Euros 2020

[Red Ranger 1]

Poland put up a decent fight, pegging back Sweden to 2-2, only to concede an injury time goal. Spain hammering Slovakia 5-0 left Finland with a slim chance of qualifying as one of the best third place teams, but it required France to beat Portugal and either Portugal or Germany to lose 4-0: Instead, we got two draws and Portugal qualifying instead. So, gone from four Norwich players at the tournament to just one, and with Netherlands preferring a 38-year-old veteran who'd been in the international wilderness for five years in goal, I'm not sure Krul will make it onto the pitch. At least Placheta finally got a run-out in Poland's last game.

Wales up first on Saturday against Denmark in the first knock-out game. And yes, England's reward for winning the group is...Germany, who we haven't beaten in a major tournament since that ultimately meaningless victory in 2000 when we both went out in the group stage. Gonna be a tricky one.Don't let Jordan Henderson take any penalties.

[pembie]

I think we may have just watched a preview of what is going to happen to England on Tuesday haha with Denmark beating Wales 4 0 What’s that you say of course England can win how silly of me to doubt lol

oh well Italy next

[Slade]

Unless England concede an early goal, I think it's unlikely to be a hammering although it did happen in the 2010 World Cup at the same stage.  Judging by England's group performances, I think Southgate will try and keep things tight so England probably won't lose by too many goals.  They can't really afford to play for penalties as the Germans are virtually unbeatable at those.

It do think the main reason Denmark lost to Finland was because of Eriksson.  From the last couple of games, they seem to be a not too bad team with 8 goals.  It's hard to picture a team losing 2 matches in the group stages winning this competition though.  Not sure how right that feels.

Italy have been impressive but they were fully tested yesterday.  They are going to need Chiellini back as they were quite dubious several occasions last night in defence and against a better side (which it will be in the quarters) it could prove costly.  Fair play to Austria for having a go at it, in the second half and particularly in extra time.  I didn't think they wouldn't have a chance.  I think it showed the difference between the top teams and the others, the depth of the squad as reflected by the 2 Italian Subs who scored.  Belgium/Portugal should be good later on today.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Wales losing like that was disappointing.Italy get through but need extra time to do it.And Netherlands going out to Czech Republic was a bit of a shock.I wonder if they regret not playing Krul now: I think him letting in two against Scotland in the warm-up game did for his chances.

I think we said Belgium could be one of the stronger sides, and too strong for Portugal as it turned out.Ronaldo remains top scorer at present with five goals: Ironically, Schick of the Czech Republic is one behind him and his side are still in it, with a couple of players still in the competition on three goals.

Denmark, of course, did manage to win the competition back in 1992, having only qualified by default following the break-up of Yugoslavia, so they've got form for pulling off unlikely wins!

[CaptainHulk]

More bloody Drama in Euros than H&A rn

[Slade]

Firstly 2 really good games yesterday, particularly Spain/Croatia and the 5-3 victory.  Croatia did brilliantly to get back into the game but Spain were too much for them.  I think the right result and the better team won.  France losing to Switzerland was a surprise given they were 3-1 up.  After Pogbar's goal, I was expecting them to go on an win the tournament as I thought the 'real' France had emerged but alas like the Spain match they conceded 2 unexpected goals and when it got the penalties, I had a feeling they would lose.  I thought France were the better team but it was kind of satisfying Mbappe missing his penalty as I generally find him annoying the way he dives and feigns injury.

England 2 - Germany 0....wow.  I honestly thought that Germany were going to do them.  Fair play to Southgate.  He changed the formation and they had a real go at them and didn't bow to the pressure to drop Sterling and Kane and they both scored.  I do think they were a bit lucky as when Sterling's back passed went on to gift Muller a clear goal scoring opportunity I thought it was in.  Had Muller scored, the game could have ended up very differently.  Have to say Jürgen Klinsmann was very professional as it must have been hard for him to see Germany lose like that.  So England beat Germany for the first time in a knockout game in 55 years and none of the teams from the group of death make it past the second round.

I missed most of the Ukraine/Sweden match but saw it from near the end of the first half of extra time.  The sending off appeared to be key.  At least Ukraine made the extra man count as had they lost on penalties they  would have been kicking themselves.  Had a wry smile when the Ukrainian scored the winning goal, took off his shirt and was wearing sports bra.

So England vs Ukraine Saturday evening.  People are already getting complacent and I don't think the Ukrainian's should be underestimated.  I recall the same thing happening with Croatia in 2018 and look how that ended up.

[Red Ranger 1]

Drama: We've got drama. I was following the last two days' worth of games at work and caught the end of normal time between Spain and Croatia. Spain were 3-1 up when I came in, and it ended up 3-3 and going to extra-time, with Spain getting the 5-3 win. And then the same thing happened again later that night, with France, having gone 1-0 down to Switzerland and been let off by them missing a penalty that would have made it 2-0, going 3-1 up and ending up with 3-3 and extra-time. I felt much the same as Slade about Mbappe missing the crucial penalty: He's been a bit of a flop at the tournament with Benzema stepping up instead.

And then, yep, having gone on my break with England at 0-0, I arrived in the break room in time to see replays of Sterling's goal and then let out a "Yes!!!!" as Kane's header hit the back of the net. Whatever the BBC statisticians said, I'm not sure a final actually counts as a knock-out game, so that may well be England's first knock-out win over Germany ever, as well as the first time they've ever won a European Championship knock-out game without needing penalties. Even though Sweden did better in the group stage, Ukraine seem like the better team, so I'd have preferred to face Sweden, but Ukraine got that 120+1 winner. We do have the advantage of the easier run-in on paper, with Italy, Spain and Belgium all on the other side of the schedule, so...maybe? Fosberg gets his fourth goal of the tournament for Sweden but is promptly eliminated, so Ronaldo's still out in front.

Bit of a break now until the quarter-finals start on Friday!

[Slade]

I was laughing when Lee Dixon mentioned he can see why Spain had problems scoring around the box.  I think he was right but the comment was ironic given they'd scored 10 goals in the 2 games prior.  Taking his point, they wasted a hell of a lot of chances today.  One thing's for sure, out of all the competitions I've watched, I've never 1) Seen so many own goals scored 2) Such poor penalty taking.  Dreadful penalties in the shootout.  You can understand at lower division but this is international football.  As the commentator mentioned there were more penalties missed than scored.  I thought Switzerland fought valiantly but I think Spain progressing was the right result.  Switzerland were unlucky with the own goal and the sending off which forced them to defend and play for penalties but Spain were the ones trying to win the game and they vastly dominated possession and chances created.  So 1-1 with Spain winning 3-1 on penalties.  I think Spain vs Italy is a far better game with 2 big footballing nations, especially given Italy had already beat Switzerland comfortably in the group phase.

The Italy/Belgium game lived up to expectations.  This was always going to be the problem with Belgium.  Very strong in midfield and upfront but shaky at the back.  So whilst they can consistently score goals against most teams, it was always going to be difficult with a team that is strong defensively.  Chiellini returning clearly had an impact as Italy were solid at the back, particularly in the last third of the game.  The 2 goals they scored were excellent and I actually don't think Belgium should have been given a penalty.  I will say it was frustrating Italy reverted back to their tactics of play acting and time wasting, especially in the last quarter of an hour of the match.  So 2-1 Italy.  I do actually think Italy are the team to beat and it's hard to see any of the remaining teams being capable of beating them.  In saying that, I don't think it's necessarily absolutely guaranteed they will beat Spain.  Spain are very good with possession and if they keep the ball like they did today then the Italian's won't be able to press for the whole match although Spain will need to be more clinical as they won't get very many chances.

England will never have a better opportunity to do so well in a tournament but they have to approach the game against the Ukraine tomorrow the same way they did against Germany.  They can't afford to sit back like they did in the group stages.

[Red Ranger 1]

So yep, Italy v Spain in the first semi-final. Bit predictable, although I was expecting Belgium to put up more of a fight, especially after knocking out Portugal in the previous round. Spain need not only extra-time but also penalties to get past Switzerland and even then they miss two of them and only get through because Switzerland missed free.

Today, Czech Republic go out to Denmark, although not before Schick gets his fifth goal of the tournament, drawing him level with Ronaldo as top scorer.And then...

Wow, who saw that coming?! I was expecting Ukraine to be tough opponents, and fair play to them, they kept on trying right to the end but...wow. England go ahead in the first five minutes and never look back, brace for Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson gets his first goal for England (from open play!) and it winds up 4-0!

So...Denmark up next for England on Wednesday, following the first semi-final on Tuesday, and we've still yet to concede a goal in the tournament. What's going to happen then?!

[pembie]

I don’t why I just found today’s games quite boring England 4 0 win wasn’t tension filled at all but glad they are though probably beat Denmark and have Italy in the final is my prediction l and one before Denmark was abit dull maybe I’m just gotten bored of football