Key events
Ben Fisher
It was a strange game in Dortmund last night, not least because of the wild thunderstorms that suspended play for almost 25 minutes. By the end Denmark and Joachim Andersen in particular were left feeling pretty aggrieved. He had a goal disallowed because Thomas Delaney’s big toe was offside in the buildup and three minutes later was penalised for a ludicrously soft handball.
The match was full of big calls – Nico Schlotterberg had an early header chalked off – and afterwards there was invariably plenty of focus on the referee Michael Oliver and the VAR Stuart Attwell. Andersen described it as “one of the worst refereeing performances” he has seen and the Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard said it was a “doubtful” display from the English officials.
“I’ve had Michael a few times in the Premier League and I’ve always seen him as a very good referee, he’s always been at the highest level, but I think even he would admit that this game that today was a doubtful performance,” Norgaard said. “I get it, like us as players also have doubtful performances now and then. It felt like he had to make up one mistake with another mistake, another mistake, another mistake. It was just like that throughout the whole game.”
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Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand took aim at football’s “ridiculous” handball rules following his team’s 2-0 defeat to Germany. He said: “I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball rules. We cannot require our defenders to run with arms like this [flat to their side], it’s not natural. Joachim is running normally, it’s a normal situation. He jumped up and was hit by one metre. I rarely talk about decisions but it was very decisive in our game.
“It’s frustrating for our team. Being 1-0 in front would have changed everything. In my opinion this is not how football is meant to be.”
On the referee’s decision to disallow Denmark’s goal, he said: “I have the photo here, it was one centimetre. In terms of statistics and date it doesn’t make sense. This is not how we are supposed to be using VAR. It’s one centimetre.”
In case you missed it, Switzerland stunned reigning champions Italy 2-0 in Berlin yesterday. Granit Xhaka was the man of the moment once again, pulling the strings in midfield. Remo Freuler broke the deadlock in the first half and Ruben Vargas sealed the win just 27 seconds after half-time. Murat Yakin’s side will now face either England or Slovakia in the quarter-finals.
Then, Euro 2024 hosts Germany managed a 2-0 win over Denmark thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala. Joachim Andersen thought he had fired the Danes into the lead just after half-time, but his goal was disallowed after Thomas Delaney was deemed to be a toenail offside. In a crushing turn of events for the defender, he then gave away a penalty with a controversial handball just a few minutes later. Havertz tucked away the spot-kick before Musiala made it two in the 68th minute.
Preamble
Hello and happy Sunday! We’re back for another day of last-16 fixtures, starting with England vs Slovakia. Gareth Southgate’s side limped through the group stages and somehow finished at the top of Group C following a win over Serbia and successive draws against Denmark and Slovenia. This time around they face Slovakia, who qualified for the knockouts as one of the best third-placed teams.
Then, we have David vs Goliath – Spain vs tournament debutants Georgia, who stunned Euro 2016 winners Portugal with a 2-0 win earlier this week. Will we see another huge upset?
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