So many passionate nations, world-class players, and thoughtful managers will grace this summer’s European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, but only one country will ultimately prevail and cover themselves in glory and success.

Here I give my views on who will win the groups outright, who will perform spectacularly and who will leave themselves with a ton of regrets crashing out at the earliest stage.

Group A

Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Turkey

This is a very interesting group which can be debated very thoroughly as to who will progress. Normally, Portugal and Czech Republic would be clear favourites to make the knockout stage, but as Switzerland are joint hosts of the competition and will have their mad supporters roaring them on, it makes things much more difficult to predict.

In fact, host nations have such an impeccable record of doing well in their own tournaments that I genuinely believe Switzerland will scrape their way out of this group, along with Portugal as group winners. Nobody can doubt the quality and experience in the Portuguese camp with the likes of Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Carvalho and Nuno Gomes in their ranks.

My Prediction for Group A final standings:

Portugal
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Turkey

Group B:

Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

This is surely the easiest of all the groups to predict, as the powerhouses of Germany look like they will dominate the rest of the pack. Croatia are a very good side too though, proven by their double defeats of England in qualifying.

It will take an almighty effort from Poland and joint-hosts Austria to knock the two big guns off the top two spots, because despite also having the crowd behind them, Austria certainly don’t possess that same quality that fellow hosts Switzerland have.

My Prediction for Group B Final Standings:

Germany
Croatia
Austria
Poland

Group C:

France
Holland
Italy
Romania

Well, well, what a treat we have in store with Group C – ‘the group of death’. I think we all know Romania will be finishing bottom of the pile and probably ending up with zero points after three unbelievably difficult fixtures against three of Europe’s elite footballing nations.

I actually quite fancy Holland in this tournament, especially with their quite awesome strike force of Van Nistlerooy, Kuyt, Robben and Van Persie. It would have been even better if Ryan Babel hadn’t have injured himself, but surprisingly you may think, I predict them to finish top of the group, with world champions Italy joining them in second place.

My Prediction for Group C Final Standings:

Holland
Italy
France
Romania

Group D:

Greece
Russia
Spain
Sweden

We all know what a quality team Spain have, but every time a major tournament comes around they fail to deliver the goods. This year may just be their year though, and I think it is quite certain that they will top this group.

It is then between Russia, Greece and Sweden to battle it out for a top-two finish, and I think the brilliant strike force of the latter will help them to a knock-out phase place.

My Prediction for Group D Final Standings:

Spain
Sweden
Russia
Greece

So, those are just my opinions on how this summer’s group stages will pan out, what are your views?

We’re certainly in for a terrific feast of football this June, enjoy it.