Predictions Of Group C Euro 2024: England's Strongest Favorites, Denmark And Serbia Have Opportunities

England doesn't want to repeat the 2020 failure (photo: x @EzriKonsa)

JAKARTA - Now is the time to see how Opta's supercomputer predicts Group C consisting of England, Denmark, Serbia and Slovenia. Who will qualify for the round of 16.

In England's international tournament so far, only won one major trophy in the history of their men's football. But this time the public deserves to predict football will "go home."

Gareth Southgate's side did enter Euro 2024 as a favorite, in part because of their impressive performances in the last tournaments and also because of the many attacking talents possessed by the Three Lions. They had to tackle a group containing Denmark's Euro 2020 semifinalist Serbia who is often referred to as the 'black horse', and the Slovenian team that produced their best qualification performance to reach Germany.

They almost won the tournament three years ago, but lost to Italy on penalties at Wembley in the final. Put aside the penalty shootout, England have lost only once to their last 18 matches in the European Cup (10 wins, 7 draws), their surprise defeat against Iceland in the last 16 of the 2016 edition under Roy Hodgson (2-1). They easily won their qualifying group, finishing six points ahead of Italy in second place. This is the eighth consecutive qualifying group for a major tournament where England finished in first place, since failing to qualify for Euro 2008 after finishing third in their group.

Captain Harry Kane is likely to be the key to The Three Lions' chances. The Bayern Munich striker was involved in 10 goals during a qualification of (8 goals, 2 assists), scoring or helping in all seven appearances as starters.

Indeed, Kane was directly involved in at least one goal in his last 16 games as a starter in the Euro qualifiers (20 goals, 8 assists). No European player has scored more goals than Kane in the last three major international tournaments, a total of 12 goals (6 in the 2018 World Cup, 4 at Euro 2020, and 2 at the 2022 World Cup). The only other player to match that number was Kylian Mbappe from France.

Britain started their campaign against Serbia on June 16. In 10,000 Opta supercomputer pre-tournament simulations, they advanced to the last 16 in 95.4% of them, while Britain won the entire 19.9% tournament over time, more than any other country. Can they end up winning their first major men's tournament since 1966?

Denmark will be one of the teams that want to stop them, while looking to avenge their 2-1 defeat to England in the Euro 2020 semifinals. Since winning the Euros in 1992, Denmark has only reached the knockout round of the tournament on two occasions: the quarter-finals in 2004 and the semi-finals in 2020. They were given a 69.2% chance of getting healthy to do so for the third time, and started their campaign at Stuttgart against Slovenia on June 16.

Kasper Hjulmand's side won their qualifying group with 22 points, winning all five of their home games. After a mixed debut season for Manchester United, Rasmus H wayjlund will be eager to shine. He scored seven goals in qualifying, more than his other teammates, and also recorded the most shots (23), the highest-targeted shot (13), and the highest-xG (5,2) of any Danish player.

His hat-trick against Finland in March made him Denmark's youngest treble goal scorer in the Euros since 19-year-old Michael Laudrup in 1983 against Luxembourg.

There should be excitement as Denmark's 33 matches in the European Cup resulted in an average of 2.79 goals (42 for, 50 against), the highest ratio of 12 teams to have played more than 20 games in the competition.

For Serbia, this will be their first participation in the European Cup as an independent country, having competed astender and FR status in the previous five editions. Serbia had no trouble scoring in qualifying, being the only country in Group G to score in all eight games (a total of 15 goals). In qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024, Serbia scored in their last 22 matches (without play-offs) since losing 5-0 to Ukraine in June 2019.

It may not be surprising to know that they are a threat in the air, with five of their 15 qualifying goals coming from headers, 33% being the highest ratio of teams to reach Germany. With forwards Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic, the opponent's defense must always be vigilant.

They will also have a reliable experience. Dragan Stijkovic's manager made the most appearances from any Serbian player at the European Championships, played seven times in the 1984 and 2000 tournaments for▁Agama, scoring one goal. He is the youngest (19 years 102 days) and oldest (35 years 114 days) to appear at the Euros for Serbia (astensive / FRY) and the fourth youngest player to score in the competition (19 years 108 days).

Serbia were given a 56.2% chance to qualify for the knockout round.

Slovenia is an unseeded team in Group C, but that doesn't mean they will be an easy opponent for anyone. They have never won a European Cup game, where their only participation had previously come at Euro 2000 when they drew twice and lost once in the group stage, including a 3-3 draw with FR status.

Slovenia impressed in qualifying, winning seven games and collecting 22 points, both of which were a record for them in a major tournament qualifying campaign. They finished second in Group H behind Denmark on goal difference.

The twenty-year-old striker, Benjamin Sesko, will be their main threat, scoring five goals and providing two assists in nine qualifiers, the highest number of goals and combined assists from any Slovenian player. RB Leipzig has recently been the youngest player to score in seven consecutive Bundesliga matches in the history of the competition, beating the previous record held by Rudi V\"oller.

Matjaz Kek's team managed to reach the last 16 in 42.1% of supercomputer simulations.