The European Cup will start the 1/8 finals in the early morning of June 30, with two exciting matchups every day to advance or go home, first one in the upper and lower halves of the diagonal 1/4 zone, then two games in the upper half of the "1/4 zone of death" in the upper half of Portugal, France and Belgium, and finally two games in the 1/4 zone in the lower half of the Netherlands. In chronological order, Switzerland vs. Italy, Germany vs. Denmark; England vs Slovakia, Spain vs Georgia; France vs Belgium, Portugal vs Slovenia; Romania vs Netherlands, Austria vs Turkey.
Defending champions Italy meet old rivals Switzerland (00:00 on 30 June)
Italy and Switzerland have met many times in recent years. Three years ago, Italy thrashed Switzerland 3-0 in the second round of the group stage of the last European Championship, with Locatelli scoring twice, and as Mobile was the icing on the cake, neither player was included in the squad for this tournament.
In the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, Italy and Switzerland were once again placed in the same group. Switzerland drew 0-0 at home and 1-1 away to Italy, and midfielder Jorginho missed key penalties in two games and became the "sinner" of Italian football. Switzerland qualified directly as group winners, while Italy, who finished second in the group, had to play in the play-offs. In the play-off semifinals, Italy was upset at home and was beaten 0-1 by North Macedonia, creating a "miracle" of the new European Championship champion missing the World Cup.
Italy are the most neglected defending champions, with the Azzurri starry dim. In the final round of the group stage of this European Championship, Italy had to draw to secure qualification, and it was not until the eighth minute of stoppage time that Zaccagni scored to draw 1-1 with Croatia. Switzerland were strong in the group stage, looking to win 1-0 against hosts Germany in the final round of the group stage, but were equalised by German centre-forward Phil Krueger in the second minute of stoppage time.
A number of Swiss players have played or played in Serie A and are very familiar with Italy. Swiss goalkeeper Sommer is from Inter Milan, midfielder Freuler, wingback Ebischer, striker Ndoye is from Bologna, striker Okafor is from AC Milan, and midfielder Denis Zakaria only left Juventus in August last year.
Nagelsmann
Host Germany takes on Denmark, one of the semi-finals of the last European Championship (3 June 30, 3pm)
Of the teams that reached the round of 16, hosts Germany were the only team to use the exact same starting line-up for all three group games. With eight goals, Germany were also the most attacking team in the group stage, mainly from a 5-1 win over Scotland in the opening game.
With centre-forward Kai Havertz, three attacking midfielders Gundogan, Wirtz, Musiala, and two midfielders, Kroos and Andrich, Germany's squad is very fixed, and although there is a strong call for Phil Krueger to replace Havertz, coach Nagelsmann prefers to use the traditional German centre-forward as a super substitute. German centre-back Jonathan Ta is suspended for accumulating yellow cards and could be replaced by Borussia Dortmund centre-back Schlotterbeck, while the other three defenders remain Rudiger, Kimmich and Mittelstadt, with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer a difficult place to shake. Rudiger suffered a thigh strain in his last game and could have affected his form.
Denmark is one of the masters of the draw in this European Cup, and has drawn with their opponents in all three group games, can they force the hosts to draw in the 1/8 finals? In a 1-1 draw with England in the second round of the group stage, midfielder Julmande scored a world-class strike from outside the box. In the 1/8 finals, there is no heavy bombardment from Julmande, he is suspended for accumulating yellow cards in this game, and his place may be replaced by veteran Delaney.
Zaka
England Blunt Knife vs. Slovakia (00:00 on 1 July)
England topped Group C in a shamboy's form, scoring just two goals in three group games. Entering the bottom half, England should be happy that they will not face traditional powerhouses such as France, Germany, Spain and Portugal before the final, and the traditional powerhouses Italy and the Netherlands have slipped in strength in the bottom half.
The Three Lions struggled in the group stage, averaging just 0.75 expected goals per game, finishing fourth from bottom of the 24 participating teams. For England's starting lineup, various English football legends have given coach Southgate a boost. Gareth Southgate was England's first-choice centre-back at Euro 1996 and was ruled by Gary Neville, who was the main right-back at the time: "After trial and error, Rice's best midfield partner is Maynoo, and in the quarter-finals, Manchester United youngster Maynoo will definitely start. Gary Neville was clear, but it was Southgate who came up with the idea. Foden, whose third child was recently born, has returned to England for a visit and is now back in the England squad to help improve the form of the Premier League player of the season at this tournament.
Slovakia pulled off an upset in their opening group game, beating a star-studded Belgium 1-0. This time against England, Slovakia is unlikely to cause another upset. The last time England and Slovakia met in an official match was in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, with England winning 1-0 and 2-1 at home to Slovakia.
Spain and Georgia create the most disparity showdown (July 1, 3 o'clock)
In this European Championship qualifier, Spain and Georgia are in the same group, Spain beat Georgia 7-1 away and Georgia 3-1 at home. The two teams were also in the same group as each other in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, with Georgia beaten 1-2 at home by Spain, who won 4-0 at home.
In the last two qualifiers, Spain qualified directly as group winners, while Georgia finished fourth in the group. Georgia qualified for the European qualifiers for the European qualifiers with a strong performance in the UEFA Nations League C competition, and qualified for the tournament for the first time after Luxembourg and Greece. In the final round of the group stage, Georgia defeated Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal 2-0.
Not only does Georgia have Kvaratskhelia, the 2022-2023 Serie A MVP, but another striker, Mikatadze, leads the scoring charts with three goals and one assist. Georgian goalkeeper Mamardashvili, who plays for Valencia and was named the best goalkeeper in La Liga for the 2023-2024 season, is familiar with the Spanish stars who are relatively lacking in scoring ability.
Spain won all three of their group stage matches, beating two old rivals, Croatia and Italy. In the two matches against Georgia in the European qualifiers, Spain played another 10-2 aggregate score. However, the greater the difference in strength between the two sides, the more likely it is to become a "hotbed" for upsets, and Georgia is playing better and better in this tournament, and it is no longer the traditional weak team in the European preliminaries.
Mbappe
France vs. Belgium became sailors vs. sailors? (00:00 on July 2)
In the FIFA national team rankings, France and Belgium are second and third respectively, and the two teams entered the "death 1/4 zone" in the top half of the zone, and met in the 1/8 finals, which can only be said to be self-inflicted.
In the final round of the group stage, France and Belgium both won to top the group. As a result, France was forced to 1-1 by Poland, who were eliminated in the first round, and Belgium was forced to 0-0 by Ukraine, who finished at the bottom of the final group, and France and Belgium could only finish second in their respective groups.
France have scored just two goals in the three group games, one is that Mbappe caused Austrian centre-back Vobel to own an own goal, and the other is that Mbappe scored a penalty, and there was not even a single open goal scored by a French player. Coach Didier Deschamps relied too heavily on Kylian Mbappe, but the French captain, who wore a mask on the bridge of his nose, struggled to perform at his best. After the match against Poland, Didier Deschamps harshly criticised Antoine Griezmann and Camavinga's lackluster performances after coming off the bench. In the 1/8 finals, Griezmann and veteran center forward Giroud can return to the starting lineup and become a question for Deschamps.
Belgium failed to score in two of their three group stage games and were booed by Belgian fans in attendance after a goalless draw with Ukraine. Annoyed by Belgium captain Kevin De Bruyne, he called on his teammates after the game to leave the pitch instead of thanking the fans, drawing criticism from the Belgian media that he was "not worthy of being captain". How Lukaku performs, of course, is also an important point to watch.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal fight for 'revenge' (July 2, 3pm)
Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's popularity has not diminished, and in the group stage of this European Cup, fans have rushed into the stadium many times to get up close and personal with him during the game. However, Cristiano Ronaldo did not feel good in the group stage, failing to score in three games, breaking his legendary record of scoring in the group stage of the last five European Championships and five World Cups.
In the last European Championship, Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo won the Golden Boot with five goals and one assist, beating Czech center Schick, who scored five goals but did not assist. However, Portugal were knocked out of the tournament by Belgium 1-0 in the quarter-finals, and Ronaldo certainly had neither a goal nor an assist, and some fans dubbed him one of the most watery Golden Boot winners. Cristiano Ronaldo did not score in the group stage of this European Championship and of course hopes to get Portugal a better result than in the last European Championship. However, Ronaldo started all three group games, unlike the main players such as B Fei, B seat, and Pepe who got a chance to rest in the last game, which tested the veteran's physical fitness and sharpness.
Slovenia are a new rival for Portugal, with the two teams having only met once in years. On March 27 this year, in a warm-up match, Slovenia won 2-0 at home against Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Vitinha, Pepe, Cancelo, Felix and other stars starting the game. At the time, Portugal coach Martinez had arranged a strange pattern of splitting the warm-up matches, with stars such as Fernandes Fernandes, Bench, León, Palhinha and Sergio Ramos performing well in the 5-2 win over Sweden on 22 March, none of whom played in the subsequent defeat to Slovenia.
Slovenia drew three of their three games in the group stage of this European Championship and drew 0-0 with England in the final round. In the 1/8 finals, Slovenia will challenge Portugal's full squad for the first time.
Dutch authorities are trying to make a breakthrough (0:00 on July 3)
The Netherlands used to be a team that didn't care about the group stage of the competition, and in the group stage of the last European Championship, the orange team won three games and three times, but unfortunately lost 0-2 to the Czech Republic in the 1/8 finals.
In order to lay out the layout for this European Cup, Dutch coach Koeman took great pains to qualify as the third in the group, and cleverly avoided England in the 1/8 finals and entered the weakest 1/4 zone. In the final round of the group stage, the Netherlands lost 2-3 to Austria, and Dutch right-back Hetleida was blown up by his opponent. The Netherlands have two world-class right-backs, Dumfries and Frimpong, from Serie A champions Inter Milan and Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen respectively, but Koeman used a third option in that position in the third round of the group stage, Hetleyleyda. Coman also arranged for Simmons, the main right winger, to rest, and Malen, who started in place of Simmons, not only scored a wonderful own goal with a "tackle", but also wasted many offensive opportunities.
Some of the main players of the Netherlands got a chance to rest and faced Romania, the "dark horse" who won the first place in Group E, in the 1/8 finals. Of the 24 teams participating in this tournament, Romania is the only team with a total value of less than 100 million euros, with only 96 million euros, and the Netherlands is seventh with 610 million euros.
Austria enjoys the benefits of half of the hosts? (3 July, 3 a.m.)
Austria beat France and the Netherlands to win the first place in Group D, many people did not expect it, and some fans called on everyone to line up to apologize to Austrian coach Rangnick. Rangnick caused a lot of controversy during his tenure as interim manager of Manchester United, when Ronaldo, who played for Manchester United, looked down on Rangnick a little, and even thought that Rangnick, who had been a football manager for many years, was not a legitimate football coach at all. But after picking up the Austrian coaching whip, Rangnick has developed a quasi-strong team with a tough style of play and strict tactical discipline.
Rangnick is known as the "godfather" of German football, Austria has a number of players playing in the Bundesliga, and Austria is geographically close to Germany, so Austria is considered half the host country in this European Championship.
The third place in the group with four better results in the European Cup will enter the round of 16, and it will inevitably be the first place in the group in the 1/8 finals. However, there are 6 group winners, and the third group is not enough points, and the host Germany and half of the host Austria are each assigned to a group second in the 1/8 finals, showing the "high wind and bright festival" of the home game.
In the 1/8 finals of the last European Cup, Austria was eliminated by the eventual champion Italy after extra time. In the 1/8 finals of this European Cup, Austria meets Turkey, coached by Italian coach Montella, and it is expected to be a close match.
Source: Golden Sheep Network