The Euro Cup 2021 Preview (Group D, E, and F)

Standing moments away from the big unveiling of the greatest events of the year, lets break down the other three groups of the Euro 2021, which holds even bigger names and the most competitive group of them all, Group F.

Group D

The Group consists of Croatia, Czech Republic, England, and Scotland.

Croatia football are on the phase they termed “second golden generation”, where they claimed the runners-up spot in the 2018 World Cup. Following with the same coach, Zlatco Dalic, and a squad mostly with the same set of players as of their last World Cup, the teams most recent performance have not been the most impressive. Croatia plays either 1-3-2-4 or 2-4-4 diamond combination has been followed though for most parts of the last two years with their captain and head of creativity, Luca Modric being the main performer. Nevertheless, the teams greatest strength lies in not having any great expectations while delivering with quality, something that boosted them in the Russia World Cup and might do so once again.

The Czech Republic managed by Jaroslav Silhavy, is one of the more underrated side of the tournament. The team is consistent and well organized and plays 1-3-2-4 while setting attacks from wings. They have had mixed results moving into the tournament, but on a honest note, they are more happy to play good football than on winning.

Gareath Southgate’s England are now more settled on a 3-3-4 lineup, with a promising group of frontliners and midfielders. According to former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, England poses the greatest threat to one of the hot favourite of the tournament, France. The English squad is full of young talents like Marcos Rashford and Jaden Sancho. Missing of the Russia World Cup final spot to Croatia, they will definitely hold nothing back to bring back a trophy back to their land. With impressive recent performances and promising football they are more fovourites to clinch the top spot for the Group D.

The Scottish football has been on a rise as the nation under Steve Clark reached their first Euros since 1996 and first tournament of any kind since 1998. Just like any other underdogs they aim to play better football as their first target. Their recent games were played upon  2-3-5 combination with the Manchester United midfielder Scott MacTominay as their main star. The Scottish are on a tough luck being placed on such a comeptative group to advance, but a healthy competition between them and Czech Republic is expected for the third spot.

Prediction: England finishes top with Croatia, even thou Scotland has been playing impressive football, Czech Republic is a better bet for the third spot.

Group E

The group consists of Spain, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

Spain being one of the favoutries of the tournament walks into the stage with a newly built squad filled with young and promising footballers while being heavily critiqued buy their press and media for their manager Luis Enrique’s decision to not include a single player from the Spanish club giant, Real Madrid, which his the first in their entire history. Many speculate it is a statement made on personal terms of the long known Spanish-Catalan political conflicts. However, statistically speaking, there were very few Spanish international in the Real Madrid squad to stand out in the past season in the first place. Nevertheless, the Spanish squad plays a 3-3-4 formation with great potential in the midfield in the lights of their young prodigy Pedri and the captain himself, Sergio Busquets. Even with a comparatively difficult group, Spain are the more favourites to finish top.

Poland is going into the tournament with one of the most recent signed coaches. Paulo Sousa has been appointed the job on the January of this year, and even with a small adjusting time the manager can count on their main player and currently football’s greatest sticker, Robert Lewandoski, who also captains the team this Euro. however, Poland has had a rather disappointing run leading to the Euros where they could manage to win only a few games. With Slovakia and Sweden on the run, they might face a tough time advancing to the next round.

Sweden coach Janne Anderson guided his side to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2018 and would be hoping to exceed expectations again with a strong Sweedish squad. Their formation of 2-4-4 is a throwback formation with excellent discipline with fairly rigid defensive structure. The unavailability of their returning great Zlantan Ibrahimovic in the very last minute will blow a big blow but with Alexander Isak and Dejan Kulusevski having really good personal seasons added with the recent quality performances, the team looks like a candidate for the knockouts.

Slovakia are coached by Stephan Takovich, who despite having an undistinguised club career has significant international career as Slovakia’s assistant manager since 2013, before stepping up to the main role this year. With high number of quality players from the top five leagues, their 1-4-1-4 formation has given them mixed results in the recent past. On a good they they are not a team to be taken lightly, but eyeing a straight qualification by finishing on the top two would be expecting a bit too much.

Prediction:  Spain and Sweden finish first and second respectively, with Poland on the third.

Group F

The toughest group of the tournament consists France, Germany, Portugal and Hungary.

The defending World Cup champions France has yet again produced what looks like another winning team as they hope to bag this years Euro. The French team includes most players from their World Cup winning campaign along with the returning French great, Karim Banzema, after having repetitive success with his club Real Madrid. Coached by Didier Deschamps the nation look forward to provide results along side quality football with a team filled with young prodigy of Mbappe and Dembele and experience of Griezman, Pogba and so on. The star filled squad is expected to top the group despite being placed in a super difficult group.

Germany has went through a series of new lows since the humiliating exit from the 2018 World Cup. They went through an ongoing process of rebuilding the national team with young potentials as their World Cup winning coach Joachim Low declared the Euro to be his last assignment with the national side. Having played attacking football lead by one of the best scoring records of the recent past, Gnabry and UCL winning Chelsea forward, Kai Havetz. Even after haing disappointing defeat to North Mecadonia, Germany heads towards the tournament with a steep 7-1 win against Latvia. A team that can never be taken lightly no matter what phase they are going through.

The defending European champion, Portugal, once again enters a tournament with a squad good enough to bag the trophy. With what’s being speculated as the last Euro for one of the games greatest ever player, Christiano Ronaldo, the whole world will have one eye on them throughout the tournament. Besides Ronaldo himself, the squad is filled with star players including Premier Leagues two greatest players of the season, Bruno Fernandes and Ruben Diez alongside LaLiga winning Portugal young prodigy Jao Felix. The team will give a good fight to France for the top spot.

One of the unluckiest qualifiers of the tournament, Hungary, has had decent performance themselves going into the tournament. However, their best bet would be if one of the groups big three choking on the biggest stage for them to advance any further.

Prediction: France leads the group followed by Portugal. Germany can cause an upset but are most likely to finish third.

No matter what the result is, the world awaits a good one month filled with great football across great European cities. So stay tuned for even more in depth analysis of the big games and the big starts further ahead!