UEFA Euro 2024: Groups C and D Preview

France's Theo Hernandez (R) celebrates with Kylian Mbappe after scoring the opening goal during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Morocco at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, on Dec. 14, 2022. (Christophe Ena/AP Photo)

The 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship hits Germany this summer, with the tournament beginning on Friday, June 14.

Outside of the FIFA World Cup, the Euros are viewed as the most prestigious international tournament, and a champion will be crowned on July 14. Italy enters the 2024 Euros as the defending title holders, courtesy of a penalty shootout victory over England in the 2020 Euros finals. France is the top-ranked team in the 2024 European Championship, while Georgia is the lone nation making its debut in the tournament. Here’s a look at Groups C and D, which will play their group stage matches from June 16 through June 25.

Group C: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, England

Slovenia enters in with the third-worst FIFA ranking of the 24 teams competing, and they didn’t win a game in their lone previous Euros appearance (2000). But they were impressive in 2024 UEFA Euros qualifying with a 7–1–2 record, and while they finished runner-up in their group, no other second-place team had more points (22) or a better goal differential (plus-11) than the Slovenes. Goalkeeper and captain Jan Oblak is coming off a season in which he led all players across the Big 5 European leagues in minutes played. He played every minute of every game for Atletico Madrid and finished fourth in La Liga with 13 clean sheets. He enters the European Championship with a 267-minute streak for the Slovenia national team in which the only goal he’s allowed was off a penalty.

Denmark finished in third place in the last UEFA European Championship, although that placement was a bit overshadowed by the collapse and cardiac arrest of Christian Eriksen during a match. The midfielder, who ranks second all-time in team history in caps, would not play soccer for eight months afterwards but has since rejoined both his club and country. He hopes to set up lots of goal-scoring opportunities for forward Rasmus Højlund, who is coming off a 10-goal season for Manchester United. That tied for the club lead, and he did it at just 21 years old. Højlund also led Denmark with seven goals during Euro qualifiers as the focal point of their offensive attack.

Serbia will look to turn around their history with a couple of their groupmates and establish a winning history against another. Serbia has lost all three of their matches versus Denmark, and the Serbs have just one victory in four all-time matches against Slovenia. The UEFA Euros 2024 will mark their first time competing against England, and the tournament, as a whole, will mark Serbia’s Euro debut since splitting from Montenegro in 2006. The team has one of the most prolific goal-scorers in the world in Aleksandar Mitrović. He led the EFL Championship in goals in 2021–2022, led the UEFA Nations League tournament in scoring in 2022–2023 and finished second in goals, to Cristiano Ronaldo, this past season in the Saudi Pro League.

This group is for the taking for England as they are ranked fourth in the world, while none of the other three nations are even in the top 20. They almost won it all last time around before dropping the final in a penalty shootout to Italy. That remains their best European Championship showing. While the rest of the Big Five in Germany, Spain, Italy, and France each have won this tournament multiple times, the English have failed to hoist the trophy.

The team is loaded in the attacking third with Phil Foden, who just finished fourth in the EPL in goals, Jude Bellingham, who ranked third in La Liga in scoring, and Harry Kane, who led all of the Big Five European Leagues in goals. With goalkeeper Jordan Pickford coming off an EPL season where he ranked third in save percentage, it’s clear why England enters the Euros as the betting favorite.

Group D: Poland, Netherlands, Austria, France

The Polish are centered around one of the best scorers of his generation in Robert Lewandowski. Nine times he’s led his domestic league in scoring, although at 35, he’s slowed down and has just one goal over his last six appearances with Poland. However, the Polish are unbeaten over their last seven matches, having not allowed more than one goal in any of them. The Poles are ranked No. 28 in FIFA rankings, but they did not get the luck of the draw as they’ve played the Netherlands and France a combined 36 times but have just six total victories.

Ranked No. 7 in the world, and fifth among Euro teams, the Netherlands has a knack for always playing to a result each of the Dutch’s last 14 matches have ended in either a win or loss, with nary a draw. While that stretch consists of wins over smaller nations, they’ve suffered defeats to superpowers such as Italy, Germany, Croatia, and France twice. The Netherlands is coming off a Round of 16 at the last Euros and hasn’t won a knockout match in this event since 2004.

Austria enters the 2024 Euros with a sterling 11–2–1 record over their last 14 games, including wins over Germany and Italy. The team is captained by midfielder Marcel Sabitzer, who just led the Champions League in assists while guiding Dortmund to the Final. However, he’s yet to replicate club success with country as he has just eight assists across 75 appearances for Austria, compared to 12 assists over 44 UCL contests. The Austrians won their first European Championship game in 2020, and they actually won twice as they made the Round of 16.

The second-ranked team in the world—and the highest-ranked team in the UEFA Euro 2024—it’s championship or bust for the French. They are coming off a runner-up at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which followed them winning soccer’s greatest prize in 2018, but they had a disappointing Round of 16 exit in between at the 2020 Euro. They have a pair of veteran strikers in Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann, who have combined for 101 international goals, but the focus of the French will be on Kylian Mbappe.

He just joined the reigning Champions League title holders in Real Madrid, and with Madrid keeping Mbappe from playing for France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he can put all of his efforts into the Euros. The five-time Ligue 1 Player of the Year scored nine goals during Euro 2024 qualifying, and he leads a France team that hasn’t lost a competitive match since 2022.