Key events
On this day in 2021… Italy ended another Belgium dream.
Another plug for this fine piece by Sid Lowe on Rodri, an eloquent giant of modern football.
Spurs sign Archie Gray from Leeds
Archie Gray may well feature for England at a future European Championship, such is his talent. He’s joined Spurs from Leeds in a player-plus-cash deal, with Joe Rodon – who excelled on loan at Elland Road last season – making a permanent move in the opposite direction. Gray usually plays either in midfield or at right-back.
Jonathan Liew on Bukayo Saka
Kieran Trippier is writhing in agony on the turf, Cole Palmer is on the touchline, ready to take over your position, and your mission – which you have absolutely no choice in accepting – is to relearn a role you haven’t played for more than three years, in the space of 26 minutes plus injury time. Oh, and England are losing 1-0 in the Euros, and if they go out, people will deluge you with abuse. Some of it will be racist. Good luck.
“I’m relieved the England team weren’t told Ed Sheeran planned to serenade them after the match,” says Kev Graham. “That would almost certainly have guaranteed England’s defeat.”
Honk! Maybe something like that should be written into contracts for when teams are relegated. A month of mandatory Pitbull concerts if you go down; that’d make a difference on the old GPS tracker.
Here’s more from Tom Garry on Arsenal’s star signing
“Onana and De Bruyne played in the same positions as Mainoo and Rice yesterday,” begins Phil Grey, “the difference being that Belgium play 4-4-2 whereas England play, what, 4-2-1-3? Maybe Belgium’s formation is a bit too rigid, but everyone knows their role.
“I suppose it’s good that Foden is free to wander, but he wouldn’t have to if he started as the 1 in that formation. But nevermind. Without Grealish and Shaw England only have Gordon on the left. Saka, Palmer, Foden, Eze and Bowen are all better on the right, as are TAA and Trippier.”
I would play Gordon on Saturday, especially as Switzerland play wing-backs so you want to stretch their three central defenders. I’m still not sure there’s room in a well-functioning team for all three of Foden, Bellingham and Saka, certainly not when Kane is the centre-forward.
So anyway, who should play centre-back for England on Saturday? I think I’d go for Ezri Konsa. Switzerland have some rapid forwards and England will need his pace. My only slight concern is playing him as the left-sided centre-back, so maybe John Stones could move across.
Here’s more on Cristiano Ronaldo’s ascent from rock bottom. Imagine if he scored the winner in the final, against England.
Can he play wide left?
Here’s a bit more on England from the news wires.
England’s players were treated to a private performance by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, a day after their dramatic come from behind victory over Slovakia in the Euro 2024 last 16.
Sheeran visited the players at their camp in Blankenhain following a light recovery session on Monday, with video of him performing “The A-Team” posted on social media platform X.
I can’t be the only person thinking of Nigel Kennedy right now.
A bit more news from the wider football world. Arsenal have signed the mighty Mariona Caldentey from Barcelona; helluva signing, that.
And so to England, who face Switzerland on Saturday. Gareth Southgate has made the reasonable point that Italia 90 and Euro 96 weren’t all milk and cookies either.
Everybody now looks back at 96 in a different way to how it was at the time,” Southgate said. “We were bang average against Switzerland [in the opening tie]; we were the same against Scotland. They missed a penalty at 1-0. Spain should have beaten us in the 0-0 draw … 1990 was similar. So you do go through these moments in tournaments. We know we should be better than we’ve been but I’m saying that …
Austria v Turkey (8pm)
Ralf Rangnick’s side hammered Turkey 6-1 in a friendly in March, which adds a meaty layer of context to tonight’s game. Here’s Nick Ames’ preview of what is going to be a cracking game. You have our word.
Roberto Martinez on Cristiano Ronaldo
I thanked him [afterwards] for being the way he is, for caring for the group. I was certain that he would be the first penalty taker and show us the way to take victory. I think we’re all very proud of our captain. Our dressing room was all delighted. I think he gave us all a lesson. Life and football gives you difficult moments and the way he reacted shows why we are so proud in Portuguese football.
Romania v Netherlands (5pm)
Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman was asked at his press conference what he thought Johan Cruyff would have made of their defeat to Austria. I can’t decide whether that’s an ingenious question or a bit snide; probably the former.
It’s a difficult question. I know he liked attacking football very much, but I was a part of his team a long time and we had worse matches than we did against Austria. Of course, we are a proud nation; we like to win, we like to play nice football, but it’s not always happened. We take the critics, no problem, and we’d like to turn it around and make people happy for the final result.
Randal Kolo Muani played a big part in France’s winning goal against Belgium. Here’s Barney Ronay on our old friends, sport and politics.
Most obviously the presence of successful and highly visible players such as Kolo Muani in this France team represents, in outline, something that is not National Rally, the immigration-fixated hard-right party that took the single largest share in the overnight parliamentary elections.
RN wants tougher controls on citizenship. RN wants to reduce access to certain jobs for people it sees as insufficiently French. Kolo Muani’s parents were born in Kinshasa. He holds dual nationality. He embodies, along with his teammates, a happy, functional tableau of people from a deep cut of French society.
On this day in 2000… more misery for Italy, who are seconds away from winning Euro 2000 when the ball drops to Sylvain Wiltord.
On this day in 2016… poor Simone Zaza launched a memorable penalty into orbit during Italy’s quarter-final defeat to Germany.
In other news, the Copa América hosts USA went out at the group stage after an extremely controversial defeat to Uruguay, whose winning goal looked offside to the naked eye. Team VAR thought otherwise.
France 1-0 Belgium
Here’s Sid Lowe’s report on another day of underwhelming success for France.
Deschamps suggested that this was all part of the plan, proud of a team he said had not fallen into the “traps” the Belgians laid for them. Getting here, he said, was something worth celebrating. After all, it is not so easy and they might not have done.
Ronaldo: I was at rock bottom
Here’s the great man’s reaction to last night’s melodrama.
Even the strongest people have their bad days. I was at rock bottom when the team needed me most. I was sad at first but now I’m happy. That’s what football is. Moments, inexplicable moments.
When I think of my family, I feel emotional because they are unique moments that I cannot express in words. They are people I love, the fans who are always with us and especially with me, and I am very happy about that.
I hadn’t missed a penalty kick all year. At this moment I missed it, but the most important thing is that the team won. I lost twice on penalties this season and won the third time. Sometimes football is fair and sometimes just, but we deserved to qualify.
I will always give my best for this shirt, whether I fail or not, but you have to take responsibility. I have never been afraid to face things head on. Sometimes I do things right, sometimes I don’t, but giving up is something you will never hear from me.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our daily Euro 2024 news blog. We’re down to the last ten: France and Portugal reached the quarter-final yesterday, and the last two places will be decided by today’s fixtures:
Yesterday’s games were relatively boring but highly dramatic. France beat Belgium with a late own-goal from Jan Vertonghen; and Portugal, as predicted, beat Slovenia comfortably – but only in a penalty competition after a fraught goalless draw. All three of Slovenia’s kicks were saved by Diogo Costa.
Cristiano Ronaldo managed to both enhance and diminish his reputation. At times his desperation to score turned the game into a bit of a farce. But after having an extra-time penalty brilliantly saved by Jan Oblak, a moment that reduced Ronaldo to tears on the field, he showed extraordinary mental strength to score with an unsaveable penalty in the shootout.
Here’s what Jonathan Wilson made of it all.
