The Czech Republic caused the biggest upset of the Euro 2020 competition so far as the Netherlands crashed out to their less-fancied opponents 2-0.
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00:00It was the Czech make for the Netherlands last night. You see what I did there?
00:04They were knocked out by the Czech Republic. It's the shock result of the tournament so far.
00:13Hello and welcome to Golf News Kicking Back. I'm Imran and I'm joined by my regular guests
00:18Shamsir and Sahil to discuss yesterday's last 16 Euro 2020 games. But before we do,
00:24some transfer rumours to bring you. Man City may turn their attention to Barcelona and France
00:30and the Belgian striker is tipped to move to Bayern Munich and that's because Liverpool
00:43are interested in signing Munich's forward Kingsley Coman. So plenty of moving and
00:48shaking going on. All right, let's get to the action. I think it was the Czech make for the
00:52Netherlands last night. You see what I did there? They were knocked out by the Czech Republic.
00:58It's the shock result of the tournament so far. But the game really changed when
01:03Matthijs de Ligt was sent off in the second half for handball. From then on,
01:07the Netherlands were on the back foot and goals from Thomas Hollisch and Patrick Schick did the
01:13trick. I'm on a roll here. But overall, it looked like the Netherlands lacked intensity,
01:18they lacked aggression, they ran out of ideas. Often when a team goes down to 10 men, you see
01:25them play really well. They're harder to beat. But when they went down to 10, Frank de Boer
01:31didn't have any answers, did he? Well, he's Frank de Boer, isn't he? I mean, he's not exactly
01:38done his reputation any good because of his time at Crystal Palace. He went down as the worst
01:45Premier League manager of all time. But yeah, I don't think it was as much his fault yesterday
01:52other than the fact that the Netherlands didn't really have that much strength and depth.
01:58I don't know whether with de Ligt it was a bit of immaturity or just a panic. But he just
02:06intentionally scooped the ball away. The referee missed it. He saw it as a handball. And then they
02:11went to VAR and they saw the intentional handball and then the yellow became a red. And they just
02:18fell apart after that. I mean, but that's not to take away anything from the Czech Republic.
02:22They've shown from game one that they really mean business. Nobody really gave them much of a chance
02:27in this tournament. But now they're in the quarterfinals and goodness knows how far they
02:31might go now because they've got their tails up. Schick is scoring for fun. And again,
02:35they've got a good solid unit there. But bye-bye Netherlands and go and try again.
02:41Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that call from me yesterday about the Czech win.
02:47And it was Schick Republic yesterday, man. It was brilliant from these guys.
02:56What happened for Dutch yesterday, they lacked a leader on and off the pitch.
03:01See, when you're down to 10, man, you need to have someone on the pitch to say that, guys,
03:06this is not the end. We have still got a chance. If we are going down, we have to go down with a
03:12fight. And off the pitch, they didn't have any proper manager who could say to the boys,
03:17okay, guys, calm down, cool down. This is the situation. We can tackle it. But in absolute
03:24contrast, he didn't know what he was doing. We know how prank a ball is. He's a clueless manager.
03:31Instead of getting a defender on, he went with the same formation and he put on another
03:38left-wing back in promise. And he moved Van Aanholt in the centre-defence area,
03:43which he's not very comfortable with. It was not good enough from Frank de Boer.
03:50And even their big players like Wijnaldum and Depay, they were all absolutely horrible,
03:55especially after they went down to 10, man. Wijnaldum actually completed just 10 passes
04:00in the whole game. And Dutch didn't even have a shot on target. Even before the red card,
04:07they looked helpless. And Czech were controlling them. You remember in the first game,
04:12after the first game, I told that any good, decent side can just open, crowd them apart
04:19in transition. That's what actually happened. Forget about the transition. They were struggling
04:26to counter the crosses and everything that was coming into the box. And set-piece defending
04:31was absolutely horrible. And you would wonder, when you lose a player like Dele,
04:36you have to bring in a defender who's good enough to control or defend the crosses.
04:42But he instead brought in promise, who is not good enough for that. And you moved the
04:47Daliblin into the centre of the centre-defence. It was not good enough, man. For Dutch,
04:53the manager was absolutely horrible. And they lacked a leader on and off the pitch.
04:58So, I hear the manager to blame yesterday?
05:02I mean, I don't want to blame the manager. De Ligt himself said it is his fault. He was a
05:08stupid handball. He shouldn't have done that. It's just unacceptable from a player from that
05:13high quality. We all know how highly-rated Matthijs De Ligt is, right? And the Dutch,
05:20before that red card, Donny Malin missed the golden, golden opportunity to score. How did
05:25he not get past the keeper early? He himself will know. Because he should have scored that,
05:30like, really. But you know what? Red card or no red card, Czech Republic scored two good goals.
05:36You know, credit to them. And I'm very happy for them. The Dutch played poor and they deserve
05:41to go out. And I think this was Jorginho Wijnaldum's worst game in a Netherlands trip.
05:47Yeah, he's been really good up to now. He's had three really good games. I mean, look,
05:52the Netherlands have showed their attacking quality all throughout the tournament.
05:55We know how good they can be, especially with the wing-backs Dumfries and Van Aanholt. But yeah,
05:59he was moved into the centre-back position. I mean, yeah, you mentioned that huge chance
06:05Malin had. He raced through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. I mean, look, if that goes in,
06:09it may well have changed the whole outcome of the game. This is the first time the Netherlands have
06:13actually been behind in the tournament, but they were clueless, actually. They just couldn't get
06:16back into it. Yeah, I think just what we said going into the last 16 is one bad day at the
06:24office is just going to cost you now. One incident like that, and that's exactly that incident,
06:28because he had that great chance, as you said. If that had gone in, the confidence would have
06:33been there. Wijnaldum would have turned up, Blindu would have turned up, and then it would
06:37have gone on and they would have won. But that split second, the confidence goes all of a sudden
06:43up the other end. And it's an entirely different story. And it just shows you in the knockout
06:50stages how quickly things can change like that. And it just wasn't their day. And, as you said,
06:57then Schalmscher is obviously a big fan of Frank de Boer's for the way that he was speaking about
07:00him there. They really need to make a change there, because somebody like Ronald Koeman would
07:06not have accepted that. And he would have really got them knuckled down and they would have really
07:10pressed after that. Obviously, he moved on to Barcelona and they had to find a stopgap. And
07:15that is what he is, a stopgap. And they'll need to get somebody stronger than de Boer. And if they
07:19want to try and compete at these tournaments.
07:24How good was Holish, Schick, Suchek, Kufao, Karadzic, all of them? It was a really good
07:31performance from the Czech Republic yesterday, wasn't it?
07:33Absolutely. They knew what they were doing. They had come up with a plan and they executed
07:39it brilliantly, man. Especially in the midfield, the taller boys. Suchek had a wonderful game.
07:45Nobody talks about that because he does that silently. It was a brilliant game. He had a
07:49header in the first half. He could have scored. Czech Republic were making chances even in the
07:55first half. It was not the game that they took control after the red card. They were actually
08:00in the game. They were making chances. They understood the weaknesses of Dutch defence.
08:06And they were trying to ping in crosses and all these things. That's how they play.
08:14And we all knew that they would be scoring from a set-piece or a cross into the box,
08:19because heading was their natural alley for a goal. And it was brilliant from them.
08:24And you have to give them credit. But you know why, Sahil, I was mentioning Frank de Boer.
08:29As a manager, you earn big bucks for these kind of situations. Yes, you're going
08:35down to 10 men. Not your fault. Your younger player made a mistake. But then,
08:40you have to take a bold decision. That's how you earn your big bucks. And Frank de Boer
08:45was absolutely horrible. He didn't have any clue on that. And even the team lacked characters.
08:51They lacked leaders all around the pitch. Yes, the game changed in one moment. Because if Marlon
08:57could have scored that goal, it would have been all over. But then, when this kind of situation
09:03happens, you need to react. And they reacted absolutely horrendously.
09:08There was no reaction. That's the biggest problem. Very tame from them. We've mentioned
09:13Ronaldo. They just didn't turn up. But again, credit to the Czech Republic. They played really
09:20well. And now Schick's got, I think he's got four goals. He's one behind from Ronaldo. He's got five.
09:26Obviously, they've progressed now. He'll probably fancy his chances of getting that golden boot,
09:31won't he? He's been playing really well. And his goal yesterday, what a lovely,
09:34neat finish. Left foot, first time, bottom corner. That's a tremendous striker's finish, wasn't it?
09:39Yeah, surely. He's shown it now every game. From the start to Scotland and now to here.
09:50But he's been, only Schick, he may have scored four goals. But I wanted to mention Thomas
09:54Czocik. This guy, I'm a huge fan of this guy. He's coming back from an unbelievable season in
09:59the Premier League with also the right back Koufal. These guys have done the dirty work for
10:04Czech Republic. Yes, even though after the red card, they were all organised. Sometimes after
10:08red card, you know, you just go attacking and you forget what's happening in the back.
10:12So, I got to give credit to all the Czech Republic players. But yeah, definitely now Schick will have
10:17the confidence. And I think if England beat Germany, do England play Czech Republic?
10:23I need to see that next round draw, but I think they might do.
10:26No, Czech are going to play Denmark.
10:30All right, all right.
10:31Denmark in the quarter-finals, yeah, that's the one. But yeah, no, they're playing really well.
10:36So yeah, the Czech Republic will play Denmark in the quarter-finals. Let's move on to
10:40the other game last night. And it was a moment of class from Torgan Hazard as holders Portugal
10:46were knocked out by Belgium. The wingers, 25-yard volley, not volley, I mean, it's a lovely drive,
10:52bent it, it's a superb effort. But honestly, the keeper's got to be looking at that. I think he
10:57was at fault. He was rooted to the spot. He was flat-footed. Had he been a yard or two off his
11:02line, he may well have saved that. But that was the only goal of the game. But Portugal did have
11:08a lot of chances. Jota scuffed his shot in the first half. Should have done better there. Diaz
11:13had a header saved. They hit the post from Guerreiro as well. But Belgium held on and
11:18that means they're going to be playing Italy in the quarter-final. What did you make of that game?
11:23Yeah, I think it was, they set up an absolute cracker of that quarter-final.
11:27You know, it had the draw been a bit different. That could have been your final.
11:31Yeah.
11:33To see these two going in, it's a bit of a shame that it's only,
11:36they're meeting so early, but it's going to be a tantalising match.
11:41Belgium, I don't think they ever looked in danger. I think that they kept Portugal at
11:47arm's length and then they struck the killer blow as soon as they saw that opportunity.
11:53Thorgan Hazard's been having a great tournament. Him and his brother are both doing very well.
11:59And again, it's all about team unity and the way that they all connect across the field.
12:06From the back to front, everybody is playing their part. And again, there's so many unsung
12:12heroes in those teams. The people that just quietly go about their job and let the Hazards
12:17and the likes grab the headlines. But yeah, as I said at the start, I really fancy Belgium to
12:24go all the way and I think that that was another solid performance. And to dispatch Cristiano
12:30Ronaldo as well, who's been on fire this tournament, because he's been a man on the
12:35mission. He's come up short of beating Ali Day's record of all-time goals scored. But I'm sure
12:42that Portugal will be hastily arranging a friendly slash testimonial for him so that he can get that
12:50goal to get the record. But that doesn't take away, like I say, Ronaldo going out is not the
13:10story. It's all about Belgium and they really are being quite businesslike now as the tournament
13:16progresses. And they're living up to their billing as one of the favourites as they were before the
13:22tournament. Some teams are disappointed, some teams are surprised. And I think Belgium and
13:27Italy are the two that have actually just gone on with their job and done exactly what they're
13:31meant to be doing. And we both hope and long may it continue. Yeah, I mean, they've been really
13:37good, but it looks like they've lost De Bruyne again and Hazard went off, looked like he's pulled
13:42the hamstring. If they're both missing against Italy, I mean, do they stand a chance of progress?
13:49No, I don't think so. You know, Italy will be favourite. So especially after watching Belgium
13:54and that game, you know, they looked erratic. They did look convincing to me, you know, they were
13:58sloppy at times, but they held on to the game. And you don't need to be perfect in these kinds of
14:03games, especially when it comes to the knockout rounds. You just need to progress, man. And they
14:07did that, you know, and I have to give credit to one man, you know, Romelu Lukaku was absolutely
14:13monstrous in that game. You know, if people haven't watched, some people who haven't watched
14:17that game would see that he's not nowhere near the assist line or in the score line, you know,
14:22but he had one of the best games for a number nine without directly contributing to the goal.
14:27Even for the goal, he held up the ball brilliantly, you know, like what a player he is, man, you know,
14:31he held up the ball all around, you know, all throughout the match. And then when the
14:37waves of Portugal attack was coming, he was, you know, repelling that waves and he was holding
14:43the ball for Belgium. And he was taking fouls. He was taking the bruises. Even the referee was
14:49not helping him because he was all honest throughout the game and he was not falling down
14:54like Bruno Fernandes or Ashley Young, we have seen earlier in their careers, but he was strong.
15:00But, you know, what a performance from that guy, you know, you have to see how he has grown as a
15:05one of the world-class players in world football now. And even Eden Hazard, it was not his vintage
15:10best performance, but then, you know, he after, especially after Kevin De Bruyne left the pitch,
15:16you know, he took the charges as a captain, you know, he was like, you know, showing the glimpses
15:21of his old self. He had a good game, you know, but now like what you mentioned, the injury to him,
15:28to Eden Hazard and KB is going to be a massive loss for these guys. Lukaku can't do it all alone
15:34himself. And now another thing, you know, like Thorgan Hazard, when you look into the tournament,
15:38you know, you can see the right-footed left players, you know, like the players who are
15:43playing in the left-hand side with right foot, it's the tournament for them. You know, you can
15:47see Mahle in Denmark, you can see Spinezzola at Italy, you can see Thorgan Hazard, all these guys,
15:53you know, they are left, right-footed who are playing in the left and, you know, cutting inside
15:57and scoring those kinds of goals is absolutely brilliant to watch. And like the question that
16:03you've asked, Italy are the favourites because they look more like a team and Belgium with the
16:08defence, with the combined age of 101, I don't think they can play, you know, two games with
16:14such intensity. And I think Italy will have one more day to recover than Belgium. It's all going
16:21to count in, you know, and I think Italy will be the favourites to move to progress into the
16:25semi-finals.
16:27Faheel, do you agree with that? What do you think?
16:29Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I like Italy and I want them to beat Belgium now because they beat
16:34my Portugal. I mean, I was just so upset yesterday. It was just, you know, you just, I'm sure you just
16:40thought that Diaz had smacked it in the back of the net, you know, just went straight at him, you
16:45know, you just feel like, oh my God, couldn't he have directed it somewhere else? Because, you know,
16:50if it directed somewhere else, you know, it was in the back of the net because there was so much
16:53power. But, you know, credit to the goalkeeper, that's a good save, you know, even though it's
16:56straight at him, you know, he blocked it from hitting his face. But, you know, you just thought
17:00then Portugal changed it up, you know, Bruno Fernandes also didn't start, you know, he didn't
17:05deserve to start also, let's be honest, he didn't have the best of tournaments. Did he make an
17:09impact? I'm not sure. It was not that great. I mean, he whipped some good balls in the box, but
17:14still doesn't matter. There were no goals, you know, Guerrero hitting the post, it's just, you
17:19know, thinking it was not Portugal's day, the goal was against them. And but as Shamshershah,
17:24the man who saved Belgium was Lukaku, this guy was holding up the play, you know, he shrugged off
17:30Pepe how many times? I cannot count. Like, how many times did you just shrug off Pepe? Even Ruben
17:36Diaz was struggling against him. And also Aiden Hazard, this was like the Hazard I saw in Chelsea,
17:41I think Real Madrid will be saying, where is this Aiden Hazard? Some beautiful touches. He got,
17:45he was strong, he was very strong. And you know, got past some players with ease. So, I mean,
17:51Portugal were better than them. But you know, as Shamsher said, you don't need to be perfect in
17:55these games, you just got to get through and Belgium did that. There's a different type of
17:59football when it comes to tournament football, you forget about what the performance looks like,
18:02it's all about getting through. Italy did that, Denmark have done that really well. Czech Republic
18:07surprised everyone yesterday. And Belgium are safely through. Just a little stat that I read
18:11about Ronaldo, he's had, he had two free kicks yesterday. One of them was well saved, the other
18:16one hit the wall. He's had more than 50 free kicks for Portugal at the international levels in all
18:22major tournaments. And he's only scored one. Now, I mean… That's a ridiculous type.
18:29He should give it, he should give it to someone else in that team. You know,
18:32there are many other capable, you know, players who can hit the free kick and everything.
18:37The point I'm going to make is they've relied so heavily just because he wants to get this
18:41record out of the way. You know, Fernandes could have had that free kick, he may have got in,
18:45but they've given every single chance for Ronaldo. He's been, you know, the focal point for some
18:49years, we know that. But there's other players there who could have possibly, you know, taken
18:54those situations. But from 50 free kicks, he's only scored one. I mean, he's got to be 38 or 37
19:01in the next, when the World Cup comes around. Some people are saying he's at the end of Ronaldo,
19:04probably not. He's still very fit. He can still do a job, but they've got to really share
19:08those opportunities around. All right, let's move on. There's two more games tonight.
19:12Spain play against Croatia. Croatia is going to be without Ivan Perisic. He tested positive for
19:18COVID-19. Spain were really good against Slovakia. They thrashed them. This is a hard one to call.
19:24I can see it going all the way. We may need penalties, I think, in this one. And if that's
19:28the case, it's a bit of a lottery. I'm going to go… If it's penalties, I'm going to go Croatia.
19:35Interesting. I think that maybe Croatia had their game of the tournament now,
19:43but maybe they really stepped up in that last group game to qualify.
19:47And I think that Spain seem to have got that slow start out of the way as well now. And so
19:53I think that they'll be too strong. And I think that Morata might finally find out where the goal
19:58is. Those white sticks, Alvaro, go find them. I think it's 2-0, 2-0 Spain.
20:11Perisic is going to be a major miss for Croatia, man. He's been the only source for a goal for
20:18Croatia in this tournament. And apart from the Luca Modric, Juvela magic that we have seen,
20:25Ivan Perisic always have posed a threat for Croatia. But I think that the game will be won
20:31in the midfield and the Croatian midfield is too strong. I go with Imran. I think it is going to be
20:38extra time and Croatia might make it against Spain.
20:43Sahil, what do you think?
20:45I'm going to go for Spain. Come on. Like I've said it a few times, this is one of the most
20:51funny teams I've seen this tournament. The first two games, you saw the way they played. Next game,
20:57they scored five goals. Come on, Spain's going to score. Come on, they got to win. I mean,
21:04Morata up front or Gerard Moreno, they should beat Croatia. And Ivan Perisic is a huge, huge loss.
21:11He's a huge miss. All right, so we've got two for Croatia.
21:14But Croatia has Alvaro Morata playing up front.
21:18Don't worry, he'll score.
21:20He plays for Croatia tonight.
21:23He's playing with ten men, basically, is what Spain are doing.
21:25He's got to be their defender.
21:29Let's go to France and Switzerland. Both of France's left-backs, Hernandez and Lukadin,
21:34are injured. So they'll have to shuffle that squad around a little bit. Switzerland are going to
21:39look to, obviously, the likes of Seferovic, Mbola, who's been really good, and obviously
21:43Shaqiri to shine. But I think France have got too much going forwards. I'm going to say two-one to
21:48France.
21:50Yeah, I think I agree that France will be too strong. They do have a lot of problems at the
21:56back. Verrani has not been playing great. And on the other side, they've got nobody to fill the
22:03gap. So it'll be interesting to see who they put out at the back tonight. But yeah, I think that,
22:10again, the forward power will be too much. But they will concede. So I think they might be
22:17bang on two-one.
22:21I think full-backs is going to be a problem for France. But they will manage against
22:25Switzerland. And now you will see the real France. They might not be convincing,
22:30but they will do the job. And I think it might not be any different in this game as well.
22:35I think they'll win by comfortably two-zero or something because I don't think they'll
22:40concede a goal. Benzema is now getting into the game and I think Benzema will score.
22:45It's going to be a straightforward two-zero win for France.
22:49To be honest, I don't know, man. France couldn't beat Hungary. They didn't beat Portugal.
22:55I don't know if they beat Switzerland. I can't say. It was such an overpowered squad. They've
23:00won only once so far. But they should get through. Come on, look at the quality in the team. So I
23:05think I'm going to go for a one-zero France victory.
23:08That's a good point, Sal. You're right. They've only beaten Germany and then they've
23:12beaten Hungary.
23:13That drew through an own goal against Germany.
23:15Yeah. So, but like Shamsuri says, Benzema is looking like he's ready again now. So,
23:23anyway, that'll be an interesting one. That's all from us for today. Check out
23:26gulfnews.com for all the latest news and we'll be here again tomorrow. So we'll catch you then.