God kväll! Boa tarde!
Yes. On this balmy central European (well, central London) evening, we bring you the endgame. The ‘slutspel’ or, as the Portuguese Google Translate would have it, the ‘endgame’. In the next hour or three, one of Portugal and Sweden will win the European Under-21 Championship for the first time and, boy, will they have deserved it. But who starts off in higher spirits when they knuckle down in Prague’s Eden Arena shortly?
Will it be the Portuguese, who eviscerated highly-favoured Germany on Saturday with a surgical yet intricate display that would bear rewatching and rewatching? So comfortable were they that they could remove the delightful Bernardo Silva just a few minutes into the second half, and yet they continued to go for the jugular with an intelligent, varied display that made you wonder how on earth they can be stopped now.
But might it be Sweden? Sweden, who just a couple of hours after the Germans’ grisly dissection carried out something nearly as terrifying in their own semi-final. Perhaps even more so as it was their time-honoured rivals, Denmark, who were put to the sword! The Swedes were outstanding in their 4-1 win and need to be taken very seriously indeed – particularly as you can’t imagine them leaving anywhere near as much space in behind as Germany did.
If it helps you pick a winner, the teams have already played each other in this tournament and, to the suspicion of some, it finished 1-1.
Going to be close, this. And should be a fine atmosphere too, particularly if the Swedish fans’ presence at the tournament thus far is anything to go by. So come, watch, play, join in – kick-off is at 7.45pm.
Nick will be here soon.
