Group C offers little prospect of an unforeseen charge from the minnows, and can be taken at face value when reading the tea leaves around the group.
This is providing Netherlands can fulfil what they are capable of in their return to the Euros following their absence in 2016, and their sojourn in Poland 2012 losing all three games.
Holland have endured a turbulent year leading up to the tournament to say the least. The confirmation in May that captain Van Dijk would miss the tournament was enough to unsteady the ship. This was preceded by manager Ronald Koeman abandoning the crew altogether to manage Barcelona back in August.
However, Frank De Boer has taken over at the helm, and avoiding a reprise of the disaster he experienced at Crystal Palace in 2017, he has enough in his arsenal least steer the Netherlands to the top of a lukewarm group at the least
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The skewer of De Ligt, De Jong, and Depay provides the quality needed to be the basis of a squad brimming with winning mentality. They are supplemented by the Champions League and Premier League winning Georginio Wijnaldum, and Serie A winner with Inter Milan Stefan De Vrij. They are judged to be 2/5 favourites with Grosvenor to win the group.
Austria’s visit to Teeside to play England laid bare their lack of attacking verve, but proved they will probe, pester and press opposition, and be content in sitting back and creating a staunch wall on the edge of the box.
They will simply prove too powerful for Ukraine and North Macedonia to break down and have a nice blend of youthful enthusiasm and experience in the team to deal with those tests in a professional manner.
Although the bookies have priced Austria and Ukraine at 21/4 each to win the group so perhaps it is too close to call who will get second-place.
The young striker Sasa Kalajdzic has come into the Austrian fold only this year, and impressed back in March when scoring two against Scotland and grabbing another against the Faroe Islands. Despite struggling against England on Wednesday he has the potential to make an impact in the group stages.
Ukraine’s swell of belief after Viktor Tsyhankov sealed a 1-0 win against Spain in The Nations League back in October has been radically extinguished by a string of sticky results on their approach to the tournament, and the bookies have reflected that.
The 1-1 draws to Finland, Kazakhstan and Bahrain is a fair reflection of a side that will have to fight tooth and nail to squirm out of this group.
Although a 1-1 draw to France back in the world cup qualifiers and the victory over Spain shows the side have the teeth to take a bite out of the big teams.
Despite 40/1 odds of Macedonia winning the group, they have a 2-1 victory over Germany and a 4-0 win over Kazakhstan under their belts and could well steal a few goals from the group.
Macedonia have only failed to score in one fixture out of their last 15, against some pretty respectable opposition also, including Austria.
The veteran Goran Pandev, yes that Goran Pandev, sent his country to their first major tournament as an independent nation in their history by beating Georgia in a playoff.
Despite their slim chances, North Macedonia will not be walked over.
