Articles

With less than a year to go until BBC and ITV viewers in England are able to cheer their nation along in the 2020 European Championships, we take a look at England’s prospects of winning the event.

The tournament is the first to be staged in multiple countries but crucially, the semi-finals and final will be held at Wembley Stadium. This could give England a key advantage should they make it to the last four.

England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup where they were narrowly beaten by Croatia. They also reached the semi-final of the UEFA Nations League, where they were beaten by the Netherlands; and have had a strong start to their Euro qualifying campaign, winning their opening two games, scoring 10 goals and conceding just one.

As a result of their continued good form, England have been installed as second-favourites behind France in the Euro 2020 football betting oddsahead of Spain, Germany and Belgium. But do England justify being priced so short? Or are they being over-hyped?

Home advantage

Euro 2020 is being hosted in 12 different countries but England could play the majority of their games at Wembley Stadium. The stadium will be used for group and knockout stage matches including both semi-finals and the final. This could give England a crucial edge when they come up against the tournament’s other big guns.

England has lost just eight of the 64 games they have played at the National Stadium and six of those defeats came in friendly matches. They have lost just two out of 31 competitive matches at their London home.

Better squad depth

The English Premier League features more foreign players than any of the other top leagues in Europe. But being surrounded by top international talent seems to have helped rather than hindered the national team. England’s best players are now more technically gifted than ever before and have more insight into the multiple tactical systems used across the continent.

Crucially, England now has a wealth of talent available in every position, giving the manager a welcome selection headache each time a game comes around. No one is undroppable and that is healthy for the group who know they will have to fight for their place in the team rather just walk straight in because there are no other options available.

Youth and experience

As well as having plenty of young talent at their disposal, a handful of England’s squad has multiple major tournament experience under their belts. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley and Jordan Henderson have all featured in at least two major international events. These players have experienced the highs and lows of playing for the Three Lions and can use that experience to their advantage.

On top of all this England are evolving tactically and look set to line-up in an attack-minded 4-3-3 system next summer. With all things considered, their current status as second-favourites looks fully justified.

Eurosport 1 HD and Eurosport 2 HD are to be made available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain after the streaming service struck a distribution deal with Eurosport owners Discovery.

The deal gives DAZN access to Eurosport’s UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1, NBA, NFL, NHL, UFC, Matchroom and Golden Boy boxing coverage.

In addition, DAZN has exclusively sublicensed 45 Bundesliga matches from Discovery in Germany and Austria.

The deal excludes Eurosport Player which remains the only place to watch all Eurosport content, including features and feeds not available to TV viewers, live and on-demand on all screens.

John Gleasure, Chief Business Development Officer at DAZN Group, said: “This is an exciting agreement that brings Eurosport’s incredible sports content to our subscribers, and delivers 45 Bundesliga matches to the DAZN service in Germany and Austria under a two-season exclusive sublicensing agreement.

“This deal underlines our commitment to providing the biggest and best sports action to fans in an accessible and affordable way, while rewarding rights holders for integrating their content on our market leading platform.

“We look forward to developing our partnership with Discovery.”

James Gibbons, in his role as Head of Commercial Development for EMEA at Discovery, said: “We are delighted to enter this partnership that expands the distribution of Eurosport’s channels in four European markets.

“We always look for new partners that help get our brands and content to more fans. In parallel, we will continue to develop and market our all access multi-sport OTT service – Eurosport Player – for fans who want a deeper experience.”

Eleven Sports has secured exclusive live rights to the International Champions Cup (ICC) in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The pre-season tournament gives Belgian fans the opportunity to watch local heroes including Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen live in action ahead of the new season. This is in addition to global stars from Cristiano Ronaldo to Harry Kane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The tournament includes 18 games in total and features some of the world biggest clubs including Real Madrid, Juventus and Bayern Munich.

“With exclusively live action from LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1, we are the number one choice for football fans in Belgium and Luxembourg. This star-studded tournament is set to raise the curtain on what will be an action-packed 2019/20 season on Eleven Sports,” said Guillaume Collard, Managing Director of Eleven Sports Belgium and Group Head of Acquisitions.

“We are delighted to expand our rights offer for football fans during the summer period as the excitement builds towards new season.”