Euro 2024 is a welcome change from the monotony of club football

BERLIN – Here is a statistic for you: Of the 24 teams participating in the 2024 European Championship, only one, Spain, has won all three group matches. And another: not a single team has lost all three games.

There is a level of equality and opportunity here that makes major tournaments like Euro 2024 so attractive. Yes, we come for the history, the pride and the anthems, but we stay for the uncertainty that characterises most games. At a time when super teams regularly trample the poor in club football, the unpredictability of international football is a refreshing change.

Case in point: Liverpool finished a distant third in the Premier League, yet won 63% of their games (24 out of 38). Guess who not win 63% of their games. Neither of the two Euro 2020 finalists (at least not in 90 minutes), Italy and England. Even Portugal, who won Euro 2016, have no victories (in fact, remarkably, they have only won one game in regular time, against Wales).

We’re so used to the resource inequality and polarization that characterize league football – Manchester City, for example, have won the Premier League six of the last seven seasons – that all this uncertainty seems a little alien. Of the 36 matches played in Germany so far, 30 of them have been separated by just a single goal with 15 minutes left. If you like spontaneous drama, this is your thing.

If you like football at the highest level, with highly talented, well-known names moving around the pitch like clockwork, following patterns developed by the best coaches, then this is not your cup of tea. International football will never be able to compete with club football in this respect.

It’s not hard to understand why. Club teams work together all year round, while international coaches only spend a few weeks with their players. That’s not enough time to implement anything sophisticated or interesting tactically, which is why you see so many simple, pre-made plans.

And then there’s the obvious point: the talent pool available to a national team manager is limited and you can’t just sign more players that fit your vision. You might want an attacking left-back but you have a left-footer who doesn’t like crossing the halfway line. Or you might have, like Serbia with Dusan Vlahovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic, two excellent strikers who should both play alone up front, supported by wingers, but because they’re two of the best players, you cram them into the lineup and sacrifice the system for talent.

There is no point comparing the Euros and other international tournaments with the five major European leagues and the gold standard of the game, the Champions League. That should be obvious. The average player you see on the pitch at the Euros will be worse than the guys you see week in week out during the club season. In Germany, you only have to look at the number of regular players who not play for big clubs.

Even among the favorites for the 2024 European Championship, there are regular players from middle-class teams. Among the small stars in Germany, there are squads with only a few players who are regular players in top leagues.

While this does not automatically mean that they are inferior, it is a valid indicator of talent considering that better players tend to end up at better clubs in better leagues.

Compared to club football, international tournaments like Euro 2024 have fewer talented players and less sophisticated tactics. But is that really a turn-off? I would say no.

Spain’s victory over Italy, for example, was one of the most dominant performances we’ve seen in the tournament, and yet the game ended 1-0 thanks to an avoidable own goal. That’s football. You don’t always reap what you sow.

And while the format, where the best third-placed teams qualify, has its critics – two weeks of football to reduce the 24 teams to 16 seems a little silly – there is also a positive aspect: everyone is allowed a second chance after a poor performance (and sometimes even two poor performances).

So all the group stage favourites are still in the running when the round of 16 begins on Saturday, with the exception of Croatia, who were rated as ninth favourites by most bookmakers. And let’s not forget that they were knocked out by a goal in the eighth minute of added time. Not to mention the fact that they were thrashed by Spain and could only manage a draw against tiny Albania.

At Euro 2024, we can expect a clear knockout format with an exciting mix of traditional blockbusters (England, Germany, France, Italy) and outsiders (Georgia, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia) who are on a winning streak and can dream of being like Greece when they won the competition in 2004.

Football is already unbalanced enough at club level. There are already far too many fans outside the elite who press their noses to the glass and know that they will never be able to compete with the very best. The European Championship is a nice antidote to this.