Euro 2016 Round of 16 – Day Two

France 2, Republic of Ireland 1
Goals: Robbie Brady (IRL) 2’ (PK), Antoine Griezmann (FRA) 58’, 61’

General Thoughts:

• Ireland and France have met in some noteworthy competitive matches before, namely in a playoff late in 2009 during the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup. This was the infamous Hand of Fraud game, where Thierry Henry got away with two blatant handballs in rapid succession right before assisting on the goal that sent France to the World Cup.[1]
• Great call by Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli[2] to award Ireland a penalty in the second minute. That was a clear foul – but there are a lot of referees out there who wouldn’t have done so that early in the game.[3]
• Robbie Brady calmly buried that penalty to give Ireland the lead in the 3rd minute. Do not underrate his execution here.  Scoring a penalty[4] early against the tournament host, and one that your country wants revenge on, to boot?  Not easy.
• Ireland and their supporters were furious in the 33rd minute after midfielder Jeff Hendrick took a kick from French midfielder Paul Pogba and suffered a thigh injury.[5]
• What a great defensive stand by Ireland shortly before halftime! They blocked three French shots in rapid succession.
• How many times did French keeper Hugo Lloris save France’s tails with spectacular saves?
• GREAT cross by in the 58th minute by French defender Bacary Sagna to set up forward Antoine Griezmann’s equalizing goal.  Three minutes later, Griezmann made a beautiful run to break free, when he laced a shot into the bottom corner of the net to give France the lead.
• In the 60th minute, Ireland earned a corner that the officials completely missed. Ireland’s shot at the net caromed off of a French defender’s head before going over the end line, and it wasn’t a glancing deflection.
• That was a CLEAR red card in the 66th minute that Rizzoli got 100% right. Irish defender Shane Duffy chopped Griezmann down from behind while he had just the goalie to beat.[6]  Easy call.
• France pulled off another one, but their tournament hasn’t been all that good. For most of the minutes that they’ve played, they have been mediocre or lousy.  In the few minutes that they’ve been good, they’ve looked unstoppable.  But how long can they get away with snatching victory from the jaws of defeat?[7]

June 29,  2016, 11:55 am MST

Germany 3, Slovakia 0
Goals: Jérôme Boateng (GER) 8’, Mario Gómez (GER) 43’, Julian Draxler (GER) 63’

General Thoughts:

• These two teams are each typically fun to watch.
• Great setup on the Boateng goal, which was his first international goal.
• I cannot disagree with the decision to award a penalty in the 13th minute. It was the correct call.
• Great save by Slovakian keeper Matúš Kozáčik on Mesut Özil’s penalty. The announcers were critical of Özil’s approach to the kick, but it was a great save nonetheless.[8]
• Shortly after German keeper Manuel Neuer made a brilliant save to preserve Germany’s lead in the 41st minute, German forward Mario Gómez[9] scored Germany’s second goal. Teams simply have to take advantage of every opportunity against Die Mannschaft.
• Germany could have been ahead by three or four goals at the half.
• Julian Draxler could not have been more open when he scored Germany’s third goal in the 63rd minute.
• Germany dominated, but Slovakia didn’t help matters early on by blowing their opportunities.
• Germany will face the winner of the Italy-Spain game in the quarterfinals. Spain knocked them out of the 2008 Euro and the 2010 World Cup, while Italy knocked them out of the 2012 Euro.  Furthermore, Germany has never defeated Italy in any match during a major tournament.[10]

June 29, 2016, 11:55 am MST

 

Belgium 4, Hungary 0
Goals: Toby Alderweireld (BEL) 10’, Michy Batshuayi (BEL) 78’, Eden Hazard (BEL) 80’, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco (BEL) 90+1’

General Thoughts:

• Hungary assaulted the Belgian goal early, but Belgian keeper Thibault Courtois – one of the best in the world at his position – easily saved their shots.
• Belgian defender Toby Alderweireld’s goal in the 10th minute off of a free kick was gift-wrapped by Hungary – they left him wide open, for crying out loud – but let’s be honest. Belgium came out guns blazing, and it was only a matter of time before they scored.
• The ESPN announcers kept pronouncing Alderweireld’s name wrong.
• I loved Belgian forward Michy Batshuayi’s goal and subsequent celebratory aerial flip in the 78th minute, and I also loved Eden Hazard’s blast into the lower corner from the top of the box two minutes later.
• Hungary did a great job to hang with the Belgians, but they simply ran out of gas in the final 12-15 minutes of the game. Despite that, they have a lot to be proud of in their first major tournament since 1986.  I expect to see several more appearances from them in the coming years.
• Hungary’s goalie impressed me in every one of his games. He’s 40 – the oldest player in the history of the Euros – and yet he has made acrobatic saves in every one of his games.
• Hungary played well to get here, but they ran into a buzzsaw. Belgium is the early favorite from their half of the bracket to make the final.
• Belgium finally played up to their potential. I expect to see it continue.  This team is loaded.

June 29, 2016, 1:14 pm MST

[1] Look for this play on YouTube.  It’s bad.  Really bad.  As a further note, in one of the best examples of a team getting their comeuppance, France’s World Cup campaign that year was a disaster, with a team-wide meltdown during practice culminating in high-profile players being sent home and coach Raymond Domenech being forcefully canned.

[2] Rizzoli was the referee for the 2014 World Cup finals, and is widely considered to currently be the best soccer referee in the world.  I am probably the 10,132nd best.

[3] If you’re asking, “Isn’t a penalty a penalty no matter when it occurs?”  The answer is, “yes, it is,” but there are referees who won’t pull the trigger that early.  And I have friends who will probably argue this point in the comment section.

[4] England fans can stop reading the sentence right here and say, “Yeah, that’s really tough.”  Especially during a shootout.  No, I will not stop making jokes about England in penalty shootouts.  Not until they win another one, that is.  (They beat Spain in a shootout in the ’96 Euro.  It’s their only shootout victory.)

[5] Both managers were irritated by this as well.  Irish manager Martin O’Neill thought that Pogba should have been shown a card, while French manager Didier Deschamps thought that Hendrick wasn’t as injured as he led on.

[6] Had Griezmann scored there, he would have had a hat trick.

[7] Or a tie.  But seriously, “snatching victory from the jaws of a tie” just sounds strange.

[8] This was the first time a German player failed to score a penalty in a Euro since Uli Hoeneß missed on the fourth kick of the penalty shootout during the 1976 Euro final.  Czechoslovakia beat West Germany in that shootout, 5-3.  The last kick of that, taken by Antonín Panenka, was one of the most famous penalty kicks ever.  He chipped the ball straight down the middle as the German keeper dove to his left.  A chipped penalty straight down the middle has been called a Panenka ever since.

[9] Yes, he’s German.  He was born in Riedlingen, West Germany in 1985.  His dad was a Spanish immigrant and his mother is German.

[10] Isn’t this a great reward for the Germans?  They dominate a game in the Round of 16, only to face one of their two nemeses in the quarterfinals.