Wednesday, 01.07.2026
England kicked off their Euro campaign at the stunning Stade Velodrome in Marseilles on Saturday night. Their first opponents were Russia, under the stewardship of CSKA Moscow manager Leonid Slutsky following the well-publicised soap opera that was the departure of Fabio Capello. Vasili Berezutski’s last minute header snatched a draw for the Russians, though England fans have much to be optimistic about over the coming weeks.
France hosted Romania on Friday night in the opening game of the much anticipated 2016 European Championship. France, as the host nation, qualified without playing a competitive fixture since losing to Germany in the World Cup semi-final. Behind them lies an expectant set of fans and with the French previously winning a World Cup and European Championship on home soil history is on their side.
Before the EURO tournaments starts, we would like to offer a short preview of all 24 participating teams, including predictions of possible starting line-ups.
Pressing, Gegenpressing, total football … those are all terms usually associated with the Dutch national team from 1974 or, recently, with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But, during history, there have been other divisive figures who contributed to modern football. Valeriy Lobanovskyi has long gone underappreciated but he put his mark on the sport, and his USSR team gave a strong contribution to the game.
In what was Germany’s first win over Italy since 1995, Joachim Löw’s side showed clear improvement compared to the loss they suffered against England on Saturday. Germany again didn’t keep a clean sheet, but this time dominated their opponent fairly easily.
Germany hosted England in the last week of international friendlies before EURO 2016. Joachim Löw continued to disregard Marcel Schmelzer’s existence as the World champions started with a back line of Hector, Hummels, Rüdiger and Can. Hodgson selected a much more predictable line-up and Delle Alli was given his second start as an England international.
Although international friendlies often hold little significance, those in the run-up to a major tournament can often give you an important glimpse into how each team will set up during the tournament itself. Thursday’s friendly was significant as it was between two of the favourites to win the Euros, as well as being a repeat of the final of Euro 2012, a match in which Spain outclassed the Italians. This match, however, was a different story completely and proof of Spain’s decline since the aforementioned victory.
In the early 1990s, the Italian national team were in a distinct crisis. To solve the tactical issues, the Federazione drew on the secret weapon of domestic Italian football: Arrigo Sacchi.
Despite emerging victorious and reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time in their history, England displayed some serious deficiencies in their possession game.
Sampaoli’s Chile emerged as unsurprising victors against Bolivia whose uncoordinated pressing system was exposed by the intelligent hosts’ possession game.
