Great Spaniards and Germans, France and Portugal behind expectations or a summary of the eight-final matches?

With the Austria-Turkey match, EURO 2024 in Germany has seen the full line-up of quarter-final matches. The eight-final stage saw some great matches, although the opposite could have been expected. Some matches, on the other hand, looked like an exciting spectacle on paper but fell short of expectations.

Interesting matches

The semi-finals kicked off with the Switzerland-Italy match, which did not promise to be a very watchable spectacle. However, it was a balm for the eyes thanks to the great play of the Swiss. The Italians played their style of play, which was also seen in the match against Croatia, but they were far from advancing. The Swiss were more active from the beginning of the match, which proved to be an important fact in the 2: 0 win.

Germany’s home games at the tournament are entertaining and it showed this time as well. Against Denmark, Julian Nagelsmann’s charges looked for holes in the opponent’s defence for over 50 minutes, but in the end they found several and won comfortably. The unlucky man of the match was Joachim Andersen, who scored a goal that was disallowed due to offside and a few minutes later his handball caused a penalty from which the Germans scored the winning goal.

The Georgia-Spain duel was a pleasant surprise. The Georgians were expected to have a deep defensive block, which the players held but went on very unpleasant counter-attacks. Georgia even opened the scoring, but after that the Spanish team’s tremendous quality and comfort showed. The main role in the turnaround was played by winger Nico Williams, who scored a goal and an assist.

Austria showed that they have tremendous quality in the group stage. It was considered the favourite in the match against Turkey, but its plans were thwarted by Merih Demiral in the first minute of the match. The same player scored a goal to make it 2:0 and after that the Turks experienced Austrian hell. The Austrian field was full, and thanks to the fantastic saves of the Turkish goalkeeper the match ended with a 2: 1 result. So despite winning their group, the Austrians are already in the eighth round.

The Netherlands entered the match against Romania as favourites. Ronald Koeman’s team, having learned from their failure against the Czech team at the last tournament, took the match by the short end. Cody Gakpo opened the scoring during the 1st half and gave the rest of the team confidence. The Tulips’ 10 corners in the opening half were enough to show dominance. Although Romania only defended, the game was enjoyable to the unbiased spectator’s eye.

Matches that disappointed

Although England’s match with Slovakia offered extra time for the first time in the tournament, Alia’s performance once again failed to impress. In the 1st half the attraction was pulled down by the Slovaks, but in the 2nd half they pulled a defensive block and the game was monotonous.

The inability of the English to get into the defensive block of the opponent ended only in the set time thanks to the acrobatic finish of Jude Bellingham. In extra time, the Slovaks had no more power going forward and the English could celebrate their progress to the quarter-finals.

Before the tournament,the Portuguese were tipped as one of the favourites for the tournament. Nobody expected that the Slovenians would put up such resistance. Apart from a couple of chances by Cristiano Ronaldo in normal time, the crowd didn’t see much.

The bag of chances was ripped open in extra time when Ronaldo missed a penalty and Benjamin Šeško threw away a chance in a face-to-face with Diogo Costa. The Portuguese goalkeeper then caught all 3 penalties of the opponent and the Portuguese dominated the shootout.

The biggest disappointment

On paper, Belgium’s match against France should have offered the most of all. The reality? Both teams exchanged more balls in the middle of the pitch than in the final third. France somehow controlled the flow of the game, but Belgium was registering the big chances.

Kevin de Bruyne unleashed a perfectly placed shot that was brilliantly caught by Mike Maignan. The game was decided by an unfortunate own goal at the very end of the game. France may have advanced, but they are still waiting for the opening goal of the game.

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