Ukraine's home ground is the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv. With the passing of time, I think we will only find positives from this tournament.The Ukraine national football team ( Ukrainian: Збірна України з футболу) represents Ukraine in men's international football and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. “Nobody believed in us but we stuck together,” he told. The goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik, who again made several important saves, said he was proud of what he and his teammates had achieved this summer. They came out a different team in the second half, 2-0 down, and Jaroslav Silhavy’s substitutions worked wonders to begin with but after Patrik Schick had scored his fifth goal of the tournament they struggled to create clearcut chances against a compact Danish defence. One good half against Denmark was not enough and the Czechs went out after a 2-1 defeat in Baku. Switzerland have had a very good tournament. The coach, Vladimir Petkovic, was right when he labelled his players “heroes” after the game. Their threat as an attacking force, however, ended the moment Remo Freuler was harshly sent off in the 77th minute. They were impressive again, though, despite losing Breel Embolo early to an injury and recovered from going a goal behind to score a fine equaliser by Xherdan Shaqiri. Switzerland once again forced a European superpower into extra time and penalties but, unlike against France, they fluffed their lines against Spain, missing three of their four spot-kicks. In the end there wasn’t to be another upset. Photograph: Philipp Guelland/AP 6) Switzerland (-) The scintillating performance of the 19-year-old Jérémy Doku will give Belgium fans hope as they try to regroup.īelgium’s Jérémy Doku holds off a challenge from Italy’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo. The defence – with Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld – will have to be renewed but with the World Cup only 18 months away maybe there won’t be wholesale changes. As it was, they fell short on a frantic night in Munich. They gave their all against Italy and with Eden Hazard on the pitch and a fully fit Kevin De Bruyne perhaps they could have done it. The end of an era? Of a golden generation? Maybe not quite but there will be agonising soul-searching at the Belgian FA after this latest failure to go all the way. Something inside me wanted this.” 5) Belgium (down 4) “I got very excited, very emotional, all that fury, all that desire. “This is a euphoric moment,” said the goalkeeper Unai Simón, who made that horrible mistake against Croatia. Against Switzerland they played with a man more for 42 minutes without creating too many chances. This slightly odd team, without any Real Madrid players and without any real stars, have Spain in the last-four phase of a tournament for the first time since they won the Euros in 2012. Luis Enrique’s team did not impress in their win against Switzerland, coming after penalties, but they won’t complain. Praise, too, must go to Hjulmand, who responded to the Czechs gaining the initiative in the second half by making a double substitution in the 59th minute to regain control in midfield.Īnd suddenly, they were in the semi-finals. They could have been 4-0 up by half-time but in the end they had to settle for two goals, a header from Thomas Delaney and a poacher’s finish from Kasper Dolberg after a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot cross from Joakim Mæhle. In the first 45 minutes the Danes were creative, energetic and effervescent. Kasper Hjulmand’s side deserved their 2-1 win against the Czech Republic even though the second half was a slog. “Even when there have been difficult matches, the team has always got better – and there is still room for improvement.” Ominous. “The team has progressed game in, game out,” a pleased Mancini said. Roberto Mancini’s side were electric at times in attack and solid at the back and the only sour note on the night was a serious injury suffered by their marauding left-back Leonardo Spinazzola, who ruptured an achilles. Yes, it was a flaky one – you can only beat what is put in front of you – but it does not matter now after the Azzurri’s 2-1 win against Belgium on Friday. The one criticism that had been levelled against Italy during their incredible 32-match unbeaten run was that they had not beaten a team in the top 15 of the Fifa world rankings.
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