After Match Day 12, the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament shows the following results and analysis.
Tuesday 22 June
Group D: Czech Republic 0-1 England (London)
Group D: Croatia 3-1 Scotland (Glasgow)
Group D presented some fine football displays from four teams contesting for available two spots or garnering content to scale through as one of best third-placed teams. England emerged top of the table winning Czech Republic 0-1 while Croatia qualified as second best after humiliating the weeping boys of the group, Scotland, 3-1. Czech Republic are also through as one of four best third-placed teams alongside Switzerland.
Raheem Sterling was emphatic from the first minute he was going to be England’s joker when he lobbed the on-rushing keeper but the ball narrowly hit the outside bar. For once, the Three Lions seemed to have a game plan and stuck to it. They dominated proceedings and by the 12th minute, Sterling headed in the only goal of the match off Jack Grealish’s cross. Heineken Star of the Match, Nigerian-born Bukayo Saka, was at his best, spraying defence-splitting passes, consternating defenders with sublime dribbles and running box-to-box to ensure the ball was mostly in the final third of the pitch.
Czech Republic on their own, put up a fine resilience to keep the score line at minimal 1-0 thereby paving way for their passage into the last 16. Goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík showed why he was first choice as he denied England lots of scoring attempts.
In the second match of Group D, Croatia secured their place in the knockout stages of Euro 2020 and dumped Scotland out as they claimed a 3-1 win in Glasgow. Having led through Nikola Vlasic’s early strike (17’), Zlatko Dalic’s men were pegged back before half-time as Callum McGregor notched Scotland’s first Euros goal since 1996 in the 42nd minute. However, the Croatians’ class eventually told, the evergreen Luka Modric (62’) netting a stunner before the influential Ivan Perisic (77’) headed home from a corner late on, equaling his country’s record for the most goals at major tournaments (9 goals). And that ensured the visitors clinched second place in Group D while bringing an early end to the Scots’ first major tournament appearance since 1998.
The Statistics
At the end of match day 12, the following major statistics are available:
- 32 matches have been played out of 51 matches
- 76 goals have been scored in all with an average of 2.38 goals per match and an average scoring time of 38 minutes per goal.
Wednesday 23 June
Group E: Slovakia vs Spain (18:00, Seville)
Group E: Sweden vs Poland (18:00, St Petersburg)
Group F: Germany vs Hungary (21:00, Munich)
Group F: Portugal vs France (21:00, Budapest)
Stay tuned here to get updates on the results, next match day fixtures and, flashpoints of the tournament as it progresses.
Azuka Edokobi is a Writer , a Farmer, a Supply Chain Expert and an Entrepreneur
