Euro 2024: The good, the bad, and the very, very boring

Morning.

There was excitement and tedium in equal measure at the Euros yesterday. The excitement came early, when Spain and Germany – two teams with a lot of good players – each tried to win a game of football. The tedium came after, when France and Portugal – two teams with a lot of good players – were victim to the philosophies of their conservative managers, and both played in deference, and to their detriment, to a star who didn’t/couldn’t deliver.

I really did enjoy Spain v Germany as a contest. Goals, missed chances, good saves, late drama, a penalty incident, 15 yellow cards and a red. It is kinda mad that in a game where Anthony Taylor was so card happy, he let Toni Kroos away with as much as he did. That early tackle on Pedri, which forced the Spanish player off, was far more a yellow than many of the ones he issued, but clearly he didn’t want to spoil be the one to go down in infamy by cutting short a game which potentially was Kroos’ last in a great career.

Spain took the lead in the second early in the second half through Dani Olmo, the Germany midfield nowhere to be seen – not for the first time either. The finish was smart, and at that point Spain had had 10 shots to Germany’s 5. The pendulum swung, the introduction of Fulkrug helped, and I thought Kai Havertz had a very Kai Havertz game. Involved, impactful, intelligent, but the end product just wasn’t there. The moment when he took advantage of poor kick-out was a perfect example: he was aware, on his toes, strong, quick, made the right decision, but the execution was just off. I don’t want to repeat myself too often, but if we can make that aspect of his game 10% better he’d be just fantastic.

Germany dominated as they pushed for an equaliser. After the goal they had 11 shots to Spain’s 2. Fulkrug hit the post, Wirtz hit the post, some of the decision making from the German players was poor, before a last gasp goal from the Bayer Leverkusen man sent us to extra-time….

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Author : arseblog

Publish date : 2024-07-06 07:18:32

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