In 2004 Germany tied 0-0 against Latvia in the group stages. Just because they're not a big name doesn't mean that they can't play. Did you forget about Costa Rica already?
I'm going with Germany. With the likes of reus, gundogan, bender, shmelzer that will add even more quality to this world champion.
I think Germany would be the obvious favorites heading in, but also think Belgium could make things interesting.
Odds on favorite: Liechenstien, but let's not count out Luxembourg. But all seriousness aside, I'm curious for all the changes that are coming to Spain's national team with this past world cup and the ages of a lot of their core players.
Good point Belgium and Serbia have very good young squads. In two years I think these two teams will concur with the top favourites.
I hope so, but was more convinced pre-Hiddink. Time will tell. Germany - Belgium - France - Netherlands (in no particular order)
Although events usually return to the proper order of things, these qualifiers are getting interesting. Of all things, San Marino is NOT on the bottom. See Thee Rise!
I think that France in 2016 won't waste the chance to win a Euro played at home. They have very good young players, and in these two years they will grow further. Germany would be my second choice; maybe now they are not as focused as they should be, because they just won a World Cup, but in 2016 they will be mentally ready again. Spain doesn't seem to be able to substitute the generation of phenomena they had in the last years.
I think that Italy can be an outsider for Euro 2016, but it is still difficult to decipher. They changed the manager after the World Cup (Antonio Conte), and some of the players are new to the international scene, lacking experience in important matches. However some of them, like Ciro Immobile who plays in Borussia Dortmund, will accumulate it in the next two years. Balotelli has not been called up yet, but I think that starting from November or March he will play in the national team again. Until now in the qualifying round, as usual, Italy had difficulties beating "easy" opponents like Azerbaijan and Malta. In November there will be the match against Croatia, and we will see the true potential of Conte's team.
FINAL: France vs Italy (Italy win on penalties). I really think thats whats going to happen. France are getting better and plus they have home advantage. Italy as well will be strong, the could have got to the semifinal in the world cup, but Coach Prandelli ruined it a lot, and mexican referee Marco Rodriguez robbed us against Uruguay with two very controversial calls. Now we have Coach Conte (a serious coach) who actually wants Italy to win. They have strong players, and almost beat croatia if Buffon was just a little faster, he could have saved that goal. And keep in ming, Italy were missing at least 3 of their best players in that game. Its true they win weak teams by 1 goal, but thats Italy though, they aren't Spain or Germany who keep smashing teams, they usually like to win by 1-3 goals, thats just Italian style. If you watched them against Norway and Azerbaijan, they were playing really well. Also they had a bad day before the game against Costa Rica, I could tell. Germany will do well but will meet Italy in the semifinals and get beaten. You know Italy ALWAYS beats Germany right? Belgium? C'mon, Belgium is the most overrated european team. People say they did surprisingly well in the world cup, beating 3 somewhat weak teams by 1 goal? Is that really that good? They had the easiest group in the whole tournament. They beat the USA by 1 goal, USA isn't that good either. And you can see Argentina scored on them with no problem around the 22nd minute. Netherlands I have a feeling will fluke in the group stages or Round of 16. They will probably do ok though, but Germany, Italy, or France will get them in the quarterfinals. I think people were really overestimating the Netherlands in the world cup because of 5-1 against Spain. It was just Spain playing so bad, if you remember they struggled against Australia. They cheated against Mexico with Robben diving (even if it was a real penalty) its still just luck and doesn't really count if you talk about which team is better. Costa Rica held them to penalties as well. They did have a good game against Brazil, but again Brazil was horrible as you can tell they just lost to Germany 7-1 before that. And one of those goals was a penalty. Spain is also good, but will be out in the quarterfinals. Croatia, Iceland, Czech Republic, Poland, and maybe Slovakia will surprise and be dark horses. Anyway no question the three teams to beat will be: France, Italy, and Germany.