In the early morning of July 1, Beijing time, the third and fourth matches of the round of 16 of the knockout round of the European Cup were played; England first suppressed and then rose in a thrilling reversal against Slovakia to advance; Spain, on the other hand, beat Georgia to advance and will face Germany in the last eight.
England 2:1 Slovakia
England finished first in the group stage, but the Three Lions did not perform as well as they should, with Southgate, Foden, Bellingham and others criticised; Coming to the knockout round, England still fell into a slow state, and Slovakia scored a goal in the 25th minute of the first half; England pressed almost all in the second half, but they were slow to score, and Rice's long-range shot also hit the post.
But Lady Luck still favored the Three Lions, and in the 95th minute, Walker threw the ball into the sideline, Guehi's header rubbed back, and Bellingham rose up in front of the goal and directly hung the golden hook into the net to play a perfect equal! England "came back to life" and dragged the game to extra-time. England's morale was boosted in extra-time, while Slovakia ran out of ammunition, with Kane scoring the winning goal in extra-time to make England 2-1 and secure a ticket to the last eight. This is also the first time that England have reached the last eight of two consecutive European Championships; Switzerland, who eliminated Italy, will be England's opponents in the last eight.
Spain 4:1 Georgia
In contrast, Spain's performance is much stronger; After three straight wins in the Group of Death, Georgia, the lowest-ranked team in the round of 16, are the opponents of the Matadors. Although Lenormand scored an own goal in the 18th minute of the first half, Rodri equalized for Spain with his trademark arc push in the 39th minute; In the second half, Spain was even more firepowered, first Yamal assisted Fabian Ruiz to outflank the score.
Nico Williams counter-attacked, one of them burst into the Georgian defense and then went to the ball with a volley to extend the advantage; Towards the end of the game, Olmo pushed from the top of the arc to lock the score at 4:1! It's a little regrettable that Yamal still didn't score in this game, and it seems that he will have to wait until the next game to become the youngest goalscorer in the history of the European Championship, but Yamal has now provided 2 assists in the European Championship, not only tied for the first place in the assist list; He is also the first U19 player after Cristiano Ronaldo to complete two assists in a single session. After the big win, Spain came to the top 8, and it was the host Germany that stood in front of the Matadors; These are the two teams in the best form since the start of this European Championship.