Football
5 players their fans expected more from at the Euros
Each major tournament will offer a number of fantastic stories. This year’s Euros will be remembered for the Swiss advancing at the expense of the French, or Denmark’s run without Christian Eriksen.
Each major tournament will offer a number of fantastic stories. This year’s Euros will be remembered for the Swiss advancing at the expense of the French, or Denmark’s run without Christian Eriksen. But in each country, the players who had a hand in the drop out are being dealt with after dropping out too quickly. Which footballers are now being criticised in their respective countries?
Grzegorz Krychowiak
Poland had a decent squad and Krychowiak was supposed to cover the back of the more offensive Piotr Zielinski. Already in the first game against the Slovaks he took an unnecessary swipe at Jakub Hromado, attacking him several times unnecessarily hard. Even in the third, crucial game against the Poles he didn’t help the team much, he was very inaccurate and he was a big part of the Poles’ failure.
Kylian Mbappé
He certainly didn’t perform badly in the group and even though after three matches there were two zeros in the goals and assists column, the opponent’s defenders had a lot of work to do with him. But his performance against Switzerland sent France home unexpectedly early. Mbappé was one of the worst in Deschamps’ side for the entire 120 minutes, often looking selfish, and was the only one to fail in the penalty shootout.
Burak Yilmaz
Turkey is probably the biggest disappointment of the tournament. A lot was expected from Yilmaz after a good season, but he didn’t come up with anything on the tip. The only thing he impressed with was his escalated behaviour at the end of games when the Turks were already without a chance to advance. Up front, he scored nothing when he had the chance.
Ante Rebic
Rebic seemed to have matured at AC Milan, but the summer tournament didn’t confirm it. He didn’t do well at all in the group stage and the highlight came in the eighth-final match against the Spaniards. At 1:0 he went to change his cleats and missed the equalising goal by Pablo Sarabia. He took a lot of heat from the fans.
David Marshall
He dashed Scotland’s hopes of promotion in the first game against the Czech Republic. When his teammates lost the ball, he didn’t immediately run towards his goal and it was those steps that he missed to intercept and knock the ball away. He also failed to hold his team back in the all-out match against the Croats (0::3).
Source: Euro 2020