With the world’s top footballing leagues nearing their climax, all eyes will soon be turning to France for the 2016 European Championships.
Let’s take a quick look ahead to what we could see in the tournament’s Group A.
France
The French national team will be hoping to win their third European Championship this year in the country’s fourth time as hosts of UEFA’s premier international tournament. They will aim to be the first victorious hosts since the French side of 1984, and Didier Deschamps’ side is well poised to come close.
After putting in a respectable performance at the 2014 World Cup where not much was expected of them, ‘Les Blues’ are one of the favourites this year with a dynamic, pacy, attacking team featuring the likes of Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann.
The French squad is still dealing with the lingering blackmail saga involving Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena possibly interfering with team chemistry, but the fact remains that this is France’s best chance at glory since the 2006 World Cup.
Deschamps also has the unenviable task of trying to select a starting eleven of players who have flourished this season for their domestic clubs without having a lengthy period of time together at national level as France skipped the qualification tournament as hosts of Euro 2016.
Group stage prediction: first
Romania
The Romanians will be making their fifth appearance at the European Championships after maintaining the best defensive record of the qualifying tournament. That statistic can be somewhat misleading though as the ‘Tricolorii’ finished second behind Northern Ireland in what was the weakest of the qualifying groups, scoring 11 goals in their ten matches.
Romania has only one victory at the Euros which came on their run to the quarter finals at Euro 2000, and they will struggle to score against, and keep out, the better teams such as France.
Euro 2016’s updated 24-team format means for the first time four out of the five best performing third place teams in the group stages will qualify for the next round, so qualification to the knockout stages is a real possibility for the Romanian national team.
Group stage prediction: Third
Switzerland
The Swiss have never made it past the group stages of a European Championship tournament, but will be confident to progress from Group A. They reached the knockout rounds of the 2014 World Cup and qualified second behind England in their qualifying group, providing the groundwork for a good run at Euro 2016.
Switzerland is lead at the back by Juventus defender Stephan Lichtsteiner and have quality in the midfield featuring the likes of Granit Xhaka (Borussia Monchengladbach), Xherdan Shaqiri (Stoke City) and Gokhan Inler (Leicester City).
However, it is their lack of firepower upfront which will limit how far Switzerland can progress in the tournament.
Group stage prediction: Second
Albania
Albania surprisingly qualified for the country’s first major men’s tournament by finishing second in their group behind Portugal (who they defeated 1-0), in a difficult group that also featured Denmark and Serbia. ‘The Eagles’ struggled to score against teams other than Armenia and will hope to soak up pressure from their more fancied opponents at the tournament and attack with long balls and from set pieces.
They are the second highest priced underdogs after Northern Ireland according to the bookmakers, and while they will not be tournament whipping boys, anything past qualifying for the tournament is just a bonus for this side’s already incredible run of results
Group stage prediction: Fourth
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