A quartet where everything is decided? Overview and forecast for Group C at Euro 2024

OBOZ.UA continues the series of acquaintances with Euro 2024 groups. The tournament is less than a week away and there are more and more intrigues. Thus, lets study the Group C.

Serbia: first attempt at the European Championships

Surprisingly for many, Serbia took second place in the qualifiers. On the one hand, the group was easy, with only Hungary competing. On the other hand, the Serbs lost twice, both times to the Hungarians. There were no particular problems with Montenegro, Lithuania, and Bulgaria. Serbia has participated in the continental championship five times, but all of them were in the days of Yugoslavia. As an independent state, the Serbs went to the World Cup three times (staying in the group), but they managed to make it to the Euros only this year.

We find a lot of interesting people in the lineup - Vlahović, Milinković-Savic, Mitrović, Ilić, Pavlović, Tadić, Lukić, Kostić - a lot of people with similar surnames. Despite such little experience in the European arena, Serbia has representatives of Serie A, the Bundesliga, the Ukrainian Premier League, and the Turkish Super League. Most of the Balkans are in Italy: Juve, Milan, and Fiorentina.

Most likely, the Serbs will not leave the group and are unlikely to take even third place. The players' experience should be enough to put up a fight against the favorite (after all, they have played with many of the English in the domestic arena or in European competitions), but the first game prepared England. It will depend on this meeting whether the team will be able to be a contender for the nervous Slovenes and Danes.

Slovenia: gathering the best players on the continent

In their qualifying group, the Slovenes surprised with an unexpectedly strong performance against the Danes, Finns and Kazakhs. The competition was very strong, as many as 4 teams out of six claimed the first two places. Slovenia qualified in the last round, thanks to Verbić's efforts to snatch victory from Kazakhstan in the last minutes.

It is Verbić who will be one of the ideological leaders of this phenomenal comeback because the last time the Slovenes were at the Euros was 24 years ago! A whole generation has grown up, new professionals of the highest level. For the first time, Oblak, Kurtić, Blažić, Sporar, Šeško, Lovrić, and Mlakar will go to the European tournament. Coach Keck has been testing experimental lineups against both Malta and Armenia and is still looking for the optimal eleven.

Players from Atletico, Leipzig, Fenerbahce, Bordeaux, Sturm and Udinese gathered together. Combining their radically different styles is an interesting task, given the equally different tasks in the domestic championships of their clubs from Spain or the mid-tier Greek clubs. Slovenia will not be able to win the group, but it will be easy to fight for second place. The key rival is Denmark, with whom fate brought them together in the quartet immediately after the qualifying group. Defeating them will mean a 50% guarantee of reaching the playoffs, especially since the face-to-face meeting will take place in the first round.

Denmark: ready to beat the Slovenes again?

But Denmark will not be lagging behind. The tenth anniversary participation in the Euro is bound to be successful. After the unsuccessful qualification in 2016, the Danes were far from being favorites of the tournament, but they reached the semifinals, where they lost (ironically) to England. They and the Slovenes were in their group as the Scandinavians had the upper hand.

Head-to-head meetings against Slovenia are historically on the side of Schmeichel and company. They have played Serbia only three times, with Denmark having the advantage, and the match against them will be the third in the Euro group. The impact of this match on the teams' positioning is hard to imagine. England is the only really tough opponent. If the Danes defeat the European finalist, another qualification is guaranteed. What does the application tell us about such an ambitious forecast?

The final 26 players of the Danish national team became known a week ago. Schmeichel will be in goal again, but the options for the field are very different: Hermansen, Bah, Andersen, Christensen, Højbjerg, Damsgaard, Olsen, Dreyer and the motivated Højlund. Coach Kasper Hjulmand is one of the few coaches who was given a choice of a sufficient number of representatives from all the top leagues in Europe. And another advantage will be that most of the players in the application somehow play in the Premier League, so it is clear how to counter England.

England: will the Euro favorite notice the rivals in the group?

The eleventh attempt to win the Euro seems to have reached its climax: England is on a par with France in terms of claims to win. The Whites fought for qualification in a group with us and Italy and advanced in a rather interesting way. The opponents seemed to have the opportunity to beat them and score, but Southgate and the team still didn't lose a single match. Although England is this year's absolute favorite, they have never won the Euro and definitely want to remove this shameful inscription from their history.

As for the squad, it's easier to point out who they are not counting on. Southgate did not call Henderson, Phillips, Chilwell, James, Pope, Colville and Sancho to the camp. It's a pretty bold move from the coach. At the same time, don't forget that England has players like Bellingham, Gomez, Stones, Walker, Alexander-Arnold, Jones, Rice, Foden, Kane, Maddison, Saka... The players are extremely charged, and Palmer also scored the first goal for the national team, so he will also have something to say after a fantastic EPL season. Can you imagine a mix of all these players from the top leagues?

Last year's campaign for the title was not memorable for the first appearance in the final. It is associated with Sterling, which is why most fans gave their sympathies to Squadron Azzurri. This time, the winger was not called up to the squad. And even without him, England will be very powerful: leaving the group is only a matter of time, especially when the Lions take the first 6 points. The forecast for the English is at least the semifinals. Then it's up to the coach and his attitude of the whole team.