With Spain lifting their record breaking fourth European Championship title last night, it seemed only fitting to look back at the predictions our Football Park writers made before the tournament. In our predictions article we all named our winner, runners-up, golden boot winner, player of the tournament, biggest overachievers and biggest underachievers. There were some incredible predictions and some not so great ones too.

Winner - Spain

It’s a poor start from us, as no one predicted Spain to win Euro 2024. Only three nations were tipped to win the tournament which were France, Germany and England, all of whom were knocked out by the eventual winners. In fact, only two of us predicted Spain to make it to the final, myself and Cameron.

2024 CHAMPIONS: Spain 🇪🇸#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/8jGoI5ZSv0

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 14, 2024

Cameron actually got the final two correct, but his patriotic optimism got the better of him and he predicted an England win. I went for a Spain vs France final, as I believed the French would win their group and therefore be on the other side of the draw. Six Football Park writers thought that England would win the Euros so they were the ones that came the closest.

Runner-up - England

Getting slightly better, we actually have some correct predictions for the runner-up. Both Isaac and Patrick believed that there would be heartbreak for the Three Lions but they couldn’t agree who would inflict the painful defeat. Isaac thought the hosts would have a good shot, while Patrick thought that France would win yet another major international competition.

Only four nations were tipped to finish as the runner-up. These were England, France, Germany and Spain. Interestingly, other than Germany, these were three of the final four teams, the other being the Netherlands.

Top Goalscorer - Tie

In a strange rule change, the Golden Boot this year was awarded to six individuals, so surely at least one Football Park writer got this one correct. Six of us correctly predicted Harry Kane to win the award as the Bayern Munich frontman scored three times during the championships. He shared the award with Dani Olmo of Spain, Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands, Jamal Musiala of Germany, Georges Mikautadze of Georgia and Ivan Schranz of Slovakia.

⚽️ Gakpo, Kane, Musiala, Mikautadze, Olmo and Schranz all finished on three goals at the top of the goal rankings 👏👏👏#EUROtopscorer @AlipayPlus pic.twitter.com/9FATraKlUZ

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 15, 2024

Unsurprisingly, no one predicted any of the other five winners to collect the Golden Boot. The most popular incorrect prediction was France’s Kylian Mbappe which was also my prediction. There was also a shout for Antione Griezemann but he failed to register even a single goal at the tournament.

Player of the Tournament - Rodri

There were a wide range of predictions for the Euro 2024 player of the tournament, but no one got this one correct. Not to sing my own praises or anything, but I was the only person to get the nation of the winner correct. I thought that Pedri would have an excellent tournament, and he was by no means poor, but an injury early in Spain’s quarter final match against Germany saw him miss the rest of the tournament and miss out on a chance of being named as player of the tournament.

A timeless tweet:

Rodri wins again 🏆#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/E2HKsNUcPI

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 14, 2024

Probably the two closest predictions were from Cameron, who thought that Jude Bellingham would win it, and Luca, who predicted Jamal Musiala. Arguably the worst shouts for player of the tournament were either the two predictions that England’s Phil Foden would win it, or Jeremie Frimpong, who barely made it off the bench for the Netherlands after an outstanding season for Bayer Leverkusen.

Biggest Overachievers - Georgia and Austria

Both Alex and Reece thought that Georgia would be the biggest overachievers at Euro 2024 and they weren’t wrong. Turkiye were probably the biggest surprise of the tournament, reaching the Quarter-Final before being knocked out by the Netherlands, but none of us predicted that, so I’m giving it to Alex and Reece as well as Luca, who predicted Austria.

🇬🇪 Debutants Georgia book last-16 spot!#EURO2024 | #GEOPOR pic.twitter.com/2YwghjKT01

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 26, 2024

Both Georgia and Austria reached the Round of 16 before being knocked out by Spain and Turkiye respectively. Along the way Georgia beat Portugal 2-0 and Austria topped their group, above France and the Netherlands. The less said about my prediction the better (I said Hungary who have been at home nearly as long as Scotland).

Biggest Underachievers - Italy

Ultimately, the biggest underachievers of the tournament were reigning champions Italy, who were knocked out in the Round of 16 against Switzerland. Five of us, Alex, Reece, Cameron, Jordan and myself, all got this prediction correct.

Other mentions must go to Harry, who thought that Croatia would do poorly, and Ashley, who predicted Belgium. Croatia were knocked out in the Group Stage, but were in an incredibly difficult group with both Spain and Italy. Belgium finished second to Romania in Group E before being beaten by France in the Round of 16.

🇨🇭🇮🇹Switzerland shock Italy with a goal 2️⃣7️⃣ seconds into the second half 😱

🇨🇭 Switzerland are through to the Quarter-Final of EURO 2024❗️

⏰ FULL-TIME ⏰

🇨🇭 Switzerland 2-0 Italy 🇮🇹

👀Switzerland will play the winner of England vs Slovakia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇸🇰 #euro2024 #SWIITA pic.twitter.com/89WV6Ie4Om

— FIVE (@FIVEUK) June 29, 2024

Overall Performance

Overall, the award for the best predictions has to go to Cameron for getting the final two correct as well as the top goalscorer and the biggest underachievers. I’ll forgive him for thinking that Scotland would be the biggest overachievers.

I’ll award second place to myself for my Spain and Italy predictions as well as getting the nationality for the player of the tournament correct. I am probably being biased but I don’t think anyone else did well at all.

The award for worst overall predictions has to go to Joe for thinking that France would dominate the competition, winning the tournament as well as top goalscorer and the player of the tournament award. The real nail in the coffin though was the prediction that England would be the biggest underachievers, but predicting Serbia to be the overachievers didn’t help his case either.