There comes a day in most if not every tournament that it properly comes to life. That moment has arrived in Euro 2020. A few days ago I feared that the whole tournament might become a morbid, guilt-ridden side-show of an affair. But with Eriksen's recovery and some thumping games, the positivity is growing.
I'm writing this whilst watching a really entertaining encounter between Hungary and Portugal (my tip for winners), in a stadium containing over 60,000 people. The spectacle is just so much better with fans. As I started typing it was 0-0 in a thoroughly entertaining match, but Portugal have just switched on the afterburners and raced to a 3-0 lead, with Ronaldo inevitably at the heart of things.
Another game I enjoyed immensely was Scotland's game with the Czech Republic, seeing THAT goal (and all the memes that followed). That particular game and the unfolding group stage has given me two realisations:
1) that a hard-fought game is often more entertaining than a technical game. See any Spain match for evidence, their clean...no sanitised game is sterile and inert. Yet in both Scotland and Czech Republic we saw what graft and heart can bring to a game. There was genuine needle and I loved it!
2) that the weird 3rd place qualification rules might not actually be a bad thing. I'll be honest, I was super anti-this as a rule; but as I am watching the groups develop it is clear that many of the teams and matches are fairly well balanced, and the strange tournament setup might actually ensure that all of the group games remain meaningful. Even Hungary, who have taken a 3-0 beating tonight have showed enough to retain some hope that they might get a result in game 2 or 3 and sneak through. This can only be a good thing.
I need to go put my kids to bed now - and then settle down for an absolute treat of a match - Germany vs France - what a fixture.
No comments:
Post a Comment