Pádraig Amond: European Championship excitement is upon us
Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Organisers Present the Official Match Ball - Maifeld, Berlin, Germany - November 15, 2023 General view of the Euro 2024 match ball 'Fussballliebe' REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
EURO 2024 is upon us and although we can’t be as excited as we have in the past about major tournaments because Ireland haven’t qualified this is a tournament I am very excited about. There are a number of teams who legitimately have claims about winning the tournament and it has all the makings of an excellent tournament.
Beaten World Cup finalists France are the favourites and rightly so. Their squad is so strong, and they have one of the best, if not the best, player in the world right now in Kylian Mbappe in their side who can be a match winner against anyone at any given moment in a game. They have strength in depth all over the squad and it will take a very good team to get past them in the tournament and win it outright. I believe they will win the competition and that isn’t an original pick, but they do face some strong challengers as they look to win back the crown that they last won in 2000.
If you had asked me before the squads were announce who would be France’s biggest challengers, I would have said England. However, a couple of injury issues for them in defence has left them very exposed I think, and they just don’t look as strong as they did six months ago.
As indifferent as Harry Maguire’s form has been for Manchester United since he singed for the club his form for England has been excellent and he has been a mainstay in the side throughout Gareth Southgate’s time in charge of them. His absence from the squad is a huge blow to Southgate and England’s chances of winning their first European Championships and their strength in depth at centre back is very inexperienced at international level.
Lewis Dunk, Joe Gomez, Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa who are the replacements who are all vying for Harry Maguire’s shirt to replace him have only 36 international caps between the four of them and it will be a big ask for them to fill Maguire’s boots. That being said it isn’t an impossible task for them as they are all good players but just how good at international level is yet to be seen. Going forward they are so strong. They have matchwinners all over the pitch and that is the one thing that is given English fans hope coming into the tournament. Perhaps Gareth Southgate’s biggest issue comes when he has to try and fit all their best attacking players into the starting XI.
He has even had the luxury of leaving Jack Grealish out of the final squad. In the likes of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane they have arguably the best players this season in the three strongest leagues in Europe, the Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga. I think they will go close but just fall short because of the defence they have at their disposal.
The biggest challengers to France in my opinion are Portugal. Like France their squad is littered with talent all over and even though they have a couple of aging players in their ranks in Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo they are still very important players for their country and performing week in week out. We saw up close and personal how decent Portugal can be last week when they gave Ireland a lesson in their final warm up game in Aveiro when a Ronaldo double gave Portugal a 3-0 victory and in truth it could have been more. That might say more about Ireland than Portugal but still they have brilliant players in Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Diogo Jota to name just a few. Time will tell if they can challenge to win their first Euro’s in what could be Ronaldo’s final international tournament although he keeps defying the aging process as he continues to score goals for fun like he has done at every level he has played.
On the domestic front we were disappointed to lose our final game before the mid-season break at home to Shelbourne 1-0 in the RSC. It was a tight game, and we could and probably should have got something from the game as I had a goal wrongly disallowed as TV replays showed afterwards but sometimes those decisions go against you. We have no game this week and are next in action against Dundalk on 28 June in Dundalk.
While that loss against Shels was very disappointing on a personal note I was pleased to have received the League’s player of the month award for May. It was a great moment for me and the club. We had a brilliant month in May winning five of six games so it could have been any one of three or four players who were excellent for us in the month, but they decided to go with me, so I was happy to accept it on behalf of the club.
