Cities and Stadiums

Throughout the first half of the school holiday, between June 14 and July 14, 24 countries will play across 10 stadiums across Germany. Here’s the list of the cities and stadiums where the matches will take place:

• Berlin – Olympiastadion Berlin
• Cologne – Cologne Stadium
• Dortmund – BVB Stadion Dortmund
• Düsseldorf – Düsseldorf Arena
• Frankfurt – Frankfurt Arena
• Gelsenkirchen – Arena AufSchalke
• Hamburg – Volksparkstadion Hamburg
• Leipzig – Leipzig Stadium
• Munich – Munich Football Arena
• Stuttgart – Stuttgart Arena

Groups

Firstly, let’s start with the groups, wherein each of 6 in total 4 countries will compete against each other, divided into the groups listed below:

• Group A: Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Switzerland
• Group B: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Albania
• Group C: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, England
• Group D: Poland, Netherlands, Austria, France
• Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine
• Group F: Türkiye, Georgia, Portugal, Czechia

Out of each group, 2 teams with the highest number of points received throughout the wins and draws (3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw) will compete against one another in the round of 16. After that, the top 8 teams will proceed to the quarter-finals. Later, the top 4 countries will be promoted to the semi-finals. At the end, on July 14, the top 2 representations will compete against each other in the final.

Favorites

According to Score 90, the social media profile specialized in providing football-based content, England, France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal are the most favorable to win Euro 2024. Although I agree with England, France, Spain, and Portugal on this list, I think that Germany is overestimated.

Regarding England, France, Spain, and Portugal, every football fan can agree that those teams are known for their excellent performances shown during the Euro qualifications during which all of the teams reached 1st place in their respective groups and either won every played game, like Spain and Portugal, or had no losses, like England and France.

What also plays an important role is the squads of those countries, consisting of players who in their clubs have performed well during the last season. These are players such as Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham (playing for England), Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé (playing for France), Lamine Yamal and Rodri (playing for Spain), and Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes (playing for Portugal).

During the last tournaments, both Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022, all those teams reached at least the Round of 16.

Concluding then, it’s really hard to stick to only one team as, at the end of the day, luck or the lack of it is what will determine the Euro’s winner. That’s why football is such a beautiful game because it’s not always possible to predict the game’s winner. In the end, if you plan to bet on the winner, I would rather consider choosing between those 4 teams, if you want to have the biggest chance of winning.

At the beginning of this section, I commented that Germany is overestimated.

We are talking about a team that is still in the process of rebuilding themselves. To remind you, although Germany was the winner of the World Cup in 2014, and they reached the semifinals during Euro 2016, the last 3 tournaments weren’t the best for this country. Germany didn’t leave the group stage during both World Cups in 2018 and 2022 and only reached Round 16 during Euro 2020.

Under the mentorship of the new German coach, Julian Nagelsmann, Germany’s performance seems to give hope to their fans. I believe this team’s position can be rebuilt. However, this is still a relatively young team, which, in my opinion, doesn’t have enough experience yet. That’s why I believe that Germany might finish 1st in the group stage, however, I wouldn’t say this team is going to reach the championships during this specific tournament.

The country that seems to be underestimated in every tournament, including this one, is Croatia. Although this country has a population of less than 4 million people, it consists of great players such as Luka Modrić and Joško Gvardiol who are both playing in the teams (respectively Real Madrid and Manchester City) that have won their leagues (respectively LaLiga and Premier League) during the last season. We are therefore talking about players having experience playing in top-class teams together with top-class football players.

Also, Croatia throughout the previous Euro, Euro 2020, and the last World Cup played in 2022, had a chance to prove that they are a country that can surprise during such tournaments. During Euro 2020, they reached the Round of 16, where they lost to Spain during the additional time with the score 3-5. During World Cup 2022, Croatia reached  3rd place and, in the quarterfinals, they surprised fans from all around the world by eliminating Brazil, even though Brazil was originally predicted by many to be the tournament’s winner! 

Nevertheless, during the qualifications for Euro 2024, Croatia was 1 point away from being at the top of its group. That’s why I believe that Croatia shouldn’t be ignored during this Euro as well, as it might again surprise the audience.

In every tournament, there’s always this one dark horse who, surprisingly, reaches the high position overall. I believe that for this tournament Hungary might be the proverbial dark horse.

During the last Euro, Euro 2020, this country finished in the last position of their group,  but gained respect by drawing with France and Germany.

Further, during the qualifications for Euro 2024, Hungary reached 1st place in their group with 0 losses,  even though they needed to compete with Serbia, who originally was predicted to be the group’s winner.

Additionally, it’s necessary at this point to comment on the Hungarian squad, consisting of Dominik Szoboszlai, who made a successful debut for Liverpool in the last Premier League season and who might finally have a chance to carry his team out of the group stage.

When it comes to the question of which country I’m going to support, the answer for me can be only one – Poland, where I’m from. Every Pole interested in football still has in their memory the tragic Euro 2024 qualifications, during which Poland reached  3rd place and somehow won the play-offs and joined Euro 2024, although Poland in its group needed to compete with the Czech Republic, Albania, Moldova, and Faroe Island, which are either equally strong or not stronger teams than Poland at all.

It’s not going to be a surprise that the group stage is not going to be easy for Poland, as it’ll need to compete with the Netherlands, France, and Austria. Therefore leaving the group stage in such a strong group seems to be a nearly impossible task to accomplish. However, I still believe that there’s still some hope that Poland might go further on and we might be lucky again.

Planned Schedule

Below is the planned competition schedule:

• Group Stage:
  • June 14: Germany – Scotland (Group A, 21:00)
  • June 15: Hungary – Switzerland (Group A, 15:00), Spain – Croatia (Group B, 18:00), Italy – Albania (Group B, 21:00)
  • June 16: Poland – Netherlands (Group D, 15:00), Slovenia – Denmark (Group C, 18:00), Serbia – England (Group C, 21:00)
  • June 17: Romania – Ukraine (Group E, 15:00), Belgium – Slovakia (Group E, 18:00), Austria – France (Group D, 21:00)
  • June 18: Türkiye – Georgia (Group F, 18:00), Portugal – Czechia (Group F, 21:00)
  • June 19: Croatia – Albania (Group B, 15:00), Germany – Hungary (Group A, 18:00), Scotland – Switzerland (Group A, 21:00)
  • June 20: Slovenia – Serbia (Group C, 15:00), Denmark – England (Group C, 18:00), Spain – Italy (Group B, 21:00)
  • June 21: Slovakia – Ukraine (Group E, 15:00), Poland – Austria (Group D, 18:00), Netherlands – France (Group D, 21:00)
  • June 22: Georgia – Czechia (Group F, 15:00), Türkiye – Portugal (Group F, 18:00), Belgium – Romania (Group E, 21:00)
  • June 23: Switzerland – Germany (Group A, 21:00), Scotland – Hungary (Group A, 21:00)
  • June 24: Albania – Spain (Group B, 21:00), Croatia – Italy (Group B, 21:00)
  • June 25: Netherlands – Austria (Group D, 18:00), France – Poland (Group D, 18:00), England – Slovenia (Group C, 21:00), Denmark – Serbia (Group C, 21:00)
  • June 26: Slovakia – Romania (Group E, 18:00), Ukraine – Belgium (Group E, 18:00), Georgia – Portugal (Group F, 21:00), Czechia – Türkiye (Group F, 21:00)
• Round of 16:
  • June 29: 18:00, 21:00
  • June 30: 18:00, 21:00
  • July 1: 18:00, 21:00
  • July 2: 18:00, 21:00
• Quarter-finals:
  • July 5: 18:00, 21:00
  • July 6: 18:00, 21:00
• Semi-finals:
  • July 9: 21:00
  • July 10: 21:00
• Final:
  • July 14: 21:00

Where to watch?

Euro 2024 will be live-streamed by many broadcasters worldwide. In Sweden, all the matches will be broadcast by both SVT and TV4. Hence, you can watch it completely for free on svtplay.se or the SVT Play mobile app.

Which country are you going to support? Which team do you think has the biggest chance to win Euro 2024? Which representation will be the tournament’s dark horse? Feel free to share your opinions in the comment section below!