Euro 2020 group stages are over, now we look forward to the knockout stages of the competition
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00:00They delivered once again. They really are the thrill of the tournament so far.
00:08Good morning and welcome to our latest episode of Golf News Kicking Back. I'm Imran and with me
00:13are my guests Matt and Shamsir. All right, let's get stuck into the action from last night. There
00:18were four games. There's only one place to start, Germany against Hungary. Now, we all said yesterday
00:24that this is going to be a really tough game for Germany and it absolutely was. With just six
00:30minutes left, they were on the brink of an embarrassing early exit from Europe 2020.
00:35Hungary had a 2-1 lead at the time but then Gretzka came back to pull the game back to 2-2
00:42and that's how it finished and it gave Germany second in Group F. They've made it to the last 16
00:48but Hungary were really impressive again last night, weren't they?
00:51Yeah, well, I talked yesterday about how they might struggle without that 12th man
00:56having to be playing away from home but yeah, no, they delivered once again. They really are
01:03the thrill of the tournament so far. Well, there's always one of these teams, whether it's a Cameroon
01:09or whatever, you know, that you remember from years later that lit up the tournament and
01:14gave it their all, gave the big boys a shock and that was definitely Hungary's
01:20mantle this time around. They're thrilled, they show no fear, they're not daunted, it doesn't
01:26matter. In that group, when they saw that draw, they must have thought, oh my goodness,
01:31France, Germany and Portugal, what are we going to do? But they more than held their own. Got a
01:37draw against France, got a draw against Germany and we're 10 minutes away from an upset against
01:43Portugal as well, you know. It's not like they had one great game, they had three great games
01:48and, you know, a lot of Hungarian boys have put themselves in the shopping window this
01:54summer now, you know, and there'll be a lot more unpronounceable names in the big leagues of Europe
02:01next season. Yeah, no, you can't praise them enough. You've got to love the plucky underdog
02:07story and yeah, they go home, they've got their heads held high, as they say, and lots of other
02:12cliches as well. But yeah, they've just, yeah, they're a joy to watch and it's a shame that
02:20somebody had to go into that group and it had to be them. Yeah, but we never expected this group to
02:25be, you know, so tight. Like, yeah, we've been told that it's going to be the group of death, but
02:29we all thought Hungary will be battered by all three big boys, but that was far from the case,
02:34you know. Hungary came into the tournament without their superstar in Saboslai and we thought that
02:40they won't have enough in their belt to give a fight to these big boys. But man, they have been
02:46absolutely brilliant. You know, like what Matty mentioned, you know, they were ahead in many of
02:51the games, you know, they were ahead than they were trailing. So, that itself is an incredible
02:56achievement. You know, they almost secured a win against Germany. They almost secured a win against
03:02France. They could have drawn against Portugal, if not for that, you know, deflected goal.
03:08Ah, Hungary has been absolutely brilliant. And the group F, the group of death, served to its
03:14billing that it's a group of death by having those topsy-turvy moments. You know, everyone was,
03:20you know, very interested in watching that game because every other minute, one team was going up
03:27and the other team was going down. You know, it was absolutely incredible. Even manager Gareth
03:32Southgate for England, he was watching, you know, which team am I going to play now? Because
03:37at one time, it was like Hungary. Another time, it was Portugal.
03:40Eventually, it ended up as Germany. What a game that is going to be.
03:45That's going to be a tough one. I mean, we always get drawn against them. It's going to be
03:48an early one in the last 16 there. But make a good point about Hungary took the lead against
03:54France, you're right, and against Germany yesterday. That goal from Zyler yesterday,
03:58what a good header that was yesterday.
04:00Unbelievable.
04:02Yeah, it was a proper header.
04:06Yeah. I mean, you know, we've seen some great goals in the tournament so far. We don't often
04:10talk about headers being inside the top two or three. But I mean, that's one of the best goals
04:14in the tournament so far.
04:16That is one of the best goals. You know what? This guy, Adam Salah, has scored only one goal
04:20in the Bundesliga last season. And he topped off with that wonderful header in the Euro Championship.
04:26Some players, you know, they just turn up for their nations. It was incredible.
04:31There's got to be a special bit of goals in the tournament. There's going to have to be
04:38an own goals of the tournament as well. There's been so many and so many crazy talking points.
04:45There's been eight so far, Matt. We've had eight own goals already so far. It's unbelievable.
04:50I mean, who would have thought? All right, let's move on. Well, before we do, I think
04:56all agreed to say we're quite sad to see Hungary go. They were really good in the tournament and
05:01we hope to see them next time, maybe the World Cup. All right, but let's move on to France
05:05against Portugal, where Ronaldo equaled the all-time goal-scoring record, scoring twice
05:10in that 2-2 draw yesterday. He's now got 109 goals. That's the same as Ali Day had for Iran.
05:15And on the form he's in and with Portugal now progressing, he's going to break that
05:20record shortly, isn't he? Yeah, I mean, who would have thought Bruno Fernandes would be
05:25in a team like this and they'd get all these penalties and he wouldn't be taking them?
05:30The Man United penalty specialist. But I think that obviously with Ronaldo going after that
05:35record, him being the captain and him being Ronaldo, there's no doubt as to who was taking
05:39those penalties. And they've had so many. I think he's scored three from the spot now.
05:48And that's a normal day for Fernandes for Manchester United.
05:54Yeah, again, a thrilling minute match. France probably get more questions than
06:03they've had answers after this group stage because they came in as solid favourites,
06:07world champions. But again, they were not at their convincing best yesterday.
06:13Portugal are glad to get that Germany game out of their system and get a good result against
06:18France. But yeah, I know, again, great entertaining game for the neutral, but not
06:26the greatest of confidence boosters for France going into the last 16.
06:31I know, Tol, you mentioned the penalty there. That was Portugal's penalty. I mean,
06:36Lloris is punching the ball. He catches Danilo on the head. I mean, I don't know. I think the
06:39ref got that wrong. Shamsir, what do you think? The penalty? Absolutely, man. Both of them are
06:46penalties. Absolutely dubious calls. Oh my goodness. How can you give those penalties,
06:52man? If you keep giving those penalties, there will be like 10 or 15 penalties in a game in
06:56a Premier League. Absolutely ridiculous. I didn't expect that to happen in a UEFA competition. I can
07:02see that happening in the Premier League because I've seen how horrendous the referees are there.
07:08But I expected better from the UEFA. At least they're using the VAR better so far in the
07:13tournament. But these two dubious calls, I have no words to say about this. And even the third
07:22penalty was handball, man. I don't understand these handball rules anymore. Like what we have
07:29mentioned previously in the previews and reviews everywhere. You can't jump now. You have to keep
07:34your hands somewhere tight and you have to jump. It's absolutely ridiculous. But coming to the
07:39point, the game was absolutely entertaining. We were switching with both the games and it was
07:44like what Emran mentioned yesterday with the remote and the thumbs. It was incredible, man.
07:51But for France, I like what Matty mentioned. They weren't convincing at all. But they have a major
07:57problem in their full-back role. Lucas Hernandez was injured. Now the guy who came in to fill in
08:05for him was Luka Dina. He also got injured. And on the right-hand side, Pavard is injured. And they
08:11had to play a centre-back in the right-back role. So that is a major concern for France. But topping
08:16that group means they have got an easy run in the next round. At least on the paper against
08:22Switzerland, they should beat them. They weren't convincing. But certain Paul Pogba was again
08:29absolutely brilliant in that midfield. He was spraying passes left, right and centre. He was
08:34slinging in crosses behind Portugal defence. Man, I don't understand how he plays so well for
08:41France. And the through-ball to Benzema was absolutely delightful to watch. What a player, man.
08:47That's the point. Why does he do that? We know for France, for Juventus, he was really good.
08:53For Man Utd, he's just not there. What could be the problem there? He's got good players
08:58around at Man Utd as well. They can't just be the players. But there's something clearly not
09:02right with Pogba at United.
09:04Yeah, I think we need Saheel here for this one, being a Man Utd fan. But you'll get his say when
09:11he joins us in a few days' time. The Pogba enigma is just a weird one because, like I say, we do
09:20know that he thrives when he's got better players around him. He's no Steven Gerrard who can carry
09:24a team or lift a team. He needs that quality around him. And he obviously has that in guys
09:31like Kante there for France. But there is a definite gulf in class between Man Utd and there.
09:38But I think that there's the other factor of he's not happy there. There's something wrong. He wants
09:44to be winning trophies. He knows he's not winning trophies at Man Utd. And he does not regard the
09:50Europa League as a trophy, I don't think. He doesn't even want to be in that competition.
09:56And he's obviously a bit disillusioned. When he joined Man Utd, he thought they were going to be
10:02going back to the top of the game, competing across Europe and in the Premier League. They've
10:08only just got back to being the second-best team. And that's clearly not good enough for somebody of
10:15his expectations. It would be the same if it was Ronaldo. He would be strutting around that
10:21midfield in a grump if he was at Man Utd as well. I wouldn't say they're glory hunters, but they
10:30want to get the silverware this way. Harry Kane's wanting to leave Tottenham as well. The silverware
10:35is not there to go with what they regard their own talent. And obviously, it reflects the football
10:39in the field there. We're getting slightly off topic because we've had to talk a bit about the
10:43Premier League rather than the Euros. But yeah, I think it's doubly frustrating for Man Utd fans
10:50when they see what he can do for France.
10:53A quick word on Benzema, back after six years on the international stage. He got two goals
10:59yesterday. That'll do his confidence a world of good, won't it, going forward?
11:04The key thing there was, I think that they intentionally gave him that penalty to take
11:10so that he could get that goal under his belt, get his eye in, and then approve because he went on to
11:17get the second goal as well. I think that was a very clever decision by France to do that. They
11:21know how to score goals. They know how to score goals. But Benzema had to get that monkey off his
11:26back. That was a very clever one going into the last 16, now that they have all these attacking
11:31options.
11:33Yeah, I believe that gives another option for Didier Deschamps now. He picked Benzema in all
11:41three games and he wanted him to perform now. He has performed now, finally. So, that could give
11:46a boost for France in the knockout stages, yeah. Which is good for them.
11:52Yeah. Alright, moving on to Sweden against Poland. Sweden went 2-0 up with a couple of
11:58lovely goals from Forsberg before Poland came storming back with two goals from
12:02you-know-who Lewandowski. But then as they were chasing a third goal to send them through into
12:07the last 16, they were caught on the break and Sweden won the match 3-2, meaning Poland are out.
12:13But are we really surprised that Poland are out? I mean, like we were saying all before,
12:16they do rely on one man. If he doesn't perform, they're not going to go very far. Alright,
12:21he got two yesterday. Could have had a hat-trick actually. He missed that chance in that first
12:25half. He hit the underside of the bar and then his rebound from two yards out hit the bar again.
12:30Are we disappointed with Poland or is it what we expected?
12:34Well, to me, I think it's what we expected. I'm actually very impressed with Sweden,
12:39more so than disappointed in Poland. Because, yeah, like you say, the Poles without Lewandowski
12:46are not very much to look at. And he's going to be a miss because that's probably his last major
12:52tournament. So he'll be, although if he's still got two legs in the World Cup, if he comes around,
12:58they'll play him. That's how much they rely on him. And I think that illustrates really
13:07what the problem is there because he could have a zimmer frame and he'll still be getting a start
13:12up front. But as I said, the Sweden team, to me, were more impressive in this tournament.
13:20We didn't really talk about them beforehand because, you know, make up the numbers type
13:25thing. But, yeah, no, they've really impressed me. And I think that they might have another
13:31upset on the cards if they can raise the game to that level and show that never-say-die attitude
13:38as they did towards the end. They weren't settling for a draw. They went out and they got the win.
13:44Yeah, Poland came into the tournament with so many injury concerns, especially up top,
13:49like Piatek and Milik were missing. They are like huge misses for this Polish team because
13:54they could have helped Lewandowski in scoring goals for them. But now it is fully reliant on
14:00Lewandowski and he couldn't do a lot worse. He missed a sitter in the first half. But then,
14:10like what we have always mentioned about these world-class players, those kind of misses
14:16will actually galvanize them. And that guy, the first goal that he scored was an absolute beauty,
14:22man. What a goal that was. Yes, then he was dragging them into the round of 16. He was
14:29trying to drag them. But Sweden were good enough. Like what Matty mentioned, Sweden,
14:34an absolute surprise package. They are playing so brilliantly. And when you look at the right-hand
14:40side of the Euro fixtures, they can still progress, I think, even for Sweden. So, it's going to be a great watch.
14:48Yeah, they've got Ukraine in the last 16. Ukraine have been a bit hit and miss as well.
14:53We'll do some predictions right at the end. Let's just wrap up the final game. And that was
14:57Spain. Spain thrashing Slovakia 5-0. But they were given a huge helping hand, literally.
15:04Martijn de Broglie, he messed up. It looked like he was playing volleyball. It reminded me of
15:11Pickford's mistake against Liverpool for Everton. It was terrible. I mean, and after that mistake,
15:18you could see he lost all confidence. He was to blame for the second goal. He actually started
15:22pretty well. He saved the penalty for Morata. It wasn't a great penalty. But that mistake,
15:27let's talk about that. We can't not talk about that.
15:31My favourite moment of the tournament so far. I love a good bit of comedy. Like I said,
15:40I was actually looking at Dubravka before and I was like, this guy's really good. He made two
15:46great saves. He then saved the penalty because Spain came out with that point to prove after
15:52getting a lot of criticism about not being able to go forward. I think they answered that one
15:56fairly well. Dubravka, if he keeps this up, he could get himself a nice move away from Newcastle
16:05to a bigger team here. And then, yeah, kiss of death, commentator's curse. He decided to
16:14have an Alison Becker moment against Man City. You know, he just had this five-minute period
16:21where he just decided to become a Spain player. I was just unbelievable. I was just looking at
16:28the… He could have done ten other things to stop that ball going in the net. He could have just
16:34stood back and let it bounce. It wasn't going over the line. He could have…
16:39He could have just stood back and gave it to Morata. He would have missed it anyway.
16:45Yeah, Morata got the assist. He could have just turned his body around so he was facing the right
16:54way. It would have helped him. A number of things he could have done. He could have headed it away.
17:00He could have done anything. Just not scoop it into your own net like that. I mean, he actually
17:07changed the direction the ball was going in to make it go in. It was just one of those
17:11poor moments. He will never live that down. He will be on the Newcastle bench instead of getting
17:18a move-up now. And then, as Imran said, the confidence just shattered. Spain made hay.
17:32Like I said, good confidence booster for Spain after two shonky first games.
17:37Yeah. It's a morale booster win for Spain. But like what you have said, Dubravka, man. He is a
17:43decent keeper for Newcastle. Even in the tournament, he has been brilliant so far. But then,
17:49that moment defies his future now. He is going to be a meme forever in Twitter and all the social
17:55medias. That's an absolutely ridiculous goal to concede. And it's going to haunt him forever.
18:01A hundred percent.
18:04I'm just going to say something. The thing that reminds me is, when you think of these goalkeeper
18:08howlers, obviously, Imran mentioned the Pickford one. But the one that sticks out for me is Rob
18:13Green. He is still trying to lift that one down against the States. And that was a long time ago.
18:19And he is crawling back trying to get the ball. This is going to be one of those moments for the
18:24rest of his career.
18:25Yeah. This is going to live there in the social media forever, man. It's going to be a meme.
18:30And, but Spain, yeah. After that thing, Slovaks looked absolutely jaded. And they didn't look
18:36like a team after that. So, this guy became hero to villain in no time. And then the Slovaks were
18:42an absolute shambles. And Spain utilized that. And they got a morale-boosting win. Good for
18:48Spain. But I still don't fancy them to progress because they are an absolutely terrible team.
18:54Yeah. That's a good point.
18:56Don't mix in your words.
19:00I mean, they've been disappointing. I mean, yeah, they got the luck they needed for that
19:03first goal. I mean, Dubrovnik was to blame for the second one as well. It's a lovely header
19:07from Laporte, by the way, to head it back across where it came from. And Torres scored a goal with
19:12his first touch when he came on. Overall, I mean, Spain showed that they can play, you know, they
19:16can do it. But they've got Croatia in the last 16. And that'll be a tough one.
19:21All right. Talking about the last 16 now, let's quickly go through the eight fixtures.
19:26Just tell me who you think is going to win. Otherwise, we're going to be here all day.
19:28Saturday, we start with Wales against Denmark. I'm going to go Wales.
19:33Denmark.
19:34Denmark. Denmark.
19:36Italy, Austria. I'm going Italy.
19:39Italy.
19:40Italy, hands down.
19:42Yeah. And then on Sunday, we've got Netherlands and Czech Republic. I'm going to go Netherlands.
19:47I think Netherlands just. But it might take extra time and penalties.
19:51I'm going for Czech Republic. Piatek to score. Ah, sorry. Schick. Patrick Schick to score.
19:57Yeah, yeah. He's proven he can. And then Belgium against Portugal. That's going to be a really
20:01good game. I think Ronaldo will score. He'll break the record. But I think Belgium's going to win.
20:08Yeah, maybe 2-1. Early penalty. And then Belgium will just.
20:13We'll claw it back. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely Ronaldo penalty.
20:18Oh, hang on. Ronaldo penalty. But he misses it. And they go out.
20:22Oh, my God. There's going to be a penalty for sure. Because the Belgium defence,
20:29we know they are, you know, shaky a bit. But I think Belgium will go through.
20:34Belgium. Yeah. All right. Monday, Croatia and Spain. We just talked about Spain. It's going
20:38to be a hard one. Croatia haven't been that good. I think Spain on penalties.
20:42OK. That's a tough one. As I said, it depends which Croatia turns up. The Jekyll and Hyde
20:47of this tournament. Yeah, I'll go with the foreign team. I'll go with Croatia to
20:55foreign team. Spain just won 5-0. But you know what I mean. They seem to have a little bit more.
21:01So I'll go with Croatia. Yeah, I'm going with Croatia too. Because
21:06Spain, I don't fancy them. What was it you said? Absolutely rubbish.
21:13What about France and Switzerland? I think that's a well shot on paper, straightforward. It's got
21:17to be France. But they haven't been that good so far. But still, there should be enough to get
21:20through. Yeah, I think France will move up a gear again. And maybe they've got those little early
21:28jitters out the way. Benzema's got his goals. So I think that they'll start cranking through
21:33the gears now as we go towards the business end. They need a full back. But still, I think they'll
21:38win that game comfortably. Yeah. And then Tuesday, England against Germany.
21:44Oof, this is going to go, I think, all the way. I think penalties. And I think,
21:49well, I hope England just about going to go England. But it's not going to be easy at all.
21:55Last-minute winner, Harry Kane. Oh, my God. Germany are very, very beatable score.
22:04You know, like they are. But they're really just these challenges. I don't think they'll
22:09buckle down against England. I think they're going to win. Germany.
22:14Yeah. And then the last one, Sweden and Ukraine,
22:18if Yarmolenko, Yeramchuk, and those guys play well. But Sweden look really good with
22:22Isaac. I'm going to go Sweden. No such thing as a draw now. So
22:30if that was a group game, I'd draw right now all over it. Penalties, Sweden.
22:38I'm a biased man. I'm a biased man. I want Andrey Shevchenko's Ukraine to progress.
22:43Ukraine.
22:44Ukraine. All right. Well, it's getting really exciting now. We're going to have to see some
22:48big performances from some of the teams that are through but haven't really got going yet.
22:52That's it from us for today. Log on to gulfnews.com for all the latest news,
22:55and we'll see you next time.