Switzerland 2-0 Italy
Man, Italy kinda sucked! Switzerland dominated the 1st half, then tacked on a second goal right out of halftime and hit cruise control from there. Italy was shaky in the back, not strong in the midfield, not dangerous around the goal, this is one of the crappier Italian I think I've ever seen. The Swiss were good in possession, sneaky in the box, crafty in the box, they played good team soccer. Not necessarily quarterfinal talent but they are a complete team and well-disciplined, they're gonna be a tough out.
Germany 2-0 Denmark
Both teams had a lot of good looks, the score should've been more like 5-3 or something. Each team had a goal taken off for sketchy reasons: Germany for a foul I never did see and Denmark for the tightest offside call in the history of soccer. Germany was the better team, the better attack, more chances around the goal, so this is the right result. But Denmark played hard, they had some chances and their goalie was kinda great.
England 2-1 (ET) Slovakia
I like that Slovakia came out with a high pressing defense, that they didn't simply bunker into a shell in the face of all that English scoring potential. I think it threw the Brits off as they accumulated a ton of yellow cards right away and had trouble mounting a sustained attacked. Slovakia, on the other hand, put the ball in the box routinely and eventually scored on a breakaway (where the English defender seemed hesitant perhaps because he already had a yellow) and took command of the game before the half. I expected both teams to score, England had a few possessions where they were able to crunch down Slovakia's defense and exhibited good potential to either break through or connect on a corner. I didn't expect them to wait til the last damn minute of the game! But I wasn't surprised the game went into extra time. When England scored right away, it was kinda over for Slovakia because they'd spent the previous 60 minutes or so getting back on defense with the occasional flurry forward, but when the pressure to score smacked them hard in the face, they had nothing to go on because they hadn't built up any offensive muscle. England got lucky as hell--the two goals were legit, can't front on that--but the timing of it all lulled Slovakia to sleep and made them think they had the game won. Tough L for Slovakia, lucky W for England.
Spain 4-1 Georgia
Yeah, Georgia was able to stonewall Spain early on and then induce an own-goal to stun the crowd. But....come on, did you for a second think Georgia was gonna win 1-0? Me neither. Georgia bunkered nicely and for a long long long (long) time felt like they might have what it takes to keep Spain off the scoreboard, but no one can endure a 90 minute onslaught. Spain looks stacked, man, outside of that own goal, Spain pretty much controlled every second of this match. Good W for Spain, valiant effort by Georgia.
France 1-0 Belgium
France was the better team though these two sides are basically mirrors of each other. Fun match, neither team ever really grabbed the upper hand. But Belgium is still so uninspiring in ball control; I think the problem is De Bruyne: he should be the leader of this team and yet so often it seems like he's stuck all by himself on the other side of the field, he's got to figure out how to get himself into the action. As for France, Mbappe stirs the drink but--I dunno--I'm not sure he's what makes them good, they ought to be a more cohesive team with Mbappe as the icing on top when it feels like they try to defer to him too much.
Portugal 0-0 (Portugal wins on PKs) Slovenia
Strangely exciting game. Just kept waiting for Ronaldo to make a big play but he came up short every time--he even missed a PK, which I thought was nearly impossible! Slovenia hung nicely with them, this was an extremely even match, though Portugal had a few more scoring chances than Slovenia. Portugal had a few different chances to win, this really should not have gone to PKs, but hats off to Slovenia for giving them the what-for.
Romania 0-3 Netherlands
Romania put up a good effort, thought they had some nice moments on both ends. But Netherlands had more talent, more speed up front and though they had trouble finding the goal, they did find it early enough to really put the pressure on the Romanians and that was more than enough. The scoreline is misleading, Netherlands scored two late goals (and had one taken away for offside), as Romania had to gamble up front. Good match for about 80 minutes. then Romania completely ran out of gas.
Austria 1-2 Turkey
I thought Austria was generally better but Turkey found the goal almost immediately (after Austria missed a pretty good chance in the 1st minute) and rode that high for the rest of the match. Austria was able to counter quickly after Turkey's second goal but it wasn't enough to regain the momentum.
Quarters
Spain - Germany
Wow! This is a quarterfinal? Much too early for these two to be meeting, I'll go ahead and say now that the winner of this match will win it all. I think Germany is the most complete team I've seen in ages, they are good and deep all over the field. But Spain is probably the second most complete team in this tourney, good mix of youth and wily veterans, with a ball control offense that could possibly fustigate even the Germans. I gotta go with Germany but I wouldn't be shocked if Spain took this (and, again, this is the real championship game IMHO).
Portugal - France
Portugal is still chugging along but, man, they seem old, don't they? Ronaldo is still good but he isn't the great Ronaldo and the rest of the squad is good enough to pummel the sorry group they were in but I can't see them going too deep in the knockout stage. France has tons of talent, too, but they, too, have been kinda lackluster so far, dispatching their weaker opponents but hardly looking all that dangerous. This should go to over time, but I do think France is the better side.
England - Switzerland
England has tons of talent that has yet to really gel into a full fledged attack. Switzerland, on the other hand, just keeps churning, they play stingy in the backfield and have shown capability of brilliance up ftont. I like Switzerland to get it done--and though everyone will then say it's a huge upset, it isn't really.
Netherlands - Turkey
Turkey is a scuffling, scrounging squad that can hang with tough teams. But I think the Netherlands will finally show off some of the silky smooth attack that they ought to have been showing all along. Turkey will make them work but I think Netherlands is the better team and will come out on top.
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