European Championship Group C - Teams & Odds Analysis

European Championship Group C - Teams & Odds Analysis

European Championship Group C, in my opinion, is the weakest of them all. 
The Netherlands is around 8th place in overall winning odds. North Macedonia and Austria are in the bottom ten according to odds.
The winner of the European Championship Group C, probably the Netherlands, will go against the 3rd place from the group D, E, or F.

The F group is a total massacre, a death group of all the death groups with Portugal, France and Germany.

European Championship Group C - Netherlands

The Netherlands didn't qualify for the 2018 World Cup and to Euros 2016 final tournament. The Netherlands didn't qualify for the last two major tournaments.
They were in the semi-finals in Brazil in the 2014 WC, and this should be the main human right for the Dutch fans to see their team playing in every semi-final, at least.
6-7 years ago, they were the team to be afraid of, the team playing for the finals in every major tournament. What a turn around.
16th in FIFA ranking.

Potential squad

Winning the European Championship Group C is a must for their confidence for sure. It won't get any easier from there. 
All football fans remember the team with Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie demolishing the defences. Good old days.

The current squad lack this kind of star power. Squad value around 463m.
There are some influential key players, and let's say that two world-class players, but the depth of the squad is no close to what it used to be.

Goalkeepers - Tim Krul from Norwich has been the main goalkeeper in the recent games. Only 14 games for the national team and plays in England Championship.
Despite this, he has had a lot of seasons in the Premier League.
The backup should be Jasper Cillessen. He plays in the Spanish league but has been a backup for the club as well.

Defenders - The only guaranteed starter in the defence, an absolute world-class player, may miss the tournament due to injury.
Virgil van Dijk lost the whole season, and even if he makes it to the squad, he is not in good fit.
Usual suspects as central defenders are Matthijs de Ligt (26 games, 2 goals) from Juventus, Nathan Ake (19 games, 2 goals) from Manchester City, Stefan de Vrij (43-3) from Inter and Joel Veltman (27-2) from Brighton.
 21 year old Sven Botman has had a breakout season for Lille and pushing PSG to give up a title in France. Denzel Dumfries have 17 games and plays for PSG.
Hans Hateboer should have done enough to get the nod. Last 4 seasons in Atalanta as the main team player and good experience in Champions League against the top teams. Highly-rated youngster Owen Wijndal plays in Netherlands league, Alkmaar. 21 years old and can get a chance on winger position.
Kenny Tete and Patrick van Aanholt are playing in Premier League as the main team players. Many decent options were not mentioned here, but they could line up 2 defensive lines based on players from the top 5 leagues.

Midfielders - Frenkie de Jong and Georginio Wijnaldum has been consistent started in the midfield. 73 games and 22 goals for the Wijnaldum (Liverpool) and 25 games and 1 goal for de Jong (Barcelona).
Donny van de Beek was considered as one of the top talents just a season before joining Manchester United from Ajax. The young Ajax team had a fantastic run in the Champions League - Donny, Frankie and Mathijs de Ligt were bought by big clubs for big money. Donny hasn't found the form for Manu and has played only in 16 games, mostly coming in from the bench. All 3 in top shape would be a superb midfield.
Marten de Roon (Atalanta) and Davy Klaassen (Ajax) have been in the rotation as starters in recent games. Both have around 20 games for the national games, but there are not many players with more experience.

Attackers - Memphis Depay is the man to look for the goals. 23 goals in 63 games for the national team and one of the most feared strikers in the French league for Lyon (19 goals this season).
34 years old Ryan Babel has 10 goals in 69 games. He plays in Turkey for Galatasaray.
Another experienced winger is Quincy Promes from Spartak Moscow. 7 goals in 47 games and fights for the place with Steven Bergwjin from Spurs.
The silky winger has 19 games this season.
Target man Luuk de Jong has 8 goals in 35 games for the Netherlands.
He had 28 goals in the Netherlands league before moving to Sevilla in the Spain league. 10 goals in 2 seasons in the league and obviously finds it harder there. 
I hope they add Wout Weghorst to the squad. Only 4 games so far, but in superb form in Bundesliga. Three last seasons with Wolfsburg and averages around 18 goals per season. Can't see any reasons of him being behind Luuk.

Overall expectation

The favourite of the European Championship Group C, 16th in FIFA ranking and around 10th in odds to lift the trophy. With fully fit Virgil and Donny the odds would be shorter for sure. So I wouldn't say that football is 'dead' and the future is dark after the golden boy's era. Some young talent raising their heads and 3-4 top talented young core players already playing weekly in top leagues for top teams. Ajax youth system still providing some enormous talent and the team is not very far from being in the top 5 once again. van de Beek, de Ligt, de Jong and some upcoming youngsters and they are again considered as at least semi-finals contenders in the WC. Should walk through from the European Championship Group C.

European Championship Group C - Ukraine

Ukraine and Austria are priced very closely to qualify from the European Championship Group C. Both teams with odds around 1.4.
The total market value of the team around 180m and FIFA ranking 24. In the last Euros, Ukraine got 0 points and 0 goals.

This time they will get better results, I'm sure. They didn't qualify to the last WC but had a great run of results to these Euros.
They won the group ahead of Portugal and Serbia with a goal difference 17-4. IN the Nations League they were relegated to Division B but showed
that they can score goals again. 5 goals in the group with Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

Potential squad

I would rank this potential squad in third place in European Championship Group C. A lot of international experience in the midfield, and a lot of goals.
Few key players playing in higher leagues, but the majority still in the local league.

Goalkeepers - Georgi Bushchan has been the goalkeeper in recent games. 5 games only for the national team and plays for Dynamo Kyiv.
22 years old future prodigy Andriy Lunin is on the Real Madrid list but hasn't got a game there.

Defenders - 5 defenders with over 10 games for the national team and 4 of them from the local league.
The exception is Eduard Sobol from Club Brugge and the Belgium league.

Midfielders - Midfield should be the best-covered position. Andriy Yarmolenko has 92 games and 38 goals for the team. He plays for West Ham United but struggles with injuries recently, and the last time he scored in Premier League was 2 seasons ago.
Another goal machine is Yevhen Konoplyanka, with 21 goals in 86 games and plays for Shakhtar Donetsk.
Had some stronger seasons in German Bundesliga for Schalke, but back at home now. Oleksandr Zinchenko plays in the midfield, but at home club Manchester City he plays as left defender/winger. Rotation player in the Premier League, but let's be honest, it's still better than being a full season player in the local league.
Not everyone can get a place in Manchester City.

Ruslan Malinovsky is playing in Italy for Atalanta and is the starter in the team. 33 games and 7 goals in this season in Serie A and a leader of this team for sure. Viktor Kovalenko moved to Atalanta also during this year and have got 1 game so far.

Attackers - The most experienced striker is Roman Yaremchuk from Gent. 18 goals this season and 7 for the national team in 22 games. In recent games, his partner in crime has been Junior Moraes from Shakhtar Donetsk, 1 goal in 11 games for the national team and 34 years old.

Overall expectation

European Championship Group C is one of the weakest group and as also the odds suggest, Ukraine should get through the group.
Definitely few levels under the Netherlands and for me, weaker than Austria also. If they will finish in 3rd place, they will get someone who won the group, so going further from the first round of playoffs would be huge for them.

European Championship Group C - Austria

Austria's squad value is around 273m, and FIFA ranking is 23. They haven't qualified to any WC final tournaments since 1998, and in their last Euro final tournament, their journey finished in the group stage.
They haven't had a game against any top team in their recent games. Lost against Denmark 0-4 in their last international game and managed to beat Romania and Greece, for example.

Potential squad

As expected, most of their squad players play in the German Bundesliga mixed with players from the local league.
Closest to some world-class talent potential is a defender from Bayern Munich, David Alaba.
For the people who follow German Bundesliga, there's a lot of familiar names and definitely some class players in the league.

Goalkeepers -In their recent games, the main goalkeeper has been Alexander Schlager from Lask, the Austrian league. Heinz Lindner has 28 games against Alexander's 6 games. 

Defenders - David Alaba has won everything that's possible with Bayern Munich, been there for several seasons and has 77 games 14 goals for the national team.
Aleksandar Dragovic has 89 games and plays for Bayern Leverkusen. Martin Hinteregger has 53 games and plays for Eintracht Frankfurter and has been in Bundesliga as a starter for several seasons.
Stefan Lainer and Philipp Lienhart are playing in Borussia and Freiburg as starters. A good core playing in Bundesliga as starters and a decent lineup.

Midfielders - The main players in the midfield should also be all from the German Bundesliga and starters. Standout players are Marcel Sabitzer from Leipzig and Christoph Baumgartner from Hoffenheim.
Sabitzer has 8 goals in 48 games and has had 9 goals so far in Bundesliga. Baumgartner has had 6 goals for Hoffenheim and 3 for the national team.
Florian Grillitsch from Hoffenheim and Julian Baumgartliner from Leverkusen should earn a spot in the team also.
23 years old Xaver Schlager has earned a starter role for the Wolfsburg and has been a starter in Austrias recent 2 games.

Attackers - The current top scorer, of course, is Marko Arnautovic, with 26 goals in 87 games. He had a nice run in the Premier League a few seasons ago but not playing in the Chinese Super League.
Sabitzer has played as a striker, but the next man to watch out for goals is Adrian Grbic from Lorient. 4 goals in 9 games and 4 goals in French Ligue 1.
Michael Gregoritsch has 4 goals in 24 games, but only 2 goals in his last 2 seasons in Bundesliga for 2 different teams.

We might be witnessing a born of a new goal machine for the Austrians during the Euros. Sasa Kalajdzic have 15 goals in Bundesliga this season. 3 goals in 5 games for the national team. But 15 in Bundesliga this season!
Valentino Lazaro from Borussia and Karim Onisiwo from Mainz have scored 6 goals combined in the Bundesliga this season.

Overall expectation

I would rate this Austrian team as a 2nd best team in the European Championship Group C. 
This means that they will get Italy most probably in the playoffs, and unfortunately, the run should end there. Still better than not participating at all.
The team lacks a goalkeeper from a top league level and experience playing in a playoff at such a high level.

European Championship Group C - North Macedonia

The squad value is around 55m. FIFA ranking is 62, and by the odds, they are the outsider of this group.
To talk about their recent roads in Euros and WC would be a waste of time, as there's not much to talk about anyway. The country is simply too young.
The chance that this country can make surprise results in the European Championship Group C? They beat Germany in March. At the same time, they played draws with Estonia and Georgia.

Potential squad

8 players in the squad playing in the top leagues at the moment. Not too bad if you ask me, there have been much worse scenarios, just not so much in this group, but overall.

Goalkeepers - Stole Dimitrievski should be the number 1 between the sticks. 40 games and plays in Rayo Vallecano in Spanish 2nd league.
He has had a season in Spanish La Liga also. Dejan Iliev's rights belong to Arsenal. I said so because he is loaned out to different lower-level clubs, and hard to see him playing for Arsenal someday.

Defenders - The standout name in the defence is Ezgjan Alioski. 42 games and 7 goals and plays for Leeds in English Premier League.
Not just plays but is the starter in the team and has scored 2 goals this season. More experienced than he is Stefan Ristovski from Dinamo Zagreb and Kire Ristevski from Ujpest.

Midfielders -3 midfielders with the most games for the national team are playing in Kukesi, Partizan and AEK. Then it becomes more interesting.
21 years old Elif Elmas have 6 goals in 25 games already. He plays for Napoli and has been a starter for the last 2 seasons. This also means Champions League experience, and he is still very young.
Future star for his nation for sure. Enis Bardhi has 6 goals in 34 games and plays in Levante, Spanish La Liga. 7 goals in this league last season and 25 years old.
Boban Nikolov moved to Italy, Serie B side Lecce this season, and plays for Serie A for the next season.

Attackers - The face and captain of the team, Goran Pandev. 38 years old, 37 goals for the team and 6 goals for Genoa in Italy Serie A this season.
1 more goal in this tournament, and there will be a goal for every year of his age.
Aleksandar Trajkovski has 18 goals in 63 games and plays for Mallorca in the Spanish 2nd league.
Big things expected from Ilija Nesterovski from Udinese. 10 goals in 46 games, but only 5 goals in Serie A during the last 2 seasons.

Overall expectation

Outsiders of the group? Yes. Outsiders in every game they play in the tournament? Yes. Were they outsiders also against mighty Germany? Yes.
Did they lose the game against Germany? No.

 


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