The European Championship will finally start a year later than planned. 24 teams compete for the Henri Delaunay trophy in the sixteenth edition of the European Championship. For the first time, the tournament will take place in eleven different cities, with the Dutch national team playing its first three matches in Amsterdam. Will it give the Netherlands an extra push towards the title or will it be Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal tournament again? Will the star ensemble of France also win the European Championship after the world title or will this finally be the tournament of the golden generation of Belgium? Together with TOTO, we are already looking ahead.
France will start the European Championship as favorites according to many. In the last two final tournaments lesson Bleus to reach the final and at the last World Cup, the French settled relatively easily with Croatia in the last game. The team has remained fairly intact and even got an extra impulse in the attack with Karim Benzema. Another team that has a lot of experience in major tournaments is Belgium. Together with France, Belgium is one of the two teams that managed to reach the quarterfinals in the last three European Championships and World Cups. At these tournaments, Romelu Lukaku has already scored seven times and the 28-year-old attacker of Internazionale was in the form of his life last season with 24 goals in Serie A. Lukaku will not only attack the title with his team but also aces for the top goalscorer title. Have you already decided who will help his team to the cup?
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Another man who has already earned his stripes at the European Championship is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese will do everything in his power to prolong the European title with his side, something only Spain ever managed to do in 2012 (after the previous win in 2008). Ronaldo is already the player with the most appearances at European Championships (21) and with 9 goals he is also joint top scorer of all time of the tournament. The forward who lives for records has yet to share this title with Michel Platini, but it seems only a matter of time before Ronaldo tops the list single-handedly. At the last World Cup, however, it was not Ronaldo but Harry Kane who took the top scorer title. The striker is also the big man in England’s attack at this European Championship. Surprisingly enough, the Three Lions never reached the final of the European Championship. If the English do make it to the final battle this year, the team will immediately have an advantage, as the team did not lose any of the eleven games at a final tournament at Wembley prior to this tournament (7 wins, 4 draws).
Will one of these teams take the win and top scorer title at the European Championship or will another take it? View the odds here.
An outsider for the title is Italy. The team of coach Roberto Mancini is already 27 international matches unbeaten and recorded a goal difference of 74 goals for and 7 goals in this series. Besides Belgium, Italy was the only team to win all qualifiers for this European Championship. I Azzurri may kick off the tournament on Friday against Turkey at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Italy enters the game as favorite, but the Turks should not be underestimated either. In the European Championship qualifiers, Turkey conceded only three goals in ten matches, giving them the best defense in these matches together with Belgium. And they showed earlier this year that the team can also shoot out of their own way in the front during the 4-2 victory against the Netherlands.
Will Italy continue the unbeaten run or will the Turkish defense hold out in the opening game? View the odds here.
The Dutch national team will start the European championship on Sunday after seven years without a game in a final tournament against Ukraine. With Ukraine, Austria and North Macedonia, the the Dutch will not meet the strongest opponents on paper. North Macedonia makes its debut at a major tournament and Ukraine and Austria have never progressed beyond the group stage at a European Championship. Although the latter two, unlike the Netherlands, did qualify for the European Championship in 2016, these teams will also not like to look back on this tournament. Ukraine lost the three group matches to Germany, Northern Ireland and Poland, while Austria took just one point in their group match with Hungary, Portugal and Iceland. So perhaps the ideal group for the the Dutch to get in shape for the knockout phase.
Someone who is already in shape is Memphis Depay. The striker was directly involved in at least one goal in each of his last seven international matches (7 goals, 3 assists). goal of assist (5 goals, 5 assists). In total, Depay has now scored 26 goals in the Dutch national team, which means that he is only five goals away from the ten most scoring players in the Dutch. At the moment, brand new King TOTO Sneijder can still be found here with 31 goals. For anyone who thinks that Depay will take the Netherlands by the hand and attack Sneijder’s number, TOTO now has a special countdown action. The odds for the Netherlands win all group matches and Memphis Depay scores the most goals for the Netherlands, has been temporarily increased. Only on June 11th you will not get 5 times, but 7.5 times your bet back!
Do you think the Dutch will win all group matches and Memphis Depay will score the most goals for the Netherlands? Check out the special countdown action here!
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