The Euro 2024 favourites have been named – is football finally coming home?
Here at FourFourTwo, we're gearing up for the tournament in Germany, with the countdown to another European Championship well underway. Euro 2024 promises to be huge, with so many European superpowers jostling for the trophy – and now that we know the group stage draw, it's a little easier to predict the fixtures of the tournament and some of the heavyweights' routes to the final.
Now we have an idea of the Euro 2024 squads, here's our run-through of the likely suspects to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy, courtesy of Betfair. You may want to favourite this page – there will be movement between now and the tournament kicking off this June…
Euro 2024 favourites to win odds:
1. England - 3/1
Has an England squad ever looked this strong? Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are enjoying two of the finest individual seasons of any players in Europe right now, while Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, John Stones and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been thrilling in the Premier League.
The Three Lions have as good a shot as any, putting them as the favourites for the trophy – but history disagrees with their billing. This is a tournament that England have never won, coming closest at Euro 2020, of course. They're actually the most successful team in European Championship history to have never got their hands on the title… and there are still clear weaknesses in certain areas with this team.
Should you place a bet on England? Not unless you're hopelessly patriotic, we reckon. The odds are far too short considering the competition.
2. France - 7/2
This is a France squad full to the very brim. Kylian Mbappe leads an all-star cast, of course, though there are other big players: Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud have bags of experience, William Saliba, Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni are wonderkids-turned-world-beaters and Mike Maignan is a good upgrade on goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Les Bleus' talisman Mbappe will be out to avenge, having endured painful exits in the last two international jaunts. But though France are obviously blessed across the pitch, anything can happen in a knockout format, as Didier Deschamps' side found out against Switzerland last time out. Don't bet against a very Gallic fallout, either: this is a nation that has a long history of imploding rather than being outplayed… and there are a fair few egos in this side, after all.
It hardly seems worth placing a bet on France right now, given the short odds. But given that ahead of the last World Cup, a number of injury problems completely re-shaped their tournament plans, FFT recommends waiting to see who's ruled out of the tournament before committing: the odds on a France win may lengthen before the Euros, despite their huge talent reserve being able to cope with almost any eventuality.
3. Germany - 11/2
This is perhaps the most underwhelming Germany squad for a generation. Successive group stage exits at the past two World Cups sandwich getting beaten by England at Euro 2020. Die Mannschaft have been rocked by managerial change, while the pool of German players to pick from is ever-shrinking, with so few superstars just a decade after they won the World Cup for the first time as a unified nation in the Maracana.
Still, it's important to remember: this is Germany. They have a knack of pulling themselves together whenever it matters – and with a home crowd behind them and Julian Nagelsmann at the wheel, they might just have the backing and the brains to pull something special out of the bag. It's not as if they're completely devoid of talent, either, with some of the best players on Earth in the form of Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane and Joshua Kimmich.
Germany aren't actually a bad bet this time around, you know. We reckon 6/1 are good odds for a host with a history of winning this tournament – and at Euro 2020, the winners were the best-coached team. We'd expect Nagelsmann to be the best manager at this edition.
=4. Spain - 8/1
The lack of an out-and-out goalscorer since the days of David Villa and Fernando Torres has failed to impact them in qualifying – and it's fair to say that the Spain squad is the most cohesive of any of the big teams. It feels more like a club than an international setup, with plenty of these superstars brought up on the same pass-n-press 4-3-3 that reaped rewards for La Roja's Golden Generation.
Still, the problems that have hampered the Spanish over the past decade are unlikely to have been solved by the new boss Luis de la Fuente. They look superb in group action when they have to break down minnows with their ‘death by a million passes’ style… yet when it comes to knockout fixtures in which they don't have so much their way, they don't have the ammunition. And that's without touching on their woeful penalty record.
7/1 are good odds for a country that made a semi-final last time around – but given how wholly unreliable the Spanish have been for over 10 years now, we'd hold off on that bet.
=4. Portugal - 8/1
The standouts in qualifying now have Roberto Martinez in charge, following his much-maligned spell with Belgium – who he didn't, by the way, do all that badly with, actually – while there are obvious superstars across the Portugal squad.
OK, so Portugal didn't have the most difficult group, their key player essentially hasn't played competitive football since the last World Cup (as much fun as it looks for Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia) and the conversation about how to move on from CR7 is still bubbling. No one is expecting Portugal to sweep the tournament, despite the hype – hence their relatively low billing in the odds, here.
Can we shock you, though? This is our pick to bet on: and not because Portugal have great players but big-game players. They're a dark horse – duh, that's why they're worth betting on – but Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, etc. are used to the big stage far more than so-called 'better' squads: and Martinez has a far better grip on these egos than his predecessor, Fernando Santos. Frankly, 8/1 are unmissable odds for a nation that absolutely blitzed qualifying.
The Rest
More Euro 2024 stories
England's side is likely to look like this for Euro 2024 – while Kieran Trippier has labelled team-mate Jude Bellingham as "frightening".
The Euro 2024 draw was interrupted by sexual noises in porn prank like the one heard during Wolves vs Liverpool earlier this year.
FFT have also created a Euro 2024 wall chart, which is free to download and contains the full schedule and dates.
