Euro 2024 predictions: Winner, dark horses, flops and top scorer

International football tournaments rarely stick to the script, but we run the rule over potential champions, dark horses, flops and players to watch.

RadioTimes.com offers up our hottest predictions ahead of Euro 2024 on a range of matters that need to be decided in Germany.

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Euro 2024 predictions

Euro 2024 winners – England

It's time. My friend, it is time. England shocked the nation by actually Being Quite Good at the World Cup 2018. They showed progress with a growing squad at Euro 2020. They were eliminated by elite opposition at the World Cup 2022. Now, it could be argued with confidence, is England's finest chance to win a major trophy so far in this century.

There's a blend of young and old, rising stars and experienced heads in the squad, Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Kyle Walker are arguably the best players in the world in their positions, while Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Declan Rice all fall into 'world class' territory.

This is an England team approaching the peak of their cycle, with only the France and Portugal squads around the same level. There can be no excuses for not reaching another final. It is time.

Euro 2024 dark horses – Netherlands

It's ironic to label the brightest orange team in the competition as dark horses, but Ronald Koeman's side are being overlooked once again.

The Oranje are a perennial knockout round team, but have the physical and technical strength to go long at Euro 2024 thanks to their ability to reach high.

The Netherlands boast an extremely physical XI, with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Ake, Matthijs de Ligt, Stefan de Vrij and Micky van de Ven to choose from at the back. They also boast Cody Gakpo through the middle with Wout Weghorst up front as an option.

They qualified for the tournament with six wins from eight - their only defeats came against France, who they are drawn alongside in Group D. The Netherlands boast all the attributes to dig deep and defend as well as hit teams on the break in cagey knockout affairs, making them a tournament team to watch in 2024.

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Euro 2024 disappointments – Italy

On paper, Group B looks like this tournament's Group of Death, with two of the last three winners and the World Cup's third-placed team in the mix. However, look beneath the surface and you'll see more than a few cracks in Italy's armour going into this one.

Let's face it, the Italians are one of those teams who, like in Euro 2020, could have fallen at the first hurdle or won the lot. The same applies here. However, this time the Azzurri are without a raft of key players through retirements and injuries. The core of their Euro-winning squad has been ripped out.

Some of their next-gen stars including Destiny Udogie are also missing through injury, while they lack a clear, prolific goalscorer. This is a jumbled Italian team going up against ruthless operators in the shape of Croatia and Spain, who are also admittedly a shadow of their former selves. If there's a traditional 'big team' going out early, it could well be Italy.

Euro 2024 top scorer – Harry Kane (England)

It's a toss-up between Kane and Kylian Mbappé for the Golden Boot at this stage, with both teams expected to go far in the competition and both men expected to be talismanic leaders.

We've gone for Kane due to a marginally more favourable group to navigate. He could quite comfortably wrap notch against three sub-par teams, whereas Mbappé may have a slightly tougher job against the Netherlands' aforementioned defence, highly-rated Austria and a compact Poland team expected to sit and defend for their lives.

Breakout star – Benjamin Šeško (Slovenia)

We're getting strong Patrik Schick vibes from Benjamin Šeško ahead of this tournament. The conditions are all right for Šeško to make a big impact in this competition with relatively weak Denmark and Serbia teams in the group, as well as England.

Šeško is a towering 21-year-old RB Leipzig striker. The 6ft5in forward scored in each of his last seven Bundesliga games of the season, and has attracted attention from Premier League suitors.

He has size on his side, aerial prowess to match and, importantly, lots of pace, meaning he is a threat on multiple levels.

Finally, he netted 14 Bundesliga goals in total for Leipzig last season in just 17 starts plus 14 substitute appearances. More impressively, he did so with an xG of just 8.60, meaning he massively overdelivered on the service provided for him.

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