Key events
A very simple question… are these Euros any good or not? Turkey v Austria sure entertained but don’t be skewed by recency bias. Overall, are you impressed? Opinion certainly seems split.
The topic that just won’t go away: social media abuse. It’s tackled here – in the context of England’s under-fire players – by Grimsby Town chairman Jason Stockwood. Beyond the Mariners, Jason is also a technology entrepreneur.
It’s hard to overstate how bad online interaction can be for players, who are constantly under the spotlight. A generation of young players are advised to stay off social media, but it’s a herculean task. Positive reinforcement can be addictive when things are going well, but a poor performance can create a downward doom cycle for those young minds. In the past, they only had to endure terrace shouts, which, though brutal, ended when they left the stadium. Now, they face a legion of critics online, with negative comments persisting long after the final whistle and into their weekends.
Staying with Ronaldo, while his antics and theatrics are an entertaining sideshow for the neutrals, Ben Fisher is very much taking the angle that he’s now more hindrance then help to Portugal’s chances of winning the Euros.
No player has had more shots than his 20 without a goal in Germany this summer and he is on his longest scoring drought in major tournaments: eight games dating back to the World Cup in Qatar, when he scored a penalty in the opener against Ghana.
Thanks Tom. Let’s open with a chuckle even though you’ve probably seen it. I wonder if CR7 has, or will his people have protected him from it? And, yes, there’s a graphic for the obvious follow-up question: what about Messi?
Anyway, I’ve got other fish to fry now, liveblog-wise, so am going to put you in the expert hands of David Tindall for the next while. Bye.
Now we’ve got a couple of days to take stock, conversation will turn to our deepest emotions teams of the tournament, games of the tournament and so on. What about the best of the eliminated players? First name on the teamsheet for me would be Mamardashvili, and Kvaratskhelia wouldn’t be far behind. Anyway, over to you …
But it wasn’t just fans of teams who’ve progressed filling their streets yesterday. Here’s a taste of the welcome back Georgia got in Tbilisi:
Lots of emotion among Turkish fans throughout Europe last night …
Turkey’s Demiral faces Uefa investigation over ‘far-right gesture’
Merih Demiral is facing an investigation for using a far-right gesture in celebrating his goals against Austria. More from PA Media
Turkey’s Euro 2024 last-16 matchwinner Merih Demiral is under investigation by Uefa for allegedly making a political gesture as he celebrated his country’s victory over Austria.
Demiral scored twice as Turkey beat Austria 2-1 in an entertaining encounter in Leipzig, both following corners from teenage star Arda Guler.
Uefa issued a statement on Wednesday morning confirming an ethics and disciplinary investigator had been appointed in accordance with Article 31 (4) of its disciplinary regulations to look into “alleged inappropriate behaviour”.
Uefa is understood to be investigating whether Demiral gave a so-called ‘wolf’s salute’, a gesture linked to the Turkish nationalist movement. Demiral, who plays for Saudi club Al Ahli, opened the scoring in the first minute and added a second just before the hour mark. Michael Gregoritsch pulled one back for Austria and they almost forced extra-time but for a wonderful save from Turkey goalkeeper Mert Gunok.
Some pre-quarter-final stats courtesy of PA Media:
The tournament’s two highest-scoring teams meet in Stuttgart, with Germany on 10 goals to Spain’s eight. Spain’s 82 shots also lead the way while Germany’s Jamal Musiala is level with the Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo – and eliminated pair Ivan Schranz and Georges Mikautadze – atop the Golden Boot standings.
Elsewhere though, Switzerland have attempted only 46 shots and opponents England 45, by far the lowest figures among qualified teams, while frustration in front of goal has been the theme of France and Portugal’s tournament.
France are yet to score from open play, with two own-goals and a penalty seeing them this far, while Cristiano Ronaldo’s 20 efforts on goal for Portugal are more than any other player in the tournament but he has failed to find the net.
That includes an extra-time penalty saved by Slovenia’s Jan Oblak on Monday night, though Ronaldo did score in the shoot-out that followed – in which Diogo Costa saved all three Slovenia attempts, a European Championship record. Turkey have faced comfortably the most shots on their goal of any quarter-finalist, 59 after Austria’s barrage of 21 on Tuesday.
The average of 2.27 goals per game is comfortably down on Euro 2020’s 2.78 as well as the respective marks of 2.69 and 2.64 at the 2022 and 2018 World Cups.
Euro 2020’s goal stats were helped by that one manic Monday when Spain beat Croatia 5-3 and France and Switzerland drew 3-3. That’s one thing this tournament, superior to the last one for my money, has lacked.
Media news from the England camp: sitting behind the desk next to Gareth Southgate later today will be the much missed, much discussed Luke Shaw.
This week’s Knowledge leads off topically on one-sided penalty shootouts, after Slovenia drew a blank on Monday. No mention though of the game that most came to my mind while watching it – the Netherlands’ total choke after Italy’s bus-parking masterclass in the Euro 200 semi.
Some transfer talk now: it’s been a busy summer among Europe’s biggest clubs in the women’s game and Sky is reporting that Chelsea are close to agreeing terms with Lucy Bronze after the full-back’s departure from Barcelona.
There’s more than a few good men out there. Here’s our old mate Krishna Moorthy with a cinematic retread:
Football Fan: I think I am entitled to the truth.
Gareth Southgate: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has fields, and those fields have to be populated by men with skills. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Gary Lineker? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Grealish, and you curse the manager. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that Grealish’s drop, while tragic, probably saved games; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, gets you to semis.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that ground — you need me on that ground.
We use words like “pass,” “shoot,” “VAR.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent achieving nothing. You use them as a punch line.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the ennui of watching a football match that we pretend to play, and then questions us on why we are playing like this.
I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick a Jose or a Conte. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!
As it happens, it’s interesting that dropping Grealish hasn’t figured too highly in all the soul-searching and agonising. Possibly because he’d just have added yet another note of left-sided uncertainty rather than solved it, such is the current befuddlement.
In other continental tournament news, Colombia held Brazil to a 1-1 draw in the Copa América in Santa Clara, which means the former top their group and Brazil face a tricky quarter-final against Uruguay. Colombia will face Panama.
Preamble
Morning everyone. So, the quarter-final lineup is complete, with a couple of mild surprises – not many will have had Turkey as quarter-finalists, and after their underwhelming group-stage performances, Netherlands turning it on and winning so convincingly yesterday might also count as a mild head-turner. But these Euros’ best matches have all involved either Austria or Turkey so it was mercifully no surprise that their meeting last night was another cracker, featuring the save of the tournament, by Mert Gunok from Christoph Baumgartner in injury-time. The only regret surrounding it from a neutral perspective was that it denied us another half-hour of fun.
So now we’re looking ahead. We’ve got two days of twiddling our thumbs and trying to find other things to talk about before it all resumes with the big Spain v Germany set-to in Stuttgart on Friday.
On the England side of things, we should be hearing from their opponents, Switzerland, this morning and we’re waiting on news from Uefa to see whether the European governing body’s head honchos consider his obscene/banter gesture at the end of the Slovakia game is deemed worthy of further punishment. Talking of Bellingham, Barney Ronay has written about his alpha energy, and the dilemmas over how to deploy it, here.
In the meantime, here’s some of last night’s pieces to digest: