- Mail Sport simulated the entire European Championship 2024 with the football game EAFC 24
- Sim pulled off several surprises and left England heartbroken in the semi-final
- Listen to It all starts! Why Euro 2024 could give us another ‘old school’ tournament
With Euro 2024 finally here, fans across the continent have been anxiously making predictions about how far their team could go.
Of the 24 teams that reached the final, 16 will progress to the knockout rounds and then make history in four games.
With just a month to go before Europe’s next champions are crowned, Mail Sport ran a simulation on EA FC 24 to find out what could happen in Germany.
Needless to say, the results went directly against conventional wisdom.
First the favorites. Didier Deschamps has incredible talent at his disposal, and perhaps the best player in the world with Kylian Mbappe as his talisman, but how did Les Bleus fare in our simulation?
Mail Sport simulated the upcoming European Championships in Germany on EA FC 24
The hugely popular football video game provided some surprises in the simulation
After qualifying second in Group D following a defeat to the Netherlands, France defeated Ukraine 4-1 in the round of 16 before falling to Portugal in the quarter-finals.
England also failed to top their group thanks to a 3-1 defeat to Denmark, but did manage to progress further than their rivals across the Channel.
Gareth Southgate’s side eliminated hosts Germany for the second time in a row before beating Croatia 2-1 in a rematch of the 2018 World Cup semi-final to reach the last four.
Ultimately, the pain would continue for 58 years as Portugal secured a narrow semi-final victory and booked a place in the final against Switzerland.
After reaching the quarter-finals in 2020, Murat Yakin’s side continued their impressive recent run at major tournaments by beating Spain in the round of 16, before advancing on Denmark to set up the most unlikely of semi-finals.
In the biggest euro crisis since Greece’s triumph in 2004, the simulation tipped minnows Georgia to reach the last four in Germany.
With Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia taking his club form to international duty, the former Soviet state finished ahead of Turkey and the Czech Republic to reach the knockout stages in their first-ever European Championship final.
From there, Georgia defeated the Netherlands in the first knockout round before defeating Belgium to reach the semi-finals.
In the simulation, England were knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual winners Portugal, 20 years after being knocked out by them in 2004.
They were met by Switzerland in the final, with the simulation tipping them to beat the likes of Spain and Denmark on the way to the clash.
Meanwhile, Georgia, the tournament’s lowest-ranked team, reached the semi-finals in their first European Championship final
Ultimately, however, their fairytale would end against Granit Xhaka and Switzerland, as they triumphed 3-1 to set up a final against Portugal.
Twenty years after his first appearance at the European Championships, the simulation saw Cristiano Ronaldo lift the trophy for the second time as Portugal defeated Switzerland 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.