21 June 2016
CROATIA 2 (Kalinic 45, Perisic 87)
SPAIN 1 (Morata 7)
Spain scored a fine early goal. Silva ran at the Croatian defence before playing in Fabregas with a reverse pass and his first time centre was tapped in by Morata, who joins Bale at the top of the scoring charts with 3 (until a Ronaldo hat-trick tomorrow, probably). De Gea tried to dribble after taking a back pass but ran into Kalinic, the ball broke for Rakitic and his first time lob bounced off the underside of the crossbar, off the left post and into De Gea's hands. Perisic turned Juanfran inside out before whipping a cross into the box and Kalinic met the ball with a spectacular back heel volley to equalise.
Silva dived under no contact to cheat a penalty out of the crap referee. Srna covered his mouth as he spoke to his goalkeeper Subasic, who was miles off his line as he dived the right way and saved from Ramos. Pjaca sprung a counter with a 30 yard pass out of defence to Kalinic, he played in Perisic on the overlap and he beat De Gea at his near post.
Given De Gea's state of mind following the sex abuse scandal it's not surprising he turned in a performance like this. Casillas may be back in goal in the last 16.
This was Spain's first defeat at the Euros since 2004 although they clearly weren't up for this match anywhere near as much as the Croatians, who have earned a very favourable draw on their side of the bracket having took top spot in the group.
Attendance : 37,245
Assists : Fabregas, Perisic, Kalinic
CZECH REPUBLIC 0
TURKEY 2 (Yilmaz 10, Tufan 65)
Many viewers won't remember the insane match these teams served up at Euro 2008, with the Turks coming back to 1-2 down to win with two goals in the last 5 minutes. This wasn't as good, obviously, but was one of the more open and evenly contest games of the tournament.
18 year old midfielder Emre Mor made an overlapping run on the outside of a defender, ran to the edge of the box and sent in a cross for Yilmaz to smash over Cech. Necid had the Czech's best chance of the half but headed against a post. The game was end to end though the Czech's didn't work Turkey's dodgy goalkeeper. A free kick crashed into a section of the wall, Topal turned and calmly laid the ball off for Tufan to arrow past Cech.
Attendance : 32,836
Assists : Mor, Topal
UKRAINE 0
POLAND 1 (Blaszczykowski 54)
There was a ridiculous first half miss from Lewandowski. Milik worked a short corner with Kaput, ran across the Ukrainian defence before threading a disguised pass through to Jakub (sort your damn name out), he left a defender for dead as he switched feet and and fired into the top corner. Great goal. Kaput missed a chance on the break and Milik should have headed in a second.
Milik is only 22 so has an excuse for his poor finishing, Lewandowski does not. I could be wrong but I'm sure the bulk of the goals he scored last season came in the two month spell in which he was hot.
Attendance : 58,874
Assist : Milik
NORTHERN IRELAND 0
GERMANY 1 (Gomez 29)
A combination of staggeringly poor finishing and great goalkeeping prevented the fake Irish from taking a pummelling. Muller (x2), Ozil and Gotze all missed easy chances. McGovern, who managed to get in the way of many of these shots, made a brilliant one handed save to thwart Muller's point blank, diving header. Muller couldn't work an opening from an Ozil through ball and with McGovern at his feet, he cut back for Gomez to score. Muller hammered a shot against the crossbar at the end of the first half. Gotze and Gomez, missed further chances in the second half.
If Germany continue to finish like this they won't go very far. For all the midfielders they've produced in recent years, their centre forwards are garbage and they're not producing. That a player that plies his trade at Besiktas is in the squad tells it's own story.
Attendance : 44,125
Assist : Muller
20 June 2016
SLOVAKIA 0
ENGLAND 0
Vardy was put through by a longball ala Leicester but he shot straight at Kozacik, who did well to close down the angles. Unfortunately for England, a chance fell to Lallana who predictably smashed the ball straight at the 'keeper. In the second half Hart had one of his brain farts, a mix-up with Smalling should have been punished by Mak. Skrtel hacked off the line from substitute Dele Alli and Sturridge kicked fresh air from six yards.
This was similar to England's previous two games in that they had the Lion's share of possession and did little of note with it. Slovakia came for a point and aside from the aforementioned chances by Vardy and Dele Alli, weren't really troubled.
Attendance : 39,051
Assists : n/a
RUSSIA 0
WALES 3 (Ramsey 11, Taylor 20, Bale 67)
The Welsh tore through Russia's awful offside trap to thrash the next World Cup hosts and end Slutsky's reign as coach with a heavy defeat. Chester broke up an attack and passed to Allen who played in Ramsey with a superb through ball, a great first touch took him in on goal and he lobbed Akinfeev as he came off his line. Bale split six players with a glorious pass to Taylor and he scored at the second attempt. Vokes should have gave the Welsh a 0-3 half time lead after Bale ran 80 yards. Man of the match Ramsey threw a couple of stepovers as he cut inside two Russian defenders before flicking a disguised pass through for Bale to score the third.
Attendance : 28,840
Assists : Allen, n/a, Ramsey