Euro 2016: 10 reasons to look forward to this week's matches

The Euro’s have finally kicked off much to the delight of football fans around the world. It’s been a cautious start from the teams on display, and the distractions of the Russian and English fans’ repeated clashes have not been pretty but as the tournament heats up expect the focus to be solely on the football.

Qualifying for the knockout stages is in a sense considerably easier, because of the new format but the standards of football have also increased and there are really no easy games, even in the 24-team tournament. The winners of these international tournaments are also increasingly dependent on how fresh, focused and tactically drilled these teams arrive at for the matches and the group stages are a great opportunity to look at how a team is shaping up. Managers have the time to resolve their formation issues, and fitting in their best players who might be used to playing in other positions for their clubs.

The games are also a great opportunity to watch some thrilling, end to end matches, something that the latter stages of the tournament might not necessarily give us when teams have a lot more at stake. Here’s taking a look at 10 reasons to look forward to the next weeks Euro 2016 games.

What kind of Spanish team will we see?

There are a lot of questions about this new look Spanish team.

In the last decade, Spanish football has experienced the kind of highs unprecedented in its history. The winners of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2008 and 2012, there was a time when you wondered how long their run of winning successive international tournaments would go on. Until in the 2014 World Cup, in which they were humbled 5-1 by a Netherlands team that completely ripped them apart, and then systemically carved open 2-0 by a vibrant Chile side under the enigmatic Jorge Sampaoli.

Spain crashed out of the group stages then, and even though they still have an immensely talented squad well capable of winning the competition, they have had to face some transition and still have doubts about their playing system and starting line-up.