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Assessing the first twelve Euro 2016 finalists

By on October 11, 2015

The qualification process for Euro 2016, the fifteenth edition of the competition, is almost over and twelve out of twenty-four spots in the final have been taken with the remaining set to be claimed in the coming days. Richard Lewis takes a look at the first twelve nations to already booked their tickets to France and suggests who will be eating snails (not the escargot kind, either) and who will be drinking champagne next summer.

France (Hosts)

Main Man: Karim Benzema
Rising Star: Paul Pogba
Manager: Didier Deschamps
Captain: Hugo Lloris

How they are shaping up: It is always hard for hosts given their lack of competitive football leading into the tournament. Their automatic qualification can be a blessing and a curse as they’re always scrambling for high profile friendlies to test out their squad. Furthermore, their woes are always compounded in front of a home crowd and for such an example you only have to look as far back as Brazil at the 2014 WorldCup. For France, it will only add pressure for young guns such as Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial to collectively step up to improve upon their solid Quarter-final finish at the World Cup, although their recent friendlies haven’t been particularly promising.

England

Main Man: Wayne Rooney
Rising Star: Harry Kane
Manager: Roy Hodgson
Captain: Wayne Rooney

How they are shaping up: The English have also become wearing of judging their national team before an upcoming tournament, largely due to their penchant to trip up on the big stage. Roy Hodgson’s men have won nine out of nine in qualifying so far and have a chance to seal their perfect record against Lithuania on Monday. A nice, round thirty points would look stellar next to The Three Lion’s name in qualifying.

England have a new crop of young players such as Ross Barkley, Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Saido Berahino being integrated into the national team, though silverware still seems just out of reach. However, more experienced players like all-time top goal-scorer Wayne Rooney and goalkeeper Joe Hart would love to go far in the tournament at perhaps their last time of trying and set the young guns up to excel at the 2018 World Cup in Russia; hold the champagne for now.

Czech Republic

Main Man: Petr Cech
Rising Star: Vaclav Kadlec
Manager: Pavel Vrba
Captain: Petr Cech

How they are shaping up: Although the Czech Republic rely heavily on more experienced players like Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech, they easily glided through their qualification group, which included the Netherlands. Although they have consistently qualified for the Euros in recent years, they haven’t done well since competing as Czechoslovakia. A last sixteen finish should be viewed as a success for their squad next summer.

Iceland

Main Man: Gylfi Sigurdsson
Rising Star: Kolbeinn Sigthorsson
Manager: Lars Lagerback
Captain: Aron Gunnarsson

How they are shaping up: Iceland have been one of the surprise packages in Euro qualifying and are sitting atop Group A having beaten the likes of the Netherlands. Currently, the Dutch’s fate is in Iceland’s hands as the island nation face Turkey who sit one place above the Netherlands in the group’s playoff position.

Strictly Come Dancing contestant Peter Andre may star in many Icelandic advertisements, but it would be Insania to think the underdog team could go far in the competition next summer. It took an outstanding effort by star midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and lesser-known players such as Kolbeinn Sigthórsson to step up just to qualify. Iceland are used to the cold and will most likely melt by the last sixteen in France.

Austria

Main Man: David Alaba
Rising Star: Aleksandar Dragovic
Manager: Marcel Koller
Captain: Christian Fuchs

How they are shaping up: Austria have been surprisingly consistent in qualifying and are one of only four teams, alongside England, Italy, and Romania, they remain unbeaten. With Bayern Munich’s David Alaba clearly Austria’s star man, they have easily topped a qualifying group that includes big players such as Russia and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden. They’ve impressed so much that the last 16 is a realistic target for Marcel Koller’s side next summer.

Northern Ireland

Main Man: Kyle Lafferty
Rising Star: Paddy McNair
Manager: Michael O’Neill
Captain: Steven Davis

How they are shaping up: If you said to someone at the start of the Northern Ireland’s qualifying campaign that they would top their group, they would have replied with ‘you are having a Laff’!’ which, it turns out, is exactly what Northern Ireland are having with Norwich reserve striker Kyle Lafferty scoring seven goals in their last nine games.

Southampton’s Steven Davis scored the brace that took Northern Ireland to France, as the 3-1 victory over Greece at Windsor Park sealed their position atop the group. It turned out to be a great week for Davis, having scored for the Saints in their 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge seven days prior. The story of Josh Magennis, goalkeeper-turned-striker mid-career will also go down in Northern Irish folklore, after scoring against Greece.

Portugal

Main Man: Cristiano Ronaldo
Rising Star: Bernardo Silva
Manager: Fernando Santos
Captain: Cristiano Ronaldo

How they are shaping up: One word: Ronaldo. Portugal relied on their main man more than ever during qualifying having suffered early losses to Cape Verde and Albania. Without the £80 million forward the side would look considerably weaker, and the likes of Joao Moutinho, Pepe, Nani and Swansea City’s Eder will have to take a considerable step up before Fernando Santos’s men could have a prayer of looking beyond Quarterfinals.

Spain

Main Man: Cesc Fabregas
Rising Star: Paco Alcacer
Manager: Vicente del Bosque
Captain: Iker Casillas

How they are shaping up: Spain won Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 but now their squad is littered with aging stars combined with a plethora of young players that have been poorly filtered into their squad. Following a group-stage exit World Cup 2014, it would take a massive recalculation from Vincente del Bosque to complete Spain’s hat-trick of Euro trophies.

Premier League stars like Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla and David de Gea are likely to be in the Spain’s starting eleven next summer and alongside a host of Real Madrid and Barcelona stars, Andres Iniesta will likely have his last crack at a major tournament. The tournament will also provide Valencia striker Paco Alcacer a platform to make his name and start replacing the goals of David Villa.

Del Bosque will be hoping Chelsea improve their current form, with Diego Costa, Pedro and Cesc Fabregas all playing for the Blues this season. And while Super Victor is the official mascot for the tournament in France, another Victor is unlikely to be part of Spain’s squad this time around as Victor Valdes sits in the cold at Manchester United.

Switzerland

Main Man: Xherdan Shaqiri
Rising Star: Breel Embolo
Manager: Vladimir Petkovic
Captain: Gokhan Inler

How they are shaping up: Just as Switzerland is neutral in international politics, their national team has been in the middle of the pack at major tournaments in recent years. They reached the last sixteen at the 2014 World Cup and could repeat the feat at the Euros next year. Xherdan Shaqiri is their main man and other young like Granit Xhaka, Fabian Schar and Breel Embolo are also in the Swiss setup. England beat them 2-0 on two occasions in qualifying and while Switzerland are clearly not that dangerous, they had a decent enough attack to safely qualify behind England in Group E.

Italy

Main Man: Andrea Pirlo
Rising Star: Marco Verratti
Manager: Antonio Conte
Captain: Gianluigi Buffon

How they are shaping up: In an easy qualifying group Italy passed without a hitch, but at the same time the reigning finalists didn’t make a statement. Antonio Conte has been shifting around their attacking line as senior players Eder and Graziano Pelle have only been brought into the national setup in their qualifying campaign to replace the misfiring Mario Balotelli. Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo aren’t getting any younger, either, and Italy seemed to have only slid since 2012; they’d do well with a quarterfinal finish.

Belgium

Main Man: Eden Hazard
Rising Star: Kevin De Bruyne
Manager: Marc Wilmots
Captain: Vincent Kompany

How they are shaping up: Belgium’s “Golden Generation” fell short at World Cup 2014 but the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Thibaut Courtois steamrollered through Group B to reaffirm their title as dark horses to take the trophy. Hazard and De Bruyne provide their creative threat, while Marouane Fellaini and Romelu Lukaku act as aerial threats up top. They have a whole host of Premier League names in their squad and have been building towards this tournament for the last four years. They’ll aim for a semifinal finish and with their level of talent a quarterfinal finish should be the bare minimum. Their Golden Generation is just getting started.

Wales

Main Man: Gareth Bale
Rising Star: Aaron Ramsey
Manager: Chris Coleman
Captain: Ashley Williams

How they are shaping up: Gareth Bale has dragged Wales by the scruff of their neck back into a major tournament. Swansea defender Ashley Williams has helped them keep two clean sheets against Belgium in qualifying and unsung stars such as Hal Robson Kanu have also impressed, but Wales will simply be happy to be back on the big stage no matter their finish. Wales, England and Northern Ireland are the trio of British home nations going into the Euros, compared that to Euro 2008, when there were none. Chris Coleman’s men will end a fifty-eight year major tournament dry run in France, for, coincidentally, the first time since 1958.

Homepage photo credit: Xavier NALTCHAYAN, via Flickr

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.