Euro 2024 knockout phase

[Lyonnais]

WS marks - Update after the QF

KO games count double
Average of the best 4 marks


Top 10

8.68 Cody Gapko (Liverpool, AML, 25, NED)
8.54 Fabian Ruiz (Paris, MC, 28, ESP)
8.30 Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, FWR, 16, ESP)
8.16 Nico Williams (Athletic, FWL, 21, ESP)
8.12 Giorgi Mamardashvili (Valencia, GK, 23, GEO)
8.04 Bukayo Saka (Arsenal, AMR, 22, ENG)
7.97 Ousmane Dembélé (Paris, AMR, 27, FRA)
7.95 Joshua Kimmich (Bayern, DR, 29, GER)
7.90 Rodri (Man City, MC, 28, ESP)
7.88 Nuno Mendes (Paris, DL, 22, POR)
etc.


Best XI

...... C.Gapko (NED) - M.Depay (NED) - L.Yamal (ESP)..........
......... F.Ruiz (ESP) - J.Palhinha (POR) - Rodri (ESP) ...........
N.Mendes (POR) - Pepe (POR) - J.Bijol (SLO) -J.Kimmich (GER)
.................... G.Mamardashvili (GEO) .........................


U21 Players

8.30 Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, FWR, 16, ESP)
8.16 Nico Williams (Athletic, FWL, 21, ESP)
7.88 Jamal Musiala (Bayern, AML, 21, GER)
etc.


Best per team

8.68 Cody Gapko (Liverpool, AML, 25, NED)
8.54 Fabian Ruiz (Paris, MC, 28, ESP)
8.04 Bukayo Saka (Arsenal, AMR, 22, ENG)
7.97 Ousmane Dembélé (Paris, AMR, 27, FRA)

7.95 Joshua Kimmich (Bayern, DR, 29, GER)
7.88 Nuno Mendes (Paris, DL, 22, POR)
7.79 Arda Güler (Real Madrid, AMR, 19, TUR)
7.54 Ruben Vargas (Augsburg, AMC, 25, SUI)

[Firnen]

England and France are 2 of the least deserving semi finalists in the history of the tournament.

Consistently ugly football, never gets punished.

I think even more, that this tournament is the worst in the history.

I have to agree, the spectacle is quite poor...

[offside]

Here some stats I made about these first 12 matches of knock-out phase, in case they could be interesting to someone.

Goals scored within 90 minutes: 25

Goals scored including extra time: 27

Average of goals scored within 90 minuets: 2.08

Average of goals scored including extra-time: 2.25

Most goals scored in a match: 5 (Spain - Georgia: 4 - 1)

Less goals scored in a match: 0 (two matches ended 0 - 0)

Most popular result within 90 minutes: 1 - 1 (three matches)

Most popular result including extra-time: 2 - 1 (four matches)

Matches decided within 90 minutes: 7 (58% of the matches)

Draws after 90 minuets: 5 (42% of the matches)

Matches decided during extra time: 2 (17% of the matches)

Matches decided by penalty shoot outs: 3 (25% of the matches)

I hope that everything is correct. Please point out any possible mistake, thank you.

[BurningStorm]

The path of both Netherlands and England is incredible. England couldn't win two of the three group games, they were out against Slovakia (!) until the 94th minute, now they won a PSO against Switzerland with a much lower xG rate in the game. Southgate is a magician, at least we can say he gives the team a great mentality.

The Netherlands were 3rd in the group, played Romania and Turkey and now they are in the SF. One of the easiest paths I can remember in such a tournament, but at least they won both games in 90 minutes.

When you see this it really sucks to have met Spain so early and go out after such a performance and a better xG rate (plus the ref robbery). However, nobody can change it and I hope for two good SF's and a nice final (and hopefully no win of Spain or England, sorry Lorric ).

Sincere thanks to Spain for sending germany home! Or let's say because they sent them to watch television.

Turkey followed quickly, thanks to Netherlands.

[SimonB]

Konsa is in for Guehi in a back three. Otherwise unchanged. 3-4-2-1.

A Swiss roll has been obtained, and I will eat a piece during the match.

Time to order the Dutch apple cake

[Dragonite]

England with 1 change compared with their previous match:
Konsa instead of Guéhi (suspended)

Switzerland with no changes compared with their previous match.

[Dragonite]

Congratulations England!


Saka was the villain in Euro 2020, missing his penalty kick. This time he scored England's goal that allowed them to reach the penalty shootout, and then scored his penalty kick too!

I loved Pickford's water bottle!!!

Ugrh. Another penalty shootout, another better team got eliminated.

That's unfair.

Why is Switzerland the "better team"?


Is it because of the xG thing?

England and Switzerland were balanced during the 120' yesterday, they were also balanced before this match (both had a 2-2-0 record)...

England was actually better than Switzerland during the qualifiers, while Switzerland was better than England in the Nations League-


I think that people just overestimate England and underestimate Switzerland, so when they do something identical England looks awful while Switzerland looks great.

[Greyn]

Southgate is as good coach as my P.E. (Physical Education) teacher at primary school. Every lesson there was same story: "Here is a ball. Go to the playground and play football". I don't see a Southgate's hand in how England play. I mean some tactics or some style of playing. England are in the semi-finals thanks to individual talent of their players in my opinion. I can only imagine how they would play having a good coach. To be fair to Southgate, I remember worse coaches, coaches who had negative impact on their teams.

[Shing]

Just realised Copa America does not have extra time and goes straight to penalties until the final. To be honest, most of the extra time in Euros is quite boring. How about no extra time until semi-final? Two extra time in one match day may not be nice to audience

[Lorric]

Southgate is as good coach as my P.E. (Physical Education) teacher at primary school. Every lesson there was same story: "Here is a ball. Go to the playground and play football". I don't see a Southgate's hand in how England play. I mean some tactics or some style of playing. England are in the semi-finals thanks to individual talent of their players in my opinion. I can only imagine how they would play having a good coach. To be fair to Southgate, I remember worse coaches, coaches who had negative impact on their teams.

Switzerland was more in line with what typical England play under Southgate looks like. With the ball we get plenty of men forward, without it we press aggressively and have the fitness to get back in position. We do sometimes attack at speed when the opportunity presents, but standard practice is to advance the ball patiently. This means if we do lose it, we're not usually immediately in a vulnerable position. With the ball, England are quite happy to sit on the ball and pass it around the back for a while waiting for the right moment to attack, people just see side to side football, but there's purpose behind it. We can also go long periods without taking a shot, but this is because Southgate's England typically don't pull the trigger unless it's a good scoring chance. We have an excellent shots to goals scoring ratio because of it, and I approve of this style of play very much because it's effective. I find it one of the more annoying things when your team has the ball and then someone just takes a shot that's like a 1% chance of going in, it's a complete waste.

However, here's what's been different at this tournament. First, I've really come to realise and appreciate what we miss for not having Rashford in the team and why Southgate persisted with him so long despite his struggles at United. When we win the ball with the press he gave us a great outlet for a fast counterattack and to get in behind, and his replacement Foden just can't do that and hasn't shown the things that won him Premier League Player of the Year.

The slow build, for whatever reason, our players have not been as busy off the ball as normal. That was true without it too, but we finally adressed that aspect against Switzerland. Normally, they would be working at finding space and making runs a lot more. This is why it's been effective in the past, and when the moment comes, the speed of everything goes up, and we haven't really seen much of that either. And Kane is back from an injury after a long season and just hasn't looked the same, even though he has contributed two crucial goals. If you'd told me before the tournament about the amount of low block defending we'd face, I'd have been overjoyed, fully expecting England to patiently work the ball around and find the way through and score. Of course, we've still overcome this adversity one way or another so far, but you know the manner in which it has happened.

England have gradually improved as the tournament has gone on but still not up to normal expected levels. Hopefully we see another improvement and hopefully it's enough.

[Dniprovec]

Congratulations England!


Saka was the villain in Euro 2020, missing his penalty kick. This time he scored England's goal that allowed them to reach the penalty shootout, and then scored his penalty kick too!

I loved Pickford's water bottle!!!

Ugrh. Another penalty shootout, another better team got eliminated.

That's unfair.

Why is Switzerland the "better team"?


Is it because of the xG thing?

England and Switzerland were balanced during the 120' yesterday, they were also balanced before this match (both had a 2-2-0 record)...

England was actually better than Switzerland during the qualifiers, while Switzerland was better than England in the Nations League-


I think that people just overestimate England and underestimate Switzerland, so when they do something identical England looks awful while Switzerland looks great.

I am not saying Switzerland is a better overall team, only it played better than England yesterday and was closer to victory during the game. xG thing just confirms how it looked visually. Exactly the same as Portugal against France. Overall not a better team, but on that night except for the penalty shootout it was better. Both aesthetically and in terms of how close it was to winning it.

[Dragonite]

Netherlands with no changes compared with their previous match.

Türkiye with 3 changes compared with their previous match:
Samet Akaydin instead of Merih Demiral (suspended)
Salih Ozcan instead of Ismail Yuksek (suspended)
Hakan Çalhanoglu instead of Orkun Kokçu (suspended)

[Dragonite]

Congratulations Netherlands!


The only quarterfinalist prevailing after 90'!


A lot of jokes about "another own goal"... I prefer seeing 10 own goals over 1 penalty kick. At least the own goals usually are because a defender is desperate to prevent a dangerous cross from reaching the player that will "surely" score and in their attempt to prevent it they end up scoring it themselves.

A penalty kick is usually a much more shameful thing, it involves deception, interpretation, prejudice...

The only penalty kicks I like are the ones after 120' when the score is a draw.

[Dragonite]

I am not saying Switzerland is a better overall team, only it played better than England yesterday and was closer to victory during the game. xG thing just confirms how it looked visually. Exactly the same as Portugal against France. Overall not a better team, but on that night except for the penalty shootout it was better. Both aesthetically and in terms of how close it was to winning it.

All the semifinalists had a lower xG than their opponents.

Scoring from fewer opportunities isn't a sign of weakness, and wasting several opportunities isn't a sign of strength.



Let me talk specifically of Portugal's case.

Portugal may have the best goalkeeper, the best defensive quartet and the best midfield trio. But then if they have the worst attacking trio and an incompetent/malicious manager, then you can't really say that they're the best.

The first three do their jobs flawlessly, but then the rest ruins everything!

[offside]

Just realised Copa America does not have extra time and goes straight to penalties until the final. To be honest, most of the extra time in Euros is quite boring. How about no extra time until semi-final? Two extra time in one match day may not be nice to audience

Playing the extra time reduces by about 50% the chances that a match ends up with penalty shoot outs: I would keep the current rule.