So we are but a few days away from the start of the European Championships and every paper and sports website seems to be running a feature on who they think will take home the trophy.
There are the obvious choices such as the Spanish who are not only the reigning European Champions but also the reigning World Champions and I suppose they have to start as the pre-tournament favourites. They play a neat game with a mix of solid ball retention, quick build up play and blend this with some unique and world class solo football, I do however think that 3/1 is too short a price for a team missing some of its more prolific players most notably David Villa and Charles Puyol. Then there are the Germans which have a strong unity (Most of the players play for Bayern Munich), they are a team which always seem to perform on the biggest stage and are something of knockout football specialists, many people have asked me through my blog who I thought would win the tournament and initially I had the German team as the one to beat and to be honest it wouldn’t be a surprise if they pick up the trophy in a few weeks’ time, but again they are not much value if you’re looking to have a bet.
As with any major sports competition there is a certain patriotism that flows through the nation, we in England are forever harking back to 1966 and talking about the golden generations, there are ifs, buts and maybes but in the end the result always seems to be the same. For once there is very little pressure on the England squad and they may surprise a few people and have the bookies momentarily worried at a big price (16/1) but I think that quality will prevail and Quarter Finals is the best that can be expected.
If I’m ruling other teams out then I would say that the sorry state of Italian football will get the better of the Azzurri and they might even struggle to get out of their group, they were humbled last night by the Russian team but again I don’t expect much from them either as the just lack that bit of star quality it takes to win big games and consistently. The surprise package of the 2010 World Cup was the Dutch and like Spain did for so many years they have threatened many times without going on to gain the top honours, they have the Players to go very far but unlike the World Cup the groups and normally a lot harder to navigate so they may struggle.
All this leads me to my outside choice of winning……the French.