⚽️EURO 2024! (Feat. Dan Bardell)
Croatia-Spain, Germany-Scotland, England-Serbia, and more!
The European Championships. Back in 2012, Xavi said this tournament is more difficult to win than the World Cup, and he would know: he won both. The Spanish orchestra he conducted from 2008 to 2012 was probably the greatest team ever assembled, and it makes an appearance all these years later on this week’s podcast. By contrast, the current Spain squad is young and exciting—there’s a 16-year-old on the right wing who brought along his homework—but they’re hardly favorites to take the trophy in Germany.
Joining us to preview this glorious opening weekend is Dan Bardell, a broadcaster for Sky Sports and TalkSport. Scotland vs Germany is the Friday opener, then Serbia provides a tricky first matchup for England, but first we’ll have one of the marquee matches of the group stage when the aforementioned Spain meets Croatia in Berlin. Plus, I make the case that New York should abandon its workaholic culture for these games in the same way London does…..
You can also check out the show on Spotify, Audible, Amazon, and Acast.
If you’re enjoying the podcast, leave us a rating and review on your platform of choice and share it with a football fan in your life!
———————————
FRIDAY
GERMANY vs SCOTLAND
3pm ET, 8pm GMT
After what’s sure to be a bizarre and unsettling opening ceremony—it always is—we’ll have the very first match of this splendid competition. Get the full preview in the pod above, but the short version is that Scotland could be a scrappy customer in Group A and it may be time for the sleeping giants of Germany to wake up and compete at a major tournament again.
SATURDAY
HUNGARY vs SWITZERLAND
9am ET, 2pm GMT
The other half of Group A will battle it out here, and I’ve got both of these two down as true dark horses. Switzerland have a wacky knack of getting into the knockout stages at every major tournament—they’ve escaped their group at every World Cup and EUROs since 2014—and they’ve got serious quality in midfield and at the back. As for Hungary, I just get a vibe they’re going to be a greater-than-the-sum-of-their-parts situation. You can get more on this in the podcast as well!
SPAIN vs CROATIA
12pm ET, 5pm GMT
This is a clash of generations in Group B, with Gen Z Spain facing Old Man Croatia in a fairly deathly group that also includes Italy. Dan and I went deep on this one in the show.
ITALY vs ALBANIA
3pm ET, 8pm GMT
The other two in Group B will rendezvous shortly after. The Italians are firm favorites but you never know quite what you’re going to get with them. They seem to either not quality for a major tournament or win it. Albania is the real wild card in this group, however: their squad does not boast the household names of their competitors, but they’ve got players sprinkled all across Europe’s top leagues and we love a surprise package.
SUNDAY
POLAND vs NETHERLANDS
9am ET, 2pm GMT
The story for Poland is straightforward: be difficult to beat and look to Robert Lewandowski to fire you forward. The Netherlands are a continual conunundrum, always very talented and rarely present at the business end of a major tournament. They’re missing midfield maestro Frenkie de Jong, a bit of a body blow, but they’re ludicrously good at the back with Virgil Van Dijk, Nathan Aké, Micky van de Ven, and Denzel Dumfries. Creating chances could be more of a problem for the Dutch, but they should keep some clean sheets—the key to any tournament run.
SLOVENIA vs DENMARK
12pm ET, 5pm GMT
This is not the standout fixture of the weekend, but by this point we’ll all just be mainlining football matches and you’ll probably have it on. Benjamin Šeško is an extremely hot commodity on the transfer market this summer, even if it appears he may well stay with RB Leipzig, and he will provide the big threat for the Slovenians. Jan Oblak has been one of the best shot-stoppers in Europe for a decade now, and he may need to come up with a save or two when the Danes come calling.
Christian Eriksen is back in the European Championships three years on from his collapse with cardiac arrest at EURO 2020, and he will be the chief creator for Manchester United’s Rasmus Højlund up front. The Danish backline is strong, too, with Joachim Andersen, Simon Kjær, and Andreas Christensen ahead of Kasper Schmeichel, but I have the sneaking suspicion that the best days may be behind this Danish generation.
SERBIA vs ENGLAND
3pm ET, 8pm GMT
Dan and I went deep on the particular threat Serbia may pose to England on Sunday with their twin towers up front, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dušan Vlahović, though it’s still unclear exactly how Serbia will line up. Dušan Tadić will certainly be the schemer-in-chief, and Sergej Milinković-Savić will be eager to show he hasn’t lost a step since he went over to the Saudi Pro League.
England are England: one of the best squads in the tournament, finalists in the last European Championships, and still a bit of an unknown quantity.⚽︎