The Euro 2024 tournament continues with three matches on Saturday and we begin with the two sides in Group A who weren’t in action on Friday night opening up the day when Hungary take on Switzerland in Cologne.
Both these sides will have seen Germany looking in pretty warm order on Friday night and will be looking to get points on the board before they go up against the hosts. That should make for an extremely competitive encounter.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV 1 channel in the UK where the build-up begins at 1.15pm ahead of the 2pm kick off in Cologne.
Hungary
There has been plenty of talk of Hungary potentially being dark horses at this tournament and we get the first chance to see whether that noise is genuine or misplaced. Hungary certainly had a qualifying campaign that offered up plenty of promise and that came off the back of a surprisingly good Nations League campaign which preceded it. Qualifying and even the Nations League are one thing but doing it at a tournament is a different kettle of fish.
If Hungary are going to go well then you would imagine that Dominik Szoboszlai will need to have a big game. He has admitted his form towards the end of the season for Liverpool wasn’t what he would have wanted but he has a chance to show he has put that behind him. Hungary are generally pretty good defensively and if they can maintain that solidity here then the test will be whether they have enough in attack to make an impression.
Switzerland
While some were talking Hungary up as dark horses for this tournament, Switzerland are the team I fancy for that role. They have gained a lot of tournament experience in recent events and know how to navigate groups and how to manage themselves throughout the competition. They now have to show that they have the quality to be competitive in this particular tournament and if they do then they can expect to put up a decent showing.
I believe that they do have that quality. Granit Xhaka won the Bundesliga and reached the Europa League final with Bayer Leverkusen while Manuel Akanji won the Premier League and there is plenty more top flight quality in this Swiss side. The question mark would be whether they have enough goals in them but Zeki Amdouni brings something a little different to the attack and Xherdan Shaqiri can still find pockets of space and do some damage.
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Team News
Hungary have a doubt over the midfielder Callum Styles who was on loan at Sunderland in the Championship last season. Dominik Szoboszlai is set to be the younger ever captain in the European Championship.
Switzerland are sweating over the fitness of forward Breel Embolo for this opening match. If he doesn’t pull through then the Burnley attacker Zeki Amdouni could start the game up front with Xherdan Shaqiri loitering in behind.
Betting
If there is a question mark over the Swiss then it comes defensively. They used to be a defence minded side but now they look to play a little more on the front foot and that sometimes comes at the expense of their defence. That defence isn’t always backed up by Yann Sommer in goal who is guilty of the odd calamity. Hungary only conceded seven goals in qualifying but four of those were against Bulgaria and Lithuania which doesn’t promote a solid defence.
That makes me think that both teams can score in this game. I expect both sides to look to get after the other here because they know that there is a clash with Scotland awaiting them and given the goal difference deficiency that they have just one win in the group should secure third place already and most likely to spot in the knockout stages. There is more than enough quality on the pitch to make me think that both teams can score in what might be a more entertaining game than expected after Friday night.
Tips
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