Unfortunately for Irish fans, they won’t have any vested interest in the outcome of this summer’s European Championships. The Republic of Ireland failed to make it to the football festival in Germany this summer, falling a long way short in qualification.
But the tournament still has its appeal even without the men in green participating, as it’s top-level international action. There are usually upsets with teams defying underdog odds, dramatic penalty shoot-outs and “worldie” goals scored in big tournaments such as this.
With less than two months until the tournament starts, excitement builds among fans who are talking about potential national team line-ups, sports followers looking at early match tips on sites such as https://www.ukclubsport.com/football/european-championship/predictions/, and players preparing physically and mentally for Europe’s top football event. Everything is nearly ready to kick off. We want to make sure that Irish fans don’t miss out on this football celebration, so we’ve picked out some teams you might want to support and explored what their chances could look like in the tournament.
France
Despite the infamous Thierry Henry handball incident in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Ireland has a long history with France. The centuries-long relationship between the two nations is still strong today and can be seen in strong economic ties. The Irish flag is even believed to have been inspired by the famous French tricolour.
The sharing of a Celtic heritage could naturally lean towards Ireland supporters backing the French for success. Head coach Didier Deschamps arguably has the most talented, deep squad in the competition, and cheering on the French would at least be backing a big title contender.
Les Blues are one of the tournament’s main favourites at around 3/1 alongside England. It is probably quite obvious who most folk from the Emerald Isle would prefer to see win the title out of that duo.
With a comfortable group stage draw, France, who boast Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembélé among others, have only lost twice since the start of 2023, both times against Germany.
Belgium
There’s a historical relationship between Ireland and Belgium as well, giving Ireland football supporters another option in the form of the Red Devils. As the story goes, an Irish student called Cyril Bernard Morragh introduced football to Belgium in 1863.
Belgium were almost Ireland’s first international opponents, but couldn’t fulfil the match due to financial problems. But the two nations came together for what was Ireland’s first-ever competitive match, in 1934.
Once the number one ranked team in the world, Belgium never could quite live up to their billing by landing an international title at the Euros or World Cup. But still, having world-class players like Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, Belgium could go well. The group stage draw has been extremely favourable to them at the very least.
Spain
Another country that Ireland has strong historical links to is Spain as the Celts settled in northern and central parts of the country. Spain are fourth favourites at 8/1 in the Euro 2024 betting markets, with only France, England and Germany ahead of them.
Despite a hiccup against Scotland during qualification, Spain still topped their group comfortably at the end. They are three-time champions and the only nation ever to have won back-to-back editions of the European Championship.
While far from possessing the quality they had in their golden period between 2008 and 2012, they could be well in the mix, and favourites to win Group B ahead of Croatia and reigning champions Italy. That’s the toughest group of the first round, so the odds say a lot about Spain’s chances.
Outsiders to Cheer For
Ukraine squeezed through to the European Championships via the playoffs. Given everything that the country has gone through in the last couple of years, there will be an element of natural support to throw towards Ukraine at Euro 2024.
They are in Group E, which Belgium are favourites to win, but there’s a wide-open race for the second automatic qualification alongside Romania and Slovakia. So Ukraine could be of interest in the To Qualify market for punters.
It’s hard not to get behind underdogs, of course, with the biggest of all being Georgia. They are the only debutant in this year’s European Championships and will be looking to cause some upsets against Turkey, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
Ireland’s Future Hopes
Failure to get to Euro 2024 was a massive blow for Ireland. That’s now back-to-back editions of the tournament at which they have not been present. Better news lies ahead, however, as Ireland will jointly host the 2028 edition with the UK. The next target for Ireland is the 2026 World Cup, a tournament they haven’t featured in since 2002.
