Euro 2020: Who is likely to qualify?

Group B: Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania, Luxembourg

The form of players like Andre Silva has meant Portugal haven't really missed Cristiano Ronaldo

Euro 2016 winners Portugal will go into this group as heavy favourites, as despite a relatively disappointing World Cup campaign, they’ve looked excellent in their Nations League fixtures – winning a group which contained Italy and Poland and avoiding defeat throughout. Despite losing Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal still have an outstanding side which features the likes of Andre Silva, Renato Sanches, Ruben Neves and Goncalo Guedes, all of whom performed well in the Nations League.

With that said, they may not have things easy. Lithuania and Luxembourg will undoubtedly act as whipping boys, but Ukraine and Serbia are no pushovers at all. Both sides won their Nations League groups; Ukraine being promoted to League A for the next competition and Serbia going into League B.

Serbia were arguably the more impressive of the two sides, although their competition – Romania, Montenegro and Lithuania – wasn’t as tricky as Ukraine’s. They were able to remain unbeaten throughout the competition, and striker Aleksandar Mitrovic ended up as League C’s top scorer with 6 goals.

Ukraine meanwhile reeled off 3 straight wins to put them in pole position in their group, but a disappointing 4-1 loss to bottom-placed Slovakia put a dampener on their campaign.

Overall I’m leaning towards Serbia to qualify behind Portugal here; they have a stronger squad than Ukraine in my eyes, with some excellent talent including Mitrovic, Adem Ljajic, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and I’d favour them in their clashes against Ukraine, which will likely prove to be pivotal assuming both sides beat Lithuania and Luxembourg.

Prediction: Serbia and Portugal to qualify