Euro 2020 has been a feast of summer football with fans back in stadiums, Hungary saw 60,000 fans fill their national stadium. We are waiting with baited breath for the quarter finals to start this weekend. 8 teams remain any of them can cause an upset, and of them could go crashing out and any of them can win. What are your predictions?
Predictions for the Final
The tournament splits nicely into 2 halves, the top half of the draw still has heavyweights, Italy, Belgium and Spain with the first 2 facing off on Friday. The bottom half of the draw seems a lot less daunting with only England surviving who are in the top 8 of FIFA World Rankings. If you want to have a try at predicting the winners of the quarters and the correct match scores, try this Euro 2020 Predictor and you could win yourself a food delivery voucher.
Highlights So Far
The tournament has given us some memorable moments already, stunning goals, courageous comebacks and penalty shoot outs. Patrik Schick’s outrageous chip from the halfway line against Scotland has to be the goal of the tournament so far. The evening of 28th June when 2 Round of 16 ties saw Croatia and Switzerland both come back from 3-1 deficits. Both teams were facing exit from the tournament, Switzerland clawed their way back to win on penalties whilst Croatia got back to 3-3 only to run out of steam and lose by 5-3 after extra time. These were the emotional highs, but the emotional low of the tournament and probably the year was the dramatic events that unfolded at the game between Denmark and Finland on the 12th June.
This was their opening group game, and the events and images that unfolded shocked the world. Christian Eriksen collapsed from an apparent cardiac arrest just before halftime. The medical team had to administer CPR and defibrillators to rescue the Dane on the pitch.
Thankfully, Christian made a speedy recovery after being rushed to the hospital but the few minutes in the aftermath as the crowd were hushed into silence, many in tears and his teammates forming a circle around his body prostrate on the ground will form an indelible mark on all who witnessed it.
The fragility of a healthy elite sportsman succumbing to a sudden collapse mid-game. We prayed for him and his family and in one event, our humanity and outpouring of emotion was united in wishing for him to recover and the importance of health over any sporting event.
Players to Watch Out For
If you are keeping an eye out for players from Merseyside, here is a list of players featuring at the tournament from Liverpool or Everton. Some of this list are already eliminated and the likes of Lucas Digne are injured and unlikely to play a part but there is still anticipation of what Dominic Calvert-Lewin can do if he gets the nod from Southgate. Jordan Henderson has got some match minutes under his belt and could feature more prominently as his 2 deputies Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice are both a yellow card away from suspension. Thiago Alcantara is yet to set the tournament alight whilst his understudy at Liverpool Xherdan Shaqiri has put in a couple of match winning performances for Switzerland.
Conclusion
We have been treated to some top-class football and a bounty of goals. What’s been surprising has been the number of own goals and missed penalties. As we progress to the quarter-finals, one thing is for sure the excitement and nervy errors by the players are only set to increase. Let’s hope they are not match defining and that the quality of the play determines the results.
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