Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo (right) breaks through with the ball during the match in the third round of Group F of the 2024 European Football Championship on June 26.
On June 25, the third round of Group D of the 2024 European Football Championship was held, and Austria defeated the Netherlands 3-2. Austria fans celebrate after the game.
The Euro 2024 Championship, which ended in the group stage and was released in the round of 16, will be rekindled at 0:00 Beijing time on June 30 after a two-day truce.
Those fans who have stayed up late to watch the European Cup and are almost about to get out of internal injuries are very likely to find that the old king next door who fished to watch the Copa America during work hours in the morning saw a more ornamental event. After a bunch of tedious, ugly group games that work better than sleeping pills, is the European Cup worth watching? Many of the players and coaches who advanced amid boos comforted the fans: "The best is yet to come."
Although 36 of the 51-game European Championship has been played, perhaps the group stage is just a warm-up for the strong teams, and the European Cup, which has no reservations, starts at midnight.
Is the strong team "Gou" out of the qualification smart or obscene?
In the early morning of June 27, Beijing time, in the final round of Group E of the European Cup group stage, Slovakia drew 1-1 with Romania. On the other field, Ukraine and Belgium in this group exchanged blanks, so the 4 teams in this group averaged 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss with 4 points, and Ukraine had the least goal difference and went out at the bottom. This is the first time in the history of the European Championship that all four teams in the same group have four points, and Ukraine has also become the first team to accumulate four points but go out at the bottom.
It was Ukraine that was out, but it was Belgium that was booed. In stoppage time against Ukraine, Belgium won a corner, but De Bruyne beckoned his team-mates to come forward to protect the ball and delay time, and the Red Devils fans in attendance booed loudly. After the game, De Bruyne wanted to lead the team to the field, but in the face of the earth-shattering boos, he beckoned his teammates to hurry back to the players' tunnel, which caused the team's fans to boo even more.
In his post-match interview, "Tintin" reflected on his performance in the final moments: "We tried to win the game and we had chances to score until the 90th minute. But we don't want to take any risks on corners because we could concede and then we'll be eliminated. Sometimes you need to take some risks, sometimes you need to be smart, and today I want to be smart. ”
If they go all out to win Ukraine, Belgium will enter the bottom half of the zone and have a chance to walk on the "road to prosperity", but they chose to "live on their knees", and ended up in the top half of the strong zone, and they will face France in the 1/8 finals. Coach Tedesco was adamant after the game: "These are the duels we crave, anything is possible."
If Belgium chose to be "smarter" at the last moment, then France was "habitually constipated" in the group stage. As the favourites to win the title, Deschamps' team fell into the death half with 1 win and 2 draws to finish second in the group, which was unexpected by many. But in fact, since the 2014 World Cup debuted in a major tournament, Didier Deschamps' France team has never won all three games in a major tournament. No wonder he confidently said after the third-round draw with Poland, who had already exited the tournament: "Honestly, I'm not disappointed at all. Now that we have achieved our first goal (qualifying for the knockout round), we know the time of the next match, although we don't know who it will be (note: the opponent was not yet known). A new race has begun. ”
England, the favourites to win the championship with a luxury attacking group, has become the spokesperson for "anti-football". Although England qualified as the top of the group, they won 1 and drew 2 in three games, scored 2-1, and the scene was extremely ugly. England have played a total of 41 games in the European Championships, and have played 7 0-0s, which is the highest percentage of blanks in Europe.
After the slovenian draw, the England fans at the scene vented their frustration and anger at the team with boos. Despite this, Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate walked to his own fan stand. A fan threw an empty cup at him. "South Gate" did not lose its grace: "I understand. I'm not going to shy away from the questions. The most important thing is that the fans continue to support the team. I understand the way the outside world tells me. It's better against me than against the team. ”
Captain Kane also responded positively to the media's harassment: "If you look back at the previous games, you will see that we have contributed the brightest football in the knockout round. This was the case last time against Germany, Ukraine and Denmark, so there are sure to be more surprises. ”
Spain is the favorite to win the championship, and Austria is a dark horse
But it has to be said that Southgate is a "constituency ghost". Because of the 6 seeded teams in the European Cup, 5 teams went to the top half, and only "Three Meows" defended the bottom half alone.
In the top 5 in the first half of the region, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain are all ranked in the top 10 by FIFA. France, ranked No. 2 by FIFA, will face Belgium, ranked No. 3 by FIFA, and will be the focus of the 1/8 finals. But it's almost as to be expected that the two teams will be in a "picture but not looking" situation, and no one can forget that in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, the two superstar-studded teams combined to contribute to the most dreary game of the tournament.
The only possible pick-me-up in the middle of the night is with Kylian Mbappe and Romelu Lukaku. Although in the game against Poland, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Mbappe opened the goal account with a penalty, but still did not break the cycle of no sports goals in two European Championships. As for Lukaku, a professional striker (comedian on the pitch) with a small bald head and a beer belly, he has seven shots on target in three group games, six missed chances, and three goals have been denied by VAR, and the number of goals has been zero so far. Who knows what else he will miss.
The most suspenseful match in the first half should be Spain vs. Georgia. Spain, lacking world-class superstars, were placed in the Group of Death, but won all three of their games to become the first and only team to qualify for this European Championship. Rather than obsessed with formal passing, the Matadors under De la Fuente were clean and fast-paced, and instead of being difficult, they played with ease and joy in the group of death.
After the group stage, Spain became the favourites to win the tournament, surpassing Germany, who played spectacularly in the opening game. In the probability of each team winning the championship given by data agency Gracenote, Spain leads with 17.0%, followed by Germany with 12.8%.
Portugal could have won three consecutive group stage games, but the final match against Georgia was too thorough and suffered an upset, sending the team with the lowest FIFA ranking (74th) and first-time participation in this European Championship to qualify.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has set a bunch of records every time he has appeared, has started three games in a row, but has never scored. Against Georgia, Georgian No. 7 Kvaratskhelia, who used Cristiano Ronaldo as his idol, completed a blitzkrieg in the opening 92 seconds. And the "president" could only be substituted in the 65th minute, and kicked the water bottle angrily to express his dissatisfaction. In the previous 10 major tournaments, Ronaldo scored in the group stage, but in his 6th European Championship, he did not score in the group stage of the tournament for the first time.
The outside world hopes that Ronaldo's European Championship goals will not stop at 14. In the 1/8 finals, Portugal will face Slovenia. The opposing goalkeeper Oblak is an old acquaintance of Ronaldo: Ronaldo has scored 25 goals against Atletico Madrid, and most of those goals have been credited to Oblak.
Germany is second only to Spain in the six group tops and will face Denmark in the quarterfinals. Denmark were tactically disciplined but tedious to play, with Eriksen's opener in the first round being Denmark's only highlight in the group stage. Denmark is afraid that there is no more aggressiveness to stop the Germans and Spain in the quarterfinals. However, this game will be the ultimate conversation between the two midfield giants, Kroos and Eriksen, to watch and cherish.
As for the "hypnotic bottom half", last year's champions Italy and runners-up England will meet in the quarter-finals if they make it through. The Netherlands and Austria, who are also from Group D, could meet again in the quarter-finals. With neither the UK, Italy nor the Netherlands exciting, Austria may become the dark horse that comes out of the slanted stab.
In the final round of the group stage, Austria forced high to collapse the Dutch "world-class" defence, and finally they beat France and the Netherlands to advance to the top of the group. Once Turkey is over, Rangnick's side are likely to reunite with the Netherlands. 20 years ago, the German Rehhagel created the "Greek myth", and Rangnick, who is also a German coach, has also made people have infinite reverie when he coaches in a foreign land.
Upcoming Events
●Upper Half of the Blood Leg
July 1 03:00 Spain VS Georgia
June 30 03:00 Germany VS Denmark
July 2 03:00 Portugal VS Slovenia
July 2 00:00 France VS Belgium
● Hypnosis lower half
July 3 00:00 Romania VS Netherlands
July 3 03:00 Austria VS Turkey
July 1 00:00 England VS Slovakia
June 30 00:00 Switzerland VS Italy
Written by: Nandu reporter Tao Xinlei Photo: Xinhua News Agency