EX-IRELAND INTERNATIONAL David Meyler is The42′s football columnist for this season.
Every Friday, the former Hull City and Sunderland midfielder will give expert insight and his predictions ahead of the weekend’s action, alongside the latest William Hill prices.
In his latest column, Meyler gives his thoughts after the completion of the Euro 2020 group stages before looking ahead to two of the tastiest match-ups in the last 16 — Belgium v Portugal and England v Germany.
I’ve really enjoyed Euro 2020 so far.
The group stages were brilliant overall and I think it has been a great advertisement for the sport.
There were concerns that player fatigue would have an impact after a long, draining club season but a lot of the games have provided entertainment and drama.
While there have been a couple of boring matches, that is to be expected given the amount of football on show.
Italy, my pre-tournament tip to be outright winners, cruised through Group A and have looked really strong.
I was curious to see how they would do without Marco Verratti in the opening fixtures as he is an exceptional midfielder who would get into most teams in the world. However, Manuel Locatelli and Nicolo Barella have been excellent alongside the in-form Jorginho and PSG schemer Verratti returned in the win over Wales.
There appears to be a great togetherness in the squad. Roberto Mancini is doing a fine job, main striker Ciro Immobile got off the mark with two goals and they have a relatively straightforward tie against Austria up next.
I have to say I’m excited for the last 16 games, which kick off this weekend.
If you look at the line-ups, a lot of the big nations are on one side of the draw — France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain — and then on the other side the winner of England v Germany will have a favourable path to the semi-finals as they meet either Sweden or Ukraine.
Belgium v Portugal, 8pm Sunday
Defending champions Portugal haven’t set the tournament alight — with one win, one draw and a defeat — but it’s all about negotiating your way out of the group stages.
Remember five years ago, when they began with three draws before going on to be crowned European champions.
Portugal face the Belgians on Sunday night and it will be interesting to see what Fernando Santos does in midfield. He dropped Bruno Fernandes along with William Carvalho for the France game and brought in Renato Sanches and Joao Moutinho.
Sanches took the opportunity and performed excellently. Having burst onto the scene and won Young Player of the Tournament at Euro 2016, Sanches made a €35 million move to Bayern Munich that summer. Sadly, he didn’t live up to the price tag in Bavaria and that disappointing loan spell at Swansea City in 2017/18 must have been a low point.
However, he has resurrected his career at Lille and won the French title last season.
Moutinho is still going strong and his Wolves team-mate, Ruben Neves, also came off the bench in Budapest so Santos has big decisions to make in the centre of the park.
We’ve yet to see Atletico Madrid’s €126 million man Joao Felix in action but when you have the ageless Cristiano Ronaldo in your team, you’ve always got a chance. People will argue that three of his goals have been from the penalty spot, but the Juventus star leads the way on five after the group stages.
Wednesday night also saw him — quite remarkably — equal Ali Daei’s all-time record of 109 for most international goals and he could conceivably break that during this competition.
There is no doubt that he will set a new record, it’s just a matter of when. The man is a machine and even at 36, he is still striving to deliver at the very top level.
I’m thorn on Belgium. They have so much going forward with Romelu Lukaku on fire, while key players Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard are back in the team.
However, I have massive reservations about them defensively.
Jan Vertonghen (34) and Thomas Vermaelen (35) lack pace, while neither Jason Denayer nor Dedryck Boyata would fill you with huge confidence against the Portuguese attack.
That said, I have a feeling Belgium will get the job done — let’s say 2-1.
England v Germany, 6pm Tuesday
England have been quite professional in how they have gone about their business thus far.
Without being spectacular, they recorded victories over Croatia and the Czech Republic but could only manage a draw with Scotland. That was enough to earn them top spot in Group D and a meeting with the old enemy, Germany, on Tuesday evening.
Harry Kane has come in for a lot of criticism — particularly after the Scotland game — but the England captain looked sharper against the Czechs and was unlucky not to bag his first goal. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but I can’t see him going the whole tournament without scoring.
I’m living over in the UK and there has been plenty of discussion around whether Gareth Southgate should start Bukayo Saka after his display on Tuesday and I think the Arsenal teenager did enough to retain his place.
Jack Grealish made a difference in the number 10 role and also has to play for me.
England were boosted as Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson both returned to the starting XI last time out. While Tyrone Mings has done well, it was particularly important that Maguire came back in to partner John Stones before the knockout stages.
Germany have had a mixed tournament. They lost out to France but went on to obliterate Portugal and then were disappointingly held to a draw by Hungary.
Joachim Loew will know they haven’t been good enough and this is his last hurrah after 15 years in charge as Hansi Flick has been lined up to take over.
There’s so much history between these two nations and Germany have tended to have the upper hand in past meetings. However, I believe this England side will prevail in a close encounter — 2-1 — with Kane stepping up to produce.
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