Arn Does Euro 2024 Day 11 

 

Is the repetitive nature of the tournament grinding me down now? Yeah, it is a bit. It doesn’t help that most of the MD3 games have been shit. Group F was a little livelier but a potentially thrilling group, with everyone level on points going into MD3, turned out less exciting than hoped. 

 

SLOVAKIA 1 ROMANIA 1 

I assumed both teams would go for it here, knowing that a win would assure progression. Instead, it was a cagey, tight affair with both teams aware that if everything stayed level, both teams would progress. Duda broke the deadline for Slovakia, heading a decent cross past the Romanian keeper. It wasn’t the best of goals from a defensive point of view as they let the cross come in and were nowhere near Duda.  

 

Romania equalised with a penalty and then they hung on at 1-1 in the hopes that nothing else happened. The stats reflect this with both teams registering just over 1 xG each. Towards the end of the game, all the fans were just singing and looking happy with themselves that so many third placed team’s progress. Romania’s walloping 3-0 win over Ukraine proved key at the end of the day.  

 

UKRAINE 0 BELGIUM 0 

Belgium, repping Tintin, had a dreadful outing here. They couldn’t get going. De Bruyne had a decent game but not as good as the one against Turkey. It was Ukraine who had the best chances to score and if it wasn’t for the terrible forward play of Yaremchuk and especially Dovbyk, Belgium could have been in real trouble. 

 

Ukraine left a load of space towards the end of the game, which Belgium failed to exploit. Carrasco, in particular, was dreadful and didn’t exploit overloads and counters. His 30’ contribution was painful to witness, and Leandro Trossard won’t be worrying about his starting spot in the R16. Bakayoko was equally hopeless, and Belgium’s attack was worryingly poor. A win would have seen them top the group. Now they’ll have to play France.  

 

ELIMINATED: UKRAINE (assessment) 

Ukraine is the team I watched the least in this tournament. I missed the Romania game (the only game I was at work for in the entire tournament). From the highlights, they had a lot of the ball but got shredded defensively. The Slovakia game, I watched in the pub, which means I didn’t get a good look at the play. I thought it could have gone either way. Finally, against Belgium, they needed to win, or they were out and they just didn’t attack enough until near the end.  

 

Of the defenders, I enjoyed the work of Ilya Zabarnyi, the young Bournemouth man. The rest of them didn’t cover themselves in glory. Their defending was bad and they were lucky not to concede more. In midfield, they were unlucky to lose Viktor Tsygankov but both Shaparenko and Sudakov had good showings.  

 

Up top they had more issues. A lack of goal threat. Yaremchuk was effective off the bench but went missing when finally called upon to start. Mudryk was Mudryk. He ran at defenders, a lot, but had no end product. Dovbyk sucked. Yarmolenko looked old.  

 

GEORGIA 2 PORTUGAL 0 

I am delighted that Georgia showed up to their final group game intent on going at Portugal, the same way they went at everyone else. Portugal fielded a bunch of subs, and they generally controlled the game but just had no goals in the team. Lots of technique and passing, no goals. Probably because Ronaldo insisted on being in the line up and had a shitty performance. More useless free kicks. Just awful and subbed off after an hour, by which point the damage was done. 

 

Georgia’s exciting forward play and insistence at running at defenders, unrelentingly, paid off. They were outclassed in the middle of the park but packed the centre of defence knowing Portugal would try and tiki-taka their way through. Georgia played to their strengths and nullified Portugals. My concern was that Georgia would tire, and they did, but Portugal just couldn’t take advantage. Maybe they just didn’t give a shit. Who knows?  

 

CZECHIA 1 TURKEY 2 

This final group game was marred by a horrendous refereeing performance from Romanian official/PE teacher Istvan Kovacs. You shouldn’t notice a referee in a game. If you notice the referee, he’s probably shit at his job. Kovacs was petty, blew for far too many fouls and gave away a stupid number of yellow cards, frustrating both teams. Easily the worst referee in the tournament and one of the German lads got suspended for gambling on matches.  

 

The red card for Barak (after just 20’) ruined the game. The Turks were left in a game of attack vs defence as Czechia struggled to get out. Arda Guler took advantage of the situation to pull off an array of creative decisions around the penalty area. Nothing resulted in a goal for him, but he looked classy. Calhanoglu eventually broke the deadlock, and it looked like Czechia would get a hiding but somehow equalised with ten men. This was despite, what appeared to be, a foul on the keeper and a handball.  

 

Cenk Tosun, OF ALL PEOPLE, popped up with a late winner for Turkey, sending Czechia home in last place. During stoppage time and after the final whistle the referee gave out five yellow cards and a straight red to Chory. More examples of how he’d lost control of the game and made himself the centre of attention.  

 

ELIMINATED: CZECHIA (assessment) 

The whole tournament it was clear that Czechia, while lacking in skill, would grind out results and use set pieces to gain an advantage. They had athletic, strong, aggressive players. They came very close to upsetting Portugal but got nothing from the game, which was what they deserved. Some startlingly poor finishing allowed Georgia to take a point from them.  

 

This was yet another team with a back three that got knocked out in the group stages. Just saying. None of their back line played well and Stanek helped to keep the scores down throughout. Coufal and Soucek, the West Ham duo, were the best players and offered extra cover defensively, and goal threat from set pieces. Provod was also reasonable in midfield and added a goal.  

 

Up top is where the biggest problems emerged. Schick was dreadful against Portugal and Chytil, his replacement, was arguably even worse. Hlozek played well against the minnows of Georgia but struggled against a good defence. There just wasn’t enough goal threat from open play.  

 

Team of the Tournament (Match Day 3)  

GK: Donnarumma/Casteels  

RB: Stanisic  

LB: Prass 

CB: Laporte  

CB: Calafiori  

MF: Kroos  

MF: Modric 

MF: Grillitsch  

LW: Kvaratskhelia  

RW: Musiala 

ST: Mikautadze  

 

Team of the Tournament (Group Stages) 

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy). Made a key late save vs. Albania, despite having nothing else to do. Saved a penalty against Croatia. I did have Mike Maignan close but his ‘off his line’ save from Lewandowski could have been avoided.  

RB: Dani Carvajal (Spain). Didn’t play against Albania but was outstanding against Croatia and very good against Italy. Scored vs. Croatia. Top pro.  

LB: Alexander Prass (Austria). A midfielder playing full back, he got assists in both games he played in. May have found a new calling in life at 23. Nathan Ake was in contention here until the Austria game where he wasn’t on it.  

CB: Alessandro Bastoni (Italy). Was the stand out player against Albania, despite being a central defender against a team that hardly attacked. Was rock solid in two hard games against good teams when the rest of his side didn’t play well.  

CB: Antonio Rudiger (Germany). Hardly put a foot wrong in three games, although did score an own goal against Scotland. Just a beast mode defender, who scares opposition strikers into submission. Dayot Upamecano was really close to this.  

MF: Fabian Ruiz (Spain). Has only played twice, made my best XI both times. Scored and assisted against Croatia. Ran the midfield against Italy. A stud.  

MF: Ilkay Gundogan (Germany). Goal and assist against Hungary. Created space and caused problems for defenders in the other two games. Some of Germany’s flashier players have been made to look better by him.  

MF: Toni Kroos (Germany). I’m sad this is the last tournament for Kroos. He’s an impeccable passer of the ball and the kind of player who could find space in an elevator full of people. So intelligent. A generational talent. 

LW: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia). He’s been a fantastic out-ball for Georgia in all three games and has run himself, and his opposing defenders, ragged. The goal, a match-winner really, against Portugal adds end product to his running.  

RW: Jamal Musiala (Germany). Easily the player of the tournament so far. Has been outstanding in every game. Goal vs. Scotland. Goal vs. Hungary. A menace against Switzerland. Germany look far worse when he’s not on the field.  

ST: Kylian Mbappe (France). Has only played twice but the toothless look of France without him spoke volumes. Assist vs. Austria and should have scored. Goal vs. Poland. Increasingly looks like the best player in the world right now. Hasn’t got out of second gear yet.  

 

I’ll be with y’all on Saturday to preview the knock out games. Until then, enjoy a few days off the football!