England named joint-favourites for Euro glory next summer

It's coming h... No. Too soon

England have been installed as joint-favourites to win next summer's European Championships, after the line-up for the tournament was finalised on Thursday night. Scotland were amongst the final teams to reach the competition, ending their 22-year wait to appear at a major finals by sealing a dramatic penalty-shootout victory over Serbia in Belgrade. Steve Clarke's side will face England in the group stages of the tournament, with the Three Lions ranked as 5/1 favourites along with France and Belgium by Betfair. France suffered a friendly defeat at home to Finland earlier this week, but are likely to go far in the competition after their World Cup triumph in Russia in 2018. Belgium, who England face next in the Uefa Nations League, are ranks as the best team in the world by the Fifa Rankings. Gareth Southgate's side continued their preparations for the Euros by strolling to a 3-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Thursday night. First-half goals from Harry Maguire and Jadon Sancho effectively ended the contest, with an emphatically dispatched penalty from Dominic Calvert-Lewin completing the scoring after the interval. If England are to win the competition, they will firstly have to navigate their way out of a group containing Scotland, as well as the Czech Republic and Croatia, who of course beat them in the semi-finals of the World Cup two years ago. It is still unclear where the finals will be staged, after reports last week suggested Uefa were considering scrapping plans to play the already-postponed tournament in numerous cities across the continent in favour of it being held in one country. However, with promising news of a vaccine for Covd-19 emerging, it could now be that the championship sticks to its original plan, albeit a year later than planned.