The European Championships are fast approaching. This month's international break will be the last chance head coaches have to examine their players before 23 man squads have to be named, though for 12 nations March is really about the battle to secure the final three spots at the tournament. We'll be updating our power rankings in the weeks leading up to the tournament and onwards in Germany but here's the state of play right now:
Euro 2024 power rankings
| Rank | Team | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
1 | England | Across the field there is elite talent in abundance for Gareth Southgate, who gets the sort of pleasurable conundrums like: who partners Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham in the midfield three, which wide forwards back up Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka, should he go horses for courses at right back? The left side of the defense looks a little parlous, but really the questions for the FA over the coming tournament cycles are about the man in the dugout. Southgate has proven he can make England a happy camp but can he forge a group of winners out of this talented young squad? |
2 | France | There are no such questions over Les Bleus, who for most of Didier Deschamps' reign have gone deep in tournaments without ever really unlocking the full potential of their attacking talent. Euro 2024 will see a refreshed France in attack and defense but what Aurelien Tchouameni and William Saliba, among many others, lack in caps, they make up for in quality. |
3 | Netherlands | There might be only a cigarette paper between one and two in these rankings but after that comes a chasm to the group of consistent contenders on the international stage. None are without flaws, but the Dutch might have the strength that tends to matter most in big tournaments, a lock down defense. It may go against their football heritage, but how successful could a team be with a back five of: Jeremie Frimpong; Matthijs De Light, Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Ake and Ian Maatsen? All them and we haven't even got to Lutsharel Geertruida, Sven Botman, Mickey van de Ven and perhaps even Jurrien Timber. |
4 | Portugal | The talent is clearly there and Portugal breezed through a relatively favorable qualifying group, as they so often do. That is it though. It feels like nothing has really changed for a team that is still putting its galaxy of attacking talent in service of Cristiano Ronaldo. It is great for him that he can get 12 shots away in 66 minutes against Liechtenstein, but, their weird win at Euro 2016 somewhat set to one side, Ronaldo's dominance is hardly great for Portugal. |
5 | Germany | Sacking your manager nine months out from a tournament does not exactly scream a country on course to achieve something special on home soil. Still, replacing Hansi Flick with Julian Nagelsmann gave Germany something few other national teams have: elite talent in the dugout. If the former Bayern Munich boss can find the right system for an esoteric collection of creative midfielders, support strikers and not enough fullbacks, then this team can go very deep indeed. |
6 | Spain | This may be a tournament cycle too soon for Spain, who have only two 50 cap-plus internationals in Luis de la Fuente's squad, veteran full back Dani Carvajal and the enigmatic Alvaro Morata. Still, it would be risky to entirely write off a team who dominated both Italy and Croatia on their way to the Nations League title, a reminder that their possession-oriented style can be extremely effective on the tournament stage. |
7 | Belgium | For all the doom and gloom in Qatar, the vestiges of the golden generation and bright young things such as Jeremy Doku and Amadou Onana looks promising. If Domenico Tedesco could squash his beef with Thibaut Courtois this would be a team with plenty of elite talent at both ends of the pitch. |
8 | Italy | There are a fair few very good players who will be turning out for the Azzurri this summer -- Nicolo Barella, Federico Dimarco and Federico Chiesa to name a few -- but there are not quite the same depths of talent and experience for Luciano Spalletti that Roberto Mancini had when his side stunned the continent three years ago. Italy have achieved great things without free-scoring forwards in the past, but it is still a worry when no one in the latest squad has more than eight goals to their name. You can see why this squad has found reaching major tournaments to be such a slog. |
9 | Denmark | A rather underwhelming World Cup ought not to diminish expectations for the Danes, who will have a point to prove when they rerun their Euro 2020 semifinal with England in the group stages. Their squad is just on the right side of the experienced-over the hill line while the emergence of Matt O'Riley and Rasmus Hojlund bring guile and goals. |
10 | Switzerland | They hardly set the world alight in qualifying, but then again Switzerland tend to be a far better side come tournament time anyway. Their captain Granit Xhaka is in the form of his life while they have two elite goalkeepers to choose from in Yann Sommer and Gregor Kobel. Providing one of their low-scoring forwards caught alight in the knockout stages, you could construct some sort of path to this team maybe, just maybe pulling off an underdog triumph. |
11 | Croatia | There is more than a little bit of mirage in Croatia's recent tournament record -- they last won a knockout game in normal time at a major competition in 1998 -- and a tough group is going to take a lot out of what little is left in the legs of Luka Modric et al. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that I said all that before the 2022 World Cup. Best to hedge some bets here. |
12 | Hungary | Dominik Szoboszlai aside, this may not be a squad filled with star names but no team other than Italy has beaten them in nearly two years, a time period that has seen them vanquish England home and away. Given their draw, a knockout round spot does not look beyond them at all. |
13 | Serbia | The talent is clearly at Dragan Stojkovic's disposal, particularly in midfield and an attack that could do so much with Dusan Vlahovic, Dusan Tadic and Aleksandar Mitrovic. The output from all this quality might just be a bit too high variance, however, a team that always seem primed to lose 3-2. |
14 | Slovakia | Slovakia might be light on star names but they made their way to Germany in impressive fashion, pushing Portugal close in both their defeats and winning in hard to go to places like Iceland and Bosnia. Even without superstars there are plenty of good players on this roster, particularly center backs Milan Skriniar and David Hancko and above all Napoli's excellent Stanislav Lobotka. |
15 | Romania | Children of the 1990s will rejoice in the return of Romania, who will arrive at only their third tournament in the past two decades with a ferocious defense to deploy. In 10 qualifying games Edward Iordanescu's men only conceded four goals, their backline anchored by Tottenham's burgeoning young prospect Radu Dragusin. Further forward the likes of Ianis Hagi, Nicolae Stanciu and George Puscas tend to be good for the odd goal even if they're unlikely to challenge the Golden Boot frontrunners. |
16 | Slovenia | Can Benjamin Sesko shine in the group of Erling Haaland-shaped strikers? The eyes of many a Premier League club will be on the RB Leipzig 20 year old but at the other end an in-form Jan Oblak could help them escape England's group. |
17 | Turkey | There is so much to like in the talent at Vincenzo Montella's disposal, from seasoned old heads Hakan Calhanoglu and Zeki Celik to the promise of the new embodied by Arda Guler. Turkey face a great deal of questions however, from how this side might have toughened up after falling apart at Euro 2020 to what impact the chaos in their domestic league will have. |
18 | Scotland | As Spain and Norway can attest, this is a serious football force who are no easy opponent to score on, giving up just 1.14 xG per game in perhaps the toughest qualifying group. There are questions to ask over where the goals come from if opponents can nullify the third man runs of John McGinn and Scott McTominay, but Steve Clarke's side will be hard outs for all their opponents. |
19 | Austria | It speaks to the depths of talent in the European game right now that a team who so recently beat Germany could rank so low. Austria, however, have been handed an extremely challenging group even before the addition of the qualifier from Path A and will have to do without their one world class player, center back David Alaba sidelined with a major knee injury. |
20 | Albania | Sylvinho's side is clearly a good one, strong enough to rise rapidly to the top of Group E last year, conceding just two goals in seven qualifiers. There are the bones of a talented young side built around the likes of Kristjan Asllani and Armando Broja, but a group of Spain, Croatia and Italy may just offer tough lessons. |
21 | Czech Republic | The pro-Czech case is that their draw may well be the easiest in the competition: Portugal, Turkey and a representative from Path C. Equally none of those teams will fear a side that doesn't really have the firepower of past generations. A lot will be asked of Patrik Schick and Tomas Soucek if this team is to make some noise. |
