Euro 2016: Why it will be out with the old and in with the new in France

A number of youngsters could make their mark, not least England's Marcus Rashford

Pogba is one of several young players who could impress (Getty)

Allez les Bleus or Allez les Jeunes?

France will expect the former to ring out around the country in 31 days’ time when the Stade de France stages the final of Euro 2016, but as the fifteenth edition of the European Championships prepares to get underway at the same venue with the hosts facing Romania on Friday evening, it promises to be a competition when Europe’s emerging talent plants the flag for their generation and eclipses the old guard once and for all.

It will be old Europe making way for the new, with a wave of emerging young stars ready to make this their time and their tournament.

If Euro 2012 was about Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres and Andrea Pirlo, France 2016 can be the launchpad for Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, Renato Sanches and Michy Batshuayi, Kingsley Coman and Aleksandr Golovin and, perhaps, the most exciting chapter yet in the remarkable story of Marcus Rashford.

Following almost a decade of Spanish dominance, a power vacuum has appeared at the heart of European football with no nation, or player, currently able to lay claim to the distinction of being the undisputed rulers of the continent.

Germany may have lifted a fourth World Cup in Brazil two years ago, but Joachim Low’s team arrived in France having lost to both Poland and the Republic of Ireland during qualification and will take on this tournament led by an ageing and injury-prone Bastian Schweinsteiger, with the unconvincing Mario Gomez as centre-forward.

It is by no means a formidable German team, just as Spain can no longer be regarded as the unbeatable force they became between 2008 and 2012.

France? Didier Deschamps has built a hugely exciting young team, but has their tournament arrived two years too soon?

And as for the rest, how long can a 31-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo carry Portugal, who will score the goals for Italy and can England really overcome their historical tournament shortcomings to end fifty years of hurt?

Euro 2016 really is up for grabs and it will be Europe’s young princes who decide the outcome and set out the landscape for perhaps the next decade.

We may not see Ronaldo, Iniesta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Gianluigi Buffon grace this stage again, but do they still have the ability to make it count one last time?

Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic both go into Euro 2016 just three goals short of Michel Platini’s all-time record of nine goals in the finals of the European Championships, so a place in the history books beckons for two of world football’s most iconic figures.

But the sands of time are shifting for both and we can expect the torch to be passed to a new star turn before we reach the final on July 10.

The pressure of expectancy lies heaviest on the hosts and Deschamps’ young team, however.

Rashford scored on his international debut against Australia last month (Getty)

With an average of just 27 and only three players in the squad boasting more than 50 caps – Hugo Lloris, Patrice Evra and Bacary Sagna – Les Bleus lack the experience of the French teams which won on home soil at Euro 84 and the 1998 World Cup.

And Deschamps, who lifted the World Cup as captain eighteen years ago, insists that his players must be shielded from the demands of an expectant nation.

"Pressure must be avoided at all costs," Deschamps said. "Pressure is negative.

“What we need is adrenaline and excitement. The context and environment are favourable to us and shouldn't make us weaker.

“Some may be more sensitive to things than others, but on the pitch we must absolutely not be asking questions of ourselves.”

France should profit from being placed in arguably the softest group of all, with Albania, Switzerland and the Romanians unlikely to mount a roadblock to trouble the hosts.

And once into the knock-out stages, the wave of French euphoria could carry Deschamps’ young team all the way to the final.

They can boast a world-class goalkeeper in Lloris, experience in defence and the youthful talent of Pogba and Martial. And in Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann, a potential star of the tournament.

Spain appear to be a team in transition, losing embarrassingly to Georgia in their final warm-up game this week, while Germany also lack the formidable air they carried around Brazil two years ago.

Belgium must overcome the loss of injured captain Vincent Kompany before justifying the hype which continues to surround Marc Wilmots’ team, while England simply need to find a way to accommodate Rooney alongside the goalscoring threat of Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy.

With five first-timers due to make their Euro debut in France – Albania, Wales, Northern Ireland, Iceland and Slovakia – could the tournament see a shock winner emerge to steal Leicester City’s Premier League thunder?

Slovakia, England’s final opponents in Group B, are perhaps the most dangerous outsider having defeated Spain during qualification before reiterating their threat by winning in Germany two weeks ago.

But whoever lifts the 8kg Henri Delaunay trophy on July 10, they will have emerged victorious from the most open European Championships in recent memory.

France has laid out a blank canvas. It now requires one of the many international bright young things to claim it as their own.