Monday, June 21, 2021 at 06:48• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 06:52

Valentijn Driessen does not rule out the possibility that Belgium will win the European Championship and Kevin De Bruyne will be named Player of the Tournament. The chief of football of The Telegraph finds it paradoxical that the number one in the world since September 20, 2018 (!) is often put away as a dark horse for this tournament. The team of national coach Roberto Martínez is already certain of the eighth finals of the tournament as number one, two or three of Group B.

“The team will only get better if strong holders such as De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Axel Witsel get fitter and come closer to a starting place. The former can be the deciding factor in dividing the prices,” Driessen said in his column in the newspaper on Monday. “How De Bruyne manipulated the match image at Denmark – Belgium and led the Red Devils to victory after a hopeless first half, shows that he has the potential to become player of the tournament and more importantly: Belgium the first prize in to deliver the history.”

“After three years as number one in the world, the team even owes it to its position.” Driessen thinks Germany, England and Portugal are performing too inconsistently to win the tournament, while the question is whether Spain will survive the group stage. “All those little Italian legs in the attack and old legs in the defense are not going to sustain that terribly high, impressive pace of the first three group matches at the highest level for seven games,” says Driessen, who also points out that the home advantage of the Italians after the group stage disappears.

“France plays on the saver mode from the first minute and can afford it with quality players such as Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Karim Benzema and Antoine Griezmann.” Driessen thinks that the Netherlands only has a chance against the favorites if Memphis Depay breaks loose and does not foresee that Denzel Dumfries, despite his dream start, will be named Player of the Tournament. “Mediocre opponents like Ukraine and Austria had no answer to Dumfries with their weak coaches.”

“While many Eredivisie trainers have known for a long time how to contain the danger Dumfries when they play against PSV. ( . . . ) Nevertheless, Dumfries’ European Championship performance is great, truly credited to him, a boost to his market value and undoubtedly ensures a red carpet rolled out to a top European club. But in the end, Depay’s class will determine how far the Dutch can go at this European Championship,” Driessen emphasizes.

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