The UEFA Euro 2016 boot battle: Day 2
Second day of the 2016 Euros, and two of the home nations were involved. But before that, it was Switzerland’s turn to open their campaign against Albania.
Fabian Schaer heading in after five minutes following a keeping misjudgement, putting the Swiss 1-0 up. Lorik Cana received two first-half bookings, firstly for a rash challenge and the second one for a humorous and blatant handball following a slip.
Despite only having ten men, Albania fought heroically in the second half and had numerous great chances to score, but Switzerland held on for the win. There were no players involved in the Adidas-Nike battle in this match.
Adidas did have a representative in the next game though, in the form of Gareth Bale. Wales took on Slovakia, and nearly conceded an early goal when a magnificent Marek Hamsik run and subsequent finish was excellently cleared off the line. After ten minutes though, Bale stepped up for a free-kick, and fired it home to open the scoring.
Ondrej Duda equalised in the second half with a nice finish after letting the ball run across his body in the box. But with ten minutes to go, Robson-Kanu was found by Aaron Ramsey and despite scuffing his shot, the ball trickled into the net.
So Wales and Bale got off to the best possible start, but where does it leave the battle?
It gives Adidas an extra two points, as Bale scored a goal and put in a good performance. That leaves them on 3 points before the England match.
And what a dramatic match it was too. Joe Hart started for Nike, and Dele Alli started for Adidas. England dominated the first half but only had a few shots on target to show for it, which were incidentally comfortably saved by Igor Akinfeev.
We kept the pressure on after the break, and came very close when Rooney’s shot was incredibly parried onto the bar. It looked like it would be a frustrating day, but then the Russians conceded a free-kick right on the edge of the box… Up step Eric ‘Beckham’ Dier.
He beautifully curled his shot into the top left corner, sending the England fans in Marsielle into delirium. Just 15 minutes left, 1-0 England.
Despite pressing for a second, England’s defence became undone in the final minutes. A looping header caused problems and flew over Hart and it was bundled into the net, with Vasili Berezutski claiming the goal to steal the points off the Three Lions at the death.
Neither Adidas nor Nike received any points for this game, as Hart and Alli both had games deemed not worthy enough of the ‘good’ title, and the point for the clean sheet was denied late on. This leaves the score at Adidas 3-1 Nike. Tomorrow sees an array of Adidas stars take to the field, primarily for Germany, where they will have a chance to extend their lead.
Adidas
Bale +2
Nike
No points
Tomorrow’s Euro 2016 matches
Turkey v Croatia
Poland v Northern Ireland
Germany v Ukraine
Players involved
Adidas: Rakotic, Neuer, Hummels, Ozil, Muller.
Nike: Lewandowski, Gotze.
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