The opening match of the eagerly awaited Euro 2024 sees the tournament hosts Germany looking to get the competition off to a bang when they open up Group A with a clash against Scotland in Munich on Friday evening.
Germany will start out the tournament as one of the teams expected to be in contention to win it while Scotland, having never been out of the groups at a European Championships will be hoping to at least tick off that particular box.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on ITV 1 in the UK with the build-up to the tournament and the opening game beginning at 6.30pm ahead of kick off in Munich which is 8pm.
Germany
It is never easy to know what to make of a host nation at the start of a tournament like this because they haven’t had to qualify so they have spent the last couple of years largely playing friendlies. The exception to that was the UEFA Nations League where they didn’t have a particularly inspiring tournament, winning just one of their six matches. They do seem to have picked up a little bit of momentum since then but we will get more of a picture of where they are during this game.
At the minute the one thing that you would say about the German is that they look well stocked in the middle of the park, especially behind the striker, but perhaps their defence could be an issue and there is a big concern about whether they have a number nine who will fire the goals to get them from a team who could make the latter stages of the event to one which genuinely contends at the business end of it. We might get one or two answers here.
Scotland
Scotland have made it back to the Euros for the second successive tournament and after failing to get out of the group again three years ago they will certainly be hoping for better this time around. There have certainly been some positive strides made under Steve Clarke and their qualifying campaign was so good that they had made it through long before they got to their final game, but so often these competitions are about timing and you wonder if it has gone against the Scots here.
They are going to be without their main striker Lyndon Dykes for the tournament because of injury while a couple of other key men have been light on football recently with Andy Robertson and Che Adams both enduring injuries in 2024. The form of the Scots has also tailed off a little bit in recent times and while nothing should really be judged on friendlies leading up to a tournament, the way they laboured against Gibraltar last week did not inspire confidence.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for Euro2024! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
Germany were forced to make a late change to their squad ahead of the tournament when the Bayern Munich midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic came down with tonsilitis so he misses out with Emre Can called up. Julian Nagelsmann has a full squad to choose from.
Scotland are going to be without the likes of Lyndon Dykes, Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson for the tournament but crucially Andy Robertson is fit to lead the side. Lawrence Shankland is expected to get the nod through the middle.
Betting
It will be interesting to see which sort of tone will be set for the tournament in this opening game. By and large tournament openers tend to be cagey affairs but when you consider that there is a chance of three teams going through in this competition there might be enough reason for a more open game than we might normally get. The other thing to consider is usually it is roasting hot in Europe at this time of year which can lead to a slower tempo but that isn’t the case in the early stages of this event.
I still don’t see this being a particularly high scoring match though. Scotland have no real goal threat about them and will surely sit deep and look to get Germany on the odd counter or with some set plays whereas the focal point in the German attack isn’t really great. It might be that the wide players and whoever is in behind the striker opens Scotland up but recent history would suggest that might not be the case. In 15 friendlies since the World Cup, Germany have scored more than two in a game just twice. This has a 2-0 or 3-0 Germany win about it so I’m happy to take Germany to win and under 3.5 goals at odds against.
Tips
Back Germany to win and under 3.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
Back them here:
