Euro 2024 is underway and the games are coming thick and fast. Here are four things you should look out for across day 10 of the competition as the third matchday of the group stages gets underway. Scotland face Hungary, and Switzerland play hosts Germany as Group A comes to a conclusion.
By Ian King
Twelfth Time Lucky for Scotland?
That Scotland have qualified for the finals of a major tournament eleven times before without getting through the group stage of the competition is a number so great that it can only realistically be viewed as a statistical anomaly.
The ways in which they have failed to do so have been many and varied, from goal difference (1974, 1978 & 1982), to just not quite being good enough (1986, 1990, 1992 & 1996), to being just not good enough (1998, 2021). But which way will the pendulum swing this time?
Hungary are beatable. They’ve lost both of their games so far, and by reasonable margins. They’ve shown enough shortcomings to give Scotland hope. Scotland worked hard against Switzerland and deserved their draw, and they know that a win almost certainly will be enough. There’ll be quite a party if they can manage it.
Is Dominik Szoboszlai becoming a cautionary tale?
It’s been less than a year since Liverpool paid £60m to trigger Dominik Szoboszai’s RB Leipzig transfer clause and take him to the Premier League. His season at Anfield wasn’t an especially happy one, with injuries and less frequent appearances as the season wore on.
But the pressure on Merseyside is nothing like what he faces with his national team, because despite being just 23 years old, Szoboszlai seems to carry the expectation of an entire nation upon his shoulders. Much as he has previously claimed to be “motivated” by criticism, this doesn’t seem to be manifesting itself on the pitch.
Football has been here countless times before, layering expectations on a young player whose talent is expected to dig his team out of trouble. It’s fair to say that Szoboszlai hasn’t performed yet. But that won’t change unless the weight of the world can be lifted from his shoulders every time he takes to the pitch.
The Switzerland match does still matter for Germany
There could be a party atmosphere in Frankfurt tonight, with Germany already through to the next round. But this doesn’t mean their match against Switzerland doesn’t matter. A Switzerland win would put Germany second, meaning that they’d play the runners-up from Group B (likely Spain or Italy) in the next round, whereas the group winners play the runners-up from Group C, England’s group. It’s unlikely that Germany would want to play Spain or Italy this early in the competition; to avoid them they need at least a draw.
Xherdan Shaqiri can spoil Germany’s party
If anybody can, Xherdan can. For the last six major tournaments in a row, Xherdan Shaqiri has scored for Switzerland, part of an international career that stretches back 14 years and 124 appearances. Against Scotland there he was again, pinging a loose pass first time into the top corner from twenty yards with the inside of his left foot.
His goal was the jewel in an otherwise tepid Swiss performance, and now it’s on to face the hosts. In an era of increasingly standardised footballers, Shaqiri remains the barrel-chested exception that proves the rule and few could doubt the delight that he would take in making Germany’s progress through this tournament considerably less comfortable.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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