Euro 2024 is pulling to a close, with the final battle to crown the winner of this prestigious tournament getting closer and closer. One thing that we know for sure is that the competition has not played out exactly as we expected.
While some predictions have been realized, there have also been some surprises along the way. One of these was that Croatia were sent home early, failing to get into the knockout stages of the tournament after not winning a single group stage game.
On the other hand, Georgia made it into the Round of 16, beating the much more experienced Czechia to third place in Group F. Georgia made its European Championship debut this year after qualifying for the tournament for the very first time, so making it into the knockout stages was simply the icing on an already enormous cake.
Somewhere in the middle of this has been England. Despite being the birthplace of modern football, the UK’s largest nation has flailed and floundered at football tournaments ever since winning the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
The Three Lions have fared better in more recent years under the leadership of Gareth Southgate, even making it to the finals of the Euro 2020 tournament in front of a home crowd at Wembley.
This, and a strong showing at the World Cup in Qatar, made England the bookies’ favorite going into Euro 2024. As you’d expect, demand for football betting markets has been high in the weeks and months leading up to the tournament. Even in the US, where fans can’t cheer on their home side, people started to look for bonus bets, such as the ones offered by Oddschecker on this page, in order to bet on Euro 2024 matches.
Yet, despite being the favorite going in, England’s performance has left a lot to be desired, especially in the team’s group stage games. This was masked, somewhat, by finishing at the top of Group C, but with five points this was the second lowest winning score and would have seen the team finish second or lower in other groups.
The team also almost came a cropper to Slovakia in the Round of 16, securing victory from the jaws of defeat with literal seconds to spare after 90 minutes of tedium from England’s men that looked more like a Sunday afternoon kickabout in the park than the team currently ranked third best in the world.
What caused this mismatch between expectations and reality? Let’s explore the reasons.
Opponents Have England Pegged
England has a strong attacking side. When the ball gets to the players up front, you need to come down hard to stop them getting a good run and making a shot. The first three games in this tournament showed that this strength had also become a weakness for England because their opponents had all realized this.
To counter the strong offensive, teams flooded the area with players. England’s men have struggled to land goals in Euro 2024 because the gaps are so microscopic that shooting is like trying to run a thread through the eye of a needle.
Weak Set Pieces
In recent tournaments, England have been the kings of set pieces. A free kick, corner or spicy throw in would bring a real threat to opponents. However, with Harry Maguire missing from the squad, these set pieces have been much harder for the Lions.
Unfamiliarity
England’s success in Euro 2020 was due to how well the team had worked together. But three years later, Gary Neville has observed that they appear to lack familiarity with each other.
Instead of rehearsed in-built patterns, each pass between players appears to be made in isolation. Neville went on to add that England has looked “really basic” in the Group Stage and suggested that there are players who have been sitting on the bench that would perform better.
Cracking Under Pressure
There is also an element of the curse of hype and England’s press bigging up the team’s chances. Euro 2020 may have caused the entire country to sing “Football’s coming home” in the chorus for two weeks, creating some great photos and videos of fans cheering on their nation, but this hope wasn’t there from the start. England had come off decades of poor showings, so expectations weren’t very high going into the 2020 tournament.
This time out, however, the pressure is clearly showing, and it’s putting strain on England’s players. This is a psychological game as much as it is a physical one. Southgate needs a way to manage this.
