The biggest match of Euro 2024 so far takes place on Friday as two of the favourites for the tournament, Spain and Germany, battle in Stuttgart for a place in the semi-final.
The two nations have mostly lived up to their status as two of the favourites, as they have impressed throughout the group stage and into the last 16.
Spain current form
Spain topped Group B ahead of Italy, Albania and Croatia and that earned La Roja a knockout round tie versus Georgia last Sunday.
Georgia actually took the lead in that one, but Spain returned fire by scoring four goals to win 4-1 with Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Nico Williams and Dani Olmo getting on the scoresheet.
They are unbeaten in the tournament so far and only Germany have scored more goals.
Germany current form
The only blip on Germany’s competition so far has been a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in the last group game which game in fortuitous circumstances as they had to rely on a late equaliser from Niclas Fullkrug.
They have won every game apart from that and are the top scorers in the competition with 10 goals.
On Saturday, they dispatched of Denmark with a 2-0 win in the last 16 thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala. The penalty awarded to Havertz was for an extremely harsh handball on Joachim Andersen.
It is unlikely that Spain boss Luis De la Fuente will make any changes to his starting XI for this one, with no fresh injury concerns and no suspensions to deal with.
Unai Simon will start behind a back four of Dani Carvajal, Robin Le Normand, Aymeric Laporte and Marc Cucurella. Nacho is available again after a slight knock, but he’ll have to settle for a place on the bench.
Olmo replaced Pedri against Georgia and came on to score, but the Barca star will probably start again alongside Rodri and Ruiz in midfield.
At the moment, the dazzling front three of Williams, Alvaro Morata and Lamine Yamal picks itself.
The Germany side is less certain, but Julian Nagelsmann is facing some selection issues.
Jonathan Tah is…
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Author : editors@footballcritic.com (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-07-05 07:30:00
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