Ahead of any sporting competition getting underway, the majority of spectators like to discuss how things will shape out. Only the bravest put their predictions on record, though, for all to see. While they’ll look like a genius should they call things accurately, they risk facing plenty of ridicule if they get it all wrong.
One man who made predictions ahead of Euro 2024 was Jamie Carragher. The pundit shared his thoughts on the tournament and how exactly he saw things playing out. It’s safe to say, though, that he didn’t do a great job with his predictions. In fact, he had a pretty terrible time of things with his answers.
The former Liverpool man was tasked with listing how all 24 teams would get on in the European Championship and while he got some correct, for the most part, he got a lot wrong, including how England’s tournament would shape up.
Carragher Predicted Where Each Team Would Finish in the Groups
He got 4/6 winners correct
Carragher started off fairly strongly when he was predicting the group stages. He correctly named four of the six winners, stating Germany, Spain, England and Portugal would all finish first. He had a bit of an issue with guessing who would be going through with them, though. First, he had Hungary finishing above Switzerland in Group A, which wasn’t how things played out. Then he had Croatia beating Italy to second place in Group B.
He got it right in Group C, predicting that Denmark would finish behind the Three Lions. After predicting France would win Group D, Didier Deschamps’ side came second, and Carragher claimed the Netherlands would come just behind them. Austria’s fine performances through the group stage upset the apple cart here, and they finished top. Virgil van Dijk and company ultimately finished third.
The former defender then got it wrong in Group E as well. First, he predicted that Belgium would finish first, before then saying Romania would come second. The reality was that the two teams finished the other way around, with the latter topping the table and Kevin De Bruyne and his teammates finishing second. He got the top two correct in Group F, with Portugal winning and Turkey finishing second, but didn’t expect Georgia to come above Czech Republic.
He Predicted Which Third-Place Teams Would Qualify
He was 50% accurate
After revealing which teams he thought would finish first and second in each group, Carragher predicted which third-placed teams would do enough to qualify for the next stage of the Euros. He didn’t do too badly here, correctly predicting that two of the teams he had in third-place would take part in the knockout stage.
The only issue is those two teams didn’t actually finish third. He claimed Switzerland and Austria would both move onto the round of 16, and they both did. He also said that Serbia and Ukraine would progress alongside them, but those two sides finished dead last in their respective groups and neither made it into the next round.
Carragher Then Predicted the Knockout Stage
He was well off with how he saw winners Spain doing
Moving onto the knockout stage of the European Championships, Carragher went through each match-up and predicted how they would all shape out, ultimately coming away with who he thought would win the tournament. He started things off strongly too, saying Germany would beat Denmark in the first game, and that is exactly how things played out.
He then predicted that Hungary would beat Croatia, but neither of the teams actually made it to the round of 16, so this one stood no chance. He had Spain beating Ukraine in the first knockout game, but then had them crashing out of the tournament in the quarter-finals to Germany. In hindsight, this is a shocking call considering how dominant the Spaniards looked throughout the competition on their way to lifting the trophy.
He had England making it to the semi-finals, before they were ultimately bested by France, interestingly thinking the Three Lions would do worse than they ultimately did. In the other semi-final, Carragher saw Germany facing off against Portugal, with the hosts coming out on top.
That meant he predicted France would take on Germany in the final of Euro 2024, with Kylian Mbappe and co coming out on top and lifting the trophy. In reality, both teams were eliminated by Spain in the semi-finals and the quarter-finals respectively. This means that Carragher didn’t even come close to correctly predicting the final, believing the eventual winners Spain would crash out several rounds earlier, while also tipping the other finalists England to have bowed out to France in the semi-finals.