The Round of 16 continues today at EURO 2024. Here are four talking points ahead of the games involving England and Slovakia, and Spain against knockout stage debutants Georgia.
By Ian King
England blood-letting has started earlier than anticipated…
Following another abomination of a performance against Slovenia in their final group match, England’s traditional big tournament soul-searching has begun earlier than we’ve previously been used to under Gareth Southgate.
Prior to Southgate’s 2016 appointment, England hadn’t gotten past the first match of the knockout stages of a major tournament in a decade. This hasn’t happened since, but expectations have risen accordingly and the result of this has been an earlier than expected degree of blood-letting.
England have played Slovakia six times previously and won five of them, drawing the other one. But the last two of those wins were only by the odd goal, while their only draw came in the finals of Euro 2016. Anything less than a comfortable win and the noise will likely reach new levels.
…but they underestimate Slovakia at their own risk
When Czechoslovakia beat the Netherlands and West Germany to win the 1976 Euros, eight of their starting eleven were Slovaks. That’s some serious football heritage.
But the present day doesn’t look too bad for Slovakia either. Attention was focused on the shortcomings of their opponents when they beat Belgium 1-0 in their opening match, but although losing to Ukraine from a winning position, both they and final match opponents Romania really went at each other in their final match even though a Disgrace of Gijon-esque stitch-up would have put both through with a draw.
Head coach Francesco Calzona is a former assistant to Maurizio Sarri, so there’s a strong Serie A feel about his team and their success this summer has come about through being well-drilled and a definite tactical plan. England underestimate this team at their own risk.
Georgia have been quietly building up a head of steam
They’ve been the surprise package of the tournament so far, but can Georgia go further now they’re in the knockout stages? The task ahead is daunting. Spain have been one of the two or three most impressive teams in this tournament so far, after all.
But as we saw against Portugal, this team doesn’t lack spirit, breaks at extremely high speed, and has, in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, one of the stars of this summer. Their performances have made something of a mockery of their 75th place in the FIFA rankings.
Georgia had been working towards this moment. Defeat against Türkiye, a draw against Czechia, and then that win against Portugal. If they can maintain that sort of trajectory – and considering how comprehensive the Portugal win was, who’d bet against it? – then one of the biggest shock results in the history of this tournament isn’t unimaginable.
Recent form against Georgia is very much in Spain’s favour
There’s little question that Spain have been one of Euro 2024’s outstanding performers so far, but what you do in the group stages counts for nothing if you slip up in the knockouts, and for Spain, having to play Georgia has the potential to be a huge banana skin.
But Spain were drawn against them in qualification not only for this tournament, but also for the World Cup which preceded it, and the omens from those four meetings bodes extremely favourably for the second-favourites, with four wins; 2-1, 4-0, 7-0 and 3-1. Watching neutrals will want Georgia to continue their fairytale, but the cold, hard reality is that the form book favours Spain, and very heavily indeed.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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