The big summer football attraction is the 2024 European Championship. Once again fans will be treated to a big spectacle of top international football, as teams battle to be crowned the continental champions. Italy will enter the fray as the defending titleholders.
There will be 24 teams participating in the tournament, which is hosted by Germany. Euro 2024 will be played across a total of 10 host cities around the country with the final booked for July 14th at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.
There are a total of 49 matches to come from Euro 2024, all squeezed into an action-packed month. It all kicks off on June 14th with the curtain-raiser of Germany vs Scotland from the Allianz Arena, Munich.
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Euro 2024: Germany vs Scotland
This is the fixture to open the tournament, as the host gets to entertain the home crowds. It’s expected that sports predictions will lean towards a victory or a high individual total for the Deutsche Mannschaft. However, Germany wasn’t in great form during 2023 and faces considerable pressure ahead of Euro 2024.
Adding to that are their failures at recent major tournaments, with shocking Group Stage exits at the last two World Cups and a Round of 16 exit at the last European Championships.
Not having played competitive football now for a long time, because of automatically qualifying for Euro 2024 as hosts, will their opening game be as cut and dry for them as it looks?
Germany are odds-on favorites to win their opening match against Scotland, but what do the history books say?
Germany vs Scotland Head-to-Head
Germany holds a positive W8 D5 L4 record against Scotland. This will be their first meeting since 2015 in the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Germany won both of the matches against Scotland during those qualifiers but only by a one-goal margin.
The last three clashes between Germany and Scotland have ended in a 1-goal margin win for the Germans, which is a good trend to watch for your betting options. To extend that record, 7 of Germany’s last eight victories over Scotland have only been by one goal.
Opening Matches
Is there a history of upsets in the opening matches at the European Championships? Here are the last five opening fixtures from the European Championships:
Euro 2020 – Turkey 0-3 Italy
Euro 2016 – France 2-1 Romania
Euro 2012 – Poland 1-1 Greece
Euro 2008 – Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic
Euro 2004 – Portugal 1-2 Greece
The biggest reversal of fortunes there happened at Euro 2004 when hosts Portugal were beaten by Greece. Four years later, the Czech Republic upset Switzerland in the tournament opener.
Poland’s failure to beat Greece at the Euro 2012 opener was something of a surprise too, and even France’s 2-1 win over Romania at Euro 2016 was close – the French scoring an 89th-minute winner in the match. From that, match favorites don’t have things all the way.
Germany Opener
Since 1980 when the Euros has featured at least 8 participating teams, Germany has played in two opening fixtures. Die Mannschaft opened Euro 2020 with a surprise 1-1 draw against Romania.
Back in 1988 as West Germany, there was another 1-1 result in their tournament opener against Italy. Could that be good omens for Scotland, who have never opened before?
Can We Expect Goals?
What about goal trends for the European Championship openers, can we expect the goals to flow? Not necessarily, only three of the last eight opening fixtures at the European Championships have gone above 2.5 goals, so the obvious Under 2.5 Goals option comes onto the radar.
But both teams have scored in six of the last eight opening matches at the Euros, and the most common scoreline was a 1-1 draw which happened in four of the eight. Coupled with Germany’s trend of 1-1 results in the opening matches, could that scoreline have appeal in the Correct Score market?
Opening Night Winners
There is another trend, which could swing towards the outright winner market for the 2024 European Championships. The front runners at bookmakers to win the title this summer are England and France.
While Germany has struggled with recent form and results they are one of the chasing pack along with the likes of Spain and Portugal. On home turf, Germany can’t completely be written off.
History could be on their side too. If they win this opener against Scotland, there’s a small trend of a positive opening result leading to greater things at the Euros. In the last five editions:
Euro 2020 – Italy beat Turkey 3-0 in the opening match and won the tournament
Euro 2016 – France beat Romania 2-1 in the opening match and reached the final
Euro 2004 – Greece beat Portugal 1-0 in the opening match and won the tournament
