Group C: It’s All About the Strikers. Experience vs Youth

This group contains one of the favourites, England, looking for their first-ever European Championship trophy. They’ve always been a team notorious for having the talent, but never making it click. Next, Denmark is forever a dark horse no matter the occasion. Every time it feels like they turn up with the same squad and every year they surprise us. Then we have Serbia, a team full of fight and willpower who know how to make a game difficult. Then to finish up an interesting group we have my dark horse, Slovenia. They are a team who go under the radar but have a wide range of talent across the pitch. I believe they can cause a serious shock in this group.

England:

This team is always full of belief but never the end product to back it up. If England are to progress far in this tournament it will be thanks to Harry Kane. The lethal striker has the second most goals in Premier League history and has lit up German football in his first season with Bayern Munich. Scoring 44 goals in 44 games this season is the stature of a man not short of confidence, the England man was also the top scorer at the 2018 World Cup which included arguably the worst-ever hat-trick. A hat-trick which consisted of 2 penalties and one of the weirdest deflections against a poor Panama side will certainly not be nominated for any awards any time soon, but a goal is a goal. Kane is notoriously known as one of the best playmaking strikers in the world yet he is still a goal-scoring machine. With the likes of Bellingham, Foden and Saka behind him, he can be the attacking spearhead needed to finally achieve some European glory for England.

One area of worry for England is the current defensive woes. Only 3 clean sheets in their last 9 games is a worrying sign already and is something that will need drastic improvement in such a difficult group. To pile onto their already defensively weak side is the injury to Harry Maguire. Although a player who has struggled for form in the last 2 years, no one can doubt his importance to his nation and how big of a presence will be missed in defence. Furthermore, in recent days we have learnt of an illness in the camp with John Stones. Another first-choice centre back out of at least the first game of the group with worry manager Gareth Southgate and will be difficult to mitigate. To replace these 2 stars will most likely be Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace and Lewis Dunk of Brighton. The former has questions about his fitness having only played 5 games since the beginning of February which makes you wonder. Why did Southgate choose to leave young centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite at home? Branthwaite enjoyed a fine break-out season for Everton playing 35 out of 38 games. Keeping the second-most clean sheets this season, he has been superb and thoroughly deserves a chance to impress for England. With the first game being against a physical Serbia side, Southgate may regret not calling him up and it could be a decision that leads to him leaving his managerial post after the tournament.

Denmark:

Following on from their miraculous run to the semi-finals in Euro 2020, Denmark will be hoping for the same again this time round. With only 2 losses in their last 14 game, they set a good precedent to do the same again. This run includes a win and draw against group competitor Slovenia. They are a team that can compete with the very best and beat anyone on their day. Within their squad is a wide range of Premier League talent who know how to impress on the big stage. There is Hojbjerg of Tottenham Hotspur who has competed in the Champions League, Christian Eriksen of Manchester United who has done the same as well and young talent Rasmund Hojland, also of Manchester United, who finished his debut Champions League campaign with 5 goals in 6 games. For Denmark to fulfil their ambitions, Hojland will need to be in the fine goalscoring form he was in during the qualifiers. With 7 goals in qualifying, he secured his place leading the line for the red and white. Within those 7 goals in a hat-trick which makes him the youngest hat-trick scorer (20 years old) for Denmark in European qualifiers since Michael Laudrup in 1983. Following in the footsteps of one of the best-ever Danish players is a big ask, but should he continue his goal-scoring form, he certainly won’t be far behind.

A key man for the Red and Whites is attacking wing-back Joakim Mæhle (Wolfsburg). He can play both sides of the pitch and is instrumental to Denmark’s success. Although weak defensively, his attacking prowess more than makes up for it. 11 goals in 45 games for Denmark is immense for a “defender” as well as averaging 2 shots per game during qualifying. As can be seen on the heatmap, he plays the majority of his game in the opposition half and gets involved in the attacks whenever he can. 

Mæhle has superb pace and becomes unstoppable with his runs from one box to the other. Mæhle is incredibly patient when in space with the ball around the opposition box and although he loves a long-range net breaker, he is at his best when running in behind the keeper and slotting it away. The balls he can put into the box are pitch-perfect for any striker and it would almost be rude if they did not get put away. A wing-back who has it all is so difficult to defend against and can make a real difference for the Danish side.

Serbia:

One of the most physical teams in the tournament, they will out-muscle you, aggressively press you and simply bully you. They are a team with 80% of the players above 6 feet and average more yellow cards per game than any other team in the tournament since 2020. They are not a team that will make a game easy and cause the likes of England’s backline a lot of problems. The 2 main culprits of this bullying tactic are the striking partnership of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic. With a combined 71 goals for Serbia, they can make a real difference in attack and cause a lot of defences a lot of problems. Serbia overall scored 33% of their qualifying goals from headers, and this pair of 6 foot 3 strikers will be keen to keep this trend going. Vlahovic scored 19% of his Seria A goals this season whilst Mitrovic tore up the Saudi League with 28 goals, of which 33% were headers. Supplying these 2 goliaths with chances is the creative genius of Dusan Tadic now of Fenerbahce. He has enjoyed a superb season in the Turkish League with 10 goals and 14 assists. In addition to this, he also managed 2 goals and 4 assists during qualifying and if you needed any more evidence of how good he is, in his 5 seasons with Ajax in the Eredivisie, he managed 81 assists. This key-passing king can create chances for anyone from anywhere and is exactly the kind of man that Serbia will need to get out of this group.

Serbia will come into Euro 2024 in some poor form. With only 4 wins in their last 11 games, they do not set a high standard and the fans will be hoping for a purple patch to see them through this group. One area of positivity however is that Serbia have scored in their last 22 consecutive qualifying games having last failed to score in in June 2019. They may not be nice to the eye but they do get the job done. Expect manager Dragan Stojkovic to line Serbia up in a 5-3-2 formation. This type of formation reduces the space available in the defence and midfield but can leave a lot more to be desired in the transition to attack.

Due to this type of players available to Stojkovic expect the strikers to be relied on heavily for hold-up play. If Mitrovic and Vlahovic can guard the ball in transition, this will give the wing-backs and midfield to push forward to join the attack and crowd out the opposition’s half. In the offensive transition, the wing-backs become almost wide midfielders to create a 3-5-2 formation. They will be tasked with delivering quality balls to the target men and giving Serbia the chance to escape this tough group.

Slovenia:

My dark horses, Slovenia, face a tough challenge but how exactly do they hope to qualify from this group? Benjamin Sesko… that’s it.

Ok, I may be getting a bit ahead of myself but the talent this young striker had got can not be underestimated. The 21-year-old striker has already played 29 games for Slovenia scoring 11 goals in the process.

He has scored in his last 7 consecutive Bundesliga games for RB Leipzig and he has found the net in 60% of his starts in the 23/24 season. He can score from anywhere and with any part of this body. Of his 24 Bundesliga goals, 5 were with his head, 3 with his left foot and 6 with his right foot. He is not scared to shoot from anywhere and has exceeded his xG by 6.3 this season which is better than all but one in the league this season (Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy managed 7.2). In his first season of German football, he is achieving similar numbers to Erling Haaland and is even exceeding him in some regards. He can go right to the very top and in his break-out tournament will be vital it Slovenia exceeding expectations.

Even outside of Sesko, Slovenia still has a lot of quality across the pitch. In net, they have one of the world's best goalkeepers in Jan Oblak who has kept 251 clean sheets throughout 557 games of his club career. In front of him, he has a leader and a warrior in Jaka Bijol of Udinese. The 25-year-old centre-back wins 76% of his aerial duels per game and was vital in the Italian side avoiding relegation this season. Another personal favourite of mine is the Udinese midfielder Sandi Lovric who I feel has been underused this season by the little zebras (Udinese). In the 22/23 season he managed 5 goals and 6 assists for a weak Udinese side and given he gets the game time, can make a real difference for Slovenia. Last but certainly not least is the return of Slovenian icon Josip Ilicic. Following his mental health issues, it is great to see him back on the football pitch and playing with class but mainly enjoying his football. He has excelled this season for NK Maribor with 8 goals and 10 assists in 31 games. Even if he only comes off the bench, the Slovenian team will be better for it and can be part of the charge to the knockouts.