Belgium v Slovakia: Newcastle United fans' reasons to watch Euro 2024

We are going to be breaking down every reason to watch the first round of group games in Euro 2024 from a Newcastle United perspective covering players who play, have played or have been linked to Newcastle.

There will be a few tenuous links as we cover some games, but we will justify every selection.

Obviously, once the first round of fixtures is done there's no real point in doing more as every Nation will have been covered at least once.

Newcastle United have a current representative in the 5pm kick-off as Belgium take on Slovakia, although for how much longer Martin Dubravka will be Newcastle player remains to be seen.

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Belgium have a few players that have been on Newcastle's radar

Belgium have a handful of players who are or have at one time been linked with Newcastle starting off with goalkeeper Matz Sels. One of the worst goalkeepers we've had in recent memory, Sels is now a Belgium regular and is back in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest. Fair play.

Axel Witsel is an old link, but he's such a good player it's just worth mentioning that we were linked with someone of his quality, albeit back in the early post-takeover days when we were linked with anyone with a good reputation because we are backed by the PIF and everyone forgot about Financial Fair Play for a while.

Newcastle were also on the list of clubs who were expected to make their move for Youri Tielemans when he left Leicester but the midfielder ended up at Aston Villa.

An actual current target and a current player will be on display today

Everton's Amadou Onana is the one Belgian in which Newcastle still have an active interest with the Toffees in deep financial trouble, Eddie Howe could make a bid this summer for their star defensive midfielder.

Slovakia will have Newcastle's second-choice goalkeeper Martin Dubravka between the sticks. M-Dubz' future is up in the air as Eddie Howe pursues new goalkeepers with James Trafford likely to come in this summer. Dubravka has been linked with a move north of the border to Celtic. After his displays last season, we'll not stand in his way.

Napoli midfielder Stanislav Lobotka was another player that Newcastle looked at heading into last summer's transfer window when the Magpies looked set to buy all of Napoli's stars after they won the Serie A title. Probably more media speculation than actual truth, but one to watch nonetheless.