's last chance to win something with this England side, but are they actually the best-equipped team to win the tournament?

The official England squad brought a few surprises. We already new that big hitters such as Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish were omitted but even still, Gareth Southgate sprung a couple of surprises. One of these was snubbing of Jarrad Branthwaite, who I thought definitely deserved a space in the squad especially with the injury to Harry Maguire. Branthwaite would be a much better option to play with John Stones than players like Lewis Dunk and Joe Gomez. He is surprisingly quick and comfortable on the ball which would have been valuable skills to bring balance to the back line. Another questionable call was the inclusion of Luke Shaw, who was injured at the time of the squad announcement and hasn't played since February. Southgate even called the decision a "gamble" but I guess we have to wait and see if this decision could prove fruitful. Shaw is likely to miss the first couple of group stage games, with Kieran Trippier likely to fill in at left back (I don't think this works!).

There is still a lot for England fans to be excited about though. They have an excited array of talent in the forward positions, and a couple of young and exciting central midfielders. I reckon the starting front 3 would be Foden-Kane-Saka, with Bellingham playing as a No. 10, and a pivot of Rice and Mainoo. We saw something similar to this in the friendly against Belgium in March; a game in which Mainoo particularly shone. Adam Wharton is also a capable deputy in midfield and I hope that he can bring his Crystal Palace form into the tournament. Conor Gallagher should be nowhere near a starter for England though. I'm just not a fan of his. Maybe you can just bring him on in the last few minutes of a game which is already won to be a nuisance to the opposition but other than that, there is next to no reason why he should be playing for England.

So the big question - Will England actually win EURO 2024? Well, I ran my own predictor on the UEFA website and unfortunately, I had England getting knocked out by France in semi-finals - like they did in Qatar. I think that Germany will ultimately win the EUROs due to their home factor and the quality they have in their squad. Their spine is top class throughout (maybe not at striker) and just think that the home nation factor will push them over the edge. France will come close but I think that they may just falter at the final hurdle. But who knows? Maybe I'm completely wrong and England will prove me wrong! I hope so!

Germany to win??

This summer of football looks exciting! Enjoy it!

Talk soon!

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