As we approach the last 8 of this year’s European Championships, a number of players remain in with a chance of landing the Golden Boot. So who are the men most likely to finish as the tournament’s top goal scorer?

The outsiders

Arkadiusz Milik
A player that like his countryman Roberto Lewandowski, could be a household name post-Euro 2016. Milik opened up his account with the opening goal against Northern Ireland, and showcased why it will be him – and not Lewandowski – who will score the goals for his country. The Bayern Munich striker played more of a reduced role, creating space and offering up the running for Milik to centre stage. Milik showed his instincts in and around the area meanwhile, just like he did for Ajax this past season where he scored 24 goals in 42 games last term. His total for the Dutch side is now 47 in just 75 games both domestically and in European competition – an outstanding scoring rate for a player adept with both his feet and head. With games to come against a shaky German backline – who Milik already breached during qualifying – and a weak Ukraine there could be more goals to come from one of Europe’s most sought after strikers.

Graziano Pellè
The Southampton striker’s inclusion in the Italy squad was to the dismay of many back in his native country, but he could be set to play a key role for Antonio Conte’s team. Pellè is the man positioned to lead Italy’s attacking line, and with Conte’s men setup to counter and be clinical, it will be down to the 30-year-old to take those chances. He’s shown at Southampton he’s capable of it, just like he did prior in Holland. What’s more, if this is a low scoring tournament he could be someone to take advantage by scoring key, timely goals and sneaking above bigger names in the competition. His physicality, and tendency to get on the end of crosses, makes him a real threat. He also showed against Belgium he remains aware throughout the game, as he buried a chance that came his way with a superb volley at the death.

The obvious choices

Thomas Muller
When it comes to the big stage, few gobble it up more than Thomas Muller. With one Golden Boot from a World Cup to his name, and a Silver one for good measure, the German must now turn his attention to the smaller matter of the European Championship. It will surely be only a matter of time before the Bayern Munich man is off the mark, and as the true striker in the German squad opportunities will come his way to lead the line. More so, he is backed by an outstanding creative cast lead by none other than the assist king himself, Mesut Ozil. A haul of 20 goals in the Bundesliga this term shows he’s still fierce in attack, and it will be no surprise should he continue his incredible exploits for Germany.

Olivier Giroud
Like Thomas Muller, the French striker is backed by a brilliant supporting cast of creative players. If Antoine Griezmann or Paul Pogba doesn’t have a good day, Dimitri Payet will be waiting in the wings to supply the Arsenal man. Giroud’s capable of scoring in a variety of manners but he’s best when prowling in the area, looking to get on the end of a cross or ready to pounce on a loose ball in the box. He may not be entirely convincing as a striker but Giroud has an incredible knack of bagging goals as and when required. While Karim Benzema sits at home, it will be Giroud who leads the French line on home turf.

Cristiano Ronaldo
It’s time for Cristiano Ronaldo to finally deliver on the International stage, and backed by perhaps the best Portugal team he’s played with, there may be no better time. After his penalty heroics for Real Madrid in the Champions League final, Cristiano now turns his attention to Euro 2016. The hunger and drive in Cristiano is always there, but now he seems hell-bent more than ever on delivering success for Portugal. He will be leading the line given his formation into a striker of sorts, and also the lack of out and out forward players the Portuguese possess. Expect Cristiano to hunt chances down in the penalty area and look to latch onto crosses, and look for him to still pick up the ball in that trademark wide berth and drive infield.

Slaven Bilic is the head coach of West Ham United, having taken charge of the Premier League club on June 9 of 2015, and he already wants a contract extension!

The Croatian manager has done a superb job as he has guided West Ham United to 19 victories, 16 draws and 10 defeats which has positioned the club to the top 8 spots of the English League and they even have a realistic chance of securing a Europa League spot which can allow the team to compete in the Europa League competition for the next season.

West Ham United also managed to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup which is also fairly impressive, although they were eliminated from the English competition after losing against Crystal Palace but nonetheless, it still has been a fairly memorable opening campaign for Slaven Bilic who has a contract with the Premier League club until 2018 but is already being rumored on extending his deal even further.

The 47 year old coach is rumoured to be rewarded for his impressive debut season with a new deal and according to the Club join-chairman David Sullivan stated that Slaven Billic will indeed have a contract renewal on January of 2017.

The new contract will apparently feature a new clause that will stop Slaven Bilic from having any involvement with the various commercal websites he currently manages, including the Pokies Palace guide to finding the best pokies, with Sullivan wanting him to give West Ham his full concentration.

David Sullivan said: “I will give Slaven a new deal in January. I just want to see that he is not a one-season wonder. I’m sure he is not, but we will talk next January or at the end of next season. I have to tell you that he is interested in the project, not money. He stayed at Croatia on £2,000 a week for five years when he would have had bundles of offers. He is not really into money. He is more interested in getting the best players for the club than the best money for himself.”

With less than 7 league matches remaining, Slaven Bilic is now focusing on adding as many points as possible and try to secure a Europa League spot but even if West Ham United is not able to do it, it seems like Bilic has already earned the trust from the head officials of the club who have already confirmed their intentions to extend the contract of the Croatian manager.

Tottenham Hotspur were knocked from the UEFA Europa League on March 17 after suffering an aggregate defeat of 5-1 against Borussia Dortmund.

Despite being eliminated from the European competition, Mauricio Pochettino did not appear to be flustered in any way as the Argentinean manager even stated that this result is good news for his squad as they can now solely focus on catching up to the Premier League table toppers Leicester City.

Mauricio Pochettino and his squad have less than 10 league matches where they have to make something happen and give it their all in order to have any kind of realistic chance to snatch the top spot of the English league. Making it into the top 4 is key for next season – if the transfer rumours are to be believed then they have some stellar signings lined up to help take them to the next level.

It’s been over 50 years since Tottenham Hotspur has been able to lift the Premier League and in this season, the only thing that is standing in their way is Leicester City and Pochettino will do everything in his power to try and take the 1rst place away from the team of Claudio Ranieri.

“I think now we are focused on the Premier League and all our energies will go into trying to win games and win the league. It’s true that there are no distractions now, until now we had the Europa League to play, but now we only have the Premier League. We need to realize that our target was to try to reduce the gap to the top four but we are second in the table now, and we have played one tie more than last season in the Europa League.’’ Mauricio Pochettino said.

Now that the Premier League is reaching it’s final stages, every single point, every win or defeat can be the difference between becoming the new champions of England and just falling short.

Gary Neville is just months into his time at Valencia as their head coach, however, the former Manchester United and England full-back already has a fight on his hands to keep his job with the Spanish club.

Valencia are having one of their worst seasons for a long time. When Neville took over in December, they were mid-table in La Liga’s standings.

Another poor run of form since then has seen Los Che drop even further down the table to a stage where they need to start finding some positive results otherwise they will end up in a relegation scrap.

With such a large deficit to make up, it looks very unlikely that Valencia will be playing European football next season, unless they can win the Europa League where they would need to beat Rapid Wien of the Austria league over two legs first in their last-32 encounter.

In any La Liga betting at the time of writing, Valencia are 12-1 for a top-six finish at the end of the season, while they are shorter at 10-1 to be relegated.

When accepting the job in Spain, it was such a big challenge for Neville to take on. He had no experience of working in La Liga, at the time he could hardly speak any Spanish and he was inheriting a team that was so low in confidence.

The Manchester United legend has yet to experience a win in La Liga since signing for the club. Their recent game against Real Betis was described as being ‘very important’ by Neville himself. However, they suffered a 1-0 defeat to add further misery to the campaign.

The biggest embarrassment for Neville so far came in the first leg of their Copa Del Ray semi-final clash with Barcelona at the Nou Camp. It was always going to be a difficult task for Neville’s side to come away with a positive result, however, they were hammered 7-0 by the Catalan giants.

Despite the run without a win, it appears the Valencia board are sticking with Neville for now. He has a contract with the club until the end of this season. It looks very unlikely at this stage that his stay in Spain will last any longer than that though.

Neville will continue his role with England this summer when they travel to France for Euro 2016. He could move back home in the summer where he will need to decide if he should return to punditry or wait upon any potential job opportunities managing an English club.

Although it will be a difficult for a man who was so used to winning as a player, being part of those successful Manchester United teams of the 90s and early 00s, Neville will no doubt learn from his experience at Valencia.

It is his first managerial job and he will get a lot of credit for not backing down from the challenge. But his next job in football could be huge when it comes to fixing his reputation as a possible England manager of the future.

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink has confirmed that he has no intentions of allowing striker Radamel Falcao to leave the club in January. The Colombian international has once again failed to succeed in the Premier league.

After a disappointing campaign with Manchester United last time around, Falcao once again moved back to the English league one loan deal with Chelsea.

Even though his supporters will claim that he has not been offered enough opportunities, a return of just one league goal in 214 minutes of action certainly does not justify the huge wages that Chelsea are shelling out for him.

Speculation has arose that Hiddink will look for a new forward in the upcoming January transfer window in order to replace Falcao, who may return to Monaco earlier than scheduled.

The 29-year-old has never recovered from the anterior cruciate ligament injury that he suffered a couple of years ago. His attempts to quickly recover for the World Cup 2014 have only made the situation worse. Falcao has been one of the players blamed for the poor form that Chelsea are experiencing. Other strikers like Loic Remy and Diego Costa have also not done well this season.

Falcao was one of just a handful of star strikers who has been given odds of less than evens to be the next goalscorer on the StanJames live betting platform, but has struggled for form of late. Hiddink still believes in him though.

Hiddink also claims that he will not look forward to making wholesale changes to the team in January. “[On Falcao staying] I think so and I hope so. With Falcao or another player, generally I hope everybody stays and nobody comes. I hope we go until the end and in January we will be in a different situation.”

“Our performance during the season in the Premier League is not good enough and I think if the club gives me a handful of players it is like taking a little bit of responsibility out of us and saying we need a bit extra to reach our objectives,” said Hiddink.

Ronald Koeman reckons Chelsea’s problem might be lying in the fact that they’re chopping and changing a bit too much.
Chelsea have been having a horror of a time of late. Coming into the season, they would not have even the slightest idea that after playing 12 games, their position in the points table would be as low as 17th.

But, that’s where they stand at the moment and the Saints, who are going to face them next, are looking to take full advantage of their current shakiness.

Talking to the press last night, Koeman said, “Having seen their recent performances, one would feel that the winning mentality is missing. The killer instinct is not there. They’ve also not been as consistent with their selections as they were in the past.”

“Defence, in particular, has been something in which they have lacked quality. The number of goals that had been scored against them at this point of time the previous season, it was much lesser.”

“But, in my opinion, they’re still a great side and we will need to raise our game to down them.” The bookmakers agree, with Chelsea the firm favourites, and even the likes of bet-bonuscode.co.uk only able to get odds of just over evens.

“We lost the ball quite a few times the other day playing Swansea. We have to ensure it does not happen against Chelsea because we will not get away with that. They will be ready to capitalize on any bit of opportunity that we present.”

“The players that they have got, they are totally capable of turning the tide quickly. It’s very important that we play solid Football.”

Southampton have emerged victorious only five times in their 12 games thus far, but they’ve secured 5 draws, and thus, are slightly ahead as far as the points are concerned.

Biting the hand that once fed him has come naturally for Mick McCarthy who have managed to get the upper hand on former employers Wolves, but there could not be a better time for him to make it three victories in a row.

Ispwich currently find themselves three points clear of the chasing pack in the race for the play-offs which could ultimately go down to the wire, with their trip to Molineux coming at a crucial point of the season.

Consecutive victories at Portman Road against Blackpool and Cardiff have put the Tractor Boys in a good position, but with just three games remaining, they cannot afford to slip up and allow Wolves or Brentford to go above them.

Avoiding defeat would arguably be the best outcome for Ipswich who have real hopes of returning to the Premier League after an eleven-year hiatus, and with the play-offs often turning into a complete lottery, there is every chance that McCarthy could become a top-flight manager once again.

Big performance required
Ipswich will be aware that Wolves have an impressive home record and usually play their best football on home soil, but going into the game on the back of six defeats from the last eight games away from Portman Road may not fill their fans with confidence.

A big performance is therefore required to ensure they nullify Wolves’ attacking threat and pose their own problems, particularly through the league’s top scorer Daryl Murphy who has been outstanding in front of goal.

Their fantastic 1-0 win at Watford proves the McCarthy’s team have it in them to produce the goods away from home, but it may need the experience and quality of Christoph Berra and Tommy Smith to come to the fore and provide the defensive foundations for the Tractor Boys to gain three invaluable points.

Dip in form
Consecutive 2-1 defeats at Birmingham and Middlesbrough have resulted in Wolves losing their grip on a play-off spot and opened the door for Ipswich to steal a march on them.

However, Kenny Jackett’s side have a perfect opportunity to redeem themselves against Ipswich and go level on points, although they will still find themselves behind McCarthy’s men on goal difference if they manage to come out on top in the potential winners-take-all clash.

Five victories in their last six fixtures at Molineux may make Wolves favourites to provide yet another dramatic twist in an unpredictable Championship season at the top, with Bakary Sako, Nouha Dicko and Benik Afobe continuing to find the back of the net on a regular basis.

Jackett will need all three to be on song to fire Wolves towards victory, but Richard Stearman and Danny Batth will have to stand up strong to prevent Murphy, who already have twenty-four goals for the season, from adding to his tally.

The Blues almost have one of their hands on the Premier League trophy.

With them leading the Premier League table 7 points clear and having one more game to play than the other teams, it’s not that much probable than they would end anywhere, but, at the top come the end of the season.

But, Jose Mourinho, who has already had the taste of glory at the Premier League level in the past, does not want the intensity to drop in his squad at all.

The Portuguese has warned his players that a lot of work has still to be done; otherwise, the mission of becoming the Champions of England again might not get accomplished.
According to Mourinho, rather than thinking about what the other teams require, his boys should think what they require.

Mourinho told Maraton bet that if Chelsea emerge victorious in 5 out of the 8 games that they have to play in the top tier now and plays one draw out of the remaining 3, they would be able to get the job done.

The day before yesterday, he was quoted by Maraton bet saying “It’s about sixteen points from here on in which means we need to win five and sneak a draw somewhere. If we do so, we will be through to the trophy no matter what the other teams do. So, that’s where our focus should be, to secure sixteen points for us.”

If Chelsea makes it to the glory, it will be a first for them in the last half a decade. Last time also when they had won the league, it was Mourinho who was in charge of them.

For Mourinho also, it will be another feather in the cap although he has had a lot of success in other countries too.