There were no shocks in store in the second set of UEFA EURO 2016 Round of 16 fixtures, with all three pre-match favourites getting the job done to progress to the quarter-finals. While France had to dig deep to overcome Republic of Ireland 2-1, it was much plainer sailing for Germany and Belgium, who eased to 3-0 and 4-0 victories over Slovakia and Hungary respectively. Besides the lack of upsets, the three ties had one other common denominator: the crucial contributions by an attacking wide man, as Antoine Griezmann, Julian Draxler and Eden Hazard stole the show.
Not for the first time this tournament, France were made to sweat on Sunday in Lyon. They trailed for a sizeable chunk of the game against a pragmatic, solid Republic of Ireland side, before bouncing back in the second half, spearheaded by a sparkling showing from Antoine Griezmann. The underdogs put the cat among the pigeons practically right from kick-off, forging in front in the second minute after Paul Pogba had felled Shane Long in the box. Robbie Brady kept a cool head to convert the resulting penalty. Les Bleus then toiled to little avail for almost an hour against an imperious Irish defence, behind which Darren Randolph was in equally commanding form between the sticks. However, a half-time reshuffle, which involved Kingsley Coman replacing N'Golo Kante and a switch from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1, ultimately paid dividends and Antoine Griezmann made himself a hero with a brace to take France through to the quarter-finals, where they await the winner of Monday's tie between England and Iceland.
Germany had a much smoother ride into the quarter-finals, helped by a far better start than the hosts. Just eight minutes had elapsed when Jerome Boateng fired Die Mannschaft ahead with a magnificent volley from 20 yards. Mesut Ozil had the chance to double his side's lead from the spot five minutes later, only to be denied by Matus Kozacik, but the world champions kept pushing and eventually extended their advantage through Mario Gomez just before half-time, following some superb wing play from Julian Draxler. Draxler capped a livewire performance and added further gloss to the scoreline in the 63rd minute, volleying home exquisitely following Toni Kroos's corner, and an impeccable Germany cruised over the line against opposition who offered little resistance.
Belgium ended up even more comfortable winners against an entertaining Hungary team. The Red Devils prevailed 4-0 in a high-tempo, open match, although they had to wait until the final quarter of an hour to seal the deal. Toby Alderweireld opened the scoring after ten minutes with a powerful header from Kevin De Bruyne's free-kick, but the Magyars did not lie down and threatened to get back into it early in the second half. However, the Belgians upped their game and killed off the contest in the latter stages, inspired by some magic from Eden Hazard. The Chelsea star first served up the all-important second goal on a plate for Michy Batshuayi in the 78th minute, and then made it 3-0 himself two minutes later. Yannick Ferreira Carrasco chipped in with a fourth goal in stoppage time to clinch Belgium's biggest ever win at a tournament.
Next matches
Italy-Spain (6pm)
England-Iceland (9pm)
The winners of UEFA EURO 2016 go on to represent Europe at the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017
FOLLOW US ON
Twitter: @bizarre_comms
Facebook: Bizarre Communications
Email: bizarrecommunications@gmail.com
0 comments: