European Championship ranking (1st-3rd places)

2024-06-13 10:00

In the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany, the 24 strongest national teams of the old continent will compete for the trophy.

Some national teams had to sweat a lot to secure their place in the final stage of the tournament, while for others it was achieved impressively: France seemed unbeatable, England proved that they have enough talent to end their trophy drought since 1966, while Portugal under the guidance of Roberto Martinez demonstrated a game based on hurricane-like attacks.

Of course, we cannot overlook the European football giants like Spain and Belgium, and the host Germany, led by Julian Nagelsmann, is also determined to defend their home fortress.

The most visited Lithuanian football news portal „Eurofootball.lt“ presents the ranking of the 2024 European Football Championship, starting on June 14th.

22-24 rankings

19-21 rankings

16-18 rankings

13-15 rankings

10-12 rankings

7-9 rankings

4-6 rankings

3rd place - Belgium

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was an absolute disaster for the Belgians. Even before the tournament, team leader Kevin De Bruyne controversially spoke about his team members, calling many of them "too old." The division within the team had a significant impact, resulting in the "Red Devils" exiting the tournament in the group stage, with one of the leaders, Romelu Lukaku, missing one opportunity after another.

Nevertheless, the star of AS Roma showed incredible form in the qualifiers, scoring fourteen goals and breaking the all-time scoring record in European Championship qualifiers. Previously, after scoring thirteen goals, the pole Robert Lewandowski and Northern Ireland's representative David Healy had achieved.

The new head coach Domenico Tedesco is doing an excellent job rejuvenating the team, and under his leadership, the Belgians have not lost a single game. The Belgians were especially disappointed after the match against England, where they were superior throughout but let the victory slip away at the end.

In summary, K. De Bruyne should be pleased with the gameplay his team is showing straight away, and the hopes of contending for the title have increased even more due to the weak Group E, where Belgium will face Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

2nd place - Portugal

After the disappointing World Cup and the tears of Cristiano Ronaldo, with long-time coach Fernando Santos being replaced by Roberto Martinez, everything is going perfectly for Portugal.

Portugal won all ten qualifying matches, scoring thirty-six goals, including ten by the legend C. Ronaldo and six by Bruno Fernandes. What is impressive is that the Portuguese conceded only two goals. The abundant selection of top-level forwards makes them contenders for the trophy, and facing the not so strong Turkey, Georgia, and Czech Republic in Group F further eases their path.

However, despite Portugal likely having no problems advancing to the knockout stages, it is worth mentioning that in friendly matches, they lost 0-2 to Slovenia, signaling that they may not be as formidable in the main tournament as they were in the qualifiers.

More questions arise about whether R. Martinez can indeed be a successful team coach in a major tournament since he failed to unleash the full potential of Belgium's "golden generation."

1st place - France

A helpless loss against Germany truly made many football fans raise their eyebrows, but France remains the most highly-rated European national team for several reasons. "Les Bleus" have weaknesses, especially at the right-back position, but they can boast of considerable rotation and diversity in player profiles - young prodigies alongside experienced veterans.

The starting central midfielder Olivier Giroud, at the age of 37, is nearing the end, but he demonstrates that he deserves to be in this team, which we could see in the match against Chile. However, if the championship does not go well for the veteran, the French have an ideal replacement in Randal Kolo Muani and the legendary Lilian Thuram's son Marcus.

Regarding other positions, goalkeeper Mike Maignan works wonders, the defensive line is so strong that Arsenal's superstar William Saliba is not a regular starter, the midfield is supplemented by the talented Warren Zaire-Emery, and in attack, Antoine Griezmann, playing the best football of his career, and perhaps the most threatening striker in the world, Kylian Mbappe, will shine.

Although in the final qualifier matches, Greece managed to spoil the perfect journey of the French, which ended in a 2-2 draw in Athens, easily defeating the Dutch on both occasions and defeating other opponents signals that France can continue their dominance and rise to the top once again.