Euro 2024 Group C: All eyes on fancied England

Such is our exposure to the pre-tournament chatter around our neighbours that the fortunes of England will likely intrigue Irish football fans the most over the next few weeks.

Gareth Southgate has a really excellent squad, and they've been knocking on the door for a few years now. Beaten by Croatia in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, they went all the way to the final of the last Euros in 2021, only to suffer penalty shooutout heartache against Italy. In Qatar during the winter of 2022, England fell to France at the quarter-final stage.

Is this their year?

They had a miserable send-off game against Iceland at Wembley, where Southgate's men slumped to a 1-0 loss, but they remain one of the teams fancied to lift the trophy in Berlin on 14 July.

They should emerge from this group but it may not be a total cakewalk; not least because there's been such a short turnaround from the end of the domestic season to the start of this tournament. England will want to hit the ground running, but it may take them a while to hit top gear.

Denmark look the team most likely to put it up to the Three Lions. The Danes made it to the semi-finals of the last Euros, where they were beaten 2-1 by the English. Revenge would be sweet.

Serbia have enough quality to at least make things awkward for the top two seeds, while Slovenia will be hoping their much coveted attacker Benjamin Sesko can help them pull off a shock or two.

Country: Denmark

Manager: Kasper Hjulmand

Captain: Simon Kjaer

Player to watch: Rasmus Hojlund

Best Euros performance: Winners (1992)

Fixtures

Sunday, 16 June: Slovenia, (Stuttgart), 5pm

Thursday, 20 June: England, (Frankfurt), 5pm

Tuesday, 25 June: Serbia, (Munich), 8pm

The Republic of Ireland's old friends had a tough time at the