“England edged past Slovakia to reach the Euro 2024 quarter-finals, but only after staring a humiliating defeat in the face. Anyone hoping for an improved version of England in the knockout stages was left sorely disappointed during a disjointed and dispiriting first half. Sloppy defending from Gareth Southgate’s team let Slovakia in on several occasions in the first 20 minutes, a foreshadowing of the opening goal from Ivan Schranz on 25 minutes — the 30-year-old taking advantage of acres of space to slot past Jordan Pickford. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
England 2 Slovakia 1 – Southgate’s side scrape through, Bellingham to the rescue, tactical questions remain
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“People talking balls at international football tournaments is as old as inflating pigs’ bladders, and sometimes just as attractive. But it is slightly unusual for people to talk as much about the ball as they have about the Adidas Fussballliebe Pro EURO 2024 match ball, to give it its full name, as they have in Germany of late. The last ball to attract this much attention was the Adidas Jabulani, the official ball at the 2010 World Cup, but while that thermally bonded lump of polyurethane was loathed, this one is loved. …”
“… Anyone would have thought the same when 
“Twenty-seven seconds into the second half, 
“It is the walk. A penalty shootout means the walk and the walk is the bit where football stops, where this game of instinct, noise and mayhem is reduced to stillness. There is no scope to think until that epic trudge when, pushed to the limit of physical endurance after a draining game, an intense tournament, a wearing season, think is all you can do. When your mind becomes an enemy. …”
“You’ll see plenty of top 10 lists during this 
“
“With 
“There are 67 hours between the conclusion of the 
“As 
“New York’s Times Square is one of the most recognizable sections of real estate in the world. It looked a lot different with Argentina fans in town. Police officers unfamiliar with Argentine football culture but accustomed to monitoring peaceful protests stood bewildered as midtown Manhattan turned into an Albiceleste street party. Tuesday’s ‘banderazo’, a pre-match tradition that encourages fans to fly flags and sing songs that honor the national team, proved that Messi and 
“France’s Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Marcus Thuram compose one of the most thrilling attacking trios in the ongoing 2024 European championships. Under normal circumstances, they’d be categorically focused on extending their national team’s domination in world football over the last eight years. In that time period, Les Bleushave won the 2018 FIFA World Cup and reached the final in three of the last four major competitions they’ve participated in (European championships and World Cups). Instead, the dominant media narratives that have sunk in over the last few weeks are not about the players’ footballing abilities, but rather their decision to speak out on France’s precarious political state of affairs this summer. …”
“
“The phrase ‘moves in twos’ has been around for a long time in coaching circles, and anyone who has experienced training exercises around that theme would know that 
“In Christian Pulisic’s diverse range of USMNT highlights, one thing is hard to spot: a smile. Since making his senior international debut as a 17-year-old in March 2016, his efforts have frequently been met with frustration. As a program prodigy, he was on the field in Trinidad the following year when the United States failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president. The man couldn’t even properly celebrate his long-awaited first World Cup goal in 2022; his effort to nudge the ball beyond Iran’s goalline left him in a crumpled heap as he suffered a pelvic contusion during that incident. …”
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Portugal’s midfielder #10 Bernardo Silva celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the UEFA Euro 2024 Group F football match between Turkey and Portugal at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund on June 22, 2024.
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“The 
“The games in the early slot at Euro 2024 have generally provided sensational entertainment so far. It took a fair while for the Group C encounter between 
“To Stuttgart then for Scotland and Hungary — where a winner will like guarantee one of them a passage through to the round of 16. After being thumped 5-1 by 
“The French far-right leader 
“When Didier Deschamps was asked a question about the pairing of 
“
“When 
“If 
“It was the third game of the Euros. There was a slow sense of familiarity returning. The night before, Italy had beaten Turkey 3-0 in Rome. Earlier in the afternoon, Wales and Switzerland had drawn 1-1 in Baku. In Copenhagen, 
“
“Euro 2024 got underway on Friday night as tournament hosts 
“‘The most sustainable European Championship of all time.’ It is a big statement, but that is Uefa’s aim for this summer’s tournament in Germany. To be the ‘most sustainable’ is, of course, difficult to quantify, with many factors involved. It is also hard to make comparisons because of the historical growth of the tournament. But, however Uefa defines it, European football’s governing body and German football are making big strides to reduce the impact of Euro 2024. 
“One player arrives at 
Scissors Kick 