5 Tips for the Opening Weekend of Euro 2020 Action

The first tip on this list comes from the opening match of the tournament, which sees Turkey face Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.

Italy come into this match having won all of their last eight matches across all competitions against Estonia, Poland, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, San Marino and the Czech Republic.

Roberto Mancini’s side won five of these games in the score range of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 with the exceptions being their 4-0 hammerings of Estonia and the Czech Republic, as well as a comfortable 7-0 victory of San Marino, where Federico Bernardeschi, Gian Marco Ferrari, Matteo Politano (2), Andrea Belotti and Matteo Pessina (2) all got on the scoresheet.

Turkey come into this match having won two of their last four matches, beating Azerbaijan and Moldova but also drawing with 0-0 Guinea and 3-3 Latvia, although, they do have a good record of pushing the big sides in Europe to their limit, drawing and beating France in the qualifiers for this competition 1-1 and 2-0, as well as also earning a draw against Germany back in October last year.

The next tip sees Denmark face Finland in what is the opening game of Group B, where the Danes come into this game as favourites, with this being the first time that Finland have made it to a major tournament.

Denmark have been in impressive form over the last year, having finished above England in the Nations League, drawing 0-0 in Copenhagen, before beating the Three Lions 1-0 at Wembley via a goal from Christian Eriksen. Kasper Hjulmand’s side have also recently drawn 1-1 with Germany, as well as beating Bosnia and Israel 2-0, whilst earning thumping 4-0 and 8-0 wins against Austria and Moldova.

Finland come into this game without a win in their last six international matches, losing 3-1, 3-2, 2-0 and 1-0 to Wales, Switzerland, Sweden and Estonia.

Inter Milan midfielder Eriksen is the player in focus in this match, as mentioned above, the 29-year-old score the winner against England in the Nations League, as well as scoring three goals in two matches against Iceland to ensure Denmark a second-place finish ahead of Gareth Southgate’s side.

The former Tottenham man is Denmark’s second all-time top scorer with 36 goals in 108 caps, trailing former Newcastle United and AC Milan striker Jon Dahl Tomasson by 14 goals.

The other game in Group B sees Belgium go head-to-head with Russia, with Roberto Martinez’s side coming into this match as firm favourites.

Belgium are on a nine-match unbeaten run across all competitions, with seven of these being wins against Iceland, Switzerland, England, Denmark, Wales, Belarus and Croatia.

Russia have won just one of their last three matches, beating Bulgaria 1-0, as well as drawing 1-1 with Poland and losing 2-1 to Slovakia.

Romelu Lukaku is the player to look out for in this match, as the 28-year-old Inter striker has scored eight goals in his last eight international appearances, including a brace in a 4-2 win over Denmark in the Nations League last November. Lukaku is also the Red Devils all-time top scorer with 60 goals in 93 appearances.

Sunday will see England kick off their campaign in the European Championships in the hope that they can win the Euros for the first time.

Southgate’s side will face the side that knocked them out of the World Cup semi-finals in 2018, although thankfully, England do have better recent history against the Croats, beating them 2-1 in November 2018, as late goals from Jesse Lingard and Harry Kane cancelled out Andrej Kramaric’s 57th-minute opener.

England have won their last six games in a row, however, only one of these have seen both teams score, which was in a 2-1 victory against Poland at Wembley, where goals from Kane and Harry Maguire either side of Jakub Moder’s 58th-minute equaliser sealed a vital win in the World Cup qualifiers.

Croatia come into this game in poor form, having only won two of their last nine matches across all competitions, which came in 1-0 and 3-0 victories against Cyprus and Malta in World Cup qualifying. Goalscoring often hasn’t been an issue for Croatia, as they managed seven goals in four matches against France, Turkey, Sweden and Portugal, it’s a matter of their defensive record, as they shipped 10 in these fixtures.

The final game on this list of tips sees Holland take on Ukraine in Group C on Sunday.

Frank De Boer’s side come into Euro 2020 as one of the favourites to win it and will start with what could be an awkward test against Andriy Shevchenko’s Ukraine.

Holland have kept just two clean sheets in their last nine matches, winning five of these game against Bosnia, Poland, Latvia, Gibraltar and Georgia, of which Memphis Depay, Wout Weghorst and Ryan Gravenberch all got on this scoresheet in the latter.

Ukraine’s form has been poor of late, winning one of their last eight matches, which came last Thursday in a 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland, prior to this they had drawn four games in a row via a 1-1 scoreline against Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Finland and France. Ukraine’s last competitive win came against Spain in the Nations League back in October where a 76th minute Viktor Tsygankov strike was enough to win the match.