Daily Archives: June 5, 2024

Euro 2024: C – England, Denmark, Serbia, Slovenia

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England Euro 2024 squad guide: More justifiable tournament favourites than ever before “The manager:  This will be Gareth Southgate’s fourth major tournament with England. No manager has taken the team to as many since Sir Alf Ramsey. Whatever happens in Germany, Southgate is the most consequential England manager of the modern era and this will be the tournament that defines his legacy and his future.  His contract expires at the end of this year and if England disappoint in Germany, that will be the end of his eight-year tenure. He may leave with a sense of not quite fulfilling the resources available to him, but if England win — or get close — this summer, then a contract extension is on the cards and one last attempt at the World Cup in the U.S. in two years’ time. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Denmark Euro 2024 squad guide: A lack of evolution fuels doubts hanging over Hjulmand’s side “The manager: Kasper Hjulmand has been in the job almost four years and is now leading Denmark to what will be, slightly surprisingly, their first back-to-back European Championship appearances since they competed in the 2000 and 2004 editions. However, his popularity is on the wane and the mood surrounding him is not what it was back in 2021. Denmark’s progress through to the semi-finals of those Euros certainly occurred under exceptional circumstances following Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest during their opening group match on home turf in Copenhagen, but it also created a swell of goodwill around the team which would actually flow into Danish football as a whole. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Serbia Euro 2024 squad guide: Tactical issues, a defensive shortage and an unpopular manager “The manager: Dragan Stojkovic is not popular. This is the second successive tournament that he has taken Serbia to. Nevertheless, his team have been in a lull since Qatar, where they failed to win any of their games (against Brazil, Cameroon and Switzerland). They qualified for Germany in second place, but they still lost home and away to Hungary, displaying tactical issues that continue to compromise their talent. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Slovenia Euro 2024 squad guide: Oblak and Sesko give these underdogs real bite “The manager: If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Whether that is Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek’s motto, it certainly applies as, in his second spell in charge of his homeland’s national team, he has got them to the Euros at the third attempt. His first crack at the job — which began in 2007 and included their qualification for the 2010 World Cup — ended in 2011 following the failure to reach the following summer’s Euros. He returned in late 2018 and while he was unable to guide the team to Euro 2020, they won Nations League promotion to its second tier in 2021 and are now off to only their second European Championship, after their debut in the 2000 tournament. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Euro 2024: B – Italy, Spain, Croatia, Albania

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Italy Euro 2024 squad guide: Trepidation for a team yet to be moulded in Luciano Spalletti’s image “The manager: Luciano Spalletti was supposed to be on sabbatical. He left newly-crowned Serie A champions Napoli last summer with the intention of spending a year on his country estate in Tuscany. The only vintage Spalletti planned to concern himself with was the latest Sangiovese from his vineyard. Not the 2024 Azzurri. But in August, the president of the Italian FA, Gabriele Gravina, called. Roberto Mancini had quit, citing differences over a reshuffle of his coaching staff. A reshuffle he initially endorsed. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Spain Euro 2024 squad guide: A teenage record-breaker and Rodri in the middle, but the scandal lingers “The manager: Even Luis de la Fuente himself was surprised when he was promoted to take over Spain’s senior team by Luis Rubiales, who had fired previous coach Luis Enrique following Spain’s last-16 exit to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup. De la Fuente was a double La Liga champion at left-back with Athletic Bilbao in the early 1980s. After moving into coaching, he worked with different generations of Spain’s national teams, winning an Under-19 European Championships in 2015, the Under-21 Euros four years later and getting the under-23s to the final of the most recent Olympics in 2021. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Croatia Euro 2024 squad guide: One last hurrah or a tournament too far? “The manager: Zlatko Dalic is the third longest-serving international manager at Euro 2024 and it’s a testament to what he has achieved with Croatia that he remains one of the most popular in his homeland. That would have been tough to predict when he was appointed in 2017, with his previous jobs being boss of Slaven Belupo, Al Faisaly, Al Hilal and Al Ain. He won the UAE Pro League with the latter and a report in Croatia at the time of his appointment with the national team stated he had earned enough money for three lifetimes, let alone one, which was helpful because the Croatian FA didn’t have much to pay him at the time. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Albania Euro 2024 squad guide: A group of unlikely heroes in more ways than one “The manager: Sylvinho! You know, the old Arsenal and Barcelona left-back? Yeah, he’s Albania’s manager. Interesting, right? The Brazilian’s playing days ended in 2010 after a brief stint at Manchester City, then he spent the best part of a decade earning his corn as a coach at Cruzeiro, Sport Recife and Nautico in Brazil, then as Roberto Mancini’s assistant at Inter Milan, then Tite’s assistant with the Brazil national team. …”