1) Spain (–)
A dominant 4-1 win against Georgia in the last 16 means Spain stay top of our rankings. They fell behind in the first half but the end result never felt in doubt. Luis de la Fuente’s side had 36 attempts to Georgia’s four; they attempted 823 passes and completed 94%. Or put it this way: Georgia were outplayed, yet they didn’t play badly. Spain were simply superb. Again. The starting XI seems settled now but there can be no complacency because the options from the bench are so strong. Against Georgia, De la Fuente put on, among others, Dani Olmo and Álex Grimaldo with the former scoring. Now for Germany …
2) Germany (–)
“We have to be more consistent in the games,” the captain, Ilkay Gündogan, said after the 2-0 win against Denmark. “There were a couple of situations when we lost the ball too easily and that affected us a bit. We can’t let that happen in the quarter-final.” Julian Nagelsmann’s side were utterly dominant for the first 20 minutes but then had to rely on two VAR calls to take the lead in the second half, both of them very tight. Nagelsmann is resisting calls to start Niclas Füllkrug, keeping faith in Kai Havertz, and there is a positivity around the hosts even though the football has not been as free-flowing as it was during that opening 5-1 victory against Scotland.
3) Netherlands (up 9)
After what can only be described as a very Dutch week, Ronald Koeman’s side are up to third in the rankings after beating Romania 3-0 in their last-16 tie in Munich, playing free-flowing football. On Sunday Memphis Depay admitted that they had held frank talks after finishing third in their group. “We had discussions and criticised each other and it is normal that there is friction if the results do not go as you want them to go,” he said. “It’s logical that there will be irritations.” Whatever was said, it worked. Against Romania, Cody Gakpo was superb, Xavi Simons ran the game and there was revenge for Joey Veerman, who came on in the 69th minute having been taken off 35 minutes into the defeat against Austria. Things are suddenly looking up and they will fancy their chances against Turkey.
4) France (–)
The 2018 World Cup winners are through to the quarter-finals, having beaten Belgium 1-0 in the last 16, yet most of the talk has been about the lack of goals. France have yet to score from open play and the performance against Belgium was strangely flat. Didier Deschamps has been tinkering more than usual but without coming up with a solution to the lack of creativity. Kylian Mbappé has one goal – a penalty – and has not looked himself since breaking his nose. Marcus Thuram has not been a success in the No 9 role and Antoine Griezmann has been moved around and even dropped for one game. France, however, were better than Belgium and deserved to win. Portugal should be a tougher test.
5) Switzerland (up 1)
The Swiss players were allowed to celebrate their win over Italy with some pizza slices and one beer or one glass of wine in the dressing room – but that was about it. “They can party after the Euros,” said the coach, Murat Yakin, before adding that the players are “professional through and through”. The squad was given a well-deserved day off on Monday but there seems little risk the players will have lost focus. Switzerland are undefeated in 2024 and have only conceded four goals in eight games. Manuel Akanji has been one of the best defenders of the tournament, Granit Xhaka a leader in midfield and there is real momentum heading into the quarter-finals, where England await.
6) Turkey (up 2)
They were the underdogs going into the game against Austria, with Hakan Calhanoglu and Samet Akaydin suspended, and the fact that they lost 6-1 to Ralf Rangnick’s side in March. In Leipzig on Tuesday night, however, they were 1-0 up after 57 seconds and never relinquished that lead, 19-year-old Arda Guler having an outstanding game up front. They were under pressure at times and there were very nervy moments towards the end, with Turkey 2-1 up, when Mert Gunok had to produce a wonder save to keep out Christoph Baumgartner’s header in the 96th minute. Turkey deserved their win, though, and will relish taking on the Netherlands in Berlin on Saturday night.
7) Portugal (down 2)
What a rollercoaster night for Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo in particular against Slovenia. In the end they won on penalties. As always the captain was at the centre of everything, but not necessarily in a good way. His increasingly desperate attempts to score at this tournament became farcical – and that was before he missed the penalty in extra time. Portugal deserved to go through but Roberto Martínez will be concerned that they were unable to break through Slovenia’s compact defence despite the array of attacking talent on display. Diogo Jota and Francisco Conceição were lively after coming on as substitutes. Will one of them start against France?
8) England (up 1)
England were heading out of the tournament deep into added-on time against Slovakia after yet another poor, plodding display – but then Jude Bellingham popped up with an acrobatic goal that took the game into extra time. Harry Kane scored to deliver the win and Gareth Southgate’s side are suddenly three victories away from an unlikely Euros triumph. Next up are Switzerland on Saturday. Were there any signs of improvement against Slovakia? Not really, although Cole Palmer again made an impact as a substitute. The centre-back Marc Guéhi will be suspended for the game in Düsseldorf and that is a blow for Southgate as the Crystal Palace defender has been one of England’s best players. Ezri Konsa is set to deputise.
9) Denmark (up 4)
The Danes did what was expected from them – and probably a bit more – but in the end it was not quite enough to eliminate the hosts and progress to the quarter-finals. They were, understandably, angry about the penalty that led to Germany’s first goal, the coach, Kasper Hjulmand, calling the handball rule “ridiculous” and it was easy to sympathise. The fact that the player adjudged to have handled the ball, Joachim Andersen, had just had a goal disallowed for an extremely marginal offside made it particularly galling. The next few years will be interesting for the team: there is a lot of young talent coming through and now it is up to Hjulmand to make the transistion as smooth as possible, especially in defence and midfield.
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10) Georgia (down 3)
They took the lead against Spain and could have gone 2-1 up but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s long-range effort went just wide. They fought until the end, though, and despite the 4-1 defeat by Spain they have made people back home proud. Georgia were the lowest-ranked team at the tournament but qualified for the knockout phase and did so by playing attacking football. The coach, Willy Sagnol, deserves praise for the way he set out the team to play and the team has a bright future with not only Kvaratskhelia showing off his talents but goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, forward Georges Mikautadze – with three goals at the tournament – and midfielder Giorgi Kochorashvili impressing too.
11) Slovenia (up 5)
It wasn’t pretty but it was effective. Slovenia were defensively brilliant against Portugal, Roberto Martínez’s side having 68% possession and 93 attacks in the 120 minutes but creating few clear-cut chances. Matjaz Kek’s 4-4-2 formation held the Portuguese at bay, central midfielders and Timi Max Elsnik patrolling the area in front of the defence. Slovenia could even have won the game at the end when Pepe dawdled on the ball and Benjamin Sesko was through on goal but Diogo Costa saved. The goalkeeper then stopped three straight penalties and Slovenia’s Euro 2024 was over. They go home undefeated in normal time and with their heads held high.
12) Slovakia (up 3)
There were only seconds remaining when Jude Bellingham equalised for England, Slovakia coming so close to advancing to the quarter-finals of the Euros for the first time. It took a moment of magic to break down Francesco Calzona’s team, who had been in control for most of the game, their intelligent pressing and resolute defending from, especially, centre-backs Milan Skriniar and Denis Vavro ensuring England created very little. In fact, they could have gone 2-0 had David Strelec’s effort hit the target from the halfway line when Jordan Pickford found himself in no man’s land. After the game, Calzona hit out at England’s time-wasting in extra time, saying: “I’m very proud to see this team do so well, the other team sending on defenders to preserve their result.” Ivan Schranz, who scored three goals in four games, added: “We’ll deal with it … but maybe we’ll regret it for the rest of our lives.
13) Austria (down 10)
It was almost too good to be true, and it turned out to be. Austria had impressed in the group stage, winning their section ahead of France and heading to Leipzig for their game against Turkey. It was in the east German city that the Austria coach, Ralf Rangnick, forged his reputation as director of football of RB Leipzig, with several of his players also having played for the club. In the end they went 1-0 down against Turkey in the first minute and never recovered. Austria came close but it felt as if they did not have the same zip and energy as in the group stage. The pitch and rain did not help and they will head home thinking “what if”.
14) Belgium (down 4)
It was a knockout game but you wouldn’t have known from Belgium’s performance. Sure, they were playing France, but with the attacking talent available to Domenico Tedesco you would have thought they would at least give it a go. As it happened, it felt as if they were consigned to defeat even before the kick-off. They tried to contain France and for 85 minutes did so, but once Jan Vertonghen had deflected Randal Kolo Muani’s shot into his own net there was no way back. “It is a pity. We had a plan and we executed that plan pretty well,” said a subdued Kevin De Bruyne afterwards. “Our plan was good until their goal came. Then we had little time to respond.”
15) Romania (down 1)
“Thank you to our boys, to our supporters, to Romanians all over the world,” the coach, Edward Iordanescu, said after the 3-0 defeat by the Netherlands. “In one month in the summer you can’t compensate for 10 years. We have to get inspiration out of this and work hard.” Romania have come a long way under Iordanescu and started well against the Netherlands, but once behind they could not get back on level terms and the game ran away from them. They will always have that scintillating opening 3-0 win against Ukraine and, like Iordanescu said, this tournament will have given the next generation hope.
16) Italy (down 5)
Luciano Spalletti’s team had failed to click in the group stage, needing a late equaliser against Croatia to confirm their place in the knockout stage. It was widely expected that they would step up against Switzerland in the last 16 but instead they were awful, offering absolutely nothing. Spalletti made six changes – some enforced, some not – but it did not work. After the 2-0 defeat he said he took responsibility before blaming things such as the heat, the players’ efforts in training and the Italian system of bringing through players. The media all agreed it was an unacceptable performance, with Il Corriere dello Sport summing it up with their front-page headline: “An embarrassment.”
Source: theguardian.com
