Who would have thought, France and Portugal, defending World champions and European champions respectively, are knocked out in the first round itself ! I feel a little bit for Portugal since they finished third in their respective Group F (Group of Death, remember đ°) and had the daunting task of facing FIFA world number 1, Belgium. The match was evenly contested before the Belgian keeper Courtois dribbled past approaching Ronaldo which eventually reached the ever fighting Lukaku, somehow pinballs to Meunier who sets up Thorgan Hazard for a stunner ! Portugal battled in the second half but could not find the equalizer and just like that, the defending champs are out of the tournament.
The script to France losing to Switzerland is different, topsy turvy rather. The Swiss took the lead with Seferovic’s header before Lloris made a penalty save off of Ricardo Rodriguez to keep it 1-0. Benzema’s 90 seconds flurry of a brace gives France a 2-1 lead before, Paul “le Panache” Pogba, pause (and please watch this one), with a whistle-clean strike made it 3-1. Game over, surely ? Well, not in the Swiss dictionary ! Excellent cross from Mbabu to Seferovic made it 3-2 and their captain, Xhaka, found Gavranovic who skipped past Kimpembe to equalize in the 90th minute ! We headed to our first penalty shootout of the tournament where Kylian Mbappe missed the fifth kick for France and Swiss took the game 5-4 on penalties.
Nothing about this tournament is predictable, ask the Dutch who were just beginning to find some good form before their train was derailed by Patrick Schick (yep, this guy) and the Czech who won 2-0. Matthijs De Ligt got a straight red card (sending off, more my new readers đ) in the 55th minute and Netherlands had to play with 10-men for the remainder of the game. Spain had their own scare when they were leading 3-1 and World Cup runners-up Croatia struck back with goals in 87th and 92nd minute to make it 3-3. Sensational strike from Alvaro Morata (who has been subject to a lot of abuse lately) and Oyarzabal made it 5-3 and book a place in the quarterfinals against Switzerland.
Another heavyweight first round contest was England vs Germany at Wembley, sounds familiar eh? Since the 1966 World Cup final loss to England, Germany have won four in a row against England at major competitions. After a few close chances, Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock with a tap-in finish from a cross by Luke Shaw and Harry Kane made it 2-0 with a delicate header and his first goal of the Euro 2020. The fairytale run continues for Andriy Shevchenko (this time as a manager) and Ukraine as they beat 10-men Sweden, 2-1 in extra time to book a quarter final match with England.
Will all the action focussed on Europe, CONMEBOL Copa America is set with its quarterfinals kicking off on Friday, 2nd July. Defending champions Brazil take on Chile while arch rivals Argentina take on Ecuador. Uruguay, led by veterans Suarez and Cavani, take on a daunting task of defeating Colombia. With so much going on in the football world, we can’t miss out on latest news from the ‘transfer window’ where Rafa Benitez crosses the Stanley Park and becomes Everton’s new manager while Nuno Espirito Santo is the new manager for Tottenham Hotspur. Borussia Dortmund have confirmed that a deal of 85mil Euros is set for Jadon Sancho with Manchester United! So much going on, this is why we love football ! Stay tuned for more updates next week đ
Ball in the Net 