The 17th European Football Championship will start on Friday evening in Munich with a match between Germany and Scotland. The server iROZHLAS.cz went through the lists of individual participants of the European championship and analyzed the biggest stars of the Euro. The Czechs will enter the tournament on Tuesday, June 18, with a match against Portugal.
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7:00 a.m. June 14, 2024 Share on Facebook
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Toni Kroos, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé | Photo: Photobank Profimedia | Source: Profimedia
From the nomination of Ivan Hašek, there are seven players in the squad who experienced the last Euro, where the Czech team reached the quarter-finals. Even after three years, the biggest star of the Czech national team is striker Patrik Schick, who had a great season with German Leverkusen. Bayer dominated the Bundesliga, the domestic cup and suffered the only defeat of the season in the Europa League final against Atalanta. The former AS Rome or Leipzig player is also the national team’s top scorer, having scored eighteen times for the national team.
At the last Euro, which was played three years ago, the Czech gunner scored five goals and finished second behind Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in the scoring table only because of the lower number of assists.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner will be one of Portugal’s great offensive weapons. He will be joined in attack by winger Rafael Leao from AC Milan, new English champion Bernardo Silva from Manchester City or Diogo Jota from Liverpool. The Portuguese will also have the oldest player of the entire Euro on the roster, defender Pepe will be 41 years old at the start of the championship, which will break the previous record.
The second opponent of the Czech footballers, Georgia, is making its debut at a major tournament after defeating Greece in the play-off final. Coach Willy Sagnolo’s team can rely on the comet of Napoli’s title season Chviča Kvaracchelija, Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili or Met striker Georges Mikautadze, the author of thirteen goals in Ligue 1.
And on Wednesday, June 26, the Czechs will face Turkey, which will be led by a pair of youngsters. Midfielder Arda Güler, only nineteen-year-old Real Madrid player, was injured for a significant part of the season, yet scored six goals in La Liga.
In Juventus this season, nineteen-year-old forward Kenan Yildiz, who became famous in Italy by imitating Turin legend Alessandro del Piero’s celebration after goals, was given a lot of space. The one for Gazzetta newspaper he let it be known that he wouldn’t mind if Yildiz wore the number 10 he wore as soon as possible.
Group A
The opening match of the entire championship will be provided by the home team of Germany and Scotland, the oldest team in the championship on average (28.3 years), led by defenders Kieran Tierny from Real Sociedad, where he is visiting from Arsenal, and Andrew Robertson from Liverpool. Group A also features Switzerland, whose nomination includes stars Granit Xhaka of Leverkusen and Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji, and Hungary with Liverpool’s creative midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai.
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The leader of the domestic German selection will be the best player of the last Bundesliga season, Florian Wirtz. The creative midfielder from the Leverkusen champions scored eighteen goals in 47 matches and significantly helped Bayer to an exceptional season. On the other hand, the best defender of this season’s Champions League, Mats Hummels from Dortmund, is missing in the nomination of coach Julian Nagelsmann, the German team will be led by three world champions from 2014 – Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos. It was the Real Madrid midfielder who let it be known that the home Euro would be the last event of his career.
Group B
Referred to as the “group of death” among experts. Italy, Spain, Croatia and Albania are vying for progress. For example, Sparta Prague midfielder Qazim Laci will experience interesting matches with the biggest favorites of the tournament. The winner of the qualification group of the Czech national team will also rely on Chelsea striker Armand Broja or Lazio defender Elseid Hysaj.
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In the final nomination of the defenders of the gold from Italy, there are nine members who dominated the last Euro. They are heading to this year’s tournament with a changed team structure and a new coach, Luciano Spaletti. The former Napoli coach has, for example, Inter Milan’s elite full-backs Federico Dimarco and Giovanni di Lorenzo at his disposal. PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma will wear the captain’s armband. Key midfielder Nicolo Barella from Inter Milan is also in the team, but he is suffering from muscle problems.
In the final selection of the Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente, San Sebastian surprisingly has the largest representation, six players from the Basque Country will go to the tournament. Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal, the youngest player in the tournament at the age of sixteen, will also visit Germany. The biggest stars of the Spanish selection will be the midfielders Rodri and Pedri, and the regular Alváro Morata, the author of 35 goals for the national team, will take the lead.
Although Croatia has been successful at the last two World Championships, it has never made it to the semi-finals at the European Championships. The team will be captained by legendary Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modrić. The 38-year-old Modrić first started at the EC in 2008, he also played in three other European championships. Among the 26 players, there are other traditional mainstays: goalkeeper Dominik Livaković, defender Joško Gvardiol and midfielder Marcelo Brozović.
Group C
Will Denmark avenge England’s semi-final loss from the last championship, or will England confirm their role as favourites? And will the choice of Slovenia surprise? Group C is completed by Serbia, where alongside attacking stars Dušan Vlahović and Aleksandar Mitrović, Sparta’s winger and Fortuna Liga’s best player Veljko Birmančević will try to establish himself.
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England go to the Championship with a star-studded squad. Coach Gareth Southgate can rely on Arsenal’s key duo of Declan Rice and Bukaya Saka, Chelsea’s comet of this season Cole Palmer or security in goal Jordan Pickford in the starting eleven.
But the main duo of Albion stars are the drivers of the big European clubs – Jude Bellingham was one of the main personalities of Real Madrid this year, who led the team to triumph in both La Liga and the Champions League, Harry Kane, who scored 36 goals in 33 league games after moving to Bayern matches, he added another eight goals in the Champions League and the same number in the Euro qualifiers.
Denmark would like to follow up on the last European Championship, where they ended only in the semi-finals in a duel with England. The northerners will rely on a reserve that is loaded with players from the Premier League – Brentford four Matthias Jorgensen, Christian Nörgaard, Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard or the experienced Christian Eriksen from Manchester United and Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg from Tottenham. Kasper Hjulmand’s nomination also includes former Slavia defender Alexander Bah.
In Slovenia’s nomination for the European Football Championship, the team’s biggest stars are goalkeeper Jan Oblak from Atlético Madrid and Leipzig gunner Benjamin Šeško. Former Bergamo offensive support Josip Iličić, who returned to the national team after two and a half years, will also go to the tournament in Germany.
Group D
France and the Netherlands are the teams expected to play for victory in Group D. Poland and group outsider Austria, who should not be underestimated, will try to surprise. The Austrians reached the round of 16 at the last Euro, but this year’s tournament will be missing due to injuries to David Alaba from Real Madrid and Xaver Schlager from Leipzig. Can the squad built around Marcel Sabitzer from Dortmund replace them sufficiently?
France’s current golden generation have reached the finals of three of the last four major tournaments and will be looking to add another trophy to their triumph at the 2018 World Cup. As captain, “Les Bleus” will be led by Kylian Mbappé, who has officially announced his transfer to Real Madrid. Mbappé confirmed his readiness for the tournament in the qualifiers, where he scored nine goals and five assists. In the offensive, he can be replaced by a star bench that includes names like Ousmane Dembélé, Olivier Giroud, Bradley Barcola or Kingsley Coman.
The Netherlands, winners of the last Euros held in Germany in 1988, go into the final tournament without midfield duo Frenkie De Jong of Barcelona and Teun Koopmeiners of Bergamo, who are struggling with injuries. The core of the team will be the trio from Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo, and veteran Memphis Depay is also nominated.
Poland already has a huge problem before the start of the tournament, the captain and icon of the national team Robert Lewandowski is struggling with a thigh injury and it is already certain that he will miss at least the opening duel with the Netherlands. For example, Jakub Kiwior from Arsenal, Piotr Zielinski from Napoli or the experienced Krzysztof Piatek from Basaksehir have to replace the biggest star of the Polish national team.
Robert Lewandowski had to come off after 31 minutes after picking up an apparent injury in Poland’s friendly match vs. Turkey.
Poland’s Euro campaign begins in six days. pic.twitter.com/BVmniWc4L3
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 10, 2024
Group E
The last performance belongs to Slovak group E, in which Belgium, Ukraine and Romania will also compete. The captain of the group’s outsider selection will be the man who, as one of the few players who has appeared in the jersey of both Prague “S”, midfielder Nicolae Stanciu. Coach Edward Iordanescu’s selection will also rely on Tottenham stopper Rado Dragusin or the son of Gheorghe Hagi Ianies, who plays for Scottish Rangers.
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Ukrainians can be proud of players who play at well-known European addresses – Andriy Lunin plays for Real Madrid, defenders Vitaly Mykolenko and Ilya Zabarnyi collect minutes in Everton and Bournemouth, and Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mykhailo Mudryk play for London’s Arsenal and Chelsea. The number one striker will be gunner Artem Dovyk, who secured the top scorer trophy with 24 goals in La Liga and fired Granada into the Champions League for the first time.
Four players from the Czech league were included by the coach of the Slovak national football team, Francesco Calzona, in the final nomination for the European Championship in Germany. They are midfielder Tomáš Rigo from Baník Ostrava, forwards Ivan Schranz from Slavia, Lukáš Haraslín from Sparta and Ľubomír Tupta from Liberec. The Slovaks also have one of the best defensive pairs of the tournament, in the opening match against Belgium, according to forecasts, captain Milan Škriniar from PSG and former Spartan Dávid Hancko from Feyenoord will appear.
The last tournament of the golden generation, or the right mix of experience and youth? Belgium under coach Domenico Tedesco are no longer among the absolute favorites for the tournament, despite having superstars in their squad led by Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and AS Roma’s Romelu Lukaku. Among the younger players worth watching at the tournament will be midfielders Artur Veermelen, who already belongs to Atletico Madrid at the age of 19, or Johan Bakayoko, the twenty-one-year-old star of the Dutch PSV.
The first two teams from the six groups of four and the best four from the third place will always go to the round of 16. The final will take place on July 14 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
The matches of the Czech team will be broadcast live by Radiožurnál and Radiožurnál Sport. You can hear other matches on Radiožurnál Sport, a complete overview of all championship duels, including news from the Euros, can be found on the iROZHLAS.cz server
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