Euro 2024 Group Stage round one predictions & betting tips

With the first round of Group Stage games for Euro 2024 right around the corner, Ladbrokes shares its predictions and betting tips for several of the biggest nation's opening games.

This summer's tournament kicks off with Germany v Scotland on Friday, June 14, with the first round of Group Stage concluding the following week with Portugal v Czech Republic on Tuesday, June 18.

Our Euro 2024 Group Stage round one predictions & betting tips piece features picks from both games, as well as insight into England, Spain and France's first games.

As noted, Euro 2024 kicks off with Germany playing Scotland at the Allianz Arena, and the bookies have Toni Kroos and co as the heavy favourites in their first game, and it's not hard to see why.

Germany are one of the favourites heading into the tournament, and we expect their campaign to begin with a big win over Scotland, but that's not all.

We're also predicting Arsenal's Kai Havertz scores the first goal of the game, and tournament for what it's worth. We think the ex-Chelsea man will carry the fantastic form that saw him score goals for fun towards the end of the Premier League season into his international campaign, potentially dragging them to victory.

Spain are also one of the favourites to win Euro 2024, but they've been drawn in a tricky group with reigning Champions Italy and Croatia, the latter of whom always seem to do well at international tournaments.

In fact, we predict that Spain's campaign begins with them drawing against the World Cup 2022 semi-finalists. We still expect them to get out of the group and progress to the knockout stages, but they've definitely got the toughest start out of any of those in the running.

Germany and Spain might be amongst the favourites to win Euro 2024, but according to the bookies, England are the most likely to be crowned winners on July 14, and they kick off their campaign against Serbia on Sunday.

We expect the Three Lions to win, but we want to focus on Trent Alexander-Arnold, who according to reports, will be starting the game alongside Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham as a midfielder, despite only playing as a defender for his club.

We expect Trent to play well, as he did during both of England's warm-up games, so much so that we're predicting the Liverpool man to either score or assist for his country against Serbia in their Euro 2024 opener.

This could be a big tournament for Trent, and we expect his campaign to kick off with a bang...

In the eyes of many fans and pundits, France represent England's toughest challenge to the Euro 2024 title, and after knocking the Three Lions out of the World Cup less than two years ago, Kylian Mbappe and co will be confident about doing the same against if the two sides meet during this summer's tournament.

It's actually Mbappe who we want to speak about for our penultimate prediction, as we're pegging the new Real Madrid winger to score two or more goals in France's opener against Austria, giving himself a good chance at winning the Euro 2024 Golden Boot.

Despite Austria being a well-organised defensive side, Mbappe is simply too good to stop, so we're predicting that the ex-PSG man, who is actually in the running for the Player of the Tournament score twice (or more) during his country's Euro 2024 opener on Monday.

Portugal are fourth-favourites to win Euro 2024 according to the bookies, but many fans think they're going to go all the way and win the tournament, just as they did eight years ago in 2016.

Cristiano Ronaldo looks to lead the line for his nation in his sixth European Championship, but he's backed up by the likes of Diogo Jota, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and Raphael Leao.

Portugal's team is stacked with attacking talent, and with Ruben Dias, Pepe and Joao Palhinha behind, they've got the defensive solidity to boot.

We predict Portugal to convincingly beat Czech Republic in the final Euro 2024 first round Group Stage game, doing so by scoring three or more goals.

Ladbrokes has published an article looking at the betting odds for each of the nations competing in Euro 2024, starting with the favourites England and ending with Georgia, who have been priced at 500/1.

View the latest football odds.

All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.