The two main footballing events of the summer, the European Championships and the Copa América are down to their final fours now, with the semifinals set for both competitions.
In Europe, after England booked their place, the Netherlands did the same — although in a much more exciting fashion with a rousing second-half comeback against tournament darlings Turkey (sorry, Türkiye). Turkey had the better of play in the first half, with veteran defender Samet Akaydin scoring his first ever international goal, but a tactical switch from Ronald Koeman at half-time changed the flow of the game. Two goals in seven minutes, including one from golden boot-leader Cody Gakpo Own Goal got the Dutch into their first Euro semifinal in (a surprisingly lengthy) 20 years.
Both sides had chances to put the game to bed or to take it to extra-time, but sadly, our entertainment would be curtailed to just 90 minutes and change in this one — the only Euro quarterfinal to not see extra time unfortunately!
Later in the day, over in America, Colombia easily swatted aside Panama, 5-0, with two goals in the first 15 minutes pretty much deciding things, then Uruguay scratched, clawed, kicked, harried, taunted, fought their way past Brazil in a match that served up plenty of entertainment but little actual football.
Marcelo Bielsa’s charges saw out the match with just 10 men — fortunate for them that there is no extra-time in this competition until the final — and the only surprising thing was that there weren’t more dismissals. The two teams combined for 41 called fouls (26 by Uruguay) and 4 shots on target (1 by Uruguay). It was delightful, in a football-after-dark kind of way.
So it’s Spain vs. France (Tuesday) and England vs. Netherlands (Wednesday), and Uruguay vs. Colombia (Tuesday) and Argentina vs. Canada (Wednesday). Marc Cucurella, Cole Palmer, Conor Gallagher, and Enzo Fernández remain in action.
Source link : https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2024/7/7/24193449/euro-2024-copa-america-semifinals-all-set
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Publish date : 2024-07-07 01:11:02
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