Euro: Euros 2024 - Group E (BEL, SVK, ROU, UKR)

[bluesfan94]

Match Schedule

Home	Away	Time and Date (CT)	Venue
Romania	Ukraine	Mon., Jun. 17, 8:00 AM	Allianz Arena, Munich
Belgium	Slovakia	Mon., Jun. 17, 11:00 AM	Waldstadion, Frankfurt
Slovakia	Ukraine	Fri., Jun. 21, 8:00 AM	Merkur Spiel-Arena, Dusseldorf
Belgium	Romania	Sat., Jun. 22, 2:00 PM	RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne
Slovakia	Romania	Wed., Jun. 26, 11:00 AM	Waldstadion, Frankfurt
Ukraine	Belgium	Wed., Jun. 26, 11:00 AM	MHPArena, Stuttgart

The Teams
Belgium
GK - Koen Casteels (Wolfsburg); Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest); Thomas Kaminski (Luton Town)
DEF - Jan Vertonghen (Anderlecht); Thomas Meunier (Trabzonspor); Timothy Castagne (Fulham); Arthur Theate (Rennes); Wout Faes (Leicester City); Zeno Debast (Anderlecht); Maxim De Cuyper (Club Brugge)
MID - Axel Witsel (Atletico Madrid); Kevin De Bruyne (Man City); Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa); Charles De Ketelaere (Atalanta); Orel Mangala (Lyon); Amadou Onana (Everton); Aster Vranckx (Wolfsburg); Arthur Vermeeren (Atletico Madrid); Mandela Keita (Antwerp); Arne Engels (Augsburg)
FWD - Romelu Lukaku (Roma); Yannick Carrasco (Al-Shabab); Leandro Trossard (Arsenal); Jeremy Doku (Man City); Lois Openda (RB Leipzig); Dodi Lukebakio (Sevilla); Johan Bakayoko (PSV)

Slovakia
GK - Martin Dubravka (Newcastle United); Marek Rodak (Fulham); Henrich Ravas (New England Revolution);
DEF - Peter Pekarik (Hertha Berlin); Milan Skriniar (PSG); Norbert Gyomber (Salernitana); David Hancko (Feyernoord); Denis Vavro (Kobenhavn); Vernon De Marco (Hatta); Adam Obert (Cagliari); Sebastian Kosa (Spartak Trnava)
MID - Juraj Kucka (Slovan Bratislava); Ondrej Duda (Hellas Verona); Patrik Hrosovsky (Genk); Stanislav Lobotka (Napolie); Matus Bero (Bochum); Laszlo Benes (Hamburg); Tomas Rigo (Banik Ostrava)
FWD - Robert Bozenik (Boavista); Lukas Haraslin (Sparta Prague); Tomas Suslov (Hellas Verona); Ivan Schranz (Slavia Prague); David Strelec (Slovan Bratislava); David Duris (Ascoli); Lubomir Tupta (Slovan Liberec); Leo Sauer (Feyenoord)

Romania
GK - Florian Nita (Gaziantep); Horatiu Moldovan (Atletico Madrid); Stefan Tarnovanu (FCSB)
DEF - Nicusor Bancu (Universitatea Craiova); Ionut Nedelcearu (Palermo); Andrei Burca (Al-Okhdood); Adrian Rus (Pafos); Andrei Ratiu (Rayo Vallecano); Radu Dragusin (Tottenham); Vasile Mogos (CFR Cluj); Bogdan Racovitan (Rakow Czestochowa)
MID - Nicolae Stanciu (Damac); Razvan Marin (Empoli); Alexandru Cicaldau (Konyaspor); Ianis Hagi (Alaves); Dennis Man (Parma); Valentin Mihaila (Parma); Marius Marin (Pisa); Darius Olaru (FCSB); Deian Sorescu (Gaziantep); Florinel Coman (FCSB); Adrian Sut (FCSB)
FWD - George Puscas (Bari); Denis Alibec (Muaither); Denis Dragus (Gaziantep); Daniel Birligea (CFR Cluj)

Ukraine
GK - Heorhiy Bushchan (Dynamo Kyiv); Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid); Anatoliy Trubin (Benfica)
DEF - Mykola Matviyenko (Shakhtar Donetsk); Vitaliy Mykolenko (Everton); Illya Zabarnyi (Bournemouth); Oleksandr Tymchyk (Dynamo Kyiv); Yukhym Konoplya (Shakhtar Donetsk); Oleksandr Svatok (Dnipro-1); Valeriy Bondar (Shakhtar Donestsk); Maksym Talovyerov (LASK)
MID - Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kyiv); Taras Stepanenko (Shakhtar Donestk); Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal); Serhiy Sydorchuk (Westerlo); Ruslan Malinovskyi (Genoa); Viktor Tsyhankov (Girona); Oleksandr Zubkov (Shakhtar Donetsk); Mykola Shaparenko (Dynamo Kyiv); Mykhailo Mudryk (Chelsea); Heorhiy Sudakov (Shakhtar Donetsk); Volodymyr Brazhko (Dynamo Kyiv)
FWD - Roman Yaremchuk (Valencia); Artem Dovbyk (Girona); Vladyslav Vanat (Dynamo Kyiv)

The Storyline
Belgium enters this Euros on the heels of a golden generation. While some players, such as Vertonghen, remain, a lot of the old stalwarts have left for one reason or another, including keeper Thibaut Courtois. However, Belgium does have reason to hope, as it shed its manager, Roberto Martinez, who many blamed for their underperformances. Belgium still has room for optimism, as they are led by the incredibly talented Leandro Trossard Kevin De Bruyne, and they did top a good, but not great, qualifying group without losing a match. However, while their midfield and forward groups are strong, questions persist in the back half of the field, questions that grew louder after a group stage elimination in the 2022 World Cup. This is Belgium's third Euros in a row, having gone out twice in the quarterfinals. Prior to that, they had not qualified on their merits since 1984.

Slovakia, meanwhile, will likely look to its ability to prevent goals for success. Their big names are in defense, and while they had a strong defensive record in qualifiers, giving up 8 goals in 10 matches to finish second in a soft group, they also struggled to score. In fact, their leading scorer only has 13 goals. This will be Slovakia's third consecutive Euros, having never before qualified as an independent nation until 2016, with their only independent World Cup coming in 2010.

Romania enters the tournament following a strong qualifying campaign, topping a group in which Switzerland were the likely favorites. Romania did not lose a match and only conceded 5 goals in 10 matches, although it must be said they only scores 16 goals, with 6 coming against microstate Andorra. Romania continued its one in, one out qualifying record of this century, having qualified in 2000, 2008, 2016, and now 2024. They have not qualified for a World Cup since 1998.

Ukraine entered the Euros through the playoff system, after finishing third in their group, level on points with Italy and behind England. Ukraine had to beat Bosnia and Iceland to qualify, which they did by scoring three goals after the 80'. Ukraine has talent throughout the squad, featuring players from Real Madrid, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Girona, to name a few. This is their fourth consecutive Euros, although they did not qualify for a World Cup in that time frame. Also, they will likely have decent crowd support on account of the whole being invaded by Russia thing.

The Standings

Team	MP	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA	GD	Points
Belgium	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Slovakia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Romania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ukraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Click to read more...

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

I have this as one with a progressing third place team (in this case, Slovakia). Ukraine takes the group, followed by Belgium.

 

[luiginb]

If our friendlies (0-0 at home against powerhouses Bulgaria and Liechtenstein) showed me anything is that a point in this group would be quite the miracle.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

If our friendlies (0-0 at home against powerhouses Bulgaria and Liechtenstein) showed me anything is that a point in this group would be quite the miracle.

alas, i have you guys as 0 from 0

 

[alko]

Starting times above in the table correspond with what time zone?

 

[bluesfan94]

Starting times above in the table correspond with what time zone?

The one indicated in the header, Central Time

 

[robertmac43]

I also have this as a Ukraine group win and a third place spot going to Slovakia.

 

[HajdukSplit]

This group to me is one of the main candidates where the 3rd place team doesn’t go through, probably alot of draws

 

[Eye of Ra]

Romania had many good players before. Adrian Mutu, Gheorghe Hagi, Gheorghe Popescu, Răzvan Raț, Dan Petrescu, Viorel Moldovan, Dorinel Munteanu, Florin Răducioiu etc. Would be good for international soccer if Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden etc become good again.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

This group to me is one of the main candidates where the 3rd place team doesn’t go through, probably alot of draws

This group is one where the 3rd place team does because the 4th place team is so bad and will go 0-0-3.

 

[bluesfan94]

Bumping for tomorrow.

 

[gary69]

With two surprise results today, this group's third team might not progress given that there's most likely going to be various winners in the remaining matches.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I asked this in the game thread but it kinda got lost - is ROU now the normal three letter abbreviation for Romania? Did the Romanian FA request it?

From my understanding - it's Romania in Romanian itself and of course English too. I'm not aware of any other team that could have a claim to ROM either. ROU seems to be based on the French term Roumanie. But it's very uncommon for a non-French-speaking nation to use the French term and I seem to recall it being ROM In past tournaments.

I know Austria typically goes with AUT which is based on the French "Autriche" but that figures to have been done to avoid confusion with Australia in global competition. I can't think of anything like that for Romania.

 

[McGarnagle]

This is going to be a wild group. No idea whether today's form holds and whether Romania is that good, Ukraine is that bad, or Belgium is that listless. Romania's 3-0 win puts them in great position. At this point any of the four could still advance, though Ukraine will need at least 4 points and a big win along the way to make up GD.

 

[bluesfan94]

I asked this in the game thread but it kinda got lost - is ROU now the normal three letter abbreviation for Romania? Did the Romanian FA request it?

From my understanding - it's Romania in Romanian itself and of course English too. I'm not aware of any other team that could have a claim to ROM either. ROU seems to be based on the French term Roumanie. But it's very uncommon for a non-French-speaking nation to use the French term and I seem to recall it being ROM In past tournaments.

I know Austria typically goes with AUT which is based on the French "Autriche" but that figures to have been done to avoid confusion with Australia in global competition. I can't think of anything like that for Romania.

List of FIFA country codes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Basing it off of this. My guess is that it is because of the French, but not sure.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

List of FIFA country codes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Basing it off of this. My guess is that it is because of the French, but not sure.

Apparently with the IOC the code was ROM until 2006 and was then changed to ROU. Apparently it's the same with Romanian passports, it used to say ROM in them for country of issue, now it says ROU. A random Romanian blog I found says they switched because they thought ROM creates an association with Romany people, i.e. gypsies and they didn't want that.

 

[luiginb]

Apparently with the IOC the code was ROM until 2006 and was then changed to ROU. Apparently it's the same with Romanian passports, it used to say ROM in them for country of issue, now it says ROU. A random Romanian blog I found says they switched because they thought ROM creates an association with Romany people, i.e. gypsies and they didn't want that.

Part of it is that, but Romania has traditionally been a francophone country before WW2. All our big names culturally (Cioran, Brancusi, Eminescu, Ionesco, Tsara) were linked in different ways to France during their lives.

 

[gary69]

The abbrevation was ROU already at the World Cups of 1990 and 1994, don't remember how it was before that.

 

[McGarnagle]

In English language historical documents Romania was used interchangable with "Rumania" until the start of WWII. In most other European languages it's some variant of Rumania or Roumania, so the ROU code seems fine, and prevents any ignorant confusion with the Romans or Romany people.