England is one of my title favorites at the EURO’20 together with Germany and I expect them to get off to a winning start on Sunday in the opener against aging Croatia.

There are endless arguments in favor of England’s success at the upcoming tournament. Starting from the great experience this squad has - some of them went all the way to the ½ final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia; others achieved great things on club level in the 2020-21 season. There is a great blend of experience and youth at Southgate’s hand: rising stars Foden and Mount; established leaders in prime years Kane, Stones, Sterling or Maguire. All of that managed by a decent specialist Gareth Southgate.

It’s a well known fact, how successful English football has been over the past years on club level in Europe. No need to look further - Chelsea and Man City were in the Champions League 2020-21 final. Manchester United - in the Europa League final. These stories are repeated on an annual basis - at the moment EPL clubs are way ahead of many others in terms of squad quality and gameplay. Evidently, English players are taking a lot of these ethics into the National Team, which helps them evolve and get better with every season.

The home status of the opening game also gives a great edge as English supporters are renowned for their chants, songs and selfless involvement in football games.

The Croatian team is way past its peak in their current state. Since the success at World Cup 2018 they’ve failed to add quality to the roster and it looks overaged and unbalanced in many compartments.

Even though they are missing no players tonight via injury, it is hard to understand how this poor looking Croatian team with average striker Petkovic (Dinamo Zagreb) at the edge of 4231 formation could cause any trouble to the star-filled opponent. The backline with central defenders - error-prone Caleta-Car (Marseille) and slow clumsy Domagoj Vida (Besiktar) - should have nothing to contain Foden, Sterling and Kane.

I have full faith in English win today.

英格兰和德国是我在本届赛事最看好的球队，我希望英格兰能在周日对阵老化的克罗地亚的揭幕战中取得胜利。

英格兰能否在即将到来的锦标赛中取得成功的争论不休。从这支球队的丰富经验开始——他们中的一些人参加打进了 2018 年俄罗斯世界杯的半决赛；还有人在 2020-21 赛季在俱乐部层面取得了伟大的成就。索斯盖特将经验与青春完美融合：后起之秀福登和芒特；在凯恩、斯通斯、斯特林或马奎尔等当打之年的球员确立了领袖地位。

众所周知，过去几年英国足球在欧洲俱乐部层面取得了多么大的成功。切尔西和曼城都在 2020-21 赛季的欧冠决赛中。曼联——欧联杯决赛。这样的情况每年都会重演 - 目前英国俱乐部在球队实力和足球打法方面遥遥领先于许多其他俱乐部。显然，英国球员正在将会把这些带入国家队，这有助于他们在每个赛季中不断进步并变得更好。

首场比赛的主场也给了很大的优势，因为英国球迷将会给球队带来助威，英国球迷以歌曲和无私参与足球比赛而闻名。

克罗地亚队目前的状态已经过了顶峰。自从在 2018 年世界杯上取得成功以来，他们一直未能提高阵容的实力，而且在许多位置看起来过于老道且不平衡。

尽管今晚他们没有缺席的球员，但很难理解这支看起来很糟糕的克罗地亚队如何在4231阵型利用好前锋佩特科维奇（萨格勒布迪纳摩）这位明星球员的作用。中后卫的后防线比较容易出错的 Caleta-Car（马赛）和速度较慢的Domagoj Vida（贝西克塔尔） - 克罗地亚应该很难遏制 Foden，Sterling和凯恩。

我对今天的英格兰取胜充满信心。