Group A Turkey Justin: With Leicester’s Çağlar Söyüncü, Merih Demiral of Juventus, and attackers Burak Yılmaz and Yusuf Yazıcı leading Lille’s title challenge in France, don’t sleep on Turkey this tournament. Andy: Turkey is a boring, bland meat, let’s hope that’s irrelevant... James: I’m predicting quarter finals as long as Italy flops again.
Euro 20201:
Justin: Italy is rebuilding nicely after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and they should have few problems making it out of the group. Andy: The Italy of my childhood was a fine Neapolitan pizza, the Italy of now is a Dominos. Not title contenders by any means.
The *Experts’ View
James: Italy could do it this year! (get out of the group that is). I’m still expecting some top tier defending from the likes of Leonardo Bonucci, but that doesn’t get you goals.
By Andrew Broadley, Justin Hu and James Tapp (not experts)
Wales
Football: the ultimate cult. To cry at a TV screen as overpaid men compete for a trophy in a country, or countries, that bribed their way past human rights violations to host an event that lines the pockets of the already wealthy is truly as absurd as it sounds. And we can’t help but do it. And in a little under a month we will do it again. Euro 2020, now Euro 2021, is set to kick off on June 11th, and here at Debate we couldn’t be more thrilled. So we grabbed a few of our armchair experts to make a few predictions, and a few irrelevant remarks, about a few of the teams. Stay tuned for Issue 5 where we will give our predictions for Groups D, E and F.
10
Italy
Justin: Wales will fall at the first hurdle. Gareth Bale’s past his prime and manager Ryan Giggs won’t be there after being charged with assaulting two women. 2021’s not their year. James: Wales = Gareth Bale, and I feel sorry for him, doing it alone. Won’t make a splash. Andy: Finishing the group stage as one of the highest seeding third placed teams is their best hope of making the play-offs.
Switzerland James: Switzerland could surprise. They’re not stacked, but they know what they’re doing. Justin: Switzerland has been consistent for the past few tournaments but it will be a long shot for them to win any. They might inch past the group stages. Andy: I’m as neutral on Switzerland as Switzerland is neutral. Maybe they’ll squeeze second place in their group, or maybe they’ll just quietly go home.
