Poland vs Netherlands

On Sunday afternoon, Poland kicks off their Euro 2024 campaign with a tough opener against the Netherlands at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg. The Poles made it to these finals the hard way, finishing third in qualifying Group E via the playoffs. They won their place courtesy of a nail-biting shootout at the expense of Wales in the playoff final. Their record of getting to the knockout stages of these competitions is poor, to say the least, and they must try and win this game without their talismanic striker, Robert Lewandowski. It might be asking too much of Michał Probierz’s side.

The Netherlands come into this competition as many people’s dark horses to win it. The Dutch have been impressive in qualifying, comfortably finishing second behind France in Group B. They turned up the heat on Canada and Iceland in their warm-up friendlies, winning both 4-0, and that will give them plenty of confidence as they look to get off to the perfect start here. The Oranje have been hit with some major injuries of their own ahead of the tournament, with Frankie de Jong and the in-form Teun Koopmeiners forced to withdraw from the squad.

Ronald Koeman’s men should have far too much quality for this Poland side who, without their main attacking threat, look likely to struggle in the final third. It might not be a goal fest, but the Netherlands to win this one 2-0 looks awfully tempting. Memphis Depay is chasing down Robin van Persie’s all-time scoring record, he’ll be desperate to get on the scoresheet, so backing him to find the net first in the game could be the value play here.

See the table with our top picks below:

Also, do not skip checking our predictions for the rest of Sunday’s matches: Slovenia vs Denmark and Serbia vs England.