Euro2024: Picking the path to the final
Italy's Mattia Zaccagni celebrates after scoring the winner against Croatia in their Group B match in Leipzig, Germany. Picture: AP Photo/Petr David Josek
THE group stages of Euro 2024 are over and the final games of each group were a mostly pleasurable experience. With the exception being the England game, where watching their encounter against Slovenia was something akin to reading the terms & conditions on your latest phone upgrade.
Spain, the hosts Germany, along with dark horse Austria continued to provide the most impressive performances across the groups, while the second half of the Italy Croatia game was maybe the best of the last round of group games.
The Croats went down fighting and may have felt unlucky by going out to a 98-minute Mattia Zaccagni strike, when there seemed to be no need for that much added time. But in fairness, they probably lost their real shot at making the knockout rounds when they could only draw 2-2 against fighting but beatable Albanian side.
The hard luck story of the group stages had to be Ukraine, who departed Germany, despite finishing with the same points as the Netherlands and a point more than Slovenia, simply by virtue of them finishing fourth in their group compared to the third-place finish for the Dutch and Slovenians in their respective groups.
Ukraine’s Group E had one of the strangest outcomes in the history of the Euros, with all four sides in the group finishing on four points each, and only three scores separating the goal-difference for top-placed Belgium and the Ukrainians in last.
But even that had nothing on the lengths Uefa had to go to decide who finished second in Group C, where Denmark and Slovenia shared the same results, points, goal-difference right back to their results in the qualifiers, outside the tournament proper. Denmark only getting the nod because they have a better Uefa ranking than their central European rivals.
It had no major impact on the outcome as both had qualified, and it may have worked out better finishing third for the Slovenians as the Danes now face the on-form hosts Germany in the round of 16, while Slovenia face Portugal, which while no easy task, the Portuguese have shown they are far from invincible in the group stages, luckily beating Czechia, and losing to Georgia.
And it was Georgia that brought us the fairytale moment of the tournament, with their outpouring of delight after beating Portugal to ensure their spot in the knockouts at their very first tournament as an independent country. That they now face arguably the best team of the tournament so far, in Spain, tomorrow night, is an unenviable task but will nonetheless, only add to their lore for generations of footballers to come from the small Caucasus republic.
Turkey have been immensely entertaining so far, if a bit inconsistent in their results. But there has been no doubt about their skill, especially in front of goal. Scoring the two best struck goals in the opening week in the game against Georgia, they followed that with another sweet cross-the-ball connection by Hakan Calhanoglu for their opener against Czechia in the final game of their group. The Turks face a surprisingly good attacking side in Austria on Tuesday, which could become the game of the tournament. The Leipzig game will also have the benefit for them of it being a home match in all but geographical terms for the Turks.
For a while, as the teams qualified from their groups it was looking like only teams bordering each other would face each other in the round of 16, with Switzerland and Italy, Denmark and Germany, and France and Belgium among the first pairing to be decided. But that theory was dispelled once Spain were assigned Georgia.
Tonight’s derby matches kick-off the next round with some exciting potential. Switzerland could have the beating of defending champions Italy no doubt. But the Italians are wily campaigners and can never be written-off. As the Croats can testify in the 98 minute of a game.
Germany face Denmark in the evening game and one cannot see a path beyond this point for the Danes going by their performance thus far.
Tomorrow, Spain should be way beyond Georgia’s potential, with complacency being the only real threat to the Iberians. Earlier, the English play Slovakia, with Gareth Southgate’s side only required to stop inducing sleep for it to be deemed progress. Nevertheless, it’s hard to see Slovakia really getting the better of England.
Monday, we are back to derby action with France facing Belgium with both sides so far struggling to live up to their reputations. But the French should still be too good for the misfiring lowlanders.
In the evening, Portugal should be way too strong for a game but ultimately limited Slovenia.
On Tuesday, Romania will feel they have a strong chance against a Dutch side struggling to make it count, but we still fancy that the ‘Ons Oranje’ will continue their merry ‘left and right’ celebrations into the quarterfinals.
The evening Austria versus Turkey encounter has, as we said, the potential to be the match of the tournament. With, for me, the Austrians shading it simply on the basis that Ralf Rangnick may have his side more drilled for all eventualities rather than his counterpart Vincenzo Montella in a Turkish camp, who have shown that they like to throw caution to the wind.
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