Euro 24 Second Group Stage Matches: England Sputters; Poland Punted; Host Germany Rolls; Spain Ekes by Italy in Group of Death; Ronaldo Ties Assist Record; Belgium Creates Group Chaos

England, unbeaten in the tournament to date, was subject to a storm of criticism after an uninspiring 1-1 draw with Denmark. Harry Kane scored his first goal of the tournament to give England an early lead over the Danes at the 18-minute mark. The Three Lions, however, then appeared to go into a defensive shell and seldom threatened for the balance of the match. Kane himself helped to negate his early scoring strike. The English captain gave the ball away to trigger Denmark’s match tying counter. The pursuant long-range launch by Denmark’s Morten Hjulmand found the net for ironically the longest Euros goal since Denmark similarly victimized England from range in their Euro 20 semifinal. England would come back in that match to win on a Kane goal in extra time.

Heroics were not to be found on Wednesday, however, as the match would end with the sides tied at a goal apiece. A desperate substitution, whereby Southgate lifted all three of his forward players with 20 minutes to play, failed to yield results. As in their first match, a win over Serbia, England’s midfield was muddled, and its attack lacked cohesion. Trent Alexander-Arnold was lifted for Conor Gallagher for a second straight match after the Liverpool defender again seemed uncomfortable in an unaccustomed position and in his partnership with Declan Rice. The experiment to make Alexander-Arnold a full-time England midfielder appears to be a failure.

What comes next in England’s midfield is an open question with Gallagher, Kobbie Mainoo and Adam Wharton all representing potential next steps as Southgate continues to tinker with the crucial engine of his lineup in the midst of a major tournament. England fans were both perplexed and outraged after Southgate lamented the difficulty of replacing Kalvin Phillips in the center of The Three Lions midfield. After a lengthy period of invisibility buried on the Manchester City bench, Phillips could not crack the West Ham line-up this past Premier League season. Surely, England can do better. Southgate has also been playing Phil Foden and Kieran Trippier out of position as the manager seems to be treating this tournament as a science experiment. Undefeated England is still on course to advance and could be a threat in the tournament if they can figure things out.

Poland, however, is out of time. The Poles became the first team to leave Germany when France and Netherlands played to a goalless draw, mathematically eliminating a Poland side which was hammered 3-1 by Austria on Friday for its second tournament loss. France faces Poland in its final group stage match with the French needing a win to top the group and a draw to clinch second. Despite former Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante controlling the midfield for France, the Frenchmen still could have lost the match but for a controversial interference decision by English referee Anthony Taylor which disallowed a potential Netherlands winner. English VAR official Stuart Atwell declined to have Taylor take another look at the questionable call which found an offside, yet seemingly uninvolved, Dutch player to have interfered with French goalkeeper Mike Maignan on the goal. France’s attack, meanwhile, was pedestrian without the keen goal sniffing nose of the injured Kylian Mbappe. They should be fine to advance without him, but he is clearly needed if they are to make any noise in the knockout stage.

A team continuing to make noise is host Germany. While favored by some betters for their clear home advantage, Germany had not impressed in recent international tournaments. They have looked the best of any contenders in their first two matches in this tournament, however. The Germans followed up their opening 5-1 demolition of Scotland by defeating Hungary 2-0 in their second match to become the first qualifiers for the knockout stage. Former Manchester City and current Barcelona player Ilkay Gundogan assisted on Jamal Musiala’s opening score and then found the net himself for the insurance goal in Germany’s win. Germany’s seven goals after two matches now exceeds their total output across Euro 20. Hungary lost for a second time despite a bright performance from Liverpool midfielder and Hungarian captain Dominik Szoboszlai.

One of the best tournament performances to date was put in by Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in a losing effort versus Spain. The PSG keeper had eight saves to frustrate a Spanish side which launched 20 shots in total to the Italians’ meager four attempts on the day. An own goal by Riccardo Calafiori, however, proved the Italians undoing and qualified Spain for the knockout stage as group winners. Italy, meanwhile, now needs a result versus Croatia on Monday if it is to survive the Group of Death.

Portugal punched its ticket for the next round, becoming the third team to qualify with a 3-0 waltz over Turkiye. Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva scored the opening goal before Türkiye committed just the second own goal by a team from outside its own box in the history of the Euros on an incredibly poor back pass from distance. Cristiano Ronaldo then became the joint all-time Euro assists leader by setting up Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes for the match’s final goal.

Belgium established Euro history in its last match, infamously being victim to the tournaments’ greatest upset. To their credit, the Red Devils responded and have a chance to advance after a 2-0 win on Saturday over Romania. Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne provided Belgium’s first goals of the tournament in the win. With Ukraine beating Slovakia 2-1 on Friday, all four teams in Group E now have three points and qualification will come down to Belgium’s match versus the Ukrainians and Slovakia’s battle with Romania, both matches to occur simultaneously this coming Wednesday.