Who Are the Favourites to Win Euro 2024?
2024 will see the UEFA European Football Championship head back to Germany, although this time we’ll see games played in the former East German city of Leipzig for the first time. Will the hosts win their fourth title to move clear of Spain as the most frequent winner of this event?
The Full Details of the Tournament
The Euro 2024 games will be played at ten venues across Germany. The tournament begins on June 14 and ends a month later July 14, which is the date the final will be played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. 24 teams will be taking part, with the final three to be confirmed after the playoffs to be held in March, but who is most likely to win?
With the Euros getting closer you can wager on results like the eventual winner or whether a certain team will qualify from their group. Anyone interested in sport betting in Canada can check out the latest football odds for the upcoming games in Germany, as well as the odds on many other sports and events. With teams such as Iceland and Wales far down the odds list, we can concentrate on taking a closer look at those countries currently listed among the overall favourites.
Germany
Could the hosts win Euro 2024 in front of their own fans? They’re certainly among the favourites but the last of their wins came way back in 1996 when they won the Euros held in England. Since then, their best performance was in reaching the final in 2008, where they lost to Spain by one goal to zero.
Germany is joined by Scotland, Switzerland, and Hungary in Group A, meaning that they will be playing their early games in the Allianz Arena in Munich followed by the HPArena, Stuttgart and then the Waldstadion in Frankfurt. The appointment of Julian Nagelsmann hasn’t immediately solved the problems that the team has had since the 2018 World Cup, but their fans will be hoping that their encouragement help to drive on experienced stars like Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos to victory.
France
Ranked second in the world behind the Argentine team that they lost to so dramatically in the World Cup in Qatar, France is clearly among the hot favourites to triumph in Germany. They won the World Cup in 2018 while in the Euros their two victories to date came in 1984 and 2000. France reached the final on home soil in 2016 but lost to Portugal on that occasion.
There’s no doubt who their key player is, as Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick against Argentina in Qatar to become the player with the most goals in World Cup Finals. He’s also the top scorer in the history of Paris Saint Germain and has shown few signs of being unsettled by the almost constant debates over his future. He’s finally agreed to join Real Madrid and will head to the Spanish capital after the Euros are completed, but the question is whether he’ll do it with another winner’s medal in his luggage.
Italy
There’s no doubt that Italy surprised the sporting world by winning the 2020 Euros. They did it by working hard and without any of the huge stars that Italian teams of the past have boasted of. Can they repeat the feat by winning it again in Germany? Their last win in the tournament before 2020 came back in 1968 and they’ve been runners-up on two other occasions.
Their place in the tough Group B with Croatia, Spain, and Albania certainly doesn’t help Italy’s chances of getting to the final again. Coach Luciano Spalletti is hopeful of doing well but – 2020 apart – this famous footballing nation has struggled in recent years to get close to the heights they’ve reached in the past. Having said that, the Italians have shown countless times in the past that they know exactly how to grind out wins in this type of competition.
Portugal
The winners in 2016 are now led by head coach Roberto Martínez, who will be hoping to give them their second win in this competition. All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo as their veteran talisman is likely to be playing in his last major international tournament in Germany. Among Ronaldo’s many achievements, he’s the top goal scorer of all time, so it would be fitting if he went out with a medal as few expect him to play in the World Cup 2026.
Portugal was drawn out of the hat alongside the Czech Republic and Türkiye in Group F, where the third member will be one of the winners of the playoffs. Some fans felt that it was the end of an era when Ronaldo was left out of the World Cup match against Switzerland and his replacement, Goncalo Ramos, went on to score a hat-trick in a 6-1 win. Yet, Cristiano has won back his place in an exciting Portuguese team that also has talents like Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes.
Any of the teams mentioned could win this competition, while we can’t rule out an outsider like Croatia or Spain hitting form and taking the trophy home with them.
