Alan Shearer has made his predictions ahead of this weekend’s mouth-watering set of quarter-final fixtures at Euro 2024, with the eight remaining teams preparing battle it out to stake a claim as one of the genuine contenders in Germany.
Germany and Spain, arguably the two standout teams at the tournament, kick off proceedings in what promises to be a titanic quarter-final encounter in Stuttgart this evening.
The tournament hosts sailed through as the winners of Group A before booking a quarter-final spot with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Denmark previously, in which Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala found the back of the net.
Luis de la Fuente’s Spain, meanwhile, finished top of Group B without conceding a single goal and advanced to the final eight thanks to a 4-1 defeat of Georgia in a one-sided last-16 clash last time out.
Previewing the intriguing contest on The Rest Is Football podcast, former England and Newcastle striker Shearer backed Spain to continue their ‘really impressive’ campaign at the expense of Germany.
‘I think Spain have gone right from the off. They know their system, everyone has been at it,’ Shearer said.
‘Really impressive, whoever they have put in, and they have been the best team in the tournament up until now I think.
‘Germany are under huge pressure in their own country so they will have the backing of all their fans here and that might make it a little bit more difficult for Spain but I think Spain will win this one.’
Later on this evening comes another heavyweight encounter in the shape of Portugal versus France, a repeat of the 2016 final.
While France have been some way from their free-flowing best in Germany, Shearer fears for veteran Portugal defender Pepe against Kylian Mbappe and expects Didier Deschamps’ men to come out on top.
‘At 39 years of age, it’s remarkable that he [Ronaldo] is still going at this level, albeit he’s not as good as he was. It has to be about him, there’s no way he can ever be left out,’ Shearer – the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer – said.
‘Again, it’s a tough one to call! If you’re Mbappe, you have a look at that Pepe performance the other evening, particularly late on, and he has to try and isolate him somehow, play on him… 41 years of age against the pace and everything else that Mbappe has.
‘That’s what I would be looking to do and thinking of doing. France have searched for so many answers in terms of their forward line with Giroud and Dembele and Thuram, Mbappe, Barcola, so they’ve been searching and that’s one of the reasons at the minute that they’ve only got the three goals and two own goals.
‘But I’m going to go for France here. Very much like England, everyone is maybe waiting for them to click and this may be it.’
On Saturday, England take on the impressive Swiss, who have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament this summer.
Barring a promising start against Serbia, the Three Lions have fallen well short of expectations and Gareth Southgate will know his side can ill afford to slip up again this weekend.
Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane came to the rescue in a dramatic last-16 win over Slovakia last time out and Shearer is hopeful the victory will prove the ‘spark’ for England.
‘We have been really poor for all four games. Yes, we finished top of the group. Yes, we got through to the quarter-finals, but there are so many question marks still with England,’ he said.
‘But we’ve also always said that it just takes a little spark and that overhead kick, that moment of magic from Bellingham when his country needed him most might just be that spark.
‘But they are up against a good team. Switzerland have impressed in every position.’
Shearer added: ‘I don’t see Gareth changing his tactics or formation, I think he will still go in with a four and I think he’ll still have Foden on the left-hand side.
‘I think he has been very loyal. That’s what he is, that’s who he is, and he’ll try and improve with the players he has put out there and hope that England click and put in a performance like they did in the first 30 minutes against Serbia because other than that, they’ve been very lucky.
‘They have to play higher, they have to play with more energy, otherwise they will be knocked out, there’s no doubt about that.
‘It would take a brave boy or a stupid idiot to go against England! You’d just going to get that much grief for going against England. I am going to go for England.’
The Netherlands and Turkey wrap up the quarter-final phase in a match which promises to be a thriller, given both sides have proven to be explosive in attack but vulnerable defensively.
After an unconvincing group-stage showing, the Dutch put in a statement performance to put Romania to the sword previously, with Donyell Malen completing a quickfire brace after Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in Munich.
According to Shearer, this weekend’s clash in Munich is ‘a really tough one to call’ but the ex-England forward believes the Netherlands will have too much firepower for their opposition.
‘I thought they had a bit of everything [against Romania]. I thought they had to defend really well for the first 20 minutes with the way Romania went after them with the press and everything else,’ he said.
‘Before that game, I wasn’t that impressed with them but they sort of clicked and they should have scored six or seven with the chances they created.
‘I know they got the three but Gakpo was really, really good, you don’t know what you’re going to get with Memphis Depay, but you could get a piece of brilliance that could win the game.
‘It’s a really tough one to call but I was that impressed with the Netherlands that I’m going to go with them on this one.’
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