On Saturday, the draw for Euro 2024 will take place in the harbour city of Hamburg, where France, England, and the other major contenders will learn which path to potential continental success awaits them next summer.
The draw will take place at the Elbe Philharmonic Hall, which overlooks the Elbe River, which passes through Germany’s second-largest city, just over six months before the competition, which runs from June 14 to July 14.
Not everyone’s thoughts will be on next year’s finals just yet, as the draw takes place in a city shivering in sub-zero temperatures and with top-flight club football dominating the continent.
Nonetheless, Saturday’s event marks the start of the true countdown to the European Championship for the 20 nations that have qualified thus far, including hosts Germany.
Last year’s World Cup finalists France and an England team that has never won a continental title are among the top seeding, along with Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and the hosts.
Recent results and the wealth of quality available to their respective coaches, from Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann to Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, distinguish France and England as favourites.
England will be under pressure to go one better than they did in 2021, when they lost the final on penalties to Italy at Wembley.
“I believe we must accept that. “Pressure arises when expectation differs from reality, and reality is that we will be one of the teams capable of winning,” England manager Gareth Southgate recently stated.
Germany, however, is in crisis on the field, having lost six of 11 games since exiting the World Cup in the group stage for the second time in a row last year.
That form cost Hansi Flick his job as coach, but they have already lost back-to-back games under his replacement, Julian Nagelsmann.
“We’ve got an unbelievable amount of work to do in every position,” Nagelsmann told local reporters following the recent 2-0 loss in Austria.
There are dangerous sides hiding outside the top pot, including the Netherlands, who won the last Euro in Germany in 1988, and reigning champions Italy.
After failing to qualify for the previous two World Cups, Italy narrowly qualified this time by clinging on uncomfortably for a draw with Ukraine in their penultimate game.
None of the teams in the top pots want to be matched with Italy, even if the structure removes some uncertainty by advancing four of the best third-placed teams from the six groups to the last 16.
“After all the difficulties we’ve had, we’ll be in Germany, and we’ll be there as reigning champions, and we’ll be there to win,” Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma said following the Ukraine draw, which sealed qualification.
The final three places in the finals will not be determined until the March play-offs, which will include Poland, Wales, Ukraine, and Euro 2004 winners Greece.
The host nation’s performance is a major concern, threatening German expectations of another “summer fairy tale,” as the public remembers the 2006 World Cup.
Football fans around the continent, however, will be eager to make the most of a return to the historic model of a Euro staged in a single country, after the previous tournament was held in 11 different countries across the continent.
Euro 2020 was also plagued by travel and attendance limitations due to the pandemic.
There will be none of that this time, with fans flocking to the country’s ten host towns, which range from the capital Berlin and Hamburg in the north to Munich in the south and Dortmund in the heart of the Ruhr industrial zone.
Germany will play in the tournament’s opening game on June 14 in Munich, while the final will be held a month later at Berlin’s 70,000-capacity Olympiastadion.