On paper, Group E isn't one that whets the appetite but favourites Belgium aside, it's a difficult one to predict.
Belgium will be expected to top the group in their first tournament under the management of Domenico Tedesco, although the lights of their Golden Generation have dimmed in recent times.
Much could swing on their opening game against Slovakia, who got through qualifying with relative ease, only losing twice to a flawless Portugal side.
Romania were even more impressive, topping a group containing Switzerland and Israel unbeaten, while Ukraine scraped through the play-offs with late winners in both their semi-final and final.
Country: Belgium
Manager: Domenico Tedesco
Captain: Kevin De Bruyne
Player to watch: Jeremy Doku
Best Euros performance: Runners up (1980)
Fixtures
Monday, 17 June: Slovakia, (Frankfurt), 5pm
Saturday, 22 June: Romania, (Cologne), 8pm
Wednesday, 26 June: Ukraine, (Stuttgart), 5pm
Belgium's Euro 2024 squad contains the dying embers of the so-called Golden Generation that has flattered to deceive at major tournaments over the past decade.
A meek group stage exit at the 2022 World Cup was seen as last act of that star-studded team, although in Jan Vertonghen, Axel Witsel, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, they still have no fewer than four international centurions among their ranks in Germany.
Roberto Martinez resigned as manager after that debacle in Qatar, where Belgium scored just one goal and picked up four points, ultimately finishing third behind eventual semi-finalists Morocco and Croatia.
The Spaniard was replaced by Tedesco, an Italian-born German who has built his reputation with varying levels of success at Schalke 04, Spartak Moscow and RB Leipzig.
Judging by results so far, the appointment appears to be a shrewd one, as the Red Devils are yet to lose under Tedesco's watch. They won six out of eight games in qualifying, only drawing at home to Austria and Sweden, and finished top of their group, as they would have been expected to do when the draw was made.
Belgium's ascent to the top table of international football throughout the 2010s was centred around a strong defence held together by Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld, with the likes of De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Lukaku providing the ammunition further up the field.
Hazard's flair has been replaced by the verve of Jeremy Doku and Leandro Trossard, with the two Premier League stars likely to flank Lukaku at Euros.
Lukaku, despite his obvious international pedigree - he is the joint-sixth highest men's national team goalscorer of all-time - has become more of an enigma as his career has progressed.
He has mustered over 300 club goals throughout his career but this trophy cabinet remains relatively bare compared to peers of similar striking ability.
While other strikers will be remembered for big goals on big occasions, it's hard to look past the series of chances Lukaku missed against Croatia at the 2022 World Cup when his country needed a win to remain in the competition.
Unless the 31-year-old manages to fire Belgium to glory in Germany, the image of him punching the dugout in rage at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium after that scoreless draw could be a defining one.
At the other end of the field, Real Madrid's Champions League-winning goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has recovered from a season-long injury but has been left out by Tedesco, with reports pointing to a falling out between the pair.
Wolfsburg's Koen Casteels is expected to line out between the sticks, while right-back Thomas Meunier won't travel to Germany with the initial squad due to a muscle injury.
Country: Romania
Manager: Edward Iordanescu
Captain: Nicolae Stanciu
Player to watch: Ianis Hagi
Best Euros performance: Quarter-finals (2000)
Fixtures
Monday, 17 June: Ukraine, (Munich), 2pm
Saturday, 22 June: Belgium, (Cologne), 8pm
Wednesday, 26 June: Slovakia, (Frankfurt), 5pm
A country with a rich football history, Romania are back at a major tournament for the first time since Euro 2016.
Manager Edward Iordanescu has a lot to live up to, not least because his father Anghel was the coach of the team that memorably reached the quarter-final of the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
Iordanescu Jr. was appointed in January 2022, and after a difficult opening Nations League campaign, he bounced back to lead his side to an unbeaten Euro 2024 qualifying run.
Romania won six of their 10 games and drew the other four, a record which looks admirable on paper but scoreless trips to Kosovo and Belarus point to a lack of firepower. Skipper Nicolae Stanciu is the top scorer in Romania's Euro 2024 squad and he is plying his trade with the little-heralded Damac FC in Saudi Arabia.
In Germany, Stanciu is likely to operate in the space behind main striker Denis Alibec, who scored three goals in nine appearances in qualifying, adding to the meagre two he had previously scored in 27 caps for his country.
There will another throwback to the 1994 vintage in the form of Ianis Hagi, son of the legendary Gheorghe, who represented both Real Madrid and Barcelona during a stellar club career.
Ianis has had more modest journey in the club game but he did play a key role for Rangers as they wrestled the Scottish Premiership title from Celtic's grasp under Steven Gerrard in the 2020/21 season.
A skilled playmaker, Hagi Jr. spent 2023/24 on loan with Spanish outfit Alaves and while he is unlikely to ever reach his father's level of worship in their homeland, he now has an opportunity to make a name for himself on the international stage in his own right.
Premier League supporters are unlikely to recognise too many names in 26-man squad, with Tottenham youngster Radu Dragusin being the only member currently playing in England.
Dragusin is likely to start in the centre of a defence that was stubborn in qualifying, conceding only five goals in 10 games.
Romania are a well-organised outfit and look capable of getting out of the group stage at a tournament for the first time since Euro 2000, when the last of their own Golden Generation finished ahead of England and Germany before being eliminated by eventual runners-up Italy in the quarter-final.
Country: Slovakia
Manager: Francesco Calzona
Captain: Milan Skriniar
Player to watch: Lukas Haraslin
Best Euros performance: Round of 16 (2016)
Fixtures
Monday, 17 June: Belgium, (Frankfurt), 5pm
Friday, 21 June: Ukraine, (Dusseldorf), 2pm
Wednesday, 26 June: Romania, (Frankfurt), 5pm
While we have put the 2016 run to the knockout stage down as their best Euros achievement, many Slovakians will argue that they won the 1976 European Championship.
Czechoslovakia's starting line-up for their victory over West Germany in that year's final featured no fewer than eight players born in what would later become the sovereign state of Slovakia.
Since the 1992 split from the now-Czech Republic, Slovakia's appearances at major tournaments have been rare and underwhelming.
They reached the last 16 at the 2010 World Cup, matched that achievement at Euro 2016, before falling in the group stage at Euro 2020.
At this edition of the Euros, a squad dotted with talent playing in Europe's big 5 leagues is certainly in the mix to reach the knockout stage again.
Since February, their manager Italian Francesco Calzona has been juggling the role with a temporary stint in charge of Napoli, thus working with midfielder Stanislav Lobotka for both club and country.
Lobotka is part of a strong spine which also features Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, Paris Saint-Germain defender Milan Skriniar and 37-year-old centurion Juraj Kucka.
Slovakia's qualifying campaign began with a drab scoreless draw at home to Luxembourg, but they would go on to win seven of their next nine games, only losing home and away to a Portugal side that finished the group with a 100% record.
There was a good spread to their 17 goals, with Sparta Prague winger Lukas Haraslin contributing three, and 10 other players getting on the scoresheet over the course of the campaign.
This sharing of the responsibilities has been necessary in the absence of record goalscorer Marek Hamsik, who retired in 2022 before making brief return for qualifying wins over Iceland and Liechtenstein last June.
While Hamsik's leadership will be missing on the pitch, he is employed in a 'team manager' role and will be travelling to Germany with the squad.
Boavista striker Robert Bozenik will be tasked with holding up the ball in Germany, flanked by Haraslin and Ivan Schranz, allowing Kucka and Ondrej Duda to roam forward from central positions, in the hope of adding to their international goal tallies of 14 and 13 respectively.
If Slovakia can grind out a result against Belgium in their opening game, this group would be blown wide open and, from there, another sojourn into the knockout stage could be attainable.
Country: Ukraine
Manager: Serhiy Rebrov
Captain: Andriy Yarmolenko
Player to watch: Mykhailo Mudryk
Best Euros performance: Quarter-finals (2020)
Fixtures
Monday, 17 June: Romania, (Munich), 2pm
Friday, 21 June: Slovakia, (Dusseldorf), 2pm
Wednesday, 26 June: Belgium, (Stuttgart), 5pm
For reasons that don't need explaining, the sense of national unity in Ukraine has swelled in recent times.
While football is of little importance when compared to events on the ground in the country, the Ukrainian team has provided something for the nation to get behind.
Set to compete at their fourth consecutive European Championships, the aim for Sergei Rebrov and his side is to at least match the achievement of the Euro 2020 team and go deep into the tournament.
After a group stage exit as co-hosts in 2012, and another one at Euro 2016, Andriy Shevchenko's team managed to reach the knockout stage, albeit as a third-place qualifier with one win and two defeats in their their three group games.
They then scraped past Sweden via a last-gasp Artem Dovbyk winner in extra time, before a humbling 4-0 defeat to England in their Rome quarter-final brought their adventure to an end.
The legendary Shevchenko left his role later that summer and, following a brief stint in charge of Italian outfit Genoa, he was elected as president of the Ukrainian football association earlier this year.
He and Rebrov have resumed a working relationship that goes back to when they were terrorising defences together for both Dynamo Kiev and Ukraine, with Rebrov having taken the managerial reins in June of last year.
The former Tottenham player took charge of seven of the eight group games, of which they only lost one, only missing out on automatic qualification to Italy on goal difference.
Their late-goal specialist Dovbyk delivered the goods again in the semi-final of Path B, as they beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1, before much-maligned Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk produced a rescue act of his own, as they beat Iceland by the same scoreline in the final, thus securing their passage to Germany.
Despite dividing Chelsea fans, Mudryk will be one of the key men for Ukraine at Euro 2024 and is expected to play on the left the frontline, with Roman Yaremchuk in the middle and Viktor Tsyhankov on the other flanlk.
Other players who Premier League fans will be familiar with are Arsenal utility man Oleksandr Zinchenko, and former West Ham midfielder Andriy Yarmolenko, who sits just two goals behind Shevchenko's national record of 48.
Backed by passionate support at home and abroad, Ukraine will fancy their chances of finishing second behind Belgium, or once again taking one of the four third-place qualifying spots that will be on offer in the 24-team tournament.
A win against either Romania or Slovakia would certainly ease the pressure ahead of their final group outing against the group favourites.
Watch every game from Euro 2024 on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player as well as highlights and goals as they happen on RTÉ Sport digital platforms
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
