U21 European Championships

The cream of the European youth teams do battle in Poland over the coming fortnight, with Spain the bookies favourites at 7/2. We'll have a quick look at each group and then deliver our picks.

The first thing to be clear on is the format of this competition - three groups will provide four semi-finalists. Winning the group is therefore important, but with Group C playing last, there could be some interesting scenarios at work if the cards fall in a certain way.

Group A sees England pitched against Poland, Sweden and Slovakia. It's probably a tougher group than it first appears, with England seeded 2nd in qualifying, Sweden in pot two (11th seeds), Slovakia (14th) and Poland the competition hosts.

England cruised through qualifying with a 6-2-0 record and a goal difference of 20-3. It looks impressive but the opposition was relatively modest and it was no more than was expected. The Three Lions will be looking to Nathan Redmond to produce some of their fizzle, and while there is plenty of talent in the squad, their International experience is weaker than some.

Sweden loook a genuine threat, having topping their group above tournament favourites Spain, winning 7 and drawing 3 of their 10 matches. They are here on merit and should go well with a squad including 12 players who have represented the senior side.

Slovakia have similar top level experience, but look weaker on quality. Finishing above Holland in the qualifying groups though does mark them out as no push-overs of course.

Poland are harder to make out given they did not need to qualify, but home advantage is always worth having of course.

In Group B, Spain, Portugal, Serbia and Macedonia line up. Spain and Serbia both finished second in their groups of course, but they are highly rated outfits and Spain actually had a better goal difference (+22) than group winners Sweden (+17), so might count themselves a little unlucky with the outcome.

It was a similar story in Qualifying Group 2, where Serbia ran the impressive Italy very close, scoring 27 goals in 10 games. They bring a genuine youth team though without any significant experience at the higher level and that could potentially harm their chances of doing as well as they could.

Portugal demolished their rivals in Group 4, scoring 34, and they are boosted by the inclusion of Bayern Munich's Renato Sanchez who already has 13 senior caps and is sure to shine brightly this summer. Whether he can carry his nation to success remains to be seen, but he's certainly one of the biggest names involved this year.

Finally Macedonia did incredibly well to finish above a strong France squad in qualifying, so really are here on merit, but it was a tight group with Iceland and Ukraine also doing reasonably well. That suggests it could have been as much about a French underperformance as a Macedonia side ready to take on the world, and we'll treat them with caution.

In Group C we have argubaly the Group of Death.

Germany are group favourites at Even money, and it's hard to fault their qualifying campaign which saw them bank a perfect 10 wins. 35 goals for and just 8 against was an impressive performance for sure. They are rocked a little ahead of the competition however as a number of their more experienced players have boarded the plane for the Confederations Cup as a result, so they may have to make-do to some extent.

Italy also topped their group, unbeaten with seven wins and three draws, and that included the well regarded Serbia amongst others. Italy travel with plenty of first team experience in their ranks, with Federico Bernardeschi a veteran of nine caps already. Gianluigi Donnarumma is another who has done well and he is the regular keeper at AC Milan already, while Daniele Rugani is another with a bright future already with three senior caps.

Denmark and Czch Republic complete the group, with both also winning their qualifying groups - the Danes with a +21 goal difference, and just three goals conceded. They have not bolstered their squad with any who have made the jump up however and that could be their achilles heel.

So where should our money go?

Italy look good each way value to win the tournament at 7/1 with Ladbrokes for a start. With such experience in their squad and a decent qualifying tournament, not to mention success in this tournament as a set-up before, they shouldn't be a million miles away.

With the same firm, Sweden were impressive in qualifying - coming out ahead of Spain after drawing with them home and away. England don't look invincible in the group, so we'll take a punt on them topping Group A at 3/1

Finally we'll bank on the quality in the Spanish ranks to see them through, and take an interest in them at 7/2 in the outright market. They include Marco Asensio (Real Madrid), Hector Bellerin (Arsenal), Saul Niquez (Atletico) and Denis Suarez (Barcelona) among their numbers and will take a lot of beating.

1pt e/w Italy to win outright at 7/1

1pt Sweden to win Group A at 3/1

1pt Spain to win outright at 7/2

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