Key events
Media news from the England camp: sitting behind the desk next to Gareth Southgate later today will be the much missed, much discussed Luke Shaw.
This week’s Knowledge leads off topically on one-sided penalty shootouts, after Slovenia drew a blank on Monday. No mention though of the game that most came to my mind while watching it – the Netherlands’ total choke after Italy’s bus-parking masterclass in the Euro 200 semi.
Some transfer talk now: it’s been a busy summer among Europe’s biggest clubs in the women’s game and Sky is reporting that Chelsea are close to agreeing terms with Lucy Bronze after the full-back’s departure from Barcelona.
There’s more than a few good men out there. Here’s our old mate Krishna Moorthy with a cinematic retread:
Football Fan: I think I am entitled to the truth.
Gareth Southgate: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has fields, and those fields have to be populated by men with skills. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Gary Lineker? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Grealish, and you curse the manager. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that Grealish’s drop, while tragic, probably saved games; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, gets you to semis.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that ground — you need me on that ground.
We use words like “pass,” “shoot,” “VAR.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent achieving nothing. You use them as a punch line.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the ennui of watching a football match that we pretend to play, and then questions us on why we are playing like this.
I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick a Jose or a Conte. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!
As it happens, it’s interesting that dropping Grealish hasn’t figured too highly in all the soul-searching and agonising. Possibly because he’d just have added yet another note of left-sided uncertainty rather than solved it, such is the current befuddlement.
In other continental tournament news, Colombia held Brazil to a 1-1 draw in the Copa América in Santa Clara, which means the former top their group and Brazil face a tricky quarter-final against Uruguay. Colombia will face Panama.
Preamble
Morning everyone. So, the quarter-final lineup is complete, with a couple of mild surprises – not many will have had Turkey as quarter-finalists, and after their underwhelming group-stage performances, Netherlands turning it on and winning so convincingly yesterday might also count as a mild head-turner. But these Euros’ best matches have all involved either Austria or Turkey so it was mercifully no surprise that their meeting last night was another cracker, featuring the save of the tournament, by Mert Gunok from Christoph Baumgartner in injury-time. The only regret surrounding it from a neutral perspective was that it denied us another half-hour of fun.
So now we’re looking ahead. We’ve got two days of twiddling our thumbs and trying to find other things to talk about before it all resumes with the big Spain v Germany set-to in Stuttgart on Friday.
On the England side of things, we should be hearing from their opponents, Switzerland, this morning and we’re waiting on news from Uefa to see whether the European governing body’s head honchos consider his obscene/banter gesture at the end of the Slovakia game is deemed worthy of further punishment. Talking of Bellingham, Barney Ronay has written about his alpha energy, and the dilemmas over how to deploy it, here.
In the meantime, here’s some of last night’s pieces to digest:
