The UEFA Euro 2016 boot battle: Day 14
First day of the knockouts for Euro 2016. At last teams have to go for it, with a clean sheet and a draw not quite hacking it now, unless you’re confident with your penalties. Switzerland played Poland in the day’s opener, with no players involved in the battle.
Switzerland started very sloppily and nearly conceded in the opening 30 seconds after Arkadiusz Milik latched onto some lazy defending, but keeper blocked before Robert Lewandowski fired over with an open goal. Both teams struggled to create great chances, but Poland had the better of the game. It was they who opened the scoring when Kamil Grosicki ran down the left, cut inside and played it across the box. A clever dummy by Milik allowed it to go through to Jakub Blaszczykowski, who had time to place it through the keeper legs.
The Swiss came out in the second half a different team, and pressed on. They had plenty of efforts but were unable to get past Lukas Fabianski. In the last ten minutes, they had their best chance when the ball came to Johan Djourou. His shot was blocked but the ball then fell to Haris Seferovic, who clattered the ball against the bar.
They did equalise though, minutes later through one of the goals of the tournament. The ball came out to Xhedran Shaqiri on the edge of the box, and he mastered a great overhead which went in off the post.
Stephan Lichtsteiner buried the first down the middle. Out-of-form Robert Lewandowski then placed it beautifully in the top corner. Arsenal’s new signing Granit Xhaka missed the first of the shootout, blasting his very wide. Milik capitalised on the error by just squeezing his in. Shaqiri placed his in calmly sending the keeper the wrong way. Kamil Glik then made it 3-2 Poland, blasting his in. Fabian Schar converted well after that, as did Poland’s Blaszczykowski. Ricardo Rodriguez stepped up for Switzerland’s fifth, knowing he had to score. He did into the bottom left corner, leaving Grzegorz Krychowiak with the chance to send Poland through. He sent his penalty into the top right corner, meaning his side won 5-4.
Wales later played Northern Ireland in a home nation’s derby, with Adidas’ Gareth Bale featuring. The first half was about exciting as a punch to the face. Sam Vokes had a header which looked to be going in, but Arron Ramsey tapped in anyway only to be called out for offside.
Bale had a free kick about 25 yards out, but his well-hit effort was saved in the second half. In the 75th minute, Bale is played in down the right. He delivered a fantastic cross which forced Gareth McAuley to deal with, and he did by putting into his own net.
Ireland pressed for a winner, but it didn’t come and Wales held out to impressively reach their first quarter-final.
For his assist and good performance, Bale receives two points for Adidas.
The late game was Croatia against Portugal. Dario Srna and Cristiano Ronaldo started for Nike, whereas Ivan Rakitic featured for Adidas.
Pepe had the first big chance when he headed over a free kick. Ivan Perisic then replied shortly after with a tricky run before shooting wide.
In the second half, Marcelo Brozovic lacked composure as he fired over from inside the box. Domagoj Vida also squandered a great chance, heading wide from a free kick. That was the lot for the 90 minutes, so they went into extra-time.
It lacked quality with both sides struggling to create, until the last five minutes where a flurry of chances for both sides came along, including a Ronaldo effort which was saved. But with three minutes to play, Ronaldo assisted Ricardo Quaresma who headed home a rebound. Vida in the final seconds saw his volley go just wide and Portugal managed to scrape through.
Srna gets a point for the normal-time clean sheet. Rakitic and Ronaldo get no points for performance, but the Portuguese man does get one for his assist.
Adidas
Bale +2
Rakitic 0
Nike
Ronaldo +1
Srna +1
Overall score
Adidas 27-16 Nike
Tomorrow’s Euro 2016 matches
France v Ireland
Germany v Slovakia
Hungary v Belgium
Players involved
Adidas: Neuer, Howedes, Hummels, Vermaelen, Ozil, Pogba, Muller.
Nike: Koscielny, Evra, De Bruyne, Gotze, Payet.
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