There will be a quick turnaround from the end of the club season to international football this summer. This time around, Germany will host the showpiece Euro 2024 competition, which is set to begin in June.
The European Championship is renowned for consistently offering remarkably competitive international football. It's a tournament in which the favorites have often fallen short in recent editions, and surprise teams have made lengthy runs.
Europe's leading international tournament has bred significant underdog winners in the past such as Greece in 2004. Even in the last two events, Wales and Denmark have made extraordinary runs to the semi-finals.
A fairytale story quite as spectacular as that of Greece's shock 2004 win may be out of the realm of possibility this year due to the incredible quality of the England and France teams. However, some nations could still make shock runs to the latter stages.
Austria
Austria will make their fourth European Championship appearance this year, and they will be hoping to record their first knockout victory.
They have yet to reach the quarter-final stage, although the odds suggest the wait could end in 2024.
Many
major bookmakers with free bet offers for the tournament this year seem to hold Austria in high regard. For example, BetVictor offers them at a price of +1000 to become this year's memorable dark horses with a strong run to the semi-finals.
The team is led by an excellent coach, Ralf Rangnick, who has a host of impressive talent at his disposal.
For instance,
10-time Austrian Player of the Year, David Alaba, is the leader of the team. That said, Austria's side is far from a one-man show.
The likes of Konrad Laimer and Marcel Sabitzer bolster the engine room in midfield. In turn, they encourage top attackers such as Michael Gregoritsch, who netted four times in six Euro 2024 qualification appearances.
They also have capable ball-playing defenders in the form of Stefan Posch and Philipp Lienhart. This means that overall, they have the necessary profiles to play high-intensity football, which could be effective against the possession-dominant teams at the tournament.
Rangnick's team has modern defenders, workhorses, and experience in abundance - a similar formula to the Danish dark horses of Euro 2020
Scotland
Scotland is another team that could cause upsets at Euro 2024, due to the impressive work rate and tenacity featured throughout their squad. They have similar strengths to Austria, though their technical quality is not quite on the same level.
Nevertheless, the Scots proved that raw determination and a stubborn five-defender approach were capable of toppling elite teams in qualification.
They
notably won against Spain at home.
Scotland's main strengths are in the box-to-box department where they deploy John McGinn and Scott McTominay. They also have an experienced leader at the back in Andrew Robertson, although their lack of security in central defence, and evident absence of a prolific forward, means their potential to reach the latter stages is not quite as big as Austria's.
Overall, Austria and Scotland's playstyle and mentalities are the key factors as to why they could emerge as this year's surprise packages. The former has the stronger team on paper, although the biggest strength of both is their willingness to play as a committed unit who fight for every ball and press relentlessly.
In international football, team cohesion is vital and these teams both showed that they have a strong collective understanding throughout their qualifying campaigns. This particular strength has been seen in dark horses throughout the tournament's history, which indicates that this pair could be set to write themselves into European Championship folklore this summer.
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Euro 2024