Three Reasons France Will Win The EUROs (And One Reason They Won’t)

With a few weeks to go until we start, France are the joint favourites to lift the European Championship trophy this summer, and it’s not tough to see why

France are the current world champions, and they came mighty close to winning the last EUROs when they made it all the way to the final, only to lose out to Portugal in extra time. They boast an incredibly talented squad, with a spine as good as any in the world: Lloris, Varane, Kante, Pogba, Mbappe and Griezmann. They held the title of world champions and European champions only 20 years ago and will be looking to repeat that feat by lifting their third European Championships title

It’s a double edged sword, but being in the Group of Death can be advantageous if you get out of it. They face Portugal and Germany in the group stages, but progressing out of this group means that you won’t need to face the runners up again until the final. There have been occasions where sides in the same group stages meet in the final (most recently in EURO 2004 with Portugal and Greece, and it almost happened in the last World Cup with Belgium and England), so as long as they don’t stumble, France should have an easier path to the final.

It feels like we’ve been talking about this man for a very long time, but the dynamic forward is still only 22 years of age, but he has simply been breathtaking since bursting onto the scene. All eyes will be set on the top scorer in the French Ligue 1 for 3 years straight as he looks to pick up his third international trophy; On top of the winning the World Cup 3 years ago, he was part of the French U19 squad just 2 years earlier that won in Germany.

Having hosted the competition four years ago, France will not host any of the matches in this summer’s tournament. In the group stages, they face Germany and Hungary away from home, with their match against Portugal being held in Hungary too. Top their group, and they will travel to Bucharest, finish second and they travel to Wembley, where a potential clash with England awaits. Since the last Euros 5 years ago, France have lost 3 and drawn 2 competitive matches on the road.