Kalvin Phillips was a man possessed against Croatia, marauding around the Wembley pitch in the stifling heat to win tackles, unleash shots and create England’s winner for Raheem Sterling. Jonathan Liew says the Leeds man possesses “that rarest of qualities – he seems to prefer it when the midfield is packed to suffocation”.
Phillips does not have the passing range of a Jordan Henderson or the immaculate reading of a Declan Rice or the effortless class of a Jude Bellingham. But in the most congested area of the pitch, he demands the ball and gets the ball and almost always does something useful with it. The less time you give him, the more he seems to enjoy it. He is brilliant at finding the little pockets of space that turn a simple passing move into a dangerous attack.
Read Jonathan’s piece in full here.
Christian Eriksen is awake, answering questions and undergoing hospital tests in Copenhagen after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch against Finland, but the gravity of his situation was laid bare by Denmark’s the team doctor, Morten Boesen, on Sunday:
“He was gone. We started the resuscitation and we managed to do it. How close were we to losing him? I don’t know, but we got him back after one defib [defibrillation], so that’s quite fast … the tests that have been done so far look fine. We don’t have an explanation to why it happened.”
Read the full story here.
Peter Schmeichel claims Denmark’s players did not want to restart their Euro 2020 game against Finland after Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest, as the heat grows on Uefa. Schmeichel, father of Leicester and Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, has told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he did not think the players had a choice. When asked if it was the players’ decision for the game to be restarted after Eriksen had been taken to hospital, Schmeichel said: “Well that’s an interesting debate. I actually saw an official quote from Uefa yesterday saying that they were following the advice of the player, the players insisted on playing – I know that not to be the truth.
“Or, it’s how you see the truth. They were left with three options, one was to play immediately and get the last 50 minutes played. The next one was to come in [on Sunday] at 12 noon and finish the 50 minutes and the third option was to forfeit the game, 3-0. So work it out for yourself. Is it the players’ wish to play? Did they have any choice really? I don’t think they had. As you can hear from his press conference, the coach, he seriously regrets putting the players back on to the pitch.”
So let’s talk Scotland for a moment. Euros fever has certainly gripped the Scottish people but Steve Clarke has some big decisions to make today. The manager has settled on a formation hat allows Kieran Tierney and the captain, Andy Robertson, to wreak havoc down the left-hand side, but who will join the Arsenal man in the three-man defence. Will Scott McTominay prowl midfield or roam from the back? Will Che Adams play up from alone? And will Billy Gilmour be unleashed three days after turning 20? Who would you pick, Scotland fans? Here’s Ewan Murray’s preview …
In case you hadn’t realised Max, Barry and the team are working overtime to produce a daily edition of our award winning Football Weekly podcast. Marcelo Bielsa’s genius, Marco Arnautovic’s fury and cocaine hippos are among the topics in the latest edition. You can listen here …
Greeting wherever you are, and welcome to the day four Euro 2020 blog. Scotland join the action today, in their first game at a major tournament for 23 years. They face the Czech Republic at 2pm BST, at what is sure to be a noisy Hampden Park.
At 5pm Slovakia take on Poland then at 8pm Covid-hindered Spain enter the fray against Sweden. We’ll have all the buildup to those games, reaction to rather differing victories for England and the Netherlands on Sunday, and of course all the latest on Christian Eriksen.
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