Euro 2020 Group C (Austria / Netherlands / North Macedonia / Ukraine)

Final Prediction:
1. Ukraine
2. Netherlands
3. Austria (advances)
4. North Macedonia

Weakest Group of all. Netherlands has some young and promising talent but they are still inexperienced and Frank De Boer is really NOT a good coach at all. Ukraine might be somewhat inferior on paper without Konoplyanka but Shevchenko has really done wonders as the coach and brought the team to the next level, so I believe Shevchenko might just have this one in the bag and give Ukraine top spot. Netherlands is also missing Van Dijk through injury so therefore follows in second place. Austria will get third and likely be able to score at least 3 goals against North Macedonia which should send them through as one of the top 4 third place teams.

 

1.Ukraine
2.Netherlands
3.North Macedonia
4.Austria

 

I'll go with:

1. Netherlands
2. Austria
3. Ukraine
4. N. Macedonia.

Schedule benefits Holland a bit I think by having North Macedonia in matchday 3.

Potentially a relatively easy route to the semifinals for the winner of this group.

 

1. Ukraine
2. Netherlands
3. North Macedonia
4. Austria

Ukraine will capitalise on the Dutch inexperience. I see them starting off their campaign with a surprise victory over the Dutch. North Macedonia gets a surprise win over Austria completing crazy matchday 1. Austria themselves will draw a couple of games but they will fail to register their first ever win at the EUROs.

 

1. The Netherlands
2. Ukraine
3. Austria
4. North Macedonia

 

What do you mean with "Dutch inexperience "?

 

Lack of experience on the big stage. No EURO 2016. No World Cup 2018. It's the first major tournament for almost all players. I don't know if the Dutch can handle the pressure of being favourites right from the start of the tournament.

 

We don't consider ourselves as favourites, so no pressure.
However a considerable number of the team have figured in CL and EL finals, so I guess they know what it takes to fight their way through ko stages. and they've been in the semi final and final of the Nations League against England and Portugal.
So it's not like they come in wondering about what's going on.

 

Austria keeps on being Austria

 

Netherlands-Ukraine is the best game of the tournament for me so far. Refreshing to see both teams going for it after some of the snoozefests we’ve been served up to this point.

 

Agreed although I felt that England vs Croatia was very competitive as well!

 

Jongens het komt naar huis

 

Que golazoo

 

Lol @ the Ditch

 

Wow.

Ukraine was stronger than I expected.
This the most beautiful match of the Euro for now.

 

Are you referring to their ability to consistently repulse Napoleonic invasions? If so, yes!

 

England started well but the game kind of tapered off after the first 20 minutes or so. Croatia was also disappointing imo.

 

Has to do with the exhaustive year all players went through.

 

De Leeuw fier op de borst, Delaunay nog glanzend.

 

Brilliant.

Exciting game, best of the tourney up to this point by far. Frank de Boer with some expected horrible subs that almost cost us the game - but Dumfries the monster brought it home!

 

What an excellent game. It is so sad that our inexperienced defense is not settled yet. Hope for better defense against Macedonia.

ONe question, though, is it just me or did anyone else notice that the Dutch have a huge liability in defense, as well?

 

One thing I really gotta say is that all the goals the dutch scored were due to defensive mistakes from Ukraine. The Ukrainian defense is not as good as former defense and is very inexperienced. Most teams with good defenses would not make those kinds of mistakes, especially not multiple times. Luckily for the dutch, Austria is also very vulnerably defensively, and North Macedonia is the weakest team in the tournament.

However, in the knockouts, do not expect the Dutch to have an easy time. I seriously wonder how the Dutch would do against a team like Slovakia. Slovakia has Skriniar and their defense is quite a bit better. If Slovakia and Netherlands were to face each other in the knockouts, I believe the Slovaks would park the bus and play on the counter and might even manage a draw and maybe win on penalties.

Ukraine is definitely better under Coach Shevchenko, but I believe their defense was a lot better back during the times of Fedetskyi and Rakitskiy. They were a lot more experienced and better quality defenders. Back when Ukraine was coached by Fomenko, their defense was at least pretty solid, although Fomenko was a terrible coach and really did not give a crap. If Ukraine in Euro 2016 was coached by Shevchenko, I feel they would've made the quarterfinals. That team on paper did have some very good players and others that were pretty solid and decent.

 

Yup.
The tactics applied with the wingbacks pushed up against the last line of the opponent is a liability with the lack of speed from Blind. That leads to problems for de Roon, who's speed isnot as low as Blind's but still too low to cover the open area on a counter.
The wing backs shouldnot go that far up the pitch, unless the whole team is in compact mode, leaving no open space to be exploited.

 

i expected more from this North Mac team. I thought they were a good candidate for the quarters. Maybe they will turn it around.