The European Championships has gone into crunch mode with Matchday 3 taking center stage, starting with Germany vs Switzerland and Hungary vs Scotland ongoing simultaneously. As expected, with so much at stake, all teams went hard for it, as they all had a chance of qualifying to the next round.
Scotland had the lion’s share of possession but didn’t have any penetration. Hungary had the first clear cut when Dominik Szoboszlai dinked a free kick that was nodded to the cross bar by Wily Orban but had it gone in, VAR would have ruled it out. There was a potential scary moment when Barnabas Varga was knocked out cold when he attempted to attack a freekick swung in by Szoboszlai, but collided with Angus Gunn and Ralston. He was stretched out and is set to undergo surgery for a facial fracture.
There was also a moment of controversy when Stuart Armstrong tried to con the ref for a penalty but he wasn’t fooled, highlighting the great quality of the officiating in this competition. Late on, Scotland went for broke and found themselves exposed at the back, leading to Kevin Csoboth scoring his first goal for his nation in the 110th minute. Talk about heartbreak. Just days after confirming that Kieran Tierney was out of the tournament following an injury sustained in the game against Switzerland, Scotland has bowed out of the competition and will need to get back to the drawing board for the Nations League and World Cup qualifiers.
Hungary, on the other hand, have only three points, will be hoping to be part of the best third placed teams, like Portugal in the 2016 European Championships, who went all the way to win the damn thing.
Germany and Switzerland was a banger as both sides knew that top place was up for grabs. Robert Andrich thought he had opened the scoring after latching to Florian Wirtz pass and blasting a shot that somehow evaded Yann Sommer in the Swiss goal. However, the VAR chums spared the goalie’s blushes as Jamal Musiala was adjudged to foul a defender in the build up to the goal. Switzerland got the lead through a well-taken goal from Dan Ndoye.
There was a barrage of attacks from Germany and the hosts eventually got their equalizer, but this was after Switzerland’s second goal, converted by Ruben Vargas, but he failed to time his run and was rightly ruled out for offside. There was even a magnificent curler from former Arsenal man, Granit Xhaka, but Manuel Neuer was on hand to make a lovely save. Two minutes into stoppage time, Raum floated a lofty cross into the danger area and it was headed home by Nicklas Fullkrug, sending the home crowd into raptures.
The draw seals Germany’s status as the group winners, giving them a favorable draw in the knockout fixtures.
Sayonara.
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