Germany are our joint fourth favourites to win Euro 2020 here at NetBet, with a tasty price of 15/2 being offered right now on them winning the European Championships outright. Joachim Low, who brought the Germans to a stunning 2014 World Cup victory, will leave the job and be replaced by Hans-Dieter Flick after the tournament. He will be looking to end his reign on a high, and has drafted back in World Cup winners Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller for the first time in two years in an attempt to get the job done. Germans are born winners, and this squad will know that the weight of a nation’s expectations are upon them. If they can make it out of a group with current champions Portugal, world champions France and host country Hungary, they will definitely feel confident in their ability to take home the trophy.
However, there are concerns over Low’s dramatic U-turn when it comes to Hummels and Muller, who he made a very public point of dismissing back in 2019. Low said at the time: “2019 is the year of a new start for the German national team. In the year of qualifying for the European Championships 2020, we are sending a clear signal of renewal.
“The young national team players will have the space they need to fully develop… we want to give the team a new face. I am convinced that this is the right step.”
Key Players
If you look at the squad list below, you’ll see just two strikers in the 26-man panel. He’s got a number of false nine-style players like Muller, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, while he surprisingly included Monaco’s Kevin Volland who has only scored once in his ten international appearances. Volland is generally what most would consider to be a true ‘number 9’, playing a sort of hybrid role where he is both a scorer and creator for other players. He’s racked up 18 goals and 8 assists across all competitions this season and is a strong, quick striker who is decently sized at 5’11. He’s good with both feet and in the air, so don’t be surprised to see him at the forefront of most of Germany’s attacking options.
Boss Low said of his choice: “Kevin Volland hasn’t been around for a while, but we saw his development in the French league. He stands for robustness, assertiveness and we hope to benefit from his goalscoring abilities.”
There is certainly a dearth of strikers being developed in the Bundesliga, but whether this will cost them this tournament or not shall remain to be seen. Freiburg’s Christian Gunter is an interesting callup, and in his role as an attacking wing back, he could be called upon to make his German international debut during one of their group games this summer. Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga, and they are definitely all over the spine of this squad when you look at it. Despite missing out on the Champions League semi-finals, many believe them to be the best team in Europe, who simply got unlucky, and if that is the case then there’s no reason to believe key players like Manuel Neuer and Muller won’t have a big impact in the mentality and structure of this squad.
Can Germany pull off a bit of an upset and win this tournament? It certainly doesn’t seem likely, although there’s certainly stranger things that have happened. We definitely expect to see them around the quarter or semi-finals when all is said and done, particularly if they can start well. They play World Cup winners France first time out on Tuesday 15th June, before facing Portugal on Saturday 19th June. We should know by the time they play Hungary on Wednesday the 23rd June what sort of state the 2014 World Cup winners are in, and if it is likely that they’ll be progressing. Two big wins, and you have to think they have a shot, but two losses would essentially see them out at the first time of asking. We’d recommend a bet on Germany to make the quarter-finals or at best the semis.
Germany Euro 2020 Squad
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Bernd Leno (Arsenal), Kevin Trapp (Frankfurt)
Defenders: Matthias Ginter (Monchengladbach), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Robin Gosens (Atalanta), Christian Gunter (Freiburg), Marcel Halstenberg (Leipzig), Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Lukas Klostermann (Leipzig), Robin Koch (Leeds), Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich)
Midfielders: Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Emre Can (Dortmund), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich), Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich), Kai Havertz (Chelsea), Jonas Hofmann (Monchengladbach), Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich), Florian Neuhaus (Monchengladbach)
Forwards: Timo Werner (Chelsea), Kevin Volland (Monaco)