Roy Keane has ruled out Portugal as contenders for Euro 2024, instead favoring England, France, and Germany as the top picks for the tournament.
Germany made a strong start with a 5-1 victory over Scotland. England is set to face Serbia in their first match of Group C on Sunday, while France will meet Austria in Group D on Monday.
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Keane also suspects that Spain may fall short in the advanced stages of the competition.
When asked about Portugal’s chances, Keane told ITV: ‘I don’t fancy them. ‘They’ve got obviously brilliant, talented attacking players.
‘But again I go back defensively, I’ve got France, England and Germany ahead of them.’
Speaking about 41-year-old Portugal defender Pepe, who is playing in his ninth major tournament for his national team, Keane said: ‘He’s still playing, fair play to him, an amazing player and an amazing career.
‘But I think he’ll get caught out.’
Asked about Spain’s chances, Keane said: ‘We know the qualities they have, again you always worry about that, they’ve got some brilliant, young talented players.
‘Again, you think Spain will be in the mix but you just think they’ll come up short.’
But, former Scotland and Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness says Portugal are one of Euro 2024’s ‘dark horses’ with the Netherlands.
‘England, France, I come back to tonight’s game, I’m not sure how good Germany are because we [Scotland] were so bad,’ Souness said.
‘I think the dark horses would be Portugal and Netherlands, no one is talking about them, they’ve had some good results.
‘Right now, Germany are a very dangerous team if they get momentum behind them, playing at home, had a great result tonight, so momentum is definitely with them, they’ll be dangerous.
‘But I think England would be a match for that Germany team.’
Meanwhile, former Arsenal and England player Ian Wright believes Spain, who are in a tough Group B alongside Croatia, Italy and Albania, will be a ‘problem’ in the tournament.
‘What we saw with Germany today is a team [Scotland] that’s turned up and is not ready for them and they’ve punished them,’ Wright said.
‘That’s what you’re hoping England will do, we’ve got the kind of players who know what it’s like to get the latter stages, so now it’s about taking the opportunity and punishing teams if they’re not up to it.
‘We’ve got that capability. I think Portugal have that as well. And we’ve seen tonight with Germany, the confidence they can take from this, you don’t know where that can take them.
‘But at the minute I’m really quite confident about us [England].
‘The thing again with Spain, [Lamine] Yamal and [Nico] Williams on the wings, they pass the ball around but now they can get out. They’ll be a problem, Spain.’
