After the last two matches of the quarter finals, the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament shows the following results and reviews.
Saturday 3 July
QF3: Czech Republic 1-2 Denmark (Baku)
QF4: Ukraine 0-4 England (Rome)
Denmark and England have joined Spain and Italy to complete the semi finalists of the Euro 2020 championship taking place across divergent European stadia. Denmark continues to surprise bookmakers and play in solidarity for their team mate, Christian Eriksen, as they beat resilient Czech Republic 1-2 to book a place in the last four. It was ‘England all the way’ as the Three Lions humiliated the Ukrainian Blue and Yellow 0-4 to set up a semi-final clash with ‘charged’ Denmark.
In the third match of the quarter finals, Denmark’s Thomas Delaney and Kasper Dolberg scored the needed goals to edge past the Czech Republic and reach their first Euro Championship semi-final since 1992 when they lifted the trophy.
Motivated by vengeance for the 2004 loss to Czech Republic at the same stage of same competition, the Danes were quick to make their statement of intent for the day as Thomas Delaney (5’) capitalized on a slack defending to plant a powerful header past Tomáš Vaclík from a corner. Few minutes later, after recovering from another threat from the Danes when Vaclik had to block Mikkel Damsgaard’s shot, the Czechs, called Kasper Schmeichel to duty as he had to scramble back to atone for a wayward pass by denying Tomáš Holeš’s subsequent shot.
Before the half-time whistle, Joakim Mæhle exquisitely delivered a swerving outside-of-the-boot pass to Kasper Dolberg’s shooting pathway and he made no mistake than to steer a connection to the top of the net in the 42nd minute.
Four minutes after the restart, the Czechs came blazing as they pulled one back with Patrik Schick guiding in from Vladimír Coufal’s neat cross to revive his team’s hopes. That goal made Schick the ninth player to have netted five times in a Euro final tournament. The remaining part of the second half was entertaining as both teams strove to either seal the match or level up but all efforts could not change the score line at final whistle.
With this result, Denmark has reached the semi-finals for the first time in 29 years – the longest gap in semi appearances in the competition’s history and also the first team to reach a Euro semi-final after losing their first two matches at the finals. Czech Republic’s forward, Patrik Schick, has equaled Milan Baroš’s record as the Czech Republic’s all-time leading Euro striker with five goals.
In the last match of the quarter-final, Wembley beckons for Gareth Southgate’s side after a thrilling encounter in Rome earned the Three Lions their most emphatic win at a Euro thereby ending Ukraine’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
A starting line-up that included Jadon Sancho and Mason Mount ensured England were possessive from onset and within five minutes, Raheem Sterling slipped through the Ukrainian defence to cut inside from the left and slide the ball through to Harry Kane who eluded his marker and stretched out a leg to beat Georgiy Bushchan.
Harry Kane, who was obviously at the party this time, headed over from a Luke Shaw cross while Declan Rice’s powerful screamer from a distance was saved by Bushchan.
After the interval, it was ‘England all the way’ as Shaw’s free-kick teed up Harry Maguire (46’) to head in a second just after the restart. As the Blue and Yellow were seeking for a response to this shocker, Kane, fantastic on the night, headed down Shaw’s sensational cross through Bushchan’s legs and into the gaping net in the 50th minute.
Just past the hour mark, Bushchan was, once more, called to duty by Kane via a wonderful volley from outside the box but the keeper lived up to his calling producing a terrific save. No doubts Kane was voted Heineken’s ‘Star of the Match’ as, according to Jean-François Domergue, UEFA Technical Observer, “…he scored twice and was consistent with all of his efforts, …gaining in confidence, and taking the whole England squad with him.”
Substitute Jordan Henderson, perfectly met Mount’s corner to complete the 4-0 rout of Andriy Shevchenko’s men. It was Henderson’s first goal for the Three Lions in 62 appearances.
The match became England’s first time of scoring four goals in a knockout stage match of a major tournament since the 4-2 win against West Germany in the final of the 1966 FIFA World Cup. They are yet to concede a goal at the tournament making it a landmark as they have never previously started a major international final tournament with five successive clean sheets; their four to kick off the 1966 World Cup remaining their best till now. Consequently, they have become the first team to keep five consecutive clean sheets from the start of a Euro final tournament. Spain actually recorded five clean sheets in 2012 but only from their second match onwards.
The Statistics
At the end of quarter final matches, the following statistics are available:
- 48 matches have been played out of 51 matches
- 135 goals have been scored in all with an average of 2.82 goals per match and an average scoring time of 32 minutes per goal.
- Spain maintains the highest number of goals with 12 goals
- Spain maintains the highest possession per game with 67.2%
- Spain has taken over the highest passing accuracy at 89.4%
- Italy maintains the highest total attempts at 101
- Switzerland has taken over the highest tackles at 84
- Denmark has taken over the highest ball recovery at 225
- Switzerland has taken over the highest saves 21
- England maintains a 100% clean sheet at 5
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