Maybe it hasn’t come home yet…

Euro 2024 is coming and we are all very excited.

England have a very good team, maybe even the best team, and are one of the favourites.

But like everything, it wouldn't be a big tournament without England fans still predicting all the things that could go wrong.

Gareth Southgate's side are drawn in Group C along with Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia and will face the best third-placed team in Groups D, E or F if they advance.

Countries that may be in this position include Austria, the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

They could then move on to face Italy in the quarter-finals, then France in the semi-finals and perhaps one of Germany, Spain or Portugal in the final.

However, England haven't always done things in an easy way in the past and if they surprise in the group stages they will have an even bigger mountain to climb if they are to taste success for the first time since 1966.

England's route to second place

There is an old saying in football that there are no easy games, but if they finish second then the game will be more difficult.

If they fail to finish top of their group, they are likely to face hosts Germany in the last 16 – despite beating them at the same stage of Euro 2020.

Spain could then be the next opponents in the quarter-finals, followed by Portugal in the semi-finals and face France in the stands.

Southgate tight-lipped on squad selection

While you can probably make a pretty good guess at which players will and will not head to Germany this summer, Southgate has chosen to remain tight-lipped about the situation when asked, insisting that anything could change at any time.

“Yes, it will be complicated because first of all we have the injury situation,” he said.

“Some guys will be back playing at the weekend, some guys will be back playing a few weeks later, some guys will be back towards the end of the season.

“Then we have the European final, the FA Cup final and our own two friendlies.

“It was inevitable that we would name a longer squad and that's what we did before the Euros, even though we were playing against 26 men.”

Related Links: