The 2024 European Football Championship begins on June 14th in Munich, where host country Germany meets Scotland. This was the result of the draw organized by UEFA at the Hamburg Philharmonic Hall yesterday, which scheduled Spain’s debut against Croatia the next day, June 15th. It will be the start of Group B, in which Spain will face Italy in Gelsenkirchen on June 20th and Albania in Düsseldorf on June 24th. The first six leaders in each group and the four runners-up with the most points and the best goal average qualify for the round of 16. The final will take place on July 15th in Berlin.
“We have neither preferences nor hobbies, in a European Championship all rivals are complicated,” declared Luis de la Fuente proudly upon his arrival at the gala. Luck brought him some surprises. Croatia, semi-finalist of the last World Cup and finalist of the second last one; and Italy, champions of the last European Cup, which they won at Wembley in 2022. The very same rivals that Spain faced and defeated in the final stages of the Nations League played last June to the delight of Luis de la Fuente, who lifted his first trophy as head of the senior team.
Against Italy and Croatia in the Nations League, Spain’s players made up for some of the bad luck they suffered at the World Cup in Qatar, where they were eliminated by Morocco in the round of 16. Now luck offers them even more revenge: Italy eliminated Spain from the last European Championship on penalties in the semi-finals.
“Yes, the draw could have been better,” admitted Luciano Spalletti, the Italian coach. “We would have liked a gentler start. But all of us who love this game enjoy comparing ourselves with teams like Spain.” Italy’s history of confrontations with Spain in the final stages of the European Cup still speaks in Italy’s favor, at least if you only take regular playing time into account and exclude penalties: two wins, four draws and one defeat. The only Azzurra defeat, the memorable 0-4 in the Kiev final, gave Xavi and Iniesta’s team legendary status and marked La Roja’s upward trajectory this century against a rival in the biggest identity crisis to date his fans remember.
Italy qualified for this European Championship in agonizing fashion on the last matchday of the regular phase with a 0-0 draw against Ukraine, which also earned ten points. The team had just experienced a shake-up when Roberto Mancini, the 2021 champion coach, left his position to emigrate to Saudi Arabia, where he was offered the coaching position, which multiplied exponentially – he will be worth almost 30 million euros a year until 2026 earn – the salary they paid him in Florence.
His successor was Luciano Spalletti. The last Serie A champion with Napoli has reached such a level of wisdom that the technical secretariats of Europe’s most important clubs rank him among the five most capable coaches in existence. The weakened Italian youth team presents him with a huge challenge. With Verratti effectively retiring in the Qatar League, the team is looking for credentials for a defense it can build and score in an attack prone to dry spells. Jorginho, Arsenal’s 31-year-old reserve midfielder, and Federico Chiesa, Juventus’ inexhaustible winger, form their undisputed leading pair on the pitch.
Holland, France and Austria
Albania, which sent Poland to the play-offs, will be the weakest opponent in Group B, the quartet that will bring the championship into orbit with Spain-Croatia. The event is presented as a new mystery for the Croats, this band ruled by two veterans and a Methuselah, who with each passing year take up the gauntlet of those who question its validity. The old Luka Modric, the masterful Marcelo Brozovic, who moved from Inter to Saudi Al-Nasser, and the versatile Mateo Kovacic, now playing for City, dismantled Brazil piece by piece in Doha the last time they were up for a big one have registered for the championship. Gvuardiol was a great central apprentice who will come to Germany with two further courses. With your help, the Croats in Berlin will give their endless journey another twist: they will meet Rodri and Pedri.
No group promises more than B. If anything, D, which brings together France, Holland, Austria and a fourth team that – like two other teams – is waiting to qualify via the play-offs. France, champions and runners-up at the last World Cup, travel to Germany strengthened by a long process of trial and error that has consolidated the leadership of Deschamps on the bench and Mbappé and Griezmann on the field. The memory of the catastrophic European Championship 2022 serves as fuel for them.
playoffs
Germany traditionally qualified for the Eurocup without taking part. At the time of yesterday’s draw in Hamburg, a further 20 teams, each from the first two of the ten qualifying groups, had secured a place in the final round. The three places still to be awarded will be decided in a play-off format.
The play-offs will be held from March 21st to 26th in a three-team system with four teams each. In the first draw, Poland will face Estonia and Wales will face Finland; in the second, Israel with Iceland and Bosnia with Ukraine; and in the third, Georgia with Luxembourg and Greece with Kazakhstan. Each draw will produce two finalists and one qualifier who will travel to Germany in June.
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