Every match day morning we look back at the past and the coming European Championship, give lessons in European football clichés and let a colleague from abroad take a look at this country. You will also receive these texts as “The Summer Mail” by email in the morning if you subscribe to our “What now?” newsletter here.
The scene of the previous day
England seemed to have no plan, England seemed to have been eliminated, England was behind. Until the 95th minute. Then Jude Bellingham pushed himself off the Gelsenkirchen pitch and scored one of the best goals of this tournament, an overhead kick into the bottom right corner. Only Klaus Fischer has managed to do that beautifully for Schalke. A dream goal that was all the more valuable because the opponents took it so badly: extra time had only been running for 50 seconds when the Slovakians let Harry Kane head in the next goal. From the quarter-finals to the tournament exit in less than three minutes of play, you had to feel sorry for them. And if you want to know what it feels like to have a victory stolen from them so late: look at Laura García-Caro’s face. England, on the other hand, cheated their way through again and are in the quarter-finals despite their nobody’s darling football, as my colleague Oliver Fritsch calls it. Thanks to Bellingham’s artistry. Will he still be able to do this when he is 66?
Jude Bellingham in der 95. Minute © Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
The other game:
Spain – Georgia 4:1
The game of the day
France against Belgium (6 p.m., ZDF). A match that is of course also about who the bravest Gauls are. It is also the duel of the teams with the smartest jerseys in the tournament. And, almost as important: the highest-class round of 16 in football terms. At least if you look at the individual talents: Jérémy Doku (Belgium) and Ousmane Dembélé (France) dart and dribble, Kevin De Bruyne and Antoine Griezmann pass and direct, Romelu Lukaku and Kylian Mbappé attack and shoot. All men from the top footballing ranks. They just haven’t played well together so far. And the French stars now have to cope with the results of the domestic parliamentary elections. Some of them spoke out against Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National during the tournament. It didn’t help much at first, but the second round of voting is still to come. As Kylian Mbappé said: “I hope that on July 7th we will still be proud to wear this shirt.”
The rest of the game:
Portugal – Slovenia (9pm, ARD)
Who will be important today?
“I think I was born to be a goalkeeper,” Slovenia’s goalkeeper Jan Oblak once said. Which makes him the right man for tonight. Oblak will be playing with Slovenia in the first major round of 16 in his country’s football history. And to have a chance of reaching the first quarter-finals, he will certainly need a few first-class saves. Oblak will be up against the Portuguese attack of Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leão and Bruno Fernandes. There are more rewarding tasks. Weeding, for example. Or cleaning the bathroom. Or explaining to an egocentric but highly popular football superstar that he should sit on the bench. Also unpleasant. Perhaps that is why Portugal’s coach Roberto Martínez has not yet told Cristiano Ronaldo that. But in his homeland of Portugal, they have long been eagerly debating the Ronaldo question: does he make the team better or is he only allowed to play because of his name? Jan Oblak will not care – the main thing is that Ronaldo doesn’t score.
Dear Germany, …
(by Martin Schauhuber, “Der Standard”, Austria)
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… this European Championship is shattering prejudices. German reliability, German order? Ha! I keep finding myself pondering the host country as if I were at a U20 continental championship in a country that is far more foreign to me: Is it the fault of the local rulers that some venues are completely overwhelmed while others shine? Does the population tolerate the authorities’ blatant resistance to feedback, according to which the Gelsenkirchen transport concept “objectively worked very, very well”? Are these culinary curiosities reality or folklore? (Mettigel? Seriously?) Does Deutsche Bahn really exist? But in the end, the friendly people and the fantastic atmosphere save the whole tournament. Germany knows football, and the illuminated European Championship tourist is swaying on fertile ground here.
Phrase of the day
“What’s up, Outwachla? Is it raining?”
(Austrian)
Translated, it means something like: “Dear assistant referee, I do not agree with your decision. Are you perhaps not in full possession of your mental faculties?” The “Wachla” comes from waving, from waving the flag; the rain coming in indicates a roof problem. (by Martin Schauhuber)
Who is already European Champion?
Switzerland. In bricklaying. What ordinary football teams do on the grass pitch, Nicola Krause does with bricks, a mortar board and a spirit level. The man from Schüpfheim in the canton of Lucerne won the EuroSkills for bricklayers last September. And that despite the fact that Krause had already stopped working in this profession after he was seriously injured in a skiing accident. Now he is European champion. Perhaps a good omen for Manuel Neuer.
What was the quote of the day?
“Germany is playing at home, so we have to work even harder. But they are certainly not happy to be playing against us either.”
(The Spaniard Rodri looks ahead to the match against Germany.)
Every match day morning we look back at the past and the coming European Championship, give lessons in European football clichés and let a colleague from abroad take a look at this country. You will also receive these texts as “The Summer Mail” by email in the morning if you subscribe to our “What now?” newsletter here.
England seemed to have no plan, England seemed to have been eliminated, England was behind. Until the 95th minute. Then Jude Bellingham pushed himself off the Gelsenkirchen pitch and scored one of the best goals of this tournament, an overhead kick into the bottom right corner. Only Klaus Fischer has managed to do that beautifully for Schalke. A dream goal that was all the more valuable because the opponents took it so badly: extra time had only been running for 50 seconds when the Slovakians let Harry Kane head in the next goal. From the quarter-finals to the tournament exit in less than three minutes of play, you had to feel sorry for them. And if you want to know what it feels like to have a victory stolen from them so late: look at Laura García-Caro’s face. England, on the other hand, cheated their way through again and are in the quarter-finals despite their nobody’s darling football, as my colleague Oliver Fritsch calls it. Thanks to Bellingham’s artistry. Will he still be able to do this when he is 66?
