It’s a tournament, over which hung a cloud of fear. Fears of terrorism and football hooligans rampage divert attention at the beginning of the field. Fortunately, the real drama took place on the field thanks to the fact that most goals were scored in the last minutes. Any assumptions that paper stronger teams pass the group phase as a butter knife were not confirmed.
In all three matches against France, Romania, Albania and Switzerland, the home team had to play hard until the very end, because his opponents were fiercely resisting by all forces. Reigning world champions from Germany again cede the first place thanks to a better score, respectively one extra goal scored.
Favorites had a lot of trouble scoring against less talented teams. In the group stage, it was an average of 1.92 goals per game, the lowest level since 1968. Some star players didn´t have star teammates or star tactics. Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic could confirm that.
One of the reasons why we saw few goals in matches was the fact that a large number of goals were scored in last minutes. Dimitri Payet scored a beautiful goal in the opening match against Romania, just like his teammate Antoine Griezmann against Albania. England surprisingly drew with Russia and had to play its best against Wales and was redeem thanks Daniel Sturridge overtime. Their overcomer Island clinched progress to the round of 16 in 94th minute of the last match against Austria. It was the fifteenth of seventeen goals that was scored after 84 minutes. Spain also had problems with scoring against our neighbors from the Czech Republic.
All of this drama ensure that it will be the tournament full of memories of group stage, despite the lack of goals. All football dwarves will remember it – Northern Ireland, Hungary, Iceland, Albania, but also our Slovakia, teams that recovered a historic victory / victory. For the first two teams, it was the first participation in a major tournament after thirty years. For the remaining three first even at all! All Europe could see how much these matches meant to these nations.
The Euro was also the first to be played in the new format. Objectively, it is difficult to say whether it’s better or worse. It was argued in particular, that the last matches in the group are played simultaneously, while first two were not, although individual results of these matches affected other teams. Portugal simply accepted that draw with the three scored goals is good enough to continue into the round of 16. Turkey knew that win by two goals against the Czech Republic would be enough to get over Albania. At that time they didn´t know that Northern Ireland will lose only by one goal against Germany.
Round of 16 again proved that stronger on paper does not necessarily mean to be the better (too bad for our case). The first match has confirmed it, although it was exciting until the penalty shootout. Xerdan Shaqiri scored one of the most beautiful goals, but after the final penalty, his joy was over. In the island derby Wales advanced thanks to an own goal by defender Gareth McAuley and for Northern Ireland, although the tournament was over, the team doesn´t have to be ashamed for its performance. Portugal confirmed in the match against Croatia that the matches are not won thanks to good football, but thanks to goals. Croatia has finished the tournament, though they surprised at the tournament by winning over Spain.
France has a new idol in the form of Antoine Griezmann, who took advantage of errors in defense of Ireland and two quick goals turned the game against the team,that surprised his opponent by scoring the penalty in the second minute. Hungarian virtuoso Gábor Király remained helpless against Belgium in the last quarter of the match, conceded three more goals and our southern neighbors lost to Belgium 0: 4. However they played a nice football in the group stage played nice football and surprised the Portugal led by Ronaldo. The Italians have mastered their tactical game against Spain and finally, for the third try they defeated the former European champions. England reaffirmed their poor form in major tournaments, when they shockingly lost to Iceland, the smallest country that has ever played the European champions.
Finally, I have deliberately left Slovakia. It was the first European championship in which our small country was present. Our players played according to many in the toughest group and ended with a balance of one win, one loss and one draw. Gaming performance? Mixed. Against Wales players did not play the whole game their best, against Russia, it was much better, but after the contact goal we got scared and only defended till the last minute, while almost conceding another goal. The last point in the last game has confirmed our advancement to the round of 16.
Our fairytale ended by Germany. Hand on heart, was someone expecting us to win against the world champions? No, not really. But we at least expected a goal, but instead, we got three. One way or another, Slovakia as an outsider left a decent impression on the tournament and some of the players will be bought by better clubs. In the next major championship, whether it is World or European championship we will not have the same players and there will be major changes. Ján Kozák will be remembered in history as the first coach who led Slovakia to the Euro and we all hope he will be also remembered also as the second coach who brought Slovakia to the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
photo: Flickr/Sean MacEntee