The most important football championship in Europe takes place from 14 June to 14 July. Host countries seek to repeat the peaceful atmosphere of the 2006 World Cup, but are concerned about security at borders and in host cities. What many Europeans call the “World Cup without Brazil and Argentina” will begin. From 14 June to 14 July, 24 European teams will compete in ten cities in Germany in search of the continent’s most important football title.
Euro 2024 starts at 9pm (local time, 4pm Brasilia time) at the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich’s modern stadium in the south of the country, inaugurated in 2005 for the World Cup which would be held a year later and which can host 75 people. thousand people, but during the competition it will host 66 thousand.
Among football fans and fans, the first question that comes to mind is: who are the favourites? Because bookmakers indicate that England, the current runner-up, is the team with the greatest chance of winning the title.
Coach Gareth Southgate has a squad at hand that mixes the experience of players such as Kyle Walker, John Stones and Harry Kane – all over 30 – with the talent of youngsters such as Jude Bellingham, just 20 years old. It would be an unprecedented title, after all England are the only major European teams to have never won the Euro.
France follows, currently second in the world, also with a very strong group of players, similar to the one that lost the World Cup final on penalties against Argentina in 2022. The main novelty on the list is the return of midfielder Kanté, who did not play in the World Cup due to injury.
The hosts appear third among the favourites, while Italy, current champions of the tournament, are sixth. Like England, Germany also combines the experience of athletes such as Antonio Rüdiger, Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos with the youth of Florian Wirtz, German champion with Bayer Leverkusen, and Jamal Musiala, of Bayern Munich.
If it depended on the FIFA ranking, however, the favorite would be France, which is in second place, behind only Argentina. Belgium (3rd place), England (4th) and Portugal (6th) would be much more favorites than Germany (16th), currently only the ninth best European team according to the world rankings – Brazil, despite the instability of the last years old, he is in the fifth grade.
Holland (7th), Spain (8th) and Croatia (10th) complete the group of teams that, according to this criterion, tend to go further ahead in the competition. Underdogs include Albania and Slovakia, as well as newcomer Georgia, all teams unlikely to progress from the group stage to the knockout stages.
Format and samples
Euro 2024 will be played under the same rules as the last edition, played in 2021 in the UK – previously scheduled for 2020, the competition was postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 24 teams are divided into six groups of four teams each. The first and second-placed teams, as well as the four best third-placed teams from each group, qualify for the round of 16.
From this moment on, as in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, if the match ends in a draw there will be 30 minutes of extra time and, if the tie persists, it will be decided on penalties.
With three titles each, Germany and Spain are the major champions of the competition, which began in 1960. Then come Italy and France, with two, and the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Russia (Soviet Union) and the Czech Republic with one each.
Locations in ten cities
The 51 matches of the European Championships will be played in ten cities in different regions of Germany. The final will be played on Sunday 14 July, at 9pm (4pm in Brasilia), at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin which, with a capacity of 71,000 spectators, will host six matches over the course of the tournament.
In addition to the final, the German capital will host a clash valid for the round of 16, another for the quarterfinals and three others for the group stage.
Munich and Dortmund will also host six matches. Just like the Allianz Arena, in Munich, the Westfalenstadion, or the Signal Iduna Park, in Dortmund, will have a reduced space: normally with a capacity of over 80 thousand people, it will host 62 thousand during the duels of the European national competitions.
Five matches are scheduled in the stadiums of Hamburg (49 thousand spectators), Düsseldorf (47 thousand), Cologne (43 thousand), Frankfurt (47 thousand) and Stuttgart (51 thousand), and four in Leipzig (40 thousand) and Gelsenkirchen (50,000).
And of course Germany has already set up public areas to broadcast the matches on giant screens in all host cities. With the slogan Euro 2024 Festival, the idea is to repeat the so-called “summer of love” that infected the country during the 2006 World Cup. Tens of thousands of fans will gather in places such as the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. the Olympic Park in Munich and the banks of the River Main in Frankfurt.
Safety concern
Strict controls at the borders and also within German territory must be clearly visible during the competition. The German police above all want to prevent the entry of hooligans and terrorists.
The British government, for example, banned at least 1,600 violent fans from traveling from the UK to abroad during the Euro period.
“Security during the European Championships in our country is the top priority. The police will maintain a strong presence in all places where large numbers of people are concentrated”, underlined German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
The German federal police, responsible for the borders, has suspended holidays and 22 thousand officers will be on duty every day, also counting on the support of hundreds of colleagues from abroad. Cooperation with the French security forces is an example to be put into practice also in two other major sporting events that will take place in Paris after the European Championships: the Olympic Games (from 26 July to 11 August) and the Paralympic Games (from 28 August to September 11th). 8th).
According to the German Ministry of the Interior, risk situations are reassessed daily. The strengthening of security occurs precisely because the country does not rule out terrorist attacks and other acts of violence, such as the case that happened in 2023, when an Islamic terrorist shot and killed two Swedish fans in Brussels during the European Championship qualifiers.
Source: Terra
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