After a seemingly interminable wait, Euro 2024 is finally here, and the first round of matches did not disappoint with fans having been treated to goals galore.
The tournament’s favourites have had mixed success. Germany, hosting the tournament for the first time since 1988, flew out of the blocks with a comprehensive 5-1 rout of Scotland, while England had a much more challenging opener, labouring to an uninspired 1-0 win over Serbia. The same can be said for Italy, who conceded the Euro’s fastest ever goal to Albania, the lowest ranked side this summer.
With the first round of matches now behind us, here is a run-down of the leading nations’ standings heading into Matchday 2.
England (ENG 1-0 SER)
England’s inaugural Euro 2024 performance brought back the readily repressed memories of overhyped, underperforming squads from tournaments gone by. The Three Lions seemed taken aback by Serbia’s stalwart, physical style of play, and made their opponents look much better than they really were.
Set up in a low block, Serbia spent much of the early stages sitting deep with most of the squad behind the ball, a formation which seemed to confuse England’s wealth of attacking talent. But they came out in the second half and looked the better side for much of it. Creativity and flair seemed entirely absent from England’s strategy. The team was stiff and nervous for long spells, with usual Phil Foden and Harry Kane struggling to make an impact on the match.
An early Jude Bellingham goal could be considered fortunate, as Bukayo Saka’s cross took a heavy deflection on its way into the box. If it were not for Marc Guehi, who looked perfectly comfortable in his first major tournament appearance, and Jordan Pickford, the scoreline could have read much more favourably for Serbia.
Kane’s anonymity is a cause for concern. The Bayern Munich striker managed a paltry two touches of the ball in the first half and only managed one clear cut chance in the match, which was denied by a smart reaction save from Predrag Rajkovic.
To fulfil supporter’s pre-tournament expectations, Gareth Southgate will need to push the boat out strategically and make full use of the talent available to him. To see the likes of Cole Palmer, Adam Wharton, and Anthony Gordon go unused while starters struggled and tired was beyond disappointing. While England will go into matchday two on top of Group C, one would imagine that a more talented side such as Denmark would have punished England’s opening day teething problems.
France (FRA 1-0 AUS)
On Monday evening, France became the latest big nation to produce an underwhelming first performance, with Austria offering impressively stiff competition. Les Bleus squandered a string of chances over the course of the evening, with Olivier Giroud making a particularly embarrassing blunder in the late stages, falling victim to an unfortunate bobble and firing over.
Kylian Mbappe garnered more attention for a grisly-looking broken nose than for his performance, but failed to find the back of the net despite creating a string of important chances. He did play the cross from which Maximilian Wober headed home into his own net, a testament to the constant threat he offers.
A particular highlight of the evening was N’Golo Kante’s return to the European stage after spending the 2023/24 season at Al Ittihad. The diminutive central midfielder rolled back the years to dominate the midfield as he did so well for Chelsea.
With Poland and the Netherlands on the horizon, France will be faced with two challenges at least equal to that which Austria posed, but Les Bleus should still be aiming for the top spot.
Germany (GER 5-1 SCO)
The tournament hosts have appeared in and won more European Championship finals than any other nation, and there is no good reason why Die Mannschaft cannot make it to the final for a seventh time. They sit top of Group A after a dominant opening day showing, recording a 5-1 victory over Scotland at the Allianz Arena in what was the largest ever winning margin in a Euros opener.
Germany have looked like a team reborn since Julian Nagelsmann signed on as manager in September 2023, and that momentum is only growing. Jamal Musiala starred on Friday evening, with Scotland struggling to find a response to his graceful dribbling and pinpoint passing. To see his talent paired with Florian Wirtz is a frightening prospect, and Scotland looked totally out of their depth as they struggled to cope with a relentless onslaught of German offense.
Coming into the tournament, Germany’s defence was highlighted as a potential weak spot, though it went largely untested as Scotland failed to register a shot on target, their one goal coming from a comically unfortunate deflection.
With impressive depth and a sizeable confidence boost behind them, it is hard to identify any major roadblocks between Germany and knockout qualification. The hosts are cruising.
Portugal (POR 2-1 CZE)
It took a late winner from substitute Chico Conceicao to ensure Portugal gained maximum points from their opening Euro 2024 clash with Czechia. Roberto Martinez’s side were very underwhelming in the first half and were punished in the second when a stunner from Lukas Provod found the top corner from distance.
But the Portuguese kept going and found a way to win, albeit needing a slice of luck via an own goal too. They deserved the victory, though, creating far more opportunities than their opponents and Martinez will be pleased with the character and determination his side showed to battle back from behind.
This is a squad stacked with talent and is no doubt one of the strongest in the competition. Martinez has found a way to fit his star players into the team and also has some exciting options off the bench if he needs to change the game. Portugal should be feeling very confident about their chances.
Spain (ESP 3-0 CRO)
Drawn into the dreaded ‘Group of Death’ and faced with a well-rounded Croatia side on opening day, Spain handled the occasion wel, bagging three goals before half-time in the ideal first game performance for Luis de la Fuente’s side.
The fans’ focus, of course, will be on Spain’s boy wonder Lamine Yamal. The 16-year-old Barcelona star, who is now the youngest player to grace a Euros pitch, bagged an assist as his pinpoint cross perfectly met Dani Carvajal’s run into the six-yard box, as domestic rivals combined to bolster a nation’s dreams of a first European Championship since 2012.
Also impressing was Fabian Ruiz, who showed his technical ability with a goal just after the half hour mark, creating space where none seemed to be available with three deft touches before placing his shot out of Dominik Livakovic’s reach. Between the sticks, Unai Simon also laid claim to a spot in the headlines, making five saves and denying Bruno Petkovic a consolatory penalty goal.
Facing one of the tournament’s toughest groups, Spain have laid their cards on the table and boast a strong hand.
Italy (ITA 2-1 ALB)
Despite ultimately grinding out a win over Albania to open their title defense, Italy’s pre-tournament concerns were on display after just 23 seconds, as a wayward throw-in was pounced upon and buried ruthlessly by Nedim Bajrami.
The Azzurri did well to recover, finding themselves back in the lead barely a quarter of an hour later thanks to a pair of goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella, though the tournament could not have got off to a worse start: to concede the fastest ever goal at a European Championship to the lowest ranked team in the competition is not a good look.
Albania missed late chances to equalise and Spalletti will have a job on his hands to steady the ship and prepare his squad for the challenges which are still to come. But they will be relieved to come out of their opening game with a victory.
Belgium (BEL 0-1 SLO)
Belgium are in the process of rebuilding following the end of their so called ‘golden generation’, and they have not been doing a bad job of it. That is, until they came up against Slovakia in Frankfurt.
This result marked the biggest upset of the group stage so far, though the Red Devils were at times unlucky as Romelu Lukaku had two goals ruled out, one for a tight offside offence and another for an accidental handball, courtesy of Lois Openda. Ultimately, though, the all-important legal equaliser never came, and Belgium have been left to pick up the pieces.
With high-flying Romania and a tricky Ukraine side still to play, there will be no easy games to come for the Red Devils and the pressure is very much on. Their poor finishing and decision making in the final third partnered with an error prone defence means there is real uncertainty about this side.
Netherlands (NED 2-1 POL)
The Netherlands can never be counted out on the European stage, and their maiden Euro 2024 victory over Poland goes to show exactly why that is. After conceding early from a sloppily defended corner, the Dutch rallied, equalising before halftime and eventually finding a winner through Wout Weghorst, who fired home with his first touch after coming on as a substitute in the 81st minute.
Despite ultimately getting the result, the performance from the Oranje could certainly be improved upon. The front three of Cody Gakpo, Memphis Depay and Xavi Simons were blunt, causing danger but ultimately failing to convert the host of chances they created. The equalising goal from Gakpo was heavily deflected on its way past Wojciech Szczesny and it took Weghorst to enter the field for them to finally make their pressure count.
While the Dutch side came away with three points, there is work to be done, predominately in refining the attack. The building blocks are there, and the strike force could be one of the tournament’s best with a little polish. They will have a much harder time breaking down France in their next fixture than they did Poland, and likely will not be able to rely on the same levels of possession as they take on Les Bleus.
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