Albania were far from mediocre at the last European Football Championships and were unlucky not to progress further in the tournament. Serbia will also be a nightmare due to the hooligan element that follows them - I almost squirm to use that term, but the ultras that follow them have links to far right neo-nazi groups and cause mayhem wherever they go, waving fascist flags, lighting fires and sending off flares in the stadium, hurling torrents of abuse at opposition black players and trying to start fights inside and outside the stadiums.

Hopefully England will thrash Serbia and shut their ultras up, but you can expect our black players to be targeted with abuse and for their ultras to attack our fans and cause mayhem home and away. I think England will probably finish top of their group, but I think it could be close.

You are right about Belgium though - with the likes of Lukaku, Mertens and De Bruyne all coming to the end of their careers, the Hazard brothers gone and the defenders all qualifying for a free bus pass, Belgium really need a new generation of superstars to emerge, but so far the younger players are streets behind their elders. Mind you, Welsh football looks to be going backward too - a group without much quality I'd say. North Macedonia might not be out of contention - it's worth remembering that in the play offs of 2022, they knocked Italy out of the World Cup - almost certainly a one off, but they still have a reasonable team.

I can't see Scotland or Northern Ireland getting top spot in their groups, and with 4 from 16 to go through via the play offs, finishing in second means a tall order to qualify - in Scotland's case, it might be close between them and Greece for runners up spot, in Northern Ireland's, I think second place would be viewed as a major achievement and third is much more likely.

I'm waiting to see kick off times, but with six matches on the final day of the group stages, as someone who loves to see every game, 104 matches is a lot and I am currently between taking a career break and unpaid time off for the five weeks of the tournament, or finally quitting part-time work to retire for good.

I haven't missed a single match of any tournament since 1994 - seeing as much as I can live and then using the record on the TV to catch up with the rest in full. I have no idea of the tournament, but I think it was somewhere around the year 2000 that I got up at 6 am to watch Japan draw 0-0 with Costa Rica, Japan being far worse at football than they are now - and after watching one of the worst games in the history of international football, thinking that I might need psychiatric help to cure my obsession of never missing a single minute of any match.

My poor other half barely sees me, while it is on, but we've been together for 34 years, so she is kind of used to it. She even bought us a new video recorder minutes before Spain played Nigeria in 1994, as the old one packed up at the last minute and I had to go to work. I remember her face when I got in - anxiously saying she hoped her programming of the machine had worked, as it was so tight that she hadn't had time to test it. Anyway I pressed the play back and all was well - Spain 4 Nigeria 3, one of the best games of all time, and my girlfriend splashing out for a new video recorder when we were really skint is my definition of true love and selflessness.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Tuesday 24th of December 2024 12:34:16 AM