Euro 2024 preview: Group F, Ronaldo finally tangoes Portugal to attack instead of defending!

Rising star

2024-06-18 18:48Published in Zhejiang

While 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, the youngest player of the tournament, was well received for his opening group game, on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, the 41-year-old Pepe and the 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo are also poised to lead Portugal to another trophy since 2016. It is rare that the strength of the team in Group F is relatively weak, and if there is no accident, Portugal's attacking players can "sharpen their knives" and face stronger opponents in the knockout round.

In terms of cards and statistics, Portugal definitely has no shortage of highlights: they are "perfect" in Group J and are the only team to win all of them in the group stage, while Cristiano Ronaldo holds the "double record" of most appearances (25 games) and goals (14 goals) in the European Championship. Although it was seen from the first round of the group stage that some players who moved to the Saudi league did decline at a rate, at least Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice against Ireland in the warm-up game, proving that it has not yet rusted. Under the attacking 4-3-3 style of play of coach Roberto Martínez, Portugal has a number of high-quality players to choose from: Rafael León, Bernardo Silva, Diogo Jota, Pedro Neto, Felix are all in charge, but Gonzalo Ramos, the main arrow, has fallen sharply this season; If the three-man midfield is Joao Palhinha, Vitinha and Bruno Fernandez, the defense may be slightly unbalanced, plus Cancelo and other attacking defenders, it may be possible to win against weaker opponents.

Although the Czech Republic qualified second in Group E of the qualifiers, the qualification process was extremely unconvincing, and the departure of Jaroslav Shilhavi, who had led the team for more than five years, made Ivan Hašek, who had traveled to many countries in the Middle East, as well as Gabon and Japan, a coach in danger. Under the new coach, although the Czech Republic has won four consecutive warm-up matches, they have conceded all of them, or they are not as strong and weak as the established impression. The team consists of 16 players from the country's three powerhouses, Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague and Viktoria Plzen, while the exodus is led by West Ham United stars: Vladimír Coufal and Hoffenheim's David Jurásek are expected to attack as wing-backs in a 3-4-1-2 formation, while Tomáš Souček captains the middle of the midfield. In addition, there are also Leverkusen Samsung, led by Patrik Schick (Patrik Schick), who scored one goal in two games for the national team, and the overall strength can only be called mediocre, and the most stable move is always high-wave air strikes.

Of the 24 teams in the competition, the Netherlands and Poland are the most talked about the impact of the injury wave, but Turkey also has a number of absent players: Ozan Kabak and Çağlar Söyüncü at the back, and Enes Ünal and Cengiz Ünder at the front, all of them were not called up in time, which made the strength of the team somewhat diminished. The team's lackluster performances in the tournament over the past decade or so, including two consecutive European Championship group stage exits, have seen a boost in vibrancy under Vincenzo Montella and two 19-year-old stars: Real Madrid's Arda Güler and Juventus' Kenan Yıldız, who have scored in the national team, but have always been a little immature, and captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu has been in the driver's seat. The recent situation of five battles without victory is also difficult to give people confidence.

Even if it only relies on a stumbling defeat to Luxembourg and Greece in the play-offs, Georgia's first major finals with a population of only 3.7 million is enough to make the whole country rejoice in the historic moment. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was revealed by his father to leave Napoli in a similar 3-2-3-2 formation with former Bayern Munich coach Willy Sagnol, is usually heavily pinched, making her partner Budu Zivzivadze or Georges Mikatadze in disguise Mikautadze) has more chances to score: the former has better shooting skills, and the latter is better at "drilling camp", but unfortunately Kvaratskhelia's form this season is obviously not as good as the previous one, so he has reduced the cost of upsets. Strike-back Levan Shengelia and the tycoon Giorgi Mamardashvili are also worth noting. Although the overall strength is mediocre, Turkey and the Czech Republic are not at the top in the same group, and it is not impossible to succeed in grabbing points or even winning back.

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