Arn Does Euro 2024 Day 6 

 

Apologies for the lack of upload yesterday. I was out with my brother and one drink led to another. Short story is that I didn’t see one of yesterday’s games at all and needed to catch up.  

 

SLOVAKIA 1 UKRAINE 2 

Until Ukraine scored a late winner, my 1-1 call was spot on. Ukraine were rubbish for huge chunks of the game and it’s only because Slovakia overcommitted on attack that they got back into the game at all. Neither team were great defensively but both midfields performed admirably on the ball. Zinchenko was at fault for Slovakia’s goal but a key cog in Ukraine getting back into the game with a huge assist.  

 

Both teams feel like also-rans in this tournament but one of them will progress into the knockout stages and maybe both will.  

 

POLAND 1 AUSTRIA 3 

Austria’s high energy, quick passing build up, came good here. They were just too good for Poland and brushed them aside. Poland only caused problems from set pieces and that’s possibly a weakness for Austria. From open play, there was only one winner. Marcel Sabitzer can get totally fucked, again, though. Winning a penalty by kicking the goalkeeper in the face is a first for me. He’s a horrible little rat of a player. 

 

If Austria took all their ‘good’ chances, this would have been even more convincing. Poland at least had a good performance from star man Zielinski in central midfield. He didn’t run the game though, that was Baumgartner. Austria have looked solid defensively in both their games, which has been difficult for many of the other ‘lesser’ sides at the Euros. They could go far.  

 

NETHERLANDS 0 FRANCE 0 

I said France would win this comfortably, if Mbappe played…which he didn’t. As a result, they were lacking firepower in front of goal. I’m not convinced by Thuram or Griezmann as players for France to hang their campaign on. That all said, the entire team played well, but they just didn’t have the end product. 

 

The Dutch were a little unlucky with Xavi Simons again asking questions of the French keeper. The goal where Dumfries was deemed to be offside was very unlucky. Was Maignan getting to it? If the Dutch are to progress deep into the tournament, Simons will have a part to play. He’s been their best offensive weapon across the two games.  

 

TOPS 

Olexander Zinchenko (Ukraine). I’m not his biggest fan but Zinchenko is a key figure for Ukraine and when he gets involved in attacks down the left, he’s a difference maker. He certainly was against Slovakia.  

 

Lukas Haraslin (Slovakia). Caused problems by running at the back line and was good for his second game running. The added bonus of an assist pushed him up into the “tops” for mentions today.  

 

Christoph Gaumgartner (Austria). Ran the midfield against Poland and scored. A great day at the office.  

 

Mike Maignan (France). In both games he’s made dramatic saves. The one in the opening minute from Simons was much better than anyone is giving him credit for.  

 

FLOPS 

I’m feeling generous, I’ll let the lesser players off with a shrug than a call out today.  

 

Team of the Tournament (Match Day 2)  

GK: Donnarumma/Maignan  

RB: Karnicnak  

LB: Cucurella 

CB: Van Dijk  

CB: Bastoni  

MF: Ruiz  

MF: Gundogan  

MF: Rodri 

LW: Williams  

RW: Musiala/Yamal 

ST: Arnautovic  

 

NEXT (THE FINAL MD2 GAMES)
 

GEORGIA vs. CZECHIA  

Georgia might be the lowest ranked team at Euro 2024, but they’ve been fun to watch. They’ve gone after games and were unlucky to get beaten by Turkey in one of the games of the tournament. I’m expecting them to get after Czechia and this is where they have a shot at actually winning a game.  

 

Czechia are organised, disciplined and usually graft their way past teams. They nearly did Portugal over by just doing the basics really well. If I’m being realistic, they’ll just do this to Georgia too and win. That’s what my head says but my heart wants Georgia to win, and hopefully put up a good fight against Portugal too. The football romantic in me needs this upset. I’m willing it into being. Prediction: 2-1 (it won’t be, sorry, but let me dream) 

 

TURKEY vs. PORTUGAL 

Portugal have a cracking squad. There’s no debating that. They’ve got players all over the place that can bail them out if the shit hits the fan, like it did against Czechia. The Billy Big Bollocks approach didn’t work well for them against Czechia, but Turkey isn’t a well oiled machine, it’s a vibes squad. If Portugal can shut that game down early doors, they’ll coast to a win. Unless Arda Guler pulls another blinder out of his arsehole.  

 

Turkey have played Portugal three times at the Euros before and are 0-3 and with zero goals scored. Prediction: 0-2 

 

BELGIUM vs. ROMANIA 

This is a tough one. Belgium were embarrassed against Slovakia, in a game they should have won easily. Romania blew Ukraine away and ran out with a big winning margin. If football worked on pure form, Romania wins this easily right? Wrong. 

 

It just doesn’t work like that. Belgium will simply have to win here and will turn up. Romania were short on goals prior to the tournament and one unbelievable performance doesn’t change how good their players are. The one thing they have going for them is pack mentality and playing as a unit. The second thing is Dennis fn Man! 

 

Belgium, though, played well against Slovakia and were just really unlucky. Lightning won’t strike twice. Prediction: 2-1 

 

That’s it, sorry for barely squeaking this in before kick off today. I promise to do better. 

 

ARN~!