Going to wrap up this liveblog, but fear not: Barry Glendenning has got his MBM underway for the big match. Head over there now, if yous want.
Cheers, and may the best team win. Bye!
Some England stats for this afternoon’s game, courtesy of Opta.
- England have progressed the ball upfield 0.98 metres per second in open play at #EURO2020, the lowest figure of any side during the group stage.
- Hungary and Finland (both 19) are the only teams to attempt fewer group-stage shots overall than England (22).
- Italy were the only other team not to concede a group-stage goal but attempted nearly three times as many shots (60) as England (22), while conceding just 12 themselves (to England’s 26).
- Only eight players at the tournament who started all three group-stage games having fewer touches than Harry Kane (91).
- The England player to have successfully passed to Kane the most at this tournament is Jordan Pickford (seven), all of which came against the Czechs.
BREAKING NEWS.
The lads.
“Hello Michael,” emails Kári Tulinius. “If we’re sharing opinions on Sweden by random New York-linked celebrities, my favorite is this little monologue by Lou Reed from the wonderful film Blue in the Face on why he’s afraid of Sweden.”
You know, just in case.
Laughing at the uncropped version with the tags https://t.co/hGgQmG8eSW pic.twitter.com/5BoooXHXJg
— Calgie🏴 (@christiancalgie) June 29, 2021
Clarification, courtesy of an email from Sam Kendlin.
“I believe Will Ferrell is married to a Swede, periodically lives there and (sorta) speaks Swedish. I lived in Sweden for about six years and Will Ferrell seems to have been adopted by Sweden. He was a guest star in Welcome to Sweden a few years ago. Though obviously the best Sweden/Hollywood connection is when Bill Murray drunkenly drove a golf cart through Stureplan…”
Does anybody have any idea what the connection is here?
En hälsning till herrlandslaget från Will Ferrell! 😂🇸🇪
— Svensk Fotboll (@svenskfotboll) June 29, 2021
Är ni lika peppade på åttondelsfinal som @LAFC ägare!? 🔥😄
Here’s a bit more on that Vieira news. Have absolutely no idea how or why Palace wouldn’t go for Sean Dyche instead – if he was keen – as Vieira’s time at Nice was not exactly a success. It’s a big job at Palace, they are a team in transition, and it just doesn’t seem quite right to me.
Don’t agree that we have better players, but this is an interesting point about the success of Bundesliga players this tournament. Of course, France, Spain and Italy also all have breaks but they are shorter, owing to the fact that the Bundesliga only has 18 teams/less fixtures.
I’ve just had a sausage sandwich and ironed my England shirt. I feel invincible.
#EATDRINKGOAL
RIO RIO RIO! @rioferdy5 🏴⚽️#EURO2020#EATDRINKGOAL pic.twitter.com/BnMvdNdgs4
— BOXPARK WEMBLEY (@BoxparkWembley) June 29, 2021
Oh, bloody hell. I’ve gone.
TELLY GOLD: A decade on from Italia 90, Sir Bobby Robson reflects on the heartbreak of that night in Turin.
— A Funny Old Game (@sid_lambert) June 29, 2021
“We were a whisker away, son. A whisker away...”pic.twitter.com/Hy690H7ltl
As discussed:
For anyone that is sashaying around central London with their parents, their grandma, and a bucket of (very) spicy curry today, I salute you!
Jude Bellingham turns 18 today. Happy birthday, young sir. I would love to see him play a significant portion of the game, particularly if Germany again go with Ilkay Gündogan and Toni Kroos in central midfield. Of course, there’s a lot of quality there, but not a lot of dynamism. With that in mind, I wonder if Löw will instead opt for Leon Goretzka to combat Rice/Phillips/Bellingham/Henderson/other. Hmmm.
Couple of things to catch you up on transfer wise: Patrick Vieira is reportedly close to signing as Crystal Palace manager. The club are said to have applied for a work permit for the Frenchman, who is already in England as part of his work for ITV.
Also, there seems to be some progress on Albert Sambi Lokonga, a 21-year-old defensive midfielder that has already captained Anderlecht.
Lokonga deal progressing and ‘close’. Official bid from Arsenal confirmed as reported yesterday - more details:
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 29, 2021
€17.5m guaranteed fee, €4.5m as potential add ons, 5% future sale percentage [Anderlecht want 15%]. 🇧🇪 #AFC
Lokonga wants Arsenal - personal terms already agreed. https://t.co/lX6c9RzH5j
An email from Simone Palmieri in Italy.
“I was wondering after the early exit of the French team who are the favorites in your opinion?”
Simone will be pleased to know that the bookmakers narrowly now make his nation the favourites for the tournament. I think that might change if we see a really strong performance from either England or Germany tonight: remember it’s either Ukraine or Sweden in the quarter-finals and assuming they progress one of Czech Republic or Denmark in the semis. Eeeeesh, I don’t want to think about it too much. I’m get too excited.
Some fun quotes from Yann Sommer, Switzerland’s goalkeeping hero last night.
Yes, madness. I’ll give Robert De Niro a call to see if he wants to play me,” the goalkeeper told German broadcaster ZDF. “We noticed that the French had a phase after the two goals (to put them 3-1 up) where they were slightly arrogant and thought they had won and we took advantage of it.”
Do you like football? What about bad jokes? Are you a pedant? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you are contractually obliged to sign up to the Fiver, the latest of which is coming very soon to your inbox.
Yes, Mbappé was poor last night, and I’m not really counting the penalty as that can happen to just about anybody. But this is waaaaaaay over the top. He had a bad night, sure. Not sure who needs to be reminded of this, but the lad is world class.
Here's a taste of what #Mbappe faces in the France media today.
— Robin Bairner (@RBairner) June 29, 2021
This taken from La Provence, which, let's be honest, was never likely to go lightly on a #PSG player. 👇 pic.twitter.com/0mSRAKgsJP
Hello world. More completely normal levels of pre-match build-up, hype and derision coming right up! Might have a word with my editors to see if I can get the rest of the afternoon off.
Switzerland’s shootout hero Yann Sommer has been comparing himself to Robert De Niro: “Yes, madness. I’ll give Robert De Niro a call to see if he wants to play me,” the goalkeeper told German broadcaster ZDF.
“We noticed that the French had a phase after the two goals (to put them 3-1 up) where they were slightly arrogant and thought they had won and we took advantage of it.”
“I’m really proud of this team, how we came back, and how we played this game,” he told euro2020.com. “We always believed and before the game we said ‘It doesn’t matter what happens in the game, it doesn’t matter if we are down or if it’s good or not, we’ll go until the end.
“We never give up and it’s our chance to go through after three or four times that we didn’t make it. It’s incredible how we played with heart, with a lot of morale, and it’s beautiful.”
Italy beating Rotherham, the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Gareth Bale golf material … David Squires’s latest has landed:
How are these Euros shaping up to be ranked in the pantheon of great tournaments? It’s certainly giving 84 and 2000 a run for their money, and here’s a good stat:
Folks, we are now up to 2.81 goals per match – the same as España 82. https://t.co/tz6f0qJUAt
— Jonathan O'Brien (@obrien_jonathan) June 29, 2021
And Jonathan’s worth following for this sort of stuff, as the author of this authoritative tome on the history of the tournament.
“Regarding Tom Williams’ terrifying-sounding drinking game (see 10:26 number-of-times commentators say ‘the Germans’ not simply ‘Germany’) might I suggest a couple of changes in order to save lives?” writes Colin Young.
“First, make it a ‘pass a 20 quid note’ game (not a drinking game), everyone chips in, last person holding the £20 at full time keeps it and Second, to make it slightly easier to keep track make it about something that won’t happen quite so often but still regularly enough to be fun. How about: The number of times the commentators say Germany are ‘Efficient’ or any variation thereof”
I’m not sure we get “efficient” as much as we used to – even the hardest-worn cliches must clash with reality at some point – but “they always find a way” tends to get a good airing. As, of course, does the old fable about Never Writing Them Off.
Updated
With the goals flying in yesterday, you’ll be needing a Golden Boot update, and as the dust settles we see that He’s still out front. For now:
“For all the supposed ‘arrogance’ of this French team, I thought both Lloris and Deschamps’s post-match interviews showed class,” writes Kiran Dwivedi. “Both rightly credited the Swiss for a tremendous effort. Cracking match. As a Belgian, I feel if we can get past Italy, we’re in with a real shot now. But I also wonder if this failure will allow France to experiment and tinker before next year’s world cup. Heaven forbid Deschamps actually unlocks that squad’s full potential.”
“Like surely a lot of people watching yesterday,” emails Kári Tulinius, “the image that has stayed with me the most after yesterday’s matches was watching Mbappé trudge off the field, looking absolutely heartbroken. I’m clearly not the only one, as Pelé has sent him words of comfort:
Keep your head up, Kylian! Tomorrow is the first day of a new journey, @KMbappe.
— Pelé (@Pele) June 28, 2021
“Speaking of the two, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Pelé speak as warmly about any other football player than he does about Mbappé, congratulating him warmly after France won in 2018. Clearly he sees himself in the younger footballer.”
Mbappé is obviously a thrillingly rare talent, but he looked really off last night, the least potent of France’s attackers, and his miss late in extra-time was a more obvious howler than the penalty.
There’s so much sport on at the moment you’ll be needing this:
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhones or the Google Play store on Android phones by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the yellow button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
A couple more profiles on players (potentially) in action today. Andy Brassell on Jamal Musiala’s journey from England U21s to the senior Germany side:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/28/jamal-musiala-from-england-under-21-germany-beacon-of-hope-euro-2020
And Marcus Christenson on Sweden’s Robin Olsen:
You might need a well-stocked cellar for this:
Proposing a drinking game on Tuesday where you have to do a shot every time anyone says 'the Germans' instead of just 'Germany'
— Tom Williams (@shirleymush) June 27, 2021
For all that we may try to avoid too much historical baggage before a game such as this afternoon’s, it is staggering that England’s only knockout game win in this tournament was that extremely fortunate win over Spain in 1996 (one that would have been a defeat had the cursed VAR been with us then). I was at that one, and Terry Venables’s side were emphatically second best all afternoon, though I would add that it had the best atmosphere of all the England matches at Wembley that year. Here’s some highlights:
A spot of domestic news: Fernandinho has extended his Manchester City deal.
And there’s oodles of live sport elsewhere too of course. Get all yer Wimbledon action here, and updates from England’s first ODI against Sri Lanka here.
Time for a delve BTL and KelPen has some tactical comparisons between 96 and 2021:
Euro 96 should be a lesson to Southgate, he was the cog in midfield that needed to be moved back to centre half to make the team tick when a 5-3-2 was employed.
It is an identical situation and Declan Rice is Southgate.
Moving Rice next too Stones and Maguire would enable James at right and Saka at left wing backs. All 3 centre halfs can step into midfield to over load areas.
Phillips and Mount in the centre. You need speed to shut down Kroos and Gundogan.
Sterling and Kane up top. This formation enables James and Saka to provide crosses for Kane and has players who can pass longer to Sterling as Germany play a high line.
Defensively it’s solid but with high technichal ability. If England fall behind you can remove one of the centre halfs for Sancho.
One of the wing backs for Foden.
Interesting thoughts. This England side is a more talented one than 96 for my money but less settled in its formation, not least at full-back where back then Gary Neville and Stuart Pearce had a pretty well-established sense of their purpose in the side. And it’s a very different kind of Germany side.
This has been a sensational knockout stage so far, with each game having some kind of compelling narrative, from Denmark’s momentum-wave to France’s shock exit. Some might be predicting that Sweden v Ukraine at Hampden tonight might let the side down a bit in that regard, Sweden having taken part in these Euros’ worst match (against Slovakia) and Ukraine having looked sluggish in their most recent match, against Austria. But the Swedes looked sprightly against Poland and Ukraine gave the Dutch a proper game earlier on, so let’s not be dismissive.
Here’s a piece from AP with Sweden’s Mikael Lustig, the former Celtic man back in Glasgow.
When Sweden and Ukraine meet in Scotland on Tuesday at the European Championship, Mikael Lustig will feel right at home. The Sweden defender was a frequent visitor and winner at Hampden Park in a successful eight seasons at Celtic until leaving in 2019
“It’s amazing. I haven’t been back since I left,” Lustig said ahead of returning to the city and a stadium where he won four Scottish Cup finals. “All my friends in Glasgow, be there!”
Lustig is in rare company for the last scheduled game in the round of 16 at Euro 2020. Sweden last played at Hampden Park 40 years ago, one month before Zlatan Ibrahimovic was born, in a World Cup qualifying match. Ukraine have made only one trip, 14 years ago for a Euro 2008 qualifier.
Both teams lost those games against Scotland but one will leave Glasgow with their nation’s first win in the knockout round of a European Championship and set up a match against either England or Germany in the quarter-finals on Saturday in Rome.
About 10,000 fans are expected at the 52,000-capacity stadium in Glasgow but few will be able to travel from the two nations because of quarantine rules required by Scottish authorities.
“My view is that it’s a wrong decision,” Sweden coach Janne Andersson said through a translator on Monday. “I think it’s really weird that they decided to host the game where our supporters are not allowed to join and watch the game.” Lustig was more optimistic, saying “there are many Swedes in the U.K. I hope they get there.”
“I have many friends in Glasgow who can solve it,” said the 34-year-old defender, who won eight straight league titles with Celtic and now plays for AIK Stockholm.
Ukraine coach Andriy Shevchenko looked toward “a very big Ukrainian diaspora in the UK and we hope that they will come to support us.”
Lustig shares a little history with Shevchenko, the greatest player of his nation’s modern football history.
Shevchenko scored in that 3-1 loss to Scotland in 2007, and also got both goals in the only previous competitive game between Ukraine and Sweden a 2-1 win for co-hosts Ukraine at Euro 2012.
Lustig and current Sweden captain Sebastian Larsson both started that game, as did Andriy Yarmolenko, who is now the captain of Ukraine. Since then, Yarmolenko has played in all of Ukraine’s eight games at European Championships. The only victory was beating North Macedonia 2-1 on June 17, a result which put Ukraine into the round of 16 with the worst record of the advancing teams three points and a negative goal difference.
“In the end, fate gave us a second chance,” Ukraine midfielder Oleksandr Zubkov said, “and it is a sin not to use them.”
First buzzkilling email of the day comes from David Hopkins: “I don’t want to dampen the mood or anything, but I’ve just seen the quite horrific news that the England Supporters Band will be in attendance tonight. Any chance of a campaign for the BBC to show a repeat of last night’s games instead of the England match so we can avoid listening to them?”
Jonathan Liew’s column has dropped, and it’s on pitch invasions, and the increasingly shrill and pompous corporate reaction to them:
It’s no longer appropriate to say so publicly but, done right, a good pitch invasion can be brilliant: a thrilling and liminal act of collective transgression. And whether it’s Manchester United fans at Old Trafford, the rainbow-clad protester at Germany v Hungary or drunk Birmingham students, it’s possible to see in the modern pitch invasion something else entirely: a reclamation, an act of peaceful resistance, a reimagining of the sporting arena as a people’s space in the face of a culture that demands it be fenced off at all costs.
Updated
A bit of French media reaction: here’s today’s front page of L’Equipe - “wiped out”
Voici la une du journal L'Équipe du mardi 29 juin.
— L'ÉQUIPE (@lequipe) June 29, 2021
Le journal > https://t.co/LpDsJx28y0 pic.twitter.com/tMIVBjeRAE
Updated
Some Copa América news: Lionel Messi marked becoming Argentina’s record appearance maker by scoring twice in a 4-1 win against Bolivia to set up a quarter-final against Ecuador. Elsewher Uruguay beat Paraguay 1-0 and will face Colombia in the last eight.
Anyway, moving on. To this evening’s inconveniently timed 5pm kick-off. Putting all hype and weight-of-history stuff to one side, this on paper has always looked the most intriguing of the eight second-round ties. England nominally favourites but their ability to find new gears still in doubt after their low-key group phase, against an unpredictable Germany side that have already gone through the full range of performance levels, for good and ill.
They have injury doubts, with three of their more in-form players – Robin Gosens, Antonio Rüdiger and Ilkay Gundogan – doubtful for tonight. Gareth Southgate still has a call to make on whether to play Mason Mount on his emergence from self-isolation, and on whether to stick with the side that beat the Czech Republic or recall Phil Foden and Kieran Trippier.
Here’s Barney Ronay’s scene-setter:
And Philipp Lahm’s pre-match assessment is that both sides are in transition but that England have more stability:
Preamble
Morning everyone. Do we have our collective breath back yet? I had planned to kick off today’s liveblog by reprising Des Lynam’s “you may have heard there’s a football match on tonight” but let’s park that for now. You may have heard that there were two football matches on last night, two dizzying, bewildering, thrilling and surprising contests for the ages. Various English voices have described it as the best day of televised football since the 1990 FA Cup semi-finals. And those of us who remember those two classics are in no position to argue.
The upshot of which is, the world champions are out. France were unpicked by Switzerland just when they threatened to run riot, and hitherto rarely seen malfunctions in defence and in temperament proved their undoing against an inspired Swiss side. They’ll go on to face a quarter-final against Spain, who a week ago would have been most people’s last answer to the question, “Which Euro 2020 side will score 10 in their next two games.” They chucked a 3-1 lead too but rallied to see off Croatia in extra-time, Alvaro Morata taking his chances where Kylian Mbappé later blew his - another sentence that would have seemed barely plausible a week ago.
Anyway, before we talk England-Germany (and Sweden-Ukraine), you’ll be wanting some Monday night reaction.
Nick Ames was burning the midnight oil in Bucharest and brings us this Didier Deschamps reaction:
While Sid Lowe was drinking in the earlier game in Copenhagen and Jonathan Wilson tries to make sense of Spain’s chaotic progress.
