Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The 2017 European Under 21 Championships are very much in full swing as over the course of the next two days we will see which four teams will complete the Semi Finals for this summer’s tournament which is being held in Poland. Unfortunately for the host nation they have already crashed out after finishing bottom of Group A.
We already know two nations that will be in the Semi Finals, Aidy Boothroyd’s England who topped Group A with 7 points. They may have started slowly but this is a side growing with confidence as the tournament progresses and they will be looking to emulate the efforts of the Under 20’s side in the recent World Cup.
They are joined by Spain who although they have one left game to play they have already topped Group B by virtue of winning the first two group matches. An opening game mauling of tournament debutantes Macedonia was then added to with a 3-1 win over Portugal earlier in the week.
Spain may have won the game with relative ease but there is no doubting the pick of the goals – that honour was bestowed to Portugal’s Bruma who hit an absolute exocet missile of a strike from just outside the area to make it 2-1 with 13 minutes to go, although it gave them hope of snatching a point late on that hope was then diminished by Inaki Williams’ injury time strike to restore Spain’s two goal advantage.
So now Portugal with the likes of Bruma, Gelson Martins and Bayern Munich’s Renato Sanches in the side will be hoping that they can get the result required to snatch the best second place team in the group stages and make up one of the final four places.
The tournament has expanded to 12 nations for the first time ever and we now see the situation where there are three groups of four, meaning that eight teams go home at the group stages. It is perhaps harsh that the group runners up do not automatically qualify but it does mean that there is no negative football as every game is a must win.
It means that Slovakia are going to have an uncomfortable wait over the weekend as they will be keeping their eyes on not just Group B but Group C also. This group is wide open with no team booking their place in the Semi Finals just yet, meaning there are a whole host of permutations in regards to who makes the semis.
Slovakia are the top ranked second place team at present but that is because they have played one more match then both Portugal and the Czech Republic who are currently runners in Group C. Portugal arguably have it all to do as they are the lowest ranked second place team at present.
To better Slovakia’s record they need to beat Macedonia by 4 clear goals which when you consider Spain beat Macedonia by 5 goals is not something that is unrealistic so Slovakia are going to have a nervy evening tomorrow when that game takes place.
What makes it even more interesting though is the scenario in Group C – at present Czech Republic would also have to beat Denmark by four clear goals but that is on the assumption that Germany do not lose to Italy. Should Germany lose to Italy and Czech Republic lose to Denmark then it is anyone’s guess.
Germany are in a solid position with their plus 5 goal difference so there could be a scenario where the Czech Republic win 6-0 and Germany lose 1-0 and they themselves could still be the best second place team as long as Portugal do not get their required goal haul.
Simply put there are an incredible amount of twists and turns as to what could happen over the course of Saturday and Sunday night. Who knows who will progress but what I do know is that Slovakia are not going to have any finger nails left by the end of the weekend.
