EURO 2024: 'Impressive' Spain, Germany and Portugal remain heavy favourites

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00:00France are through to the last 16 after emerging unbeaten from the first round

00:04of the Euros but their underpart won all draw with Poland in Dortmund on Tuesday

00:09meant they finished second in Group D behind Austria. Meanwhile England top of

00:14their group as they head into the round of 16 has been drawing sharp criticism

00:18from fans disappointed by a distinctly lacklustre performance. England drawing

00:22nil-nil with Slovenia on Tuesday night in Cologne. Well for more we can bring in

00:26Ruben Slagter sports journalist at Eurosport. Great to have you with us

00:30today Ruben. Let's start with France they're through to the next round of

00:35course. It's hardly though been a display of stellar football. No but to be fair

00:41and put it a bit in perspective this is now the sixth major tournament on the

00:44Didier Deschamps and there has never been a group stage game with him in

00:47command that has been impressive or a stellar performance. He knows when the

00:53team has to perform and that's in the in the final part of the tournament so yeah

00:57he was just it was just important for him to have no injuries especially after

01:01the broken nose of Kylian Mbappé. What is true though is that because of

01:06this draw France is second and now they will be in the harder part of the draw

01:09at least on paper for the next tournament and that will worry him of

01:12course. So your assessment has it that this is very much the game plan of Didier

01:18Deschamps. There's nothing inherently wrong you think with the French team at

01:22this point? Oh there there's much wrong with the French team at the moment in my

01:26opinion. I think they can show a lot more. There's a lot more talent than what

01:30they show on the pitch but this is just the way Didier Deschamps works. If you

01:34like it or not the results are there. He became world champion now six

01:39years ago in almost every tournament he gets into the final the final four with

01:45not really exciting football. Yeah of course he can do a lot more for England

01:49it's the same you were just saying it but in the end the the winner is right.

01:53It has been a very long season his players are probably a bit tired so it's

01:58just now not to spend too much energy and now now the real tournament will

02:01start. So you wouldn't say it's time for a change at the top then even though

02:05Deschamps has been at the helm since 2012? As a football lover I would love to

02:11have another manager for the French national team because probably it will

02:14it will give us more exciting games and in the end football is still played for

02:19us for the fans so yeah that's that's a lot better but it's also about winning

02:24prizes so yeah it's up to the to the French National Federation to to see if

02:29they think that with the Deschamps way it will be still as good. I think the

02:34result of this tournament will be really important for for his future but if you

02:39ask me as a football fan yes of course I would I would love to have another

02:42manager for the French national team. Now England of course drew nil-nil with

02:46Slovenia last night where has the England side's mojo gone? Well it's a bit

02:53the same story in my opinion I think that that Gareth Southgate I don't say

02:57that he is copying the Deschamps way of working but he is also clearly and and

03:02his players say it as well focused on the rest of the tournament. What you can

03:08say though and see is that there is no chemistry between the players right now

03:12there's Trent Alexander-Arnold playing at as a defensive midfield it's not

03:18working out really well it's just it's just not working for now there's a lot

03:22of talent on the pitch but you can see there is there's no there's no

03:25connection and there is no no real team on the pitch and that's that's a shame

03:29when you see how much talent there is. And Gareth Southgate is it has to be

03:34mentioned getting a fair bit of abuse from England fans for the England side's

03:37performance how much is he to blame here do you think? A lot a lot I mean if

03:43you think about the lot of the final three years ago in in in London against

03:48Italy it was their final to lose as well when they were up 1-0 after after two

03:54minutes and they just stopped playing and and the tactics now again are not

03:58are not convincing so yeah you cannot say that that Gareth Southgate is adding

04:02a lot to this England team if you look at just on paper all the all the great

04:06names then England should be the main favourite or at least one of the big

04:10favourites of this tournament again like what I said for Deschamps there's a new

04:13tournament starting if they will make it as far as the final even win it then we

04:18won't say anything anymore but until now you have to say that that his addition

04:24to this team is not not very impressive no. And France and England aside any

04:28teams that you think are really punching above their weight in this tournament?

04:32Well above their weight that's more the smaller teams we will see Georgia for

04:36example today playing I think that nobody expected a lot for them and the

04:40way they played in the first two games was was really exciting but okay they're

04:43not going to win the tournament the the main favourites for now are for what

04:47from what we have seen our Spain and Germany and Portugal I think those three

04:51teams were really really impressive in you know for different reasons Portugal

04:55especially because there's just a lot of good players and they seem very solid

04:59Spain has shown the most exciting football and Germany has has just a

05:04strong team and and you can see with the home advantage I think they could go far

05:08as well the only issue is of course that Spain and Germany normally will meet

05:12each other in the quarter so yeah for them it's not the ideal draw in the in

05:15the second round. And any matches you're particularly excited about as we head

05:19into the final 16? We are just waiting now for what the matches will be but

05:26there will be probably as a Dutchman I have to say that it will be probably an

05:30England versus Netherlands game yeah that's historically always always fun to

05:33watch not because they're the most two most exciting teams here but there's

05:37always things happening when these two meet each other so yeah that's that will

05:41be a one to stand out. And I'll be watching that as well because I have an

05:45English mother and a Dutch father so I wouldn't be forgiven if I didn't watch

05:48that one. Ruben Slagter thank you very much indeed.

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