It’s England v Germany on Tuesday, the big one. For England. This is beautiful from Barney Ronay.
The Germans! Wouldn’t you know it? Our greatest, our deepest rivals, our nemesis. Except, in reality, this this isn’t a close rivalry at all, not if we accept the standard definition that both sides need to be aware that it exists. Germany have won seven major tournaments. Germany have reached 15 semi-finals since the “one World Cup” of 1966.
Their most intense footballing rivalries are among their peers: Italy (nine finals), the Netherlands (14 semi-finals), France (world champions, neighbours). In this company England are a minor cast member, the bumptious cartoon dog, dukes up, who keeps on yappily inserting itself into the centre of the story.
Niall O’Keefe gets in touch. “What is all this nonsense about the world, apart from the Welsh, wanting Denmark to win. As an Irishman, I want our Celt cousins to win. Eriksen is alive which is wonderful. So, I am off to learn the English lyrics to ‘Land of our Fathers’ and get behind a country.”
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France have not been too impressive so far, though that seems to be part of Didier Deschamps’ plan, but their injuries are stacking up ahead of Monday’s match with Switzerland.
Per Reuters.
France left-back Lucas Hernandez had to be taken off with a knee injury after the first half and remains doubtful against Switzerland. His replacement Lucas Digne is also nursing a hamstring injury and looks unlikely to be fit for Monday, forcing potential changes to Deschamps’ defensive plans.
Digne’s replacement in the game against Portugal, midfielder Adrien Rabiot, has himself been dealing with a nagging ankle injury since the end of the season and is not yet at 100%. To make matters worse, Thomas Lemar suffered a leg injury and Marcus Thuram hurt his right thigh in training on Thursday, hobbling off the pitch with the support of medical staff. France are already without Ousmane Dembélé, who has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament and will require knee surgery.
Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent, reports.
The Italian players who refrained from making the gesture before the game against Wales were strongly criticised. Enrico Letta, the former prime minister, said: “Watching on Sunday, with all the Wales players kneeling and only [five] of the Italian players doing it, it was not a good image.
And Marcus Christenson profiles the Denmark coach.
He was a controversial choice as Denmark coach when given the job in 2019, to take over a year later. He was seen as a football romantic, a lover of Barcelona and Johan Cruyff, whereas his predecessor, the successful Hareide, was more pragmatic. Hjulmand does not believe it is as black and white as that but the team have played some sensational football under him, not least in the first three qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, beating Israel, Moldova and Austria, scoring 14 and conceding none.
Andy Hunter has been hearing from the Denmark camp and their coach, Kasper Hjulmand.
We respect Wales. What they’ve done in the last few years is really good, they remind us of ourselves. They are proud to represent their country, everyone supports them and the players always give their best football. We respect them a lot. At the same time we feel safe and comfortable in the things we do. We have so much power that we will hopefully have again tomorrow in what I consider to be an equal game.
And Ben Fisher spoke to Daniel James, the flying Welshman.
It is not just about being strong on the pitch but also about being robust. When games are coming two or three times a week, you have to be ready for that and your body has to be ready. Coming in every day and doing gym work, you can slowly reduce that risk of injury. As a player you never want to miss any games so you have to keep on top of that.
Jamie Jackson heard from Robert Page, who has proved himself an unlikely statesman, ahead of the Wales game..
I’ll sleep OK tonight. The support we’ve had back home: as much as it is frustrating for everybody – staff, players and supporters – that the supporters can’t be out here, the messages we’ve had, and social media with the kids in school singing the anthem for us, which is a montage of clips that we’re going to put together and show the players; we know that everybody, come the kick-off, will be behind us.
The knockouts are here, the knockouts are here. Following the surprisingly superb jamboree of red-hot soccer in the group stages, it’s time for the shackles to go on and the nerves take hold. Though hopefully not, as Wales ready themselves for a big match with Denmark in Amsterdam, though with no Welsh fans in the ArenA, pretty much.
Only those Welshmen living within the Schengen area can be there, and that arrangement means that Danish fans can travel despite their country being on the Covid danger list for the Dutch government. Such is the way of the world and Euro 2020.
Elsewhere, Italy v Austria brings back memories of a series of missed chances by Andrea Carnevale and then the arrival of Toto Schillaci. Well, if you are of a certain age. If you are of an even more certain age, then the 1934 World Cup semi-finals, played in San Siro, is probably the one you look to.
And there’ll be plenty of other stuff, hopefully, including despatches from the England camp.
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