EURO 2024 - Matchday 3: The Roundup
- William Russell
- Jun 29, 2024
- 9 min read
The group stages of Euro 2024 came to a close in Matchday 3 with yet more entertaining matches, shock results and last gasp drama.
Seeing as I have only set of eyes, I was only able to watch one match per group, however, I was still able to analyse and assess the performances of each team and the implications of each game going into the knockout stages.
Group A - Germany grab late point against excellent Switzerland, Scotland suffer late heartbreak after flat performance
Germany and Switzerland secured qualification as Hungary and Scotland went crashing out of the tournament, despite Hungary's last minute winner as Scotland pushed for the goal that would've secured them a place in the next round.
Despite their late goal from Kevin Csoboth, Hungary failed to qualify as one of the top four third place teams, meaning, along with fourth place Scotland, their tournament in over.
Germany and Switzerland, meanwhile, continue into the knockout stages of the tournament, with both teams taking positives from the match that they will take into their round of 16 fixtures.
Switzerland played well, and were probably the better team in the game, with the back three of Fabian Schar, Manuel Akanji and Ricardo Rodriguez linking well as a trio to keep out the dangerous German attack.
Producing such a performance against a top team such as Germany will encourage the Swiss players that they can compete against the big guns and can therefore make a deep run into the latter stages of the competition.
Germany, meanwhile, will take encouragement from their late equaliser from substitute Niclas Fullkrug.
As well as highlighting that they've got strength in depth, it shows that they've got the capability of staying in games when they're not playing at their best and coming p with late goals to clinch results, like Real Madrid at club level or like Argentina in the 2022 World Cup.
Having watched almost every group game at the Euros, Germany remain my favourites to win the whole competition. They have home advantage, the best midfield in the tournament and have now shown they have the mentality to score late goals, meaning for me, they're the most dangerous opponent for any team to face between now and the final.
Group B - Late heartbreak for Croatia in draw with Italy, second string Spain side beat Albania.
Along with Hungary, Croatia were the unlucky third place team to fail to qualify, as a 99th minute equaliser from Mattia Zaccagni saw Italy leapfrog them to qualify in second place.
Zaccagni tucked the ball in to the top corner from the left hand side of the box with his right foot - a terrific effort that sent Croatia out of the tournament after England failed to comfortably beat Slovenia the following night.
Croatia's group stage affair can be split into two halves. The first half - with their 3-0 defeat to Spain and shambolic opening 45 minutes against Albania, saw them deservedly beaten with poor chance creation and weak defending.
But in the second half against Albania and for the entire 90 minutes against Italy, Croatia were the better team. They defended well, led by Josko Gvardiol of Manchester City, with the midfield of Marcelo Brozovic, Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic excelling at keeping the ball, offering protection for the back four and even creating chances for the front three, something they struggled with at the start.
But it was too little, too late. Had they not conceded not just one, but two late equalisers, they'd have qualified from their group in second place, but as it was, they ended up squandering in four points and are now heading home early.
From a Manchester City supporter's perspective, however, I'm pleased that Kovacic and Gvardiol will have a longer break and a full pre-season in order to prepare for next season, where the Blues will aim to win a fifth Premier League title in a row.
Spain showed that they have what it takes to challenge for the title in the same way as Germany - squad depth.
Aymeric Laporte was the only survivor from Spain's 1-0 over Italy in the second group stage with ten changes made to the lineup, but they were nonetheless able to find the win thanks to a goal from Barcelona forward Ferran Torres.
It wasn't always pretty, but Spain were able to rest their stars whilst also becoming the only team with a 100% win record in the group stages.
Being able to bring the likes of Torres, Alex Grimaldo, Mikel Oyarzabal, Mikel Merino and Dani Olmo off the bench is a weapon for Spain that perhaps only Germany, England and France can equal in terms of strength in depth.
Therefore, with an easy fixture in the round of 16 on paper against Georgia, they'll be confident of securing their place in the quarter finals, whilst also respecting their opponents and being aware of what damage they can cause after seeing their victory against Portugal.
Group C - All four teams underwhelm to conclude drab group
Based off their performances in the group stages, it is apparent that none of England, Denmark or Slovenia are going to progress to the latter stages of the competition.
Once again, England looked extremely poor, as they staggered to a 0-0 draw against Slovenia.
Their main issue is getting their key players all playing together, something that Gareth Southgate seems like he is incapable of doing due to his insistence on building the team around Jude Bellingham.
After a good first 45 minutes against Serbia, the Real Madrid midfielder has been very poor since then, looking disinterested as he plays selfishly and puts in less running than any of England’s other midfielders.
Whilst he will occasionally put in the odd aggressive solo press, this is ineffective with his teammates not joining him and means he is caught out of position when teams inevitably play around him.
Harry Kane has also had a tournament to forget; despite scoring in England’s 1-1 draw with Denmark, he has barely got himself involved in any of England’s group games.
Unlike Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, when Kane isn’t frequently getting touches of the ball, he is ineffective. Unlike Haaland, he is neither fast nor particularly strong, meaning he isn’t able to occupy defenders in the same way that the 23 year old Norwegian is.
And like Bellingham, he seems disinterested in pressing, meaning the whole team looks dysfunctional at pressing as they’re the two most advanced central players and are therefore essential to starting the press.
In their last two games, Phil Foden has been England’s most dangerous attacker (though that is a very low bar to pass.) But he’s shackled out on the left hand wing, with Bellingham continuously getting in his way.
It’d make more sense at least to shift Bellingham over to the right of central midfield to allow Foden to come inside, or let Foden invert from the right wing.
Bukayo Saka hasn’t exactly been poor, but he has been quiet all tournament, so it isn’t out of the question that he’ll be benched for the round of 16, with either Cole Palmer - who looked sharp off the bench against Slovenia - or Anthony Gordon coming in to replace him.
Ahead of their round of 16 tie against Slovakia, who have already caused a shock this tournament by beating Belgium, England will need to address this issue, as if they sort out their attack, they should be able to challenge to win the trophy with an uncomplicated run to the final and an already settled and solid defence.
Slovenia and Denmark, meanwhile, will be lucky to progress any further, with matches against Portugal and Germany respectively likely to be their undoing as they go out at the first knockout hurdle.
Group D - France fail to win again, Austria edge Netherlands in thriller
Perhaps the biggest shock of the group stages in terms of final positioning is Austria finishing ahead of both France and the Netherlands after beating Ronald Koeman’s side in a thrilling match.
The Netherlands were undeniably poor, with their midfield completely overrun by the Austrians, so much so that Joey Veerman was substituted before halftime in order for the Dutch to try and gain some control of the game back.
They linked well in attack, with Cody Gakpo and Memphis Depay both impressing and scoring, but ultimately they were beaten by the better team on the day in Austria, who’s high pressing and energetic football is shown to be effective when competing against the best sides.
Marcel Sabitzer, formerly of Manchester United and Bayern Munich, is their talisman in attacking midfield, and he led them on the way, scoring a brilliant goal that ended up being the winner.
And as good as Gakpo was on the left wing, right back Stefan Posch did a brilliant job of defending him, as he did with Kylian Mbappe in Austria’s first game against France.
In the group’s other game, France struggled again, as a penalty a piece from each side’s captain, Mbappe for France and Robert Lewandowski for Poland led to a bore draw - but it was enough for France to qualify in second place.
Unlike in 2018 and 2022 at the World Cups, France have failed to find their strongest XI as of yet, and that involves tinkering with the positioning of Mbappe, moving him around from left wing to striker.
Didier Deschamps’ team have shown before that they can strike gold once they’ve clicked into gear, which is something that they’ll hope to do by overcoming Belgium, in what should be a really tightly contested round of 16 match.
Austria and the Netherlands, meanwhile, face Turkey and Romania in their round of 16 fixtures, and will hope to win in a match in which they’re both the favourites to progress to then face each other again in the quarter finals.
Group E - Tightly contested group as all teams finish on four points, Ukraine unlucky to not qualify
Belgium were poor as they scraped a draw against Ukraine, but nonetheless qualified in second place for the next round, level on points with every other team in the group.
All of Belgium’s staff and players, even captain and man of the match in the last two games Kevin de Bruyne, were booed off the pitch at full time after a woeful performance.
The wingers, particularly Leandro Trossard, were poor with their end product, and Romelu Lukaku’s hold up play wasn’t as effective as it was against Romania, who ended up as group winners.
Their draw with Slovakia, England’s opponents in the next round, was enough for both sides to qualify for the next round. VAR intervened successfully once again in this tournament to award Romania a penalty to draw them level after conceding an early goal to Slovakia via Ondrej Duda.
All three Group E teams have suffered rotten luck with the draw - Romania face the Netherlands, Belgium face France and Slovakia are against England.
But, with England and France’s form in the tournament so far being below par, and the Netherlands not exactly looking invincible, all three teams will go into their matches with the chance of winning being a realistic possibility, if not a probability.
Group F - Georgia spring biggest shock result of the tournament, Turkey beat Czechia to qualify
Georgia defied all the odds and qualified from the group by beating a rotated Portugal side, in a match in which they were the better team for the majority of the game.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia got them off to the perfect start with a brilliant breakaway goal, set up by Georges Mikautadze, who has been one of the standout players of the tournament so far.
As Portugal dominated most of the ball, Georgia continued to keep them out at the back, though they were fortunate not to concede a penalty after Cristiano Ronaldo was pulled to the ground in the box.
Fortune favoured Georgia once again, as they were given a slightly soft penalty with no significant contact in the box. But, they certainly deserved the goal, and the penalty was dispatched by Mikautadze to make him the top scorer in the tournament so far.
They face a tough task in the knockout stages though, as they face Spain, arguably the team of the tournament so far. If they are to beat the team that they lost 7-1 to in qualifying in September, however, they’ll all need to be at the top of their game, and will be motivated by the possibility of causing arguably the biggest upset in European Championship history.
In the group’s other game, Turkey edged a win over the line to qualify. Their top class players, Arda Guler and Hakan Calhanoglu, helped them to drag the result over the line and eliminate the Czech Republic in the process.
Turkey are now up against the dark horses of the tournament so far in Ralf Ragnick’s Austria. Having seen their games so far, Turkey vs Austria will make for an excellent match, as it’ll be evenly contested between two teams that like to play attacking football.
Portugal, meanwhile, face Slovenia. With the likes of Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Rafael Leao set to come back into the team, they’re likely to be able to hurt their opponents who haven’t exactly excelled so far against weak opposition.
Player of the Round - Matchday 3: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia)
Team of the Round - Matchday 3: Austria
Goal of the Round - Matchday 3: Mattia Zaccagni (Italy) vs Croatia
Best Game of the Round - Matchday 3: Georgia 2-0 Portugal
Combined XI of the Round - Matchday 3:
GK: Giorgi Mamardashvili (Georgia) RB: Stefan Posch (Austria) CB: Riccardo Calafiori (Italy)
CB: Manuel Akanji (Switzerland) LB: Josko Gvardiol (Croatia)
CM: Hakan Calhanoglu (Turkey)
CM: N'Golo Kante (France) RW: Ferran Torres (Spain)
CAM: Marcel Sabitzer (Austria)
LW: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia)
ST: Georges Mikautadze (Georgia)
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