Skip to main content

Germany, France, Portugal: Group of Death in Euro 2020

Madrid, Dec 1 (IANS) The last two World Cup champions - France in 2018 and Germany in 2014 - along with Portugal, the 2016 winner of the last big continental tournament, make up Group F, the so-called Group of Death, in the Euro 2020 football championship.

This year the luck of the draw created an alliance of three of the most powerful teams in recent years. Armed with some of the world's leading players, the national teams in Playoff A - Hungary, Romania, Iceland and Bulgaria - will fight it out in Munich and Budapest for the final spot in Group F, reports Efe news.

In fact, the winning team in this group of four will play against Portugal, the reigning champ, in Budapest on June 16, while in Munich on the same day, France and Germany will debut in the final phase. The last World Cup champions will meet head-on.

Without big stars but with a team of totally integrated players, Germany is out to win its fourth championship crown. After the disappointment of its last World Cup, where it failed to get past the group phase, the team of Joachim Low aims to recover a throne that it last captured in 1996 in England.

The semifinals in France 2016 and in Poland/Ukraine 2012 were as far as Germany got in its two most recent Euro Cups. Madrid player Toni Kroos and Bayern veterans like goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, competing with the excellence of Barcelona keeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen, and that of Borussia Dortmund's Marco Reus, lead a squad in which players from fullbacks like Joshua Kimmich to forwards Timo Werner and Serge Gnabry have their place.

Clashes against France and Portugal will measure the maturity of Germany, which last shone in Brazil 2014.

The French squad, however, keeps going with a lineup of top level players and is definitely the one to beat. A finalist in the last Euro Cup, where it was the host and favorite, it was overcome in the final by Portugal - but the team of Didier Deschamps recovered its glow in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Portugal completes the shortlist of hopefuls to occupy one of the first two places in the Group of Death, even though the one that comes in third can have the option of advancing to the elimination round.

It would be defending the crown it won four years ago in Paris. Once again under the leadership of Cristiano Ronaldo, who could be experiencing his last big competition, and with the fresh approach added by Joao Felix, the Portuguese team of Fernando Santos is out to prolong the most successful streak in its history.

It wasn't easy for Portugal to get through the classification round with Cristiano Ronaldo immersed in trying to reach 100 goals with Portugal's national team.

This is Portugal's eighth participation in a final round, its seventh in a row in a tourney where the team tends to shine. A final, a title, being the host in 2004 and three semifinals sum up Portugal's role in Euro history.

kk/pgh/



via Sify.com https://ift.tt/2L8f8cU
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RB Leipzig's Jean-Kevin Augustin joins Leeds United on loan

Leeds [UK], Jan 27 (ANI): German football club RB Leipzig's Jean-Kevin Augustin on Monday joined Leeds United on a loan. The striker joins the Whites on an initial loan deal until the end of the season from Bundesliga outfit Red Bull Leipzig, the club said in a statement. Augustin joined the RB Leipzig in July, 2017 for a fee of 13 million Euros. The 22-year-old featured in both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League during his time with the German club, who finished sixth and third in his two seasons, where he scored 20 goals in 67 matches. French national helped his country win the European Under-19 Championship in 2016, where he scored the most number of goals and was adjudged as player of the tournament. Augustin is Leeds' third signing of the January transfer window following the joining of Elia Caprile and Ian Poveda. (ANI) via Sify.com https://ift.tt/2OiruB9
Post a Comment
Read more

Chelsea are a young team, need to improve a lot: Kovacic

London: Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic said they are a young team and need to improve a lot. Chelsea secured a 2-1 win over Hull City on Saturday in FA Cup. Michy Batshuayi scored the opening goal of the match in the sixth minute and Chelsea's second goal was scored in the 64th minute. "It was a tough game, as we knew that it would be, but we need to score in the first half two more goals. That's our problem in this moment but obviously we're happy to go through," the club's official website quoted Kovacic as saying. "It was because we didn't score on time - we had some chances and we didn't use them. In training, we are working on it but we are still a young team, a new team, and we need to improve a lot. We need to take our chances, which in this moment we are not doing great, but we have time to improve and I am sure we will do," he added. Chelsea are currently placed at the fourth position in the Premier League table with 40 points...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chelsea are a young team, need to improve a lot: Kovacic

London [UK], Jan 27 (ANI): Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic said they are a young team and need to improve a lot. Chelsea secured a 2-1 win over Hull City on Saturday in FA Cup. Michy Batshuayi scored the opening goal of the match in the sixth minute and Chelsea's second goal was scored in the 64th minute. "It was a tough game, as we knew that it would be, but we need to score in the first half two more goals. That's our problem in this moment but obviously we're happy to go through," the club's official website quoted Kovacic as saying. "It was because we didn't score on time - we had some chances and we didn't use them. In training, we are working on it but we are still a young team, a new team, and we need to improve a lot. We need to take our chances, which in this moment we are not doing great, but we have time to improve and I am sure we will do," he added. Chelsea are currently placed at the fourth position in the Premier League table ...
Post a Comment
Read more