Four of the giants of European football are into the semifinals of Euro 2024, tournament favorites Spain take on World Cup finalists France, while England look to make it consecutive finals at the UEFA Euro when they take on The Netherlands. Our panelists offer their predictions.

Spain vs France (Tuesday in Munich)

Steen Kirby: France has scored only three goals in five matches at Euro 2024, the talent and expensive players on this team is undeniable, but Didier Deschamps men have been doing things the hard way at this tournament as they remain one of the top sides in world Football. Defeating Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal on penalties after a scoreless 120 minutes was their latest feat, after a narrow 1-0 win over Belgium on an own goal put them into the quarterfinals. At least in the Portugal game, France did generate a couple of credible chances on goal and were unlucky to score, they were also lucky to not concede as Portugal had 20 shots on goal compared to only 5 from a hapless Belgium attack. France was perfect on penalties, and that situation against Spain would probably suit them again if that’s where we end up.

Eduardo Camavinga from Real Madrid was very good coming into the midfield for France, the way Spain attacks, France must hold up in the midfield and at least try to find the back of the net or they will get run over in this semifinal.

Spain is everyone’s team of Euro 2024, they dumped the hosts Germany out of the tournament with a 2-1 victory that came in the 119th minute of Extra Time, avoiding penalties in front of a hostile crowd, after Florian Wirtz and Germany had tied the game late in a game that featured two goals in the second half, the first by Dani Olmo, and the second by Wirtz, before substitute Mikel Merino scored in extra time. The win over Germany was one of the best matches of Euro 2024 as Germany had every shout of being the winners as well. The winner of that match was expected to win the tournament, and Spain, who has scored 3 or more goals twice already, are a team that can pressure France and score in open play. Losing Pedri hurts Spain, but not enough to lose this match. Prediction: Spain 1 France 0

Ben Gray: Between them, these two neighbours have won two UEFA Nations League titles, five European Championships and three World Cups so, after both battled through nerve-shredding quarter-final ties on Friday, who will move one step closer to adding more silverware to their collection?

First up, Spain took on hosts Germany, most agreed this was the two best teams of the tournament going head-to-head, and it turned out to be the battle of Stuttgart, with a total of 15 yellow cards and one red produced by referee Anthony Taylor.

La Roja looked set to claim victory at Neckarstadion, with Dani Olmo slotting Lamine Yamal’s cut-back into the bottom corner soon after half time, only for die Mannschaft to equalise in the final minute of the 90, sparking scenes of pure jubilation.

So, to extra time we went and, just as penalties felt inevitable, Mikel Merino’s towering header in the 119th minute snatched victory.

Dani Carvajal was sent off at the death, but was always going to be suspended due to yellow card accumulation regardless, as is French-born Robin Le Normand, meaning Luis de la Fuente will have to make two changes to his back-line, with 38 year old Jesús Navas and Nacho set to come in, the latter partnering another Frenchman Aymeric Laporte.

Spain are certainly Europe’s form team right now, winning 13 consecutive competitive fixtures, hoisting the Nations League trophy aloft last June, so can they continue that sequence and reach a fifth European Championship Final?

France meantime played out a drab goalless draw with Portugal at Volksparkstadion on Friday night, that’s 120 minutes of all of our lives we’ll never get back, with les Bleus accumulating a miserly xG of 1.2 after two hours of play.

However, after that, they were perfect from the penalty spot, Ousmane Dembélé, Youssouf Fofana, Jules Koundé, Bradley Barcola and Théo Hernández all converting from 12 yards, the latter securing the semi-final spot, much to the delight of those bedecked in blue in Hamburg and beyond.

As a result, Didier Deschamps’ side are now one victory away from a fourth final out of the last five major tournaments, seeking to add to the Henri Delaunay Trophies they’ve won in both 1984 and 2000.

Despite that, France have scored only three goals at this tournament, specifically netting two own goals and a Kylian Mbappé penalty against Poland, meaning it is over 575 minutes since this team scored from open play, doing so in a friendly against minnows Luxembourg last month.

On the flip side, les Bleus have conceded just once in their seven fixtures this summer, with Deschamps’ team, once again, aiming to bore their way to glory, so could a game against possession-dominant Spain actually suit them?

These two teams last met three years ago, with France prevailing 2-1 in the Nations League Final; Kylian Mbappé the match-winner at San Siro.

At major tournaments, this’ll be only their sixth head-to-head encounter, most-notably in 1984 when France won 2-0 in the final of that summer’s tournament, crowned European Champions for the very first time in Paris.

Subsequently, les Bleus prevailed 2-1 in the quarter-finals of Euro 2000, with la Roja 2-0 victors at the same stage 12 years later, both en route to Euros glory, and whoever wins this clash in Munich will be massive favourites to win Sunday’s final at Olympiastadion. So, will Spain’s pizzazz or France’s stodginess prevail at Allianz Arena? Prediction: Spain 1 France 0

England vs The Netherlands (Wednesday in Dortmund)

Steen: On paper, The Netherlands vs England sounds like a great semifinal from teams that were expected to perform well at Euro 2024, in practice, it’s been a series of frustrations for both teams, but they just keep winning in the knockout stages. The Netherlands was up against it against Turkiye, trailing at halftime, but the Turks broke down in the second half, the Dutch struck twice in short order as Stefan De Vrij, who was great in the back, came forward to head in a goal that tied it with two minutes to play, then Turkey conceded an own goal that Cody Gakpo from Liverpool pressed on wide a few minutes later. Bart Verbruggen performed some miracle work in goal to keep Turkiye out of the back of the net, and with one of his best games of the tournament, Memphis Depay led the Netherlands in to the semifinal where Ronald Koeman’s men will clash with Gareth Southgate’s England.

After a scoreless first half against Switzerland in the quarterfinals continued England’s drudgery (but solid defending), Bukaya Sako from Arsenal was the hero, England scored in the 80th minute, and won 5-3 on penalties as Jordan Pickford from Everton was able to make more saves for his country, and Sako, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ivan Toney and the first 5 penalty takers for England were perfect, something you can rarely say about England in penalties.

This England side has regained some confidence mentality wise and still believe they can win Euro 2024 despite an attack that has a lot of malaise. They defend well, Harry Kane has been unfit and now may not feature in this semifinal, but bringing in Ivan Toney (or Ollie Watkins) would probably be an improvement based on the sample size of this tournament.

The key for England will be the midfield, they can win on penalties, but surely they want to score and then try to lock down the Dutch, the Dutch have a suspect patchwork midfield, Turkiye and Romania couldn’t exploit it, but England has a bit more talent and surely can with Declan Rice and Kobie Mainoo. As a keen follower of both teams, both teams have weaknesses to exploit and don’t inspire confidence, the Netherlands have hit their stride at the right time but are suspect for patches of play, while England’s attack is always suspect under Southgate.

The Dutch have some capable tournament players, Ronald Koeman is a skilled manager, and both goalkeepers are excellent, I don’t expect a high scoring or free flowing “open” clash, rather this will go into extra time and possibly penalties, where England has a slim advantage. Prediction: England 2 Netherlands 1 (England win after penalties)

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