Euros 2021 Overview and Fantasy Picks

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Euros 2021
Image Credits: New Indian Express

Euros 2021 Overview and Fantasy Picks! 

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After an insane club football season across all the top 5 leagues in the world, we’ve arrived at the most prestigious international fantasy football league in Europe. Euros 2021 kicks off on 12th June at 12:30 AM.

We have six groups in total to look at and we’ll go through all of them in detail. We’ll also be giving you the best fantasy picks for players of particular teams that we think have the best chance of making a difference for their teams throughout the tournament. 

After all of that, we’ll also tell you our favourites to win the tournament, who will reach the final and which player will take home the Golden Boot. Let’s get right into it:

  • Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Wales

Group A is very interesting. Seemingly, Italy should be the favourites to top the group but other than that, it’s going to be a very competitive group. All three teams will fancy their chances of making it through to the knockout stages. In 2016, Wales were able to make it all the way through to the semi-finals but this time around, they might have to put much more effort into winning their group matches. 

Turkey has a very solid defensive record and team spirit which will bode well for them trying to secure a surprise top or a comfortable second-place spot in Group A. Switzerland has a decent squad but we don’t feel that they have enough to get the better of Turkey or Italy. 

Our prediction for Group A is that Italy will top the group, followed by Turkey in second place. 

Fantasy Picks for Italy: Lorenzo Pellegrini, Federico Chiesa, Lorenzo Insigne, Ciro Immobile, Federico Bernardeschi.

Fantasy Picks for Turkey: Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Cengiz Ünder, Burak Yılmaz, Merih Demiral, Çağlar Söyüncü.

Fantasy Picks for Wales: Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Harry Wilson, Daniel James, Ben Davies.

Fantasy Picks for Switzerland: Xherdan Shaqiri, Christian Fassnacht, Haris Seferovic, Breel Embolo.

  • Group B: Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Russia. 

Group B is going to be a one-sided affair. Belgium is probably one of the favourites for the tournament and will most likely win all of their group matches. Behind them, the second and third spot will most likely be occupied by Denmark or Russia. Denmark is a very capable side and has shown their quality against the big boys in some of their previous matches. 

Russia has done the same, including when playing well in their World Cup in 2018, though that has all come on home soil, which has helped them. They do get to play some games in St Petersburg this time around, but it is not the same as hosting.

We believe that Denmark has a slight edge and will finish the group in second place above Russia while Finland simply has a tall order to have any chance of making it through to the knockout stages. 

Our prediction for Group B is that Belgium will top the group, followed by Denmark in second place. 

Fantasy Picks for Belgium: Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Dries Mertens, Eden Hazard, Yannick Carrasco.

Fantasy Picks for Denmark: Christian Eriksen, Martin Braithwaite, Jannik Vestergaard, Kasper Schmeichel, Yussuf Poulsen.

Fantasy Picks for Russia: Alexsandr Golovin, Denis Cheryshev, Artem Dzyuba, Mario Fernandes.

Fantasy Picks for Finland: Teemu Pukki, Marcus Forss, Lukas Hradecky, Fredrik Jensen, Robert Taylor.

  • Group C: Netherlands, Austria, North Macedonia, Ukraine.

The Netherlands should comfortably top their group this time. They simply have a better squad and all of the other teams combined! Although they might face trouble in the knockout stages, the group stages should be smooth sailing for them. Other than that, it’s going to be a very interesting affair in Group C as to who will secure second place. Ukraine can compete well as can Austria. But it will be all about who can turn up on the day. 

North Macedonia is the dark horse in this group. They have shown their ability by qualifying for the finals, and on top of that have recorded a recent win against Germany, which was an excellent result for them and would have been a real confidence booster for the players.

Our prediction for Group C is that the Netherlands will top the group, followed by North Macedonia in second place.

Fantasy Picks for Netherlands: Memphis Depay, Donyell Malen, Matthjis de Ligt, Donny Van de Beek, Wout Weghorst.

Fantasy Picks for Ukraine: Andriy Yarmalenko, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Viktor Tsygankov, Vitaliy Mykolenko.

Fantasy Picks for Austria: Marco Arnautovic, David Alaba, Marcel Sabitzer, Alessandro Schöpf, Louis Schaub.

Fantasy Picks for North Macedonia: Egzijan Alioski, Goran Pandev, Eljif Elmas, Stefan Ristovski, Enis Bardhi.

  • Group D: England, Croatia, Scotland, Czech Republic.

One of the most exciting groups of Euro 2021. England and Croatia met each other in the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Scotland has a huge rivalry with England and the Czech Republic is a team that can show up at any time! 

However, England should top this group simply because their squad and the quality of the players is too good. Croatia will secure second place and won’t get the better of England this time around. The final spot will be determined by the Czech Republic national team, who on their day will have a little too much class for Scotland and can prevail. However, this is an unpredictable team we are talking about, so Scotland may fancy their chances of causing them problems if the Czechs are not on their game.

Our prediction for Group D is that England will top the group, followed by Croatia in second place. 

Fantasy Picks for England: Harry Kane, Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker.

Fantasy Picks for Croatia: Luka Modric, Ante Rebic, Ivan Perisic, Mislav Orsic, Andrej Kramaric.

Fantasy Picks for Scotland: Kieran Tierney, Andy Robertson, John McGinn, Che Adams, Scott McTominay.

Fantasy Picks for Czech Republic: Tomáš Souček, Patrik Schick, Matěj Vydra, Vladimír Coufal, Alex Král.

  • Group E: Spain, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland.

Spain is the standout team from Group E. They’re not at the same levels as their previous legendary teams but they’re still good enough to secure a top spot in Group E. The main issue for them right now is that Sergio Busquets has tested positive for COVID-19 and now the whole squad is in isolation. Let’s see what happens.

Slovakia can be good on their day but Poland and Sweden should be the teams who’ll be fighting for the second and third spots. Poland has the best striker in the world currently as their captain and the match between Sweden and Poland will be a brilliant watch, we’re sure of that.

Our prediction for Group E is that Spain will top the group, followed by Poland in second place.

Fantasy Picks for Spain: Aymeric Laporte, Ferran Torres, Marcos Llorente, Gerard Moreno, Adama Traore.

Fantasy Picks for Poland: Robert Lewandowski, Piotr Zieliński, Mateusz Klich, Wojciech Szczęsny, Jan Bednarek.

Fantasy Picks for Sweden: Emil Forsberg, Dejan Kulusevski, Kristoffer Olsson, Victor Lindelöf, Alexander Isak.

Fantasy Picks for Slovakia: Martin Dúbravka, Marek Hamšík, Milan Škriniar, Róbert Boženík, Ondrej Duda.

  • Group F: Portugal, France, Germany, Hungary

The Group Of Death. The three big teams will most likely take the top 3 spots in the group table. In what order they finish is hard to predict. France definitely has the strongest international squad in the world right now and they are the reigning world champions and the favourites to take home the Euro 2021 trophy as well. Portugal also has a crop of bright young players but their core is at the end of their careers. Germany are in a period of transition right now where they have had recent success but are incorporating new, young talent into their national side but they can be good at any time. You almost feel sorry for Hungary at this point because they couldn’t have asked for a harder group than this! 

Our prediction for Group F is that France will top the group, followed by Portugal in second place. 

Fantasy Picks for France: Kylian Mbappe, Karim Benzema, Kingsley Coman, Antoine Griezmann, Lucas Digne.

Fantasy Picks for Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias, João Cancelo, Gonçalo Guedes.

Fantasy Picks for Germany: Serge Gnabry, Timo Werner, Manuel Neuer, Leroy Sane, Kai Havertz.

Fantasy Picks for Hungary: Ádám Szalai, Péter Gulácsi, Willi Orbán, Attila Fiola, Roland Sallai.

Winner Of The Tournament Predictions:

France won the World Cup back in 2018 and there’s no doubt that they are the favourites for this tournament as well. Their squad is incredible and has a legend as a coach behind them. They certainly know the winning mantra and we can’t wait to see how they perform. 

England is probably the only team that can give them competition. Their squad is well balanced and they have goalscorers all over the pitch. Their only problem is going to be defensive solidarity and maturity. Belgium can also be a threat but we don’t see them progressing through to the finals. 

Golden Boot Predictions:

With the likes of Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling in behind him, there’s no doubt that Harry Kane is going to be getting an insane amount of chances to score. If there’s anyone you want on the end of chances, Harry Kane is the man for you. He also takes the penalties and possibly freekicks for England so that’s a bonus. 

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