After the host country, Germany, entered the competition perfectly on Friday, Euro-2024 picks up the pace on Saturday with three matches on the program, including a very tough first clash between Spain, three-time winner of the event, and Croatia.
The kick-off of this German Euro, which marks the return to a classic format after the 2021 edition split between 11 countries on the continent, was given on Friday evening in Munich and it was fantastic.
In front of more than 65,000 spectators and in a festive atmosphere, Germany more than succeeded in its debut, with a demonstration of strength and enthusiasm against Scotland, completely overwhelmed (5-1).
After the Mansschaft, which is more than ever the favorite of the competition with France and England, there are several serious outsiders who will now play their first match on Saturday.
At 5 p.m. at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Spain and Croatia will face off in what is the first very high-level clash of the competition. For this poster which has been becoming a “classic” of selection football for several years, it is difficult to determine a favorite.
Modric feels old
On the Spanish side, we will count on the (very) young legs of Barcelona’s Pedri (21 years old) and especially Lamine Yamal, sensation of last season and who will become, if he plays, the youngest footballer to play a match at the Euro, at 16 years and 11 months.
The Roja winger wasn’t even born when Croatian Luka Modric played his first international competition with his team, the 2006 World Cup in… Germany.
“When I hear all this, I feel really old… But what I can say is that years don’t matter. You’re never too young or too old. What matters is is what we show on the pitch”, smiled the little strategist of Real Madrid and Croatia on Friday.
Facing Spain, three times victorious in the continental tournament in 1964, 2008 and 2012, Croatia will of course rely on Modric, but not only that.
Building on its recent results on the world stage (finalist of the 2018 World Cup and third in the 2022 edition), Zlatko Dalic’s team is counting as always on a high-level midfielder and some world-class individuals , like Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol. What to do better than the round of 16 reached in 2016 and 2021?
Like Friday in Munich, the atmosphere should in any case be magnificent in Berlin. Supporters of the team wearing the checkered jersey should number in the thousands in the capital, with the Croatian community being large in Germany.
New Italian miracle?
In 2021, during a tournament postponed for a year due to the Covid pandemic and played in reduced capacity stadiums, it was Italy which won to everyone’s surprise, between two embarrassing absences at the World Cup.
On Saturday, the champion puts his title back on the line with a first match apparently within his reach against Albania, led by the short-lived Lyon coach Sylvinho, at 8 p.m. in Dortmund. But the Azzurri are in the same group as Spain and Croatia, B, probably the toughest of the tournament. Can they get out of this?
Three years ago, coach Roberto Mancini got the best out of a squad with limited potential. This year, his successor Luciano Spalletti would need a miracle of the same kind to go all the way. But with Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal, Nicolo Barella in midfield and Federico Chiesa or Gianluca Scamacca in attack, Italy still has some arguments.
Before the two matches in Group B, the first meeting of the day, less spectacular on paper, will pit Hungary and Switzerland against each other at 2 p.m. in Group A, that of Germany.
And as every Euro match has something to offer, there will still be some very good players on the pitch in Cologne, like the Swiss Granit Shaka and Xherdan Shaqiri or the Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai.
