Euro 2024: Unbeaten Spain fails to convince Spaniards as event enters knockout stage

Barcelona (Spain), June 28 (IANS) Spain may have won all their matches so far at Euro 2024, but many Spaniards remain unconvinced about their national team’s chances of going all the way to the title.

This edition of the quadrennial European football tournament began on June 14 and is entering its knockout stage, when the 16 teams left in the competition will look to progress to the quarterfinals.

With Spain’s hopes of winning their fourth Euros still very much alive, Xinhua took to the streets on Friday to ask locals who they thought might win the final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on July 14.

“I think Germany could do very well, England also has a good chance, but I think just about the best right now is Spain because they are undefeated,” Pol Montero told Xinhua.

While Ariadna Matamoros shared Pol’s positive opinion of Spain, she was less confident about their chances of lifting the trophy: “I hope Spain wins because it’s my country and I think they have very good players, but I don’t think they will win, I think that Italy will win.”

Alba Martinez was more optimistic about Spain’s chances but admitted they had some tough competition. “I want Spain to win because they’re my team and I think that this year we have a good chance, but Italy and Germany and Austria also have possibilities,” she told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Alvaro Aviles told Xinhua that he had “lost a lot of enthusiasm for Spain.”

“It’s not the team it used to be. Also, I don’t like the coach. If they win that’s fine, but I want Germany to win,” he said.

Germany is also unbeaten so far in the tournament, while teams like France, Belgium and England have failed to impress and have managed only one win each.

“I’ve seen all the teams play but none of them have quite convinced me like in other years. Spain seems [only] to be doing a little better, even though I’m Spanish. But we’ll have to see how things go from now on,” said Jose Maria Baldoma.

Martinez agreed that some of the top national teams had so far failed to live up to expectations. “I must say that I expected more from France, England and Portugal. But Portugal lost against Georgia, for example, I didn’t expect that,” she said.

Also, with Portugal and the Netherlands losing their final group matches to Georgia and Austria respectively, Euro 2024 is throwing up plenty of surprises.

“There are always surprises. In the 2010 World Cup, Spain lost the first match against Switzerland. In the last World Cup in Qatar, Argentina lost the first match against Saudi Arabia. Then they were both champions. Football is like that, if football were predictable it wouldn’t be fun,” added Aviles.

–IANS

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