Romania v Ukraine: 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.

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking there wouldn't be much for Newcastle fans to keep an eye on as Romania and Ukraine face off at 2pm, but we've found a few connections.

Getty Images

Radu Dragusin rejected Newcastle for Tottenham

While we did find a few players who have been linked to Newcastle recently, none of them are current targets, but it's still worth watching the games to keep an eye on players who may look like we should be going for this summer.

There's just the one connection for Romania we can think of and that is Tottenham Hotspur defender Radu Dragusin.

Dragusin was on Newcastle's radar last year and was often touted as a January signing as Eddie Howe desperately needed cover for defence, but the 22-year-old instead went to Spurs where he made just nine Premier League appearances since his £25million move.

Mykhailo Mudryk got nerfed by Chelsea after his £89m move

In December Newcastle were linked with a January raid for Real Madrid's third-choice goalkeeper, Ukrainian, Andriy Lunin, but obviously, nothing ever came of it. It'll be interesting to see today whether Real's third-choice is Ukraine's first choice and if so, is he any good? Although it looks like Newcastle's interest, if there ever really was any, has now passed.

Chelsea's Mykhailo Mudryk is Ukraine's other Newcastle-linked player with the Magpies seen as a potential suitor for his services before he got well and truly Chelsea'd following his £89million move in January last year.

It was one of Chelsea's final long-term contract deals that they were so fond of in order to spread the massive transfer fee over a longer period to avoid FFP troubles. Mudryk hasn't looked anywhere near worth £89million since he moved and has been well and truly nerfed like so many of Chelsea's big signings. It could have been so much better if you weren't so greedy, Mykhailo!