In the group of death of the European Cup, who can stand out in the top three?

Eye-catching

2024-06-12 17:43Published on the official account of Jiangsu Yangtze Evening News

The European Cup is about to kick off on June 15, Beijing time, Group B is recognized as the group of death, except for Albania, which is ranked lower in the world, the other three teams are all in the top 10 teams in the FIFA rankings, including Spain, Italy have won the World Cup and the European Cup, and the Italian team is the defending champion of the European Cup.

Spain prepares for the European Championships

The Spanish team won three consecutive major championships from 2008 to 2012, but after the withdrawal of Xavi, Iniesta and other main players, the team's strength began to decline, but in the last European Cup, Spain still stumbled into the top 4, the current Spanish team lacks top stars to press, but the overall strength of this young team is still good, still good at passing and controlling. In the European preliminaries, the Spanish team achieved an impressive result of 7 wins and 1 loss, ranking first in the group, and only lost to the Scotland team during the period, and the performance was stable. At present, the team's Rodri officially replaced Busquets as the core of the midfield, playing for Manchester City is worth up to 120 million euros, he is also the most valuable player in the current Spanish team, Morata, Olmo and the 16-year-old Yamal is expected to play as a striker, in addition, the long-established Pedri, Barcelona's Fairmont, and Nico Williams, who performed well at Athletic Bilbao, are only 21 years old, and the team's midfield has the ability to set off a youth storm.

After winning the runner-up in the 2018 World Cup, the knockout round of the last European Championship also forced the Spanish team into extra time before losing, and in the 2022 World Cup, Croatia won the third place, which can be seen that this team is a big team. The current "golden generation" of the Croatian team is getting older. Legendary captain Luka Modric is 38 years old and this tournament is likely to be his last. Brozovic, Kovacic, Kramaric and other famous players are also over 30 years old. However, there are still many new stars emerging in the team's defensive line, and young players such as Gvardiol and Stanišić have taken the lead, especially in Manchester City, where Gvardiol is worth as much as 75 million euros, which is currently the most valuable player in the Croatian team.

The Italian team did not enter the main match in two consecutive World Cups, but in the last European Cup, Italy finally won the championship without being favored by the outside world, the team was not strong in the European preliminaries, and was overwhelmed by the England team. After Italy missed the 2022 World Cup, the deported coach Roberto Mancini, and Spalletti, who led Napoli to regain the league title, was appointed in a critical position. However, the current talent pool of the Italian team is far less than that year, only 9 people in the squad participated in the last European Cup, "Italian defense" is still the team's winning weapon, but after the withdrawal of Bonucci and Chiellini, the team's defensive strength is also declining, the team's current defensive core is the goalkeeper Donnarumma of Grand Paris, he is also the captain of the team in the European preliminaries, and the team's front court lacks real star players to sit in, Inter's Barella is worth as much as 80 million euros, and is already the team's most "expensive" player. In attack, left-back Dimarco and winger Chiesa will be the main attacking direction of the team on the left side.

Albania is a veritable civilian team, reaching the finals for the first time at Euro 2016, and is in the same group as France, Switzerland and Romania, ranking third in the group with 1 win, 2 losses and 3 points, failing to qualify from the group. This is the second time Albania has participated in the World Championship. However, Albania is not the underdog everyone imagined, and the team's strength can be seen in the qualifiers, beating the Czech Republic and Poland and ranking first in the group and directly qualifying. In the 26-man squad of the Albanian national team, there are 12 players from the five major leagues, of which 9 are contributed by the Serie A league closest to Albania, so this Albanian team is also nicknamed the "Italian second team". Inter Milan midfielder Asllani, Fulham striker Armando Broja, Sassono midfielder Bayrami and other players have all been trained in the top five leagues, and Armando Broja, who was loaned to Chelsea last season, is undoubtedly the team's biggest star, with a whopping 22 million euros, and is also the team's most valuable player.

This group is a veritable group of death, on paper the Spanish team is the strongest, should occupy a qualifying place, and Italy and Croatia are playing in a mourning posture, and they also have a great chance of qualifying, the Italian team as the defending champion can not be underestimated, and Croatia as a major team is also not weak, but Albania is not a real weak team, the team can play the role of spoiler, once the other three teams have any overturn, they can go to the best four groups to third, So as to qualify. It can be said that in this group, except for Spain, which is slightly stronger on paper, it is not too surprising that any of the other three teams cannot break through from the group of death.

Proofread by Faye Wong

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