Euro 2016: Lawro’s predictions – opening games

Football expert Mark Lawrenson is predicting the outcome of every game at the 2016 European Championship.

He starts with the opening games in each group, which include England v Russia, Wales v Slovakia and Northern Ireland v Poland.

Lawro also picks his two teams to automatically go through from each group into the knockout stage, and his six teams which will finish bottom and definitely go home (four of the six third-placed teams also go through to the last 16).

France v Romania

France are my pick to win Euro 2016. Home advantage will be massive for them and they are so strong in midfield and attack.

I would be even more confident if they were a little bit better defensively but if you look around the competition, there are not too many teams capable of winning it who are very good at the back.

There are some good defensive teams, including Romania, who conceded the fewest goals in qualifying – two goals in 10 games – but they are not going to win it.

I am at Stade de France for this game and, usually, the opening game of any tournament is not great.

It will be tough for France to break Romania down but I think they will do it in the end.