The Belgians travel to neighbourly France after winning Group B with relative ease and, as they were before the last World Cup in Brazil, are considered one of the possible surprises of the competition, projected to do better than the quarter-finals of 2014. For the first time in a Euro since 2000 (as a host nation), Belgium seeks to repeat the successes of 1972 and 1980, where they finished 3rd and 2nd, respectively.

The biggest headach for coach Marc Wilmots is the back four. On one hand, the lack of trustable Belgian full-backs “forced” them to play four center-halfs simultaneously, removing offensive depth from the team while also limiting the width of their gameplay. If this wasn’t enough, long-time regulars Kompany and Lombaerts are missing the tournament through injury, being replaced by Denayer and Vermaelen, a pairing that in qualifying never played together.

In midfield, keeping the formation used throughout qualifying, Witsel and Nainggolan are responsible for defensive tasks and pressure and ball recovery duties, but also an important support for the 4 offensive elements, with the way paved for the Roma midfielder to shine while making up for the lack of offensive vocation in the wing area.

15 metres down the field are the brightest stars of this bunch. Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard are two of the best attacking midfielders in Europe, and the coupling of this two for Belgium is the main reason why some experts put team in the lot of favourites to win the European title.

Hazard’s season was not a nice one for Chelsea, but some improvements were made in the last gameweeks of the club season and more are anticipated. It can’t be argued that he arrives in France in the best shape of the last 12 months, while De Bruyne returned in March and is now fully recovered from being sidelined for two months, ending the season with 16 goals on 41 matches played at Man City.

As the spearhead, Lukaku should align a great season at Everton (46 games, 25 goals), with a great European Championships, even if at times he doesn’t look like the perfect fit for this Belgian team.

Croatia managed to qualify for the Euro, after a second place in Group H, behind only Italy, even with having seen UEFA penalize them with the loss of one point due to racist behaviour in the game against Italy, at Stadion Poljud in Split.

Despite being in France, there are many questions hanging around new coach Ante Čačić. Since taking office, his inexperience and inability to settle on a tactical formation are constant subject for debate, reaching new heights during one of the last friendlies, switching through four formations during the same same match.

On the defensive side of the ball, two heavy losses on the Croatian side. Dejan Lovren is not a part of Cacic plans after last March when the Liverpool center-back allegedly refused to warm-up in a friendly against Hungary, and Josip Privaric who also misses the trip to France due to injury. Srna and Corluka should have their place guaranteed and Vida plays in the middle or on the left side. In the first scenario Vrsaljko should be the substitute of Privaric, otherwise Schildenfeld will be pairing Corluka in the middle.

Whatever defense enters the pitch, the foundation for Croatia’s success is the quality of its midfield. Marko Pjaca aside, from Dinamo Zagreb, it takes a simple look at the clubs of his sector partners to realize how strong the Croatians are here. Brozovic and Perisic from Inter Milan, Real Madrid’s Modric and Rakitic from Barça. Also suited for Pjaca’s position is Kovacic, the former Inter and current Real Madrid’s rising prospect

Every combination of these players results in a line with a highly evolved technique and a working capacity well above average, ensuring that the front line is correctly served.

Asking questions in attack is Mandzukic, with his “rather break than bend” style, after a regular season for Juventus (27J 10G), despite the qualifiers where he contributed with only 1 of the 20 goals that put Croatia in France.

Back in the European Championship after failing to qualify for Euro2012, Turkey dreams of repeating the success the 2008 edition where they reached the semi-finals. With a 3rd place in Group A behind the Czech Republic and Iceland, but ahead of the most noticeable absent from this summer, the Netherlands, the Turkish national team ensured progress as one of the best 3rd places, a position secured only with a win in the final match of the group stage against Iceland.

In the backline, the absence due to injury of the usual starter Serdar Aziz should require the move of Mehmet Topal to the center-back position, next to Hakan Balta. On the left side we’ll have the very offensive Caner Erkin, one of the latest signings by Inter Milan after six seasons at Fenerbahce, where he came through the ranks as a left winger.

In the middle of the pitch, Fatih Terim bets on a combative double-pivot to free their most creative players for offensive tasks. Selcuk Inan is a sure thing, being accompanied by Volkan Sen (a winger for his club, a holding midfielder in the national squad) for more defensive games or the young prospect Ozan Tufan, both from Fenerbahçe.

But the stars of this Turkish squad are all on their playmaking trio. Arda Turan is perhaps the brightest and the classiest of the three, even after an uneventful first season at Barcelona, following some fantastic years at Atlético Madrid. On the other wing, we’ll see one of the best set-piece takers of the tournament, Hakan Calhanoglu from Bayer Leverkusen, a very sought out prospect that is starting to garner some interest from the main sharks in European football. They are complemented by Ozyakup whom, after a lacklustre period at Arsenal where as a 19-year-old he didn’t play a single match, is living up to his potential shown by his latest season for Beşiktaş, reaching 10 goals and 8 assists.

The striker role belongs to Burak Yilmaz, despite not scoring for Turkey since September 2015 and currently still trying to return to form after a couple of complicated months with an injury, picked up in China lining up for Beijing Guoan.

The Czechs arrive in France with morale on a high note after winning Group A, ahead of teams like Iceland, Turkey and the Netherlands (which is watching the Euros at home). In a very difficult group, it won’t be so easy to mimic the feats of their countrymen in 2004, when they reached the semi-finals of the Euro, especially since apart from Cech and Rosicky, this squad lacks the star power they’ve shown once, with players like Poborsky, Nedved, Koller and Baros, among others.

In the defensive sector, the highlight is Pavel Kadebarek. After a great U21 Euro in 2015, he moved to Hoffenheim, having a very positive season, and is already awakening the greed of the most powerful European clubs, due to its very offensive profile.

Another squad member who is being spoken of to be on his way to a European colossus, Real Madrid in this case, is Vladimir Darida. In any of the center midfield positions, as a double-pivot or as #10, in the spot that belonged to Rosicky for the last 14 years, Darida not only ensures defensive balance at the time of turnovers, but also has an appetite to appear in the penalty box and score goals (18G in 3 seasons Bundesliga).

Rosicky is the wildcard of this team. Despite his 35 years and having only played 19 minutes this season for Arsenal in the Premier League, most of the Czech hopes of surviving the group stage run through him it. The quality is there and recent friendlies have shown that there are still some classy minutes in the tank for the veteran playmaker.

Up front, David Lafata played most of the qualifying, but despite being prolific in his home league, with 141 goals in 228 games played in the last eight seasons, Lafata hasn’t scored a goal in an international match since October 2014, which opened the door of the starting job for Bursaspor’s striker Tomas Necid.

Winner of the last two editions, Spain is perceived again as a clear-cut favourite to take the trophy home, amidst a renovation process, with perennial starters like Xavi and Xabi Alonso retired from international duties. Nonetheless, La Roja dominated its group at will in the qualifying stage with 9 wins out of 10 games, 23 goals scored and 3 conceded, two in the lone defeat in Slovakia.

Vicente del Bosque will keep the tactical display that has long benefited him, title and success-wise, and there aren’t many doubts about who the starters in defense will be. Two center-halfs with lots of miles, many side-by-side in the national team, and two offensive full-backs on the outside that help bring width to a team that lacks a true winger in its lineup.

The real puzzle is the midfield given the amount, and quality, of the available options. Andrés Iniesta is, of the probable starters, the one with the paler individual season, accruing only 1 goal and 2 assists, but his stat sheet in big tournaments for his country make him hard to overlook. From the three roles in middle of the pitch, Busquets seems the one guaranteed in the lineup, with Thiago, Fàbregas and Koke fighting for the two remaining spots. David Silva come come into this battle as well, but only if he loses his spot on the wing for Nolito.

On the left side of the pitch, Silva looked like a sure thing starter, but Nolito’s recent appearances for Spain after another master season at Celta de Vigo (103 games and 39 goals in 3 seasons) have put the foot in the door for the former La Masia prospect.

Going forward, and after the surprising dismissal of Pablo Alcácer — best scorer during qualifying, in the absence of Torres and Diego Costa — Álvaro Morata is a no-brainer for the lone striker role. After three seasons as one of the most highly touted prospects of European football, the Juventus forward has in this tournament his big opportunity to rise another level into stardom.

In their first European Championships ever, and 30 years after the last appearance in a World Cup, Michael O’Neill’s lads come to France as one of the great surprises of the competition after winning Group F, ahead of higher ranked team as Romania, Hungary or Greece (perhaps the biggest disappointment of the qualifying stage, finishing last in its group, behind the Faroe Islands).

The tactical formation to be used in the Euro 2016 is still undecided, with a wide variety used during qualifying — 433, 4141, 442, 4321 — but recently Northern Ireland have played their friendlies in a 3–5–2, particularly after Chris Brunt’s injury.

Regardless of formations and the number of defenders or midfielders, Coach has already made it clear what they need to do to be able to even think of going through to the next stage: they will have to “outrun” their opponents, be able to play “ugly” and maintain a high standard of defensive discipline between all eleven members.

The latest scheme allows them to have on the pitch three centre-backs that play in the Premier League, bring their defense and midfield lines closer and deeper, challenging opponents to try a more sideways style of football with lots of crosses, going against the strengths of this defense.

Their midfield is hard-working with a “better break than bend” mindset, leaving the offensive expenses almost exclusively for Steven Davis. Regarded as the “creative” of the bunch, it’s in the team Captain that Irish hopes are trusted on.

Up front, Lafferty wll try to make us forget his recent times on loan from Norwich with poor to no success at all, and maintain the run of form that he has shown when playing for his country, as highlighted by 7 goals in qualifying, out of the total of 16 by Northern Ireland.

Poland qualified for the Euros for the third time in its history (and third consecutive) after a second place in Group D, just a point off a very strong Germany, now reunited in the competition group stage, having beaten Joachim Löw’s squad at home by 2–0. If they achieve the widely expected 2nd place in the group, they will match with the 2nd place in Group A, which will probably be an accessible Switzerland.

Fabianski should hold the starting job ahead of former Arsenal teammate Wojciech Szczesny, but whatever the choice, the goalkeeper won’t have easy outings, since defense has been the weakest sector of this Polish team, conceding 10 goals in the qualifying phase, and if we exclude the games against Georgia and Gibraltar, their only clean sheet came from that victory over the world champions.

In the back-end of the pitch, Piszczek is a very offensive wingback that ensures a lot depth on his side, but the main novelty is absence of the usual starter across the field, Maciej Rybus, who left the team with an injury leaving his place open for Wawrzyniak or Jedrzejczyk.

Indisputable in midfield, Krychowiak joins a great resilience to some technical skills and is the reference of the sector, after another beautiful season for Sevilla. The position beside him is the only one that still seems open.

Krzysztof Maczynski has been the most used, but the Wisla Krakow midfielder may have his place at risk if coach Adam Nawałka decides to bet on the creativity and irreverence of 22-year-old Piotr Zielinski, after a season coming through for Empoli.

But it is forward down the pitch that the stars reside and justify the best attack in all qualifying groups with 33 goals in 10 games. If Lewandowski needs no introductions, Arkadiusz Milik is a lesser known player to most but no less decisive in this Polish national team. With 6 goals and 6 assists in the trail to France, Milik proved that the last two seasons at Ajax, 47 goals in 75 matches, are not the result of chance, and he can be one of the Euro’s surprises if Poland manages to get at least into the quarter-finals.

Ukraine will make only its second UEFA European Championship appearance and after a very difficult qualifying in which they finished 3rd in group C, behind Spain and Slovakia, with Mykhailo Fomenko’s side only booking their tickets to France in a play-off matchup against Slovenia.

The focus on a defensive stance was evident during qualifying, with just four goals conceded in all games, plus 6 games with clean sheets. Not even the 37 years of Shevchuk seem to disrupt the stability of this backline.

The midfield trio of Rotan, Stepanenko and Garmash primarily serves for ball recovery and defensive duties, but all Ukrainian hopes rely on their wingers this summer.

Yarmolenko has allied offensive production for his country (6G and 3AST in qualifying) with a very positive season for the of his heart, Dinamo Kiev, scoring 13 goals in only 23 matches. In the other wing, the only player of the 23 Ukrainian players to play in a major European league, the very fast Konoplyanka , scorer of 8 goals for Sevilla in 2015–16.

Up front, Kravets looked set in stone for the lonely striker role but the Stuttgart strker didn’t make the final 23. Dnipro’s Roman Zozulya, despite the weak qualifying in which he didn’t score any goal in 5 matches, seems now like the frontrunner for the starting job.

It will also be interesting to see whether Stepanenko and Yarmolenko can get past their fight on May 2nd, in a game between Shakhtar and Dynamo Kiev, were they were both expelled. At the time, the Shakhtar player publicly declared that their friendship was over and nothing to get it back.

Gary Lineker once said that “football is 11 against 11, and in the end Germany wins” and German history seems to support this idea. The current world champions, were the semi-finals in 13 of the 18 World Cups played, and in 8 out of 11 Euro semi-finals. In fact, the biggest surprise may well be that thay haven’t won this tournament since 1996, because they’d never been more than 16 years without winning a European Championship.

Joachim Löw’s side is for almost everybody one of the favourite, and if there is something that you can nitpick on this group, it should be their defense, especially on the right side where the doubt between Emre Can, after a whole season playing as a defensive midfielder for Liverpool, or Howedes, which was one of the surprises of the last world cup, playing every minute of the sometimes demolishing journey to the 2014 title. If we add the questions marks around the physical capacity of Hummels, it easily proves this to be the more debilitated sector of the team.

In midfield Kroos and Khedira will be the ones with defensive duties, but from then up only Ozil has his starting job guaranteed, since Muller, always a starter and probably the best scorer of the squad, can mix up the battle for the right wing spot. If this happens, enter Mario Gomez, forward, after a well-rounded season for Besiktas (33GP, 26GS).

In the other midfield role, Gotze, despite the off season at Bayern, or Draxler, who failed to carry all the influence he had in Schalke to Wolfsburg’s football, are the main contenders.

Regardless of who plays, it will always be a very strong midfield and attack, able to create enough offensive movement, and with a creativity that we only recently began to see in the Mannschaft’s style, all blended together with the usual effectiveness and coolness.

So, Germany wins in the end?

The Slovak team is considered the least favorite of the group B to move to the knockout phase, but their performance in World Cup 2014 should not be ignored, even if this group can be considered more difficult than the one they faced in Brazil. In the past two years, the Slovaks only lost two matches in the 17 they played, and even won against Spain in qualifying, on the only game that the Spanish would not win. In their last friendly, they beat Germany 3–1, having recent victories over the teams considered by many as the favourites to win the tournament.

The Slovakian side puts all the chips on the counter-attack, and it was through this style of very rapid and objective transitions that they won against the Spanish squad. This strategy benefits the defensive cohesiveness, keeping the team deep into its own pitch and with close lines behind the ball, which is even more important given that the seven defensive elements (goalkeeper included) are all very experienced, and only Kucka and Pekarik, both with 29 years, are below 30.

The biggest star of this squad is arguably Marek Hamsik, a player with a remarkable journey in Serie A at the service of Naples, where since 2007 he has already scored 81 goals in 319 matches for his club.

The entire offensive game goes through the vice-captain, and he’s the one asked to create superiority in opposing areas. Robert Mak and Vladimir Weiss ensure enough speed on the wings, essential qualities for the scheme implemented by Jan Kozak, based on the counter-attack.

Perhaps the only question that remains is who will play up front, Michal Duris or Adam Nemec. Whomever plays the advanced role, either Viktoria Plzen’s forward or the striker for Willem II, his function is mainly to open spaces and provide support to midfielders and wingers to appear in scoring zones.