The dust has settled. You're probably sitting here after a month of football, reflecting and reckoning that you always knew it would end up that way. After all, how could anything else possibly happen, other than England lose the final?
Well, we kept the receipts. Before Euro 2024, we asked our trusty team to hand in their guesses for who would win, who would shock and who would downright suck. Looking back, some of us had inspired ideas. Others thought Artem Dobvyk would outscore everyone else.
So who's the king of the FFT office on the Monday after the night before?
FourFourTwo's Euro 2024 predictions: Who will win the tournament?
One man correctly predicted the winner, in Spain: Head of Video, Adam Clery, who argued that, “Rodri loses something like one game in every 50 he plays, and they'd only need like, what, seven here?”
Six-and-a-half in Rodri's case. FourFourTwo editor James Andrew came closest with England, believing in the Three Lions so much that he actually went to Berlin for the final. Senior Staff Writer Chris Flanagan and Staff Writer Ed McCambridge both plumped for France with educated guesses.
Content Editor Mark White went for Germany, while Deputy Editor Matthew Ketchell and Senior Writer Online Ryan Dabbs both went for Portugal. That means that four FFT writers got to the three, two to the quarters and two to the final. At least no one bombed out in the group.
Who will be top scorer?
No one got this right. Some were closer than others.
Adam went with Romelu Lukaku – and he would've gotten away with it, if not for pesky VAR, with three goals. James and Chris both went for Mbappe, while Ryan and Ketch backed up their Portugal-to-win shouts. Ryan chose Bruno Fernandes – though he did sort of predict that Cristiano Ronaldo would be stripped of free-kick duties – while Ketch went with Cristiano Ronaldo, largely down to a “straightforward group”.
Ed's shout of “Big, burly Niklas Fullkrug” wasn't awful – the German managed two – but Mark's of Artem Dovbyk, complete with who he'd score against, has aged like milk. No one went with Kane, oddly.
Who are the dark horses?
Take a bow, Ryan, who correctly predicted that Austria would be far more balanced without the talismanic David Alaba. Great prediction, considering they were in the strongest group.
Incredibly, no one else's dark horses got out of the groups – impressive considering how many bloody teams go through to the knockouts. Strictly speaking, James picked the next best option after Ryan, going with Hungary, who at least finished third. Ukraine (Mark and Chris), Albania (Ed) and Poland (Ketch) all underwhelmed, while Scotland (Adam) statistically performed the worst. Though Adam did provide a caveat…
Which dark horses will be rubbish?
Chris went with Scotland, noting with regret that Scott McTominay's scoring streak was unsustainable and the injuries were piling up. Adam also had a feeling that his ‘dark horse’ shout for Scotland could go either way: we feel as if the half-Scottish video guru may have been torn between heart and head.
Adam went with Italy as his major shout, for which he gets a tick: they were rubbish. Mark said Poland, which is a correct if not cowardly observation from their group, while Ryan said that Hungary would flunk it, with only a draw against Scotland. He was seconds from getting both halves of that one correct – but was right that they'd go out in the group.
Ketch and James went with Belgium and the Netherlands, respectively. Despite knockout rounds for both – and the Dutch going as deep as the final four – they both deserve a resounding tick, too. Neither nation looked particularly good, with furore from their respective medias over poor performances.
How far will England get?
Mark and Ed both correctly predicted that England would lose the final – though both said that it would be against Germany. It seems neither saw Spain as the big threat.
Adam, however, went one better, predicting “a comfortable route” before, ”they likely face a Netherlands or a Spain”. He said, “A semi-final appearance should be the bare minimum,” to round off his stellar guess.
James was very optimistic with his cry of “Winners!” while Ketch took the opposite view of quarter-final heartache. Both Chris and Ryan said semi-finals, which seemed sensible.
Who will England's scapegoat be?
James, Adam and Chris: you're all right with this one. Each of them said that Gareth Southgate would be held to account in the post-mortem, which is now playing out (rightly or wrongly).
Ryan suggested one of the younger players would get abuse for a bad performance – but actually, the opposite seems to be true with Harry Kane and Kyle Walker copping flack post-final. Ketch went with Lewis Dunk, meanwhile, and though the Brighton man didn't actually play, there's logic there: defensive errors from a senior player played a massive part in the decisive loss.
Ed said ITV would get the blame: they shared the final, so sure, have a point. Mark went with Danny Makkelie. If anything, the referee favoured England with that bonkers penalty shout in the semi, so nil points, there.
What will be the surprise of the tournament?
Ed suggested that an England fan would put a flare the wrong way up his bottom. Ed does not get a point in this round.
Ryan said that Albania would be good – they weren't, really – so neither does he. Adam said that injuries would play a major part: other than Mbappe's broken nose, Pedri leaving the tournament and Rodri failing to finish the final, they weren't much of a talking point this time around.
But onto the ones who were correct. Chris said that Germany wouldn't be rubbish and no, they weren't, they were very good. Point to him. Ketch said that VAR would be good – and for the most part, it was. Point to him. Mark said that France would “stink up the tournament”: they absolutely were horrible to watch but they also made the semi-final. Half a point.
But a full point and a big tick for James, who boldly stated that Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia would be the breakout star. He was, and then some.
So who did the best?
Our judges have assessed. Mark, Ed, Ketch and Ryan all get somewhere between two and two-and-a-half points, depending on whether you're taking those half-points seriously and whether better guesses deserve full points.
What's certain is that Chris and James come joint-second with three correct guesses each. But there can only be one winner: Adam Clery, with four points overall.
Redemption at last for his “Chelsea will win the league” shout. Our tactical genius knew what would happen: who knew?
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