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Round of 16: Austria 1 - 2 Turkey 

What a brilliant game of football. Both teams should get some kind of award for completely nailing the spirit of tournament football. Turkey, fluid, energetic and classy for the first 65 mins, Austria patient, determined and so nearly heroic in the last 25.

It was tough to call. Turkey well deserved their two goal lead, but looked somewhat spent, and survived an alamo scenario at the end. Keeper Günok probably with the save of the tournament right on full time.

A real shame that Austria bow out, they've been fabulous, but the tournament isn't tarnished at all by Turkey still being in it. Great anthem, flair players, and fans that are relentless. The booing when Austria had the ball was relentless.

I've a feeling that the matchup of styles just won't suit Turkey Vs Netherlands, but nonetheless it's been a pleasure watching them.

Now to stare into the void again until Friday.

Murphy's Flaw

Round of 16: Romania 0 - 3 Netherlands 

I missed the kickoff (only by a couple of minutes, had a sudden urge to go buy some Stella), so I've no idea whether Hagi's condom-head look was a style choice or the result of an early incident.

Then what I tuned into was Netherlands looking by far the better side, but Romania willing to give things a go. So after a few drab minutes the game bounced along at a nice rate. Gakpo was good, although Danny Murphy was about as fluent at saying "Gakpo" as England's midfield is at playing football. We had "Gakko", "Gapko", "Gappo" but never the guy's actual name. Steve Wilson, the main commentator made a concerted effort to lay down a perfect pronunciation after each fumble Murphy made. Lovely stuff.

They ran out comfortable winners, and again, that is good for the tournament.

Players who impressed? Well their defence is excellent, Gakpo decent and the rest of the line up are willing if not excellent. 

The easy side of the draw is gradually stiffening up. A continuation of Austria's great form would line up a peach of a QF and the guarantee of a tough prospect for England in a semi, should they make it past Switzerland. I have a funny hunch though, that we might see good Turkey again tonight. 

The sands of time

Round of 16: Portugal 0 - 0 Slovenia (Portugal win 3-0 on pens)

A largely disappointing first hour of the game turned slowly into an absolute classic. As soon as Slovenia got a sniff of it being on, they morphed, wonderfully, into Shithouse FC and I'm absolutely here for that kind of stuff.

Banks of four. Heroic defending. A majestic keeping display from Oblak. Ronaldo demanding all set pieces and (still, after all these years) wazzing them over the bar. 

And yet, despite Portugal's dominance, Slovenia started to threaten. Their finishing was woeful, a function of being unpracticed and unused in the tourney this far. This was to recur horribly in the shootout but not before we saw the sands of time catching up with both Pepe and Ronaldo. Pepe had his very own Gerrard moment, as his legs and brain had a disagreement about what 41 year old men are capable of doing, running wise, two hours into a match. Slovenia's finishing let him off the hook. Ronaldo had an existential after seeing Oblak saving his earlier pen. Both players have more viable alternatives on the bench, but Martinez is afflicted with the same loyalty/cowardice (delete as per your preference) as Southgate, preferring the misty image of what once was, to the cold reality of what is actually happening.

A satisfying match, and the right result. This side of the draw is going to keep on giving.

Jan VertOGen

Round of 16: France 1 - 0 Belgium 

Belgium are the new England. A team full of stars, on paper a real contender, but on the pitch just not quite doing it. With my Villa bias I was surprised that Tielemans was benched, they missed his incisive passing this afternoon. Doku ran about and threatened to look threatening, without ever actually really being threatening. Lukaku toiled away again, De Bruyne only had flashes.

France spent the match just wazzing shot after shot high or wide. Even their winner was headed well wide, before Vertongen cemented OG as the most likely golden boot winner. Cruel luck in the moment, but France were far better overall. Kante in particular is looking absolutely great. Tight control, bags of energy and uses the ball really well.

I'd hoped it would be a classic, but not so. Never mind, only an hour til the next one!

Bye Georgia

Round of 16: Spain 4 - 1 Georgia

I clean forgot to post about this match last night. I was just enjoying an entertaining  game of football. We've been lucky in the last couple of games to be able to bounce directly from the numbness of an England match right into something more fun 

And this one was a cracker. Spain are simply sumptuous and will take some stopping. That said, Georgia gave them a fright and seem to have approached the competition in exactly the right way. Enjoy it, play your best football, be fearless, excel. They will be missed for sure. 

They were never going to hold onto that lead, such was the Spanish dominance, but rather than resort to damage limitation, they kept trying, kept breaking menacingly and basically made a right good night of it.

In Rodri, Spain just have the complete player. He is a DM who has perfect passing range and an eye for goal. And he's a big lad too. An absolute dream to have him in your side. 

Surely whoever wins the plate competition on England's side of the draw can look forward to an absolute pumping in the final against this lot. Or is the smart play to do what Southgate is doing, and reserve all evidence of actual football until the business end of the tournament? Time will tell.

Next up is this corking tie between France and Belgium. My money is on Lukaku to finally catch those breaks. Should be a good one.

Rinse and repeat

I'll confess it. After watching 85 minutes of that, I wanted us to lose. When Rice took the ball and inadvertently rounded Pickford, I daydreamed of him just smashing it into his own goal, making the aeroplane arms and running straight down the tunnel and onto the first EasyJet. Absolute dogshit. I know I should be better, cheer on the three lions and all that, but I just don't want us to do it like this.

We  (/Southgate) are (/is) so lucky we have a player of the calibre of Bellingham, because nothing (from the limited pot of things tried) was going to work tonight.

We all spent the second half looking at the bench, expecting action, but only seeing the perfectly pressed zipper top, clad by it's paralysis-personified-politics-puppet.

Once we'd grabbed the last gasp equaliser, there was of course only going to be one winner. Momentum is a real thing. But even then, we did give them a shout, with defensive minded substitutions, to really hammer home the smash-and-grab vibe that we are rocking.

And so on we go. Wait to hear about how all the subs have tired themselves out, and haven't had many minutes in their legs lately, and thus we must go unchanged into the Switzerland game. Maybe it's coming home, but it's reeking of piss and has got kebab meat all down it's zipper top.

End of Danes

Round of 16: Germany 2 - 0 Denmark

This game was like an advanced refereeing course. Michael Oliver and his crew were presented with the full gamut of scenarios throughout the evening, including how to deal with the apocalypse.

Whilst I was lamenting the handball decision that killed off Denmark's second half momentum, it's hard to argue at all with the result. Germany spent the first and last quarters of the match running through the Danes and could have scored a hatful. Denmark were slow to start, rallied briefly, but just didn't have much threat going forward.

They are a strange team, Germany. In large parts, they look excellent. Two physical centre halves, decent full backs, supreme tidiness in Kimmich and Kroos and the pace and flair of Musiala and Sane. They've got it all, but they also seem to lose momentum and have fragile periods in games. I don't expect Spain to pass up the chance to capitalise on this, if they beat Georgia and face Germany in the quarters.

Off to sleep now, I need to steel myself for the Southgate show tomorrow.

 

Xhaka can

Round of 16: Switzerland 2 - 0 Italy

This was set to be a good matchup. Switzerland had been impressive until this point, and Italy had been stumbling after looking very sharp in group game one. But only one of the teams showed up this afternoon, Italy looking like they'd had something put into their coffee, completely out of sorts.

They missed Califiore, a Pau Torres like influence in their defense, starting all the moves and making up an extra man in midfield once in possession. But this wasn't a case of missing a player or two, the whole team (Donnarumma aside) looked absent, off it, defeated from the outset.

Credit to the Swiss (that was so, so nearly the  blog title). They dominated the ball and looked utterly at ease, scoring two smart goals and posing the much greater threat. Vargas was a constant menace, Xhaka was everywhere. They are, and I don't mean this critically, a product of the homogenisation of international football. Slowly, each teams national identity is waning, as more and more players are facing each other at top clubs week in week out. So where the Swiss used to be workmanlike and uninspiring, they now have top pros who get it done on a regular basis, and it shows.

So England or Slovakia will play for the right to face the Swiss in the QF, a prospect that normally speaking would be a dream ticket to the semi. Let us see.