Euro Under-21 Championship stars of the future: Group A

We start with the lowdown on the players to watch from Group A.

The hosts are the unfavoured team of the tournament and something of an unknown entity in the most part, with just three of the squad plying their trade outside of their homeland following Watford's decision to block Matej Vydra's call-up. Senior internationals and Sparta Prague duo Pavel Kaderabek and Ladislav Krejci could be key at right-back and left wing respectively.

The latter may shoulder a lot of the attacking burden in a team that could be found lacking in the final third. The 22-year old had a hand in three goals in six Europa League appearances last season, as well as netting in each of Sparta's qualifying legs against PEC Zwolle to book a place in the tournament. With 1.7 shots, 2.3 key passes, 1.2 dribbles per game and a WhoScored.com rating of 7.25 over said group matches, Krejci represents Jakob Duvalil's biggest threat going forwards.

The pre-tournament favourites will be hoping to carry on their senior counterparts' success from last summer and have a glut of top talent at their disposal. It's hard to pick any one player from a squad of such quality, with the Germans particularly well-stocked in midfield through Emre Can, Johannes Geis and captain Moritz Leitner, but Kevin Volland could prove to be decisive.

The Hoffenheim attacker could play behind the striker or lead the line himself and has had a direct hand in 28 Bundesliga goals (19 goals, nine assists) over the past two seasons. He's a threat when running at defenders, with 2.1 successful dribbles per game last season, and can spot a defence splitting pass for midfield runners, with a statistical strength when it comes to through balls according to WhoScored.

The Danes are tipped as the tournament's dark horse but a look at their squad shows that even that billing may be a little harsh. Most players in the squad are first team regulars and six were among the squad for the Euro 2016 qualifier with Serbia at the weekend, including goalscorer Yussuf Poulsen. Meanwhile Bayern's teenage string-puller Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who spent last season on loan at Augsburg, will be central to their hopes in a very literal sense.

Schooled in the Bavarians' way of playing under Pep Guardiola, the 19-year old's immediate future with the German champions is unclear but the feeling is that he will stay and be given more playing time at the Allianz. Hojbjerg has already made 17 league appearances for Bayern and added a further 16 for Augsburg, netting twice and picking up three assists for a rating of 7.02 from WhoScored.com.

Very much dented by the absence of star men such as Lazar Markovic, Matija Nastasic, Filip Kostic and Aleksandar Mitrovic, Serbia's chances of emerging from Group A may be slim. They may have shocked holders Spain in a play-off to qualify for this summer's tournament but times have changed. Milos Jojic and Filip Djuricic have quality in midfield but the defence will need to stand strong, so Toulouse's Uros Spajic could be key.

The 22-year old centre-back certainly has his pros and cons and is a proactive defender, looking to step out and intercept rather than let his opponent have too much time on the ball. With an excellent 3.4 interceptions per game it's little surprise he's picked up a strength from WhoScored.com in turn, but he can be a little rash, committing as many fouls (1.2 per game) as he made tackles in 17 appearances last season.