We are very much aware of the trends when it comes to defending champions of the European Championships. Only Spain has ever defended its crown, in 2012, and the vast majority never make it past the first knockout round, six of the last seven defending champions have found this to be their fate.

However, these statistics often bear out that international football is all about cycles. France, when analysed, are still mainly in their prime.

Whilst Olivier Giroud is so far into the veterans category he pushes the team average age up a whole year by himself, he is surrounded by players that are experienced enough to have won it all, but still are in full command of their powers. Kylian Mbappe is now 25 and is coming into the tournament having already announced his move to Real Madrid, Ousmane Dembele is 27, and whilst Antoine Griezmann is now 33, he is still in excellent shape.

The midfield duo of Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni is as athletic, energetic, and powerful as any in the world and will provide great protection to a defence which is probably the weaker area of the starting XI, but still world class.

The route through the tournament for France is fairly straightforward, unless they fail to top the group. Assuming that they do finish top of Group D, they would be due to take on the runners-up from Group F, which, as long as Portugal top that group, should be the Czech Republic or Turkey. A likely showdown with Belgium could then follow, with a possible match-up with England in the semi-finals.

Despite the trends, it would be a big surprise if France are unable to at least reach the semi-finals and they are the team with the most recent experience of playing in the big matches at the latter end of major tournaments, and that could count for a lot.

We predict that France and Portugal could be the finalists in this tournament. If both nations win their groups then they will end up on opposite sides of the draw, and, in our opinion, they have the strongest strength in depth in the tournament.

This isn’t always necessary to win a tournament of course, having a strong first XI is probably more important, as Greece showed in 2004. Portugal lost to Greece twice in that tournament, on opening day, and in the final, but they did get over the line in Euro 2016, which makes Portugal one of the few nations with that DNA of winning at a major championships.

There is a great mix of experience and youth in the Portuguese squad. Pepe (41) and Cristiano Ronaldo (39) are still around, and still excellent, with Ronaldo a veteran of the 2004 squad, but they have been freshened up with the likes of Joao Neves (19) and Antonio Silva (20). In between those ages are world class players in Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Rafael Leao, Joao Cancelo, and Ruben Dias. If that wasn’t enough, there is at least two quality alternatives per position and it is difficult to see a weak link in the team.

The Portugal team absolutely smashed qualifying, winning all of their matches and scoring many goals, albeit in a weak group. Some people may point towards a weakness being having Roberto Martinez in the dug out, but his record with Belgium and Portugal is actually very strong, he just needs to translate this into results at the business end of tournaments, and he has the players to do this here.

Tough matches will come from the quarter-finals onwards, with a potential semi-final against either Germany or Spain, but we do expect Portugal to get that far, and though a German semi-final would mean taking on the home crowd as well as Die Mannschaft, Portugal have the quality to make it all the way.

The final selection is a real long shot.

Hungary have shown a good level of form over a number of years and this could be the time for this to come together in a major tournament.

They topped their qualification group for the first time since qualification for the 1986 World Cup, and though the Magyars have been handed a tough group in Group A, also containing Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland, there isn’t anything to fear for Hungary.

They have actually defeated Germany on multiple occasions recently, including in their last meeting, and will also expect to beat Scotland. If they do qualify then their price will obviously tumble from the current price and present a possible trading opportunity to make this bet a shot to nothing.

Dominik Szoboszlai provides a real threat from range in open play and from set pieces. Barnabas Varga had a really good qualifying campaign, and has generated excellent data in his season with Ferencvaros, though he has yet to cut it at the top level. However, the greatest strength of the Hungarian team is in the solidity of their formation and the familiarity of the selection. They make a good team and that has been evidenced in their qualification, and by beating Germany and England (home and away) in the Nations League.

They have lost a pre-tournament friendly to the Republic of Ireland, but that was their first defeat in 15 internationals, and came to a late goal after a host of changes.

The strategy here is to back Hungary at a huge price and look for them to reach the knockout stages, preferably the quarter-finals, from which point, anything can happen.