A Quick Roundup of Saturday’s Euro 2024 Action

With paucity of news on the Arsenal front with the only story taking center stage being Reiss Nelson’s potential departure to pastures anew, the European Championships brought some well needed distraction to keep the machine going, as there were three fixtures to wet the appetite.

The day’s action started with Hungary taking on Granit Xhaka’s Switzerland in the Cologne sunshine, a ground Lukas Podolski once called home. Kwadwo Duah, in his second ever appearance for the Swiss, side-footed a Michel Aebischer through ball home, even though the overzealous linesman rose his flag up to deny the forward his moment in the Sun. However, the VAR chums, not the pathetic ones from England, reviewed the footage and the correct ruling was that it was a goal.

Aebischer turned from provider to scorer when he latched onto Remo Freuler’s carefully threaded ball and swung in a curler past Peter Gulasci. The Hungarians were lucky to go into the break with just a two-goal deficit as the Swiss ran them ragged in the opening 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the Swiss took their feet off the pedal and Hungary clawed one back when Dominik Szoboszlai swung in a sumptuous cross that was headed home by Barnabas Varga. 

With the Hungarians going for broke to get an equalizer, they left some gaping holes at the back, as a long ball from the back wasn’t cleared probably by Wily Orban, allowing Breel Embolo to get the ball on his stride and lob it past Gulasci to seal the game for Switzerland. It was a great moment for Embolo as he was out of action for well over a year after tearing his cruciate ligament at the start of last season. 

The second match of the day was a blockbuster encounter with Spain taking on Croatia. These sides have met each other consistently in recent times, with their latest bout being the 2023 European Nations League, where Spain won on penalties. It was amazing to hear that Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic had 375 caps between them, a testament of their service to their nation.

As expected, David Raya stayed on the bench, as the tested and trusted Unai Simon played between the sticks, and it was the Spaniards that drew first blood when Alvaro Morata sprung in between two Croat defenders following a lovely pass from Fabian Ruiz before placing the ball past Dominik Livakovic to make it 1-0. Ruiz scored a peach of a goal, taking a pass from Pedri, shimming past his markers and finding the far corner. The third was from an unlikely source, Dani Carvajal, that showed great reaction to toe poke Lamine Yamal’s cross while all the Croatian defenders were ball watching.

Late on, Rodri gave away a penalty that taken by Bruno Petkovic, but Simon was on hand to make a brilliant save. Due to his encroachment, Ivan Perisic was in an offside position, and his cut back to Petkovic was scored but VAR ruled it out. This loss throws the spanners into the works for Croatia, but they have Albania next and will be hoping to get a victory to kick start their campaign.

The last match of the night took place when Italy locked horns with Albania in the famous Signal Iduna Park at Dortmund. Everyone expected a rout for the defending champions but they had a terrible start when Federico Dimarco threw the ball straight to Nedim Bajrami’s path, that controlled it superbly before blasting it past Gigi Donnarumma.

Italy responded well to the setback with Lorenzo Pellegrini swinging a cross into the danger area after a set piece routine with Dimarco, and Alessandro Bastoni was on hand to nod the ball home. Five minutes after leveling the contest, Nicolo Barella showed off his great technique to latch onto the loose ball and slash it past Brentford’s Thomas Strakosha. Late on, Manaj had a glorious chance to equalize for Albania, but Donnarumma was on hand to make a very vital save.

Today’s action would see Slovenia take on Denmark, Serbia play England and Poland lock horns with the Netherlands.

We will be here to provide coverage.

Sayonara.

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