Romania vs Ukraine
Both teams who come from Eastern Europe and are neighbours will be battling it out for a possible second spot in Group E. Everyone knows the situation in Ukraine at the moment and players such as Zinchenko and Chelsea’s in form Mikhail Mudryk will hope to rise to the occasion against a largely unknown Romanian side who are making their return to UEFA Euro 2024 after missing out on 2016. Their only player of note is George Puscas who plays with Serie B side Bari so Ukraine should be deemed as favourites
Maltasport prediction: Ukraine 2 Romania 0
Belgium vs Slovakia
Kevin de Bruyne’s Belgium are hot favourites to take Group E by storm and sail through to the 2nd Round. The Reds have plenty of other gifted players such as fellow Manchester City team mate Jeremy Doku as well as Arsenal’s Leo Trossard and Aston Villa’s Christian Thielemans not to mention the erstwhile Romelo Lukaku. Slovakia are the minnows in this group and are not expected to provide much resistance to the Belgian juggernaut.
Maltasport prediction: Belgium 3 Slovakia 0
Austria vs France
World Cup finalists France are expected to breeze through their first Group D match against Austria who are making another consecutive appearance at the Euros, the first after many decades. Kylian Mbappe’ will always be in the limelight but Les Bleus are replete with gifted players such as Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga, Alex Touchameni, Inter’s Marcus Thuram and experienced veterans such as Olivier Giroud and Ngolo’ Kante who plays in Saudi Arabia. Austria do have Borussia Dortmund’s Marcus Sabitzer as talisman but cannot hope to offer much resistance to France who are on course for their third title, last won in dramatic fashion in 2000.
Maltasport prediction: Austria 1 France 3
