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regular-article-logo Monday, 23 December 2024

Euro: England face tricky test against Ukraine while Denmark take on Czech Republic in battle for supremacy

Captain Harry Kane will look to get on the scoresheet again after opening his account against Germany; Patrick Schick eyes golden boot

Our Bureau, PTI Calcutta Published 03.07.21, 02:58 PM
England players train ahead of their game against Ukraine, on Friday.

England players train ahead of their game against Ukraine, on Friday. Twitter/@EURO2020

The UEFA Euro 2020 quarter-finals will conclude early on Sunday with surprise packages Denmark and the Czech Republic going head-to-head, while Ukraine attempt to become the first side to breach England's defence at the tournament.

Let’s see what’s in store for tonight

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Denmark vs Czech Republic (9:30 pm IST)
Venue: Baku Olympic Stadium

From the despair of seeing a teammate suffer cardiac arrest to the European Championship quarter finals, somehow Denmark keeps on going. Denmark will face the Czech Republic tonight, exactly three weeks after midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field in the team's opening game and had to be resuscitated with a defibrillator. While Eriksen recovers initially in the hospital and now at home Denmark has improved at Euro 2020. A 4-1 win over Russia got Denmark out of the group stage after two losses. Beating Wales 4-0 in the round of 16 matched the team's best showing since Danish Dynamite won the 1992 European Championship.

"Culture-wise, there are similarities. Values of sticking (together), one for all and all for one," Denmark midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg said Thursday. "There's this pride also to be playing for your country and all these values that I don't think have changed too much since 1992.

“But my biggest respect to the guys in '92 because they went on to win it. We haven't done anything yet. Since the shock of Eriksen's sudden collapse, Denmark has gone through huge emotional ups and downs,” Hojbjerg said.

Now we're in the quarterfinals, so it's been a bit of a rollercoaster, a big one," he said. "And the good thing is that we are still hungry. We're still determined to push for more.

More than half of the 26-man squad was not yet born when Denmark beat Germany 2-0 in the 1992 final. The only European quarterfinal appearance since then came in 2004, a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic. Hojbjerg was 8 years old back then and recalls he was not very happy he couldn't watch the match because of a school trip. That tournament ended in disappointment for the Czechs, too. They lost to eventual champion Greece 1-0 in the semifinals. As Czechoslovakia, the team won the European title in 1976. As the Czech Republic, the high point was being runner-up to Germany in 1996.

Both Denmark and the Czech Republic have been at their best at Euro 2020 when playing high-intensity, physical soccer against opponents who wanted possession. They could end up canceling each other out in the quarterfinals. That's playing on Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand's mind, so much so that he admitted he was disappointed the Czech team upset the Netherlands 2-0 in the round of 16.

“I would rather have played the Netherlands, now we're facing a team for the first time (in the tournament) that I think can match our own intensity,” Hjulmand told Danish broadcaster DR on Monday.

Players to watch out for: Danish striker Yussuf Poulsen could return after missing the Wales game with a muscle injury, when replacement Kasper Dolberg scored twice. One more goal would see Czech Republic forward Patrik Schick match Cristiano Ronaldo as tournament leader with five.

England vs Ukraine (12:30 am IST)
Venue: Stadio Olimpico

England will look to shake-off the tag of choking on big stages when they face Ukraine in the fourth and final quarter final.

Having overcome historic rivals Germany in the last 16, facing Ukraine might seem like an easier proposition for the Three Lions, but Saturday's quarterfinal match at the Stadio Olimpico might be their toughest test of the European Championship.

The reason for this is that Saturday night’s match is the only match of Euro 2020 that England will have to play away from the friendly confines of Wembley Stadium.

Making matters more complicated is that the Italian government has explicitly warned Britain-based England fans to stay away from the game unless they can prove they have observed five days of quarantine since arriving. For a team like England that is known for its traveling supporters, that's a major blow.

“We've got to create our own atmosphere on Saturday in Rome, which we're capable of doing,” said England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who has kept four clean sheets in the tournament.

“The fans were tremendous the other night and throughout the group stages as well. I think that gives us added motivation for the game on Saturday to come back for a semifinal with 60,000 fans,” he added.

The winner between Ukraine and England will play either Denmark or the Czech Republic in the semifinals on Wednesday at Wembley, with the final also scheduled for England's home stadium. For Ukraine's coaching staff, meanwhile, playing in Italy is a homecoming.

Head coach Andriy Shevchenko was one of Serie A's most prolific scorers during his playing career with AC Milan, while assistant coach Mauro Tassotti is from Rome and began his playing career at the Stadio Olimpico with Lazio before going onto a long and successful career at Milan as both a player and assistant coach.

“If the Italians support us because we're the weaker team that's absolutely fine, I'm really hoping the fans give us some big support,” Tassotti said.

Still, Tassotti acknowledged that beating England is a titanic challenge.

“But we've seen what happened over the past few days with the Netherlands and France,” Tassotti told the Gazzetta dello Sport.

England has enormous talent but they've also had the advantage, like other nations, of playing only at home.

Expect an old-fashioned Italian catenaccio (lockdown defense) and counterattack approach from Ukraine to deal with talented England strikers Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane, who accounted for the goals in the 2-0 win over Germany.

Tassotti said the tactics will be to stifle England, close spaces, and prevent them from running.

“Those are the types of matches they don't like. They've got talent but we've got to try to force them to think as much as possible and only then take advantage of our talent,” Tassotti said.

“If we think we can play them straight up considering all the talent that they have, we won't go very far,” he added.

Having barely scraped through the group phase, it will be Ukraine's first European Championship quarterfinal match.

England is looking to match its performance from the 2018 World Cup, when it reached the semifinals. The last time England made it to the last four of the European Championship was in 1996.

The bigger goal for England at this point is to duplicate the success of the 1966 team that won the World Cup and lifted the trophy on home soil.

“We just need to be on our A game. We know it's going to be a tough game. Every game is tough so we'll be ready,” Pickford said.

Players to watch out for: Ukraine will look to bank on the experiences of Andriy Yarmolenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both of whom play in England for West Ham and Manchester City respectively. England will hope Harry Kane finds his scoring boot after opening his Euro account against Germany in the round of 16.

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