Euro 2024 – Group F Preview

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Group F Overview

Group F: Portugal, Czech Republic, Turkey, Playoff winner C

Group F current FIFA ranking

The favourite in Group F is undoubtedly Portugal. A soccer nation that has been in the top 10 in the world for quite some time now. However we will probably witness the end of an era at Euro 2024. The era we refer to is Cristiano Ronaldo’s time in the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo, who turned 39 in February, is unlikely to play any major championships after the Euros. In two years he will be 41 and a World Cup swansong is looking doubtful, even given his amazing longevity.

Behind Portugal, the Czech Republic and Turkey are appear evenly matched and their current world rankings support this. Group F’s fourth team will be determined on March 26 when the final in Playoff Path C is decided. What we know right now is that it will be the winner between Georgia/Luxembourg and Greece/Kazakhstan. If you look at the betting companies’ odds, Georgia and Greece are the two most likely.

Favourite: Portugal

Group favourite Portugal are making their eighth straight European Championship finals. From Euro 1996 onwards, the Portuguese have never failed to progress to the European Football Championship. What is even more impressive is that inthe first seven editions of those championships Portugal have progressed to the quarterfinal or further each time. In the previous European Championship, which was played in 2021, this sequence ended when they exited in the round of 16. Which was highly unexpected as Portugal was one of the main favourites after winning the tournament in 2016.

Ahead of this year’s European Championship finals, expectations are quite high for this Portugal. In the European Championship qualifiers, they were the only nation with a 100% record. In ten games, there were ten wins with a slightly improbable goal difference of +34. Other teams in the group were Slovakia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liechtenstein. With 36 goals, the Portuguese were the top scorers the qualifiers and, with only two goals conceded, they also possessed the vest defensive stats.

Cristiano Ronaldo was unsurprisingly Portugal’s top scorer in the European Championship qualifiers with 10 goals. Bruno Fernandes chipped in with six goals and eight assists.

Portugal aere seen as a strong contender to win Euro 2023, and if they continue in the same manner as in the qualifying campaign they could repeat their 2016 triumph. In addition to the aforementioned Ronaldo and Fernandes, Portugal can call upon stars such as Joao Felix, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo. 

Czech Republic

Like Portugal, the Czech Republic are playing in their eighth consecutive European Championship finals. Last time they made the quarter finals where they lost to Denmark after disposing of the Netherlands in the round of 16.

The road to this year’s European Championship was via a second place in the qualifying group behind the surprise winners Albania. In total, there were 15 points in 8 games, which gives a scoring average under 2.0 points per game. With this average, the Czech Republic were the second worst runner-up to advance after Italy.

In Ivan Hašek’s European Championship squad, we find a lot of interesting names, but in our opinion, there are above all three names that stand out a little extra: Tomáš Souček, West Ham, Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen and Tomas Cvancara, Mönchengladbach. With his five goals, Schick was joint top scorer in Euro 2020 with Cristiano Ronaldo  If, however, they are to make the top two, they must improve on the level they displayed in qualifying, where they struggled for consistency.

Turkey

Since the successes in the 2002 World Cup and and Euro2008 when they won bronze medals, it has been quite a difficult time for the Turkish national team. In Euro 2012, Turkey failed to qualify for the finals and in the following two championships, they were eliminated in the group stages. Furthermore they have failed to reach the World Cup Finals in the last five attempts. But maybe things are about to turn a bit for Turkish football. In the Nations League, they stepped back to the B division after being down to the C level, and in the European Championship qualifiers, Turkey grabbed first place in the group ahead of Croatia. During the autumn, the host nation Germany was also defeated 3-2 in Berlin.

Turkey have a strong team ethic and are captained by Inter’s Hakan Çalhanoğlü, iThere is a lot of potential in the squad and it will be interesting to see what youngsters like Kenan Yıldız, Cengiz Ünder and Cenk Özkacar can achieve if they are given the chance by boss Vincenzo Montella. They are a side capable of making life difficult for anyone and need to be given respect.

Georgia

Georgia’s dramatic win over Greece on penalties in the playoff finals secured their place in Euro 2024. Georgia are a relatively young football nation, playing their first international in 1990. This will be their first major championship.

Some of the most prominent players from Georgia include Mikheil Meskhi, a legend in Georgian football, who played in the 1950s and 60s and is considered one of the best footballers in the country’s history. Another legendary player for Georgia is Georgi Kinkladze, a creative midfielder who made a name for himself in the 1990s for his technical excellence, playing for clubs such as Manchester City and Ajax.

Making Euro 2024 is clearly Georgia’s biggest success in men’s football and it gives them hope of making the 2026 World Cup.

For Georgia, the Euros is about learning, but at the same time we must remember that they have upset bigger nations in the past and further advancement from Group F, where they face Portugal , the Czech Republic and Turkey , does not seem completely out of the question.

Group F – Table

Latest table for Group F:

Group F Odds

Latest Group F odds from bet365

Game schedule and venues

Group F begins with the match Turkey against Playoff Winner C at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Three hours later, it’s kick-off for Portugal – Czech Republic in Leipzig. In total, matches will be played at four different locations in Group F. The other locations are Gelsenkirchen and Hamburg

Summary of Group F

Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez has previously led Belgium’s golden generation and was tasked with getting the best out of a talented squad. While they frequently performed well they did not win any silverware. Now he finds himself in a similar situation with Portugal, a team full of big-name players – Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Rúben Dias, João Félix, Diogo Jota and Cristiano Ronaldo – who are sometimes difficult to convert into a cohesive team.

You shouldn’t draw too big conclusions from the qualification, as Portugal played in a very simple group on paper, but 30 points out of 3 still takes some doing.

If Martinez succeeds in the task of getting the whole team to function as a collective, Portugal could be genuine contenders. It looks like a tight contest between Turkey and the Czech Repuplic for the second qualifying spot.

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