European Championship Group F - Teams & Odds Analysis

European Championship Group F - Teams & Odds Analysis

European Championship Group F - France

The team value is around 957m, and they rank in 2nd place in FIFA ranking. France is in the top 3 favourites pool to lift the trophy with odds ranging around 5 to 8. The other two teams are England and Belgium.
Strange, but many bookies are offering Germany to win the group with lower odds than France and the same bookies are offering outright odds lower for France.
They have some of the best players in their position, full squad list playing in the top leagues. A lot of experience, goals, and different titles. 
European Championship Group F is officially a death group with France, Germany and Portugal.

Potential squad

This squad has a lot of potential, and they could literally put together a starting lineup consisting of only the players who have won their local league title during the last 2-3 years.
And these local league titles are all from the top 4 leagues. 
The fact that Aymeric Laporte from Manchester City and Karim Benzema from Real Madrid are not even in the squad shows the quality of players they have.
They could send out 2 teams, and both would reach the semi-finals.

Goalkeepers - In the goal, there's Hugo Lloris from Spurs. The main goalkeeper in the team since 2012 and one of the best goalkeepers in the league during this period.
The second option for me is Mike Maignan from Lille and the French league. 4 seasons as the main goalkeeper for them and Lille is pushing the PSG for the French league title this season.
Steve Mandanda is another goalkeeper from the French league and with great experience. Main goalkeeper for Marseilles for several seasons.

Defenders - The defence is as strong as it can be. Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez from Bayern Munich. Raphael Varane and Ferland Mendy from Real Madrid.
Presnel Kimpembe from PSG. Clement Lenglet from Barcelona. Kurt Zouma from Chelsea and carried the team to Champions League final this season.
Lucas Digne has been in Everton and England Premier League for several seasons and Dayot Upamecano from Leipzig is one of the hottest prodigies in his position.
They are all main players in their teams, some are in a rotation from time to time due to the hectic schedule of the games, but being in these teams already shows great quality.

Midfielders - Ngolo Kante from Chelsea and Paul Pogba from Manu have had great seasons once again. Pogba had a season to forget for Manu last year. Had to deal with injuries and were limited to 16 games and one goal only. Running the show with Bruno Fernandez this season and seems to be back to his best. Kante carried Chelsea to the Champions League final against Real Madrid and, for many pundits, were the man of the match.
Tanguy Ndombele is 24 years old and has had 2 seasons for Spurs and 2 seasons for Lyon at the highest level.
Adrien Rabiot plays for Juventus. 2 seasons as the starting lineup player for them and joined Juventus from PSG, where he was the main player for 6 seasons. Keep in mind that he is 26 years old.
Moussa Sissoko plays side by side with Ndombele in Spurs and has been in Spurs since 2016. This will be a huge advantage as they know each other's weaknesses and strengths very well.
Corentin Tolisso has dropped to the bench in Bayern Munich during the last 3 seasons but was the main player in his debut season.
Thomas Lemar from Athletico Madrid is playing for the Spain La Liga title against Barcelona and Real Madrid. 3 seasons in Spain and 4 seasons in France as the main player while he is only 25 years old.
Steven Nzonzi had a great season for Rennes and gives this experience to the midfield. Houssem Aouar and Eduardo Camavinga are the future of this midfield.
Both are young but main team players in the French league, and in a season or two, both are playing for the clubs that are fighting regularly for the Champions League for sure.

Attackers - Kylian Mbappe is still one of the best attackers in the game. Only 22 years old and has been one of the most feared goal threat for 5 seasons in the league and in the world. 2
5 goals in 29 games for this age is outrageous. 
Antoine Griezmann from Barcelona has found his place in the team this season. The debut season was so-so, but this season he has found his form again and have 12 goals in 34 games.
His partner in crime, Ousmane Dembele, have put last season behind him and has banged in 6 goals in 28 games for Barcelona. A constant threat and a fast skilful player on the wing.
On the other side of the wing, they have Kingsley Coman from Bayern Munich. The sixth season as the main team player in a top club despite being only 24 years old.
Wissam Ben Yedder has the third season in a row with 18 or more goals in the top league. He is currently playing for Monaco.
Olivier Giroud is the most experienced and also the current top scorer for the national team with 44 goals in 107 games. He plays for Chelsea and has dropped to the rotation/bench role during the last 2 seasons.

Overall expectation

There's a lot of missings and players cut out from the squad due to squad limits. Marcus Thuram, Nabil Fekir, Anthony Martial, Jonathan Ikone and many more players are left out or just injured at the wrong time.
These players could be in the starting lineup for most of the teams in this competition. Anything except the place in the final would be a disaster for this France team.
Will be some amazing games in the European Championship Group F.

European Championship Group F - Germany

Swedens squad value is 182m. FIFA ranking position is 18, and they are third based on the odds in European Championship Group F.
In the 2018 World Cup, they reached to quarterfinals and lost against England, beat Switzerland in the round of 16. In their previous Euros, they have been staying the group stage.
In 2016 they were in the same group as Italy, Belgium and Ireland. In 2012 only two teams qualified from the group stages, and they were behind England and France.

Potential squad

King Zlatan is back on the national team. In every line, the Sweden team has players from top leagues, but there's also a lot of players from Sweden, Russian and Danish leagues.

Goalkeepers - The most experienced goalkeeper is, of course, Robin Olsen. He has played in Italy Serie A, but at the moment is Everton backup goalkeeper.
Kristoffer Nordfeldt from Cenclerbirligi (Turkey) and Karl-Johan Johnsson from Copenhagen (Denmark) have been used in their recent games.

Defenders - Mikael Lustig and Andreas Granqvist are the most experienced defenders in the team 88 and 89 games.
Both are playing in Sweden now and are 34 and 36 years old.
In this tournament, players like Ludwig Augustinsson (Werder Bremen), Victor Lindelöf (Manu), Emil Kraft (Newcastle) and Joakim Nilsson (Arminia Bielefeld) have to carry the team. All mentioned players are getting game time in the top leagues, and Lindelöf should become the main man in the defence.

Midfielders - Victor Claesson has 9 goals for the team and plays in Russia for Krasnodar.
They have a nice trio from Italy Serie A: Albin Ekdal has been 3 last seasons as the starter for Sampdoria. Mattias Svandberg plays for Bologna and is 22 years with 5 goals this season.
The third season in Serie A as the main team player. Raising star Dejan Kulusevski had a 10 goal season in Serie A in Parma while being 20 years old. Juventus picked him up, and this season, he has scored 4 times in 33 games.
Emil Forsberg from Leipzig has been one of the best creative midfielders in the German Bundesliga for years.
Robin Quaison plays in the same league for Mainz and has managed to score 17 times during the last two seasons.
A very nice midfield consisting of players with experience and some young guns from top leagues.

Attackers - John Guidetti might get a call back to the team, 3 goals in 29 games and plays for Alaves.
Zlatan back in the team is, of course, excellent news. 39 years old but still going strong in Italy for AC Milan with 15 goals in 19 games. 62 goals in 118 games for Sweden.
Aleksander Isak is 21 years old Real Sociedad striker who have 14 goals so far in 32 games this season. 6 goals already for Sweden, and maybe can overcome Zlatan's goal tallie?

Overall expectation

By the odds, they are equal with Poland to qualify from European Championship Group F.
I believe that they can achieve this ahead of Slovakia. Poland could be too much for them, but it would be amazing to see Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic going against each other.

European Championship Group F - Portugal

Poland squad value is 245m, but players like Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczesny are doing big favours for this value. They are slightly behind Sweden in the FIFA rankings, 21st position.
In their last World Cup final tournament, they were left in the group stage behind Colombia, Japan and Senegal. In the 2016 Euros final tournament, they reached to quarterfinals and why not reach so far this time also?
Going through from the European Championship Group F is a minimum target.

Potential squad

Poland can set up a team from top leagues players only. That's a good sign. They have a variety of top goalkeepers and Robert Lewandowski upfront.
Three players with more than 14 goals for the national team and some guys in good form for their home teams. 

Goalkeepers - There are not many teams with 3 goalkeepers in the squad who are all playing in top leagues as the starters.
Lukasz Fabianski is playing in West Ham and has played in Premier League as a starter since 2014.
Wojciech Szczesny is playing in Juventus at the moment and has been Serie A and Premier League level goalkeeper since 2010.
Lukasz Skorupski has been the main goalkeeper for Bologna in Serie A for the last 3 seasons.

Defenders - They have  6 defenders from the top leagues. Jan Bednarek has been an integral part of the defence for Southampton for the past 3 seasons.
Bartosz Bereszynski plays for Sampdoria for the last 5 seasons. Pawel Dawidowicz is having his second season in Serie A for Verona.
Legendary Kamil Klik is now playing in Benevento, but before this was a key defender for Monaco for 4 seasons. Arkadiusz Reca has been a key defender in Serie A for Spal and Crotone.
Sebastian Walukiewicz is having his second season for Cagliari despite being only 21 years old.

Midfielders - Two key midfielders are both from Italy Serie A. Piotr Zielinski has been a starter in Serie A since he was 19 years old. He is having a superb season in Napoli with 8 goals in 34 games.
Karol Linetty is playing for Torino this season. Before this, he was a starter for Sampdoria for 4 seasons.
I could say that Mateusz Klich is having a breakout season while being 30 years old. Debut season in Premier League for Leeds and has been in good form with 3 goals in 34 games. Grzegorz Krychowiak plays for Lokomotiv this season but was in Sevilla, PSG and West Bromwich in the top leagues for several seasons.
For the future, there's Kamil Jozwiak from Derby County, Jakub Moder from Brighton and Przemyslaw Placheta from Norwich.

Attackers - Robert Lewandowski with 66 goals in 118 games, is probably the best striker in the game at the moment. I mean, 39 goals for Bayern Munich this season and his second 30 plus goals season in a row.
Arkadiusz Milik was superb for Napoli in 4 seasons but moved to Marseilles for this season and has 5 goals in 13 games.
Krzysztof Piatek had some good seasons in Serie A for Genoa and AC Milan, but this season is playing in Hertha Berlin and has scored 7 goals in 32 games this season in Germany.

Overall expectation

Going through from the European Championship Group F is a minimum target.
A very strong mix in the team. Experienced goalkeepers and top striker option. All core players are from top leagues and starters in their teams. There's some good potential in regard to younger players coming up, and for some reason, I believe that this team can repeat their playoff run.

European Championship Group F - Hungary

Hungary fans must have some mixed emotions. I mean, they are in the group as big outsiders to qualify. The average odds to qualify are around 5, while other teams have odds between 1.1 to 1.3.
The hopes to reach to playoffs are indeed slim. But, the fans can see their team playing against European and world giants like Germany, France and Portugal!
Yes, Hungary is in the death group of the death groups. All other three teams are favourites to reach to semi-finals at least.
Hungary has a squad value of around 77m. They are ahead of North Macedonia and Finland only. What speaks in their favour is the experience.
If we count the games players have played in Euros, they have 21 games at the moment. This is more than England, Denmark, Netherlands, and Turkey have, for example.
In the FIFA ranking table, Hungary stands in 37th place.

Potential squad

As expected, many players are playing in the local league, so the squad value is relatively small compared with other teams. Also, as expected, there are players in German Bundesliga as the most valued players.
Since January, there are key players in Bundesliga in every line.
No players on the same level with former greats like Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Zoltan Gera or Balazs Dzsudzsak.

Goalkeepers - Peter Gulacsi is the main goalkeeper and plays in Germany for RB Leipzig. 37 games for Hungary and has been number 1 for several seasons in Bundesliga. An absolute key player in the team.
Other goalkeepers are from the local league.

Defenders - In the defence, the key part is Willi Orban, who plays in the same team as the goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi. He is not the most experienced defender in the team, but the only one playing in a top league.
20 games and five goals for the national team and has been a scoring defender in the Bundesliga for five seasons.
More experienced at the international level are Gergo Lovrencsics (Ferencvaros), Adam Lang (Omonia) and Attila Fiola (Fehervar). Only Adam Lang has had some experience in the top leagues in France.
The most intriguing potential prospect is 23 years old Attila Szalai from Fenerbache. He missed becoming the Turkish champion by 2 points this season.

Midfielders - In the midfield, the most experienced player is Adam Nagy, with 46 games and 1 goal, plays for Bristol City in England Championship. Adam is having his second season there, played for Bologna in Italy Serie A before moving to England. The second most experienced player in the midfield is Laszlo Kleinheisler, with 32 games and three goals for Osijek in Croatia.
Despite being only 27 years old, he has played in several different leagues, including German Bundesliga.
Some very worrying news is related to their young talent Dominik Szoboszlai. Only 20 years old, but already with 12 games and 3 goals for the team.
He moved from the Austrian league to German Bundesliga but has been injured since January. In the latest news I found, he has pulled out of the squad.
The next most experienced players are David Siger from Ferencvaros (12 games, 1 goal) and Loic Nego from Fehervar (9 games and 2 goals).

Attackers - The current highest scorer in the team is Adam Szalai from Mainz, German Bundesliga. 23 goals in 70 games.
He has been playing in Germany since 2009 but has managed to score only twice during the last 2 seasons.
The second best scorer at the moment is Nemanja Nikolic, with 8 goals in 37 games. He plays in Fehervar for his second season and before this played in MLS and Poland.
Roland Sallai is marked as a forward and as a midfielder. It depends on where you check. Anyway, he is a very important player for the team with 4 goals in 22 games.
Had an excellent season for Freiburg in German Bundesliga also, 8 goals in 28 games.
Other more experienced players are Roland Varga (21 games and 3 goals) from MTK Budapest and Filip Holender (14 games and 1 goal) from Partizan.

Overall expectation

For obvious reasons, the chances of getting out from this death group are very, very thin. The same would apply to most of the teams in this group instead of Hungary.
Germany, Portugal and France are all top teams, and it will be tough for Hungary to get anything out from this group. 


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