The first round of Euro 2024 games is in the books, and it's time for a deep dive on favorites, surprises and the teams that clearly can't go all the way.
We've had our first look at the Euro 2024 field, and Germany look like the team to win the whole thing. What else have we learned? Five teams scored at least three goals, and Germany scored five. Fans from Albania and Georgia, immense underdogs, each got to thunderously celebrate goals, one of which came just 23 seconds into Albania's match with Italy. Another underdog, Slovakia, got to celebrate a huge win over Belgium.
But let's overreact anyway. It's fun. Here are some takeaways from the first 12 matches of Euro 2024.was the stuff overreactions were made for. We got used to seeing demonstrative opening statements from Germany -- 8-0 vs. Saudi Arabia at the 2002, 4-0 vs. Australia in 2010, 4-0 vs. Portugal in 2014 -- back when they were the most reliable and consistent country in the sport. Now, as they look for footing again after a number of stumbles, they produce a resounding, retro performance.
It was impossible to be thrilled by England's play to that point, and you're intentionally minimizing your margin for error by satisfying yourself with 1-0 wins. Still, they produced seven points and an easy group win. And in wins over Germany andin the knockout rounds, they attempted just 11 total shots but somehow scored on six of them and cruised. No one could force them to open things up, so they didn't.
He couldn't capitalize on two other chances, he missed what appeared to be a sitter on a chance that was eventually called offside and on two different second-half occasions, he scored goals that were disallowed, the first because he was offside by inches and the second because, who assisted him on the goal, had nicked the ball with his hand earlier in the sequence. Both calls were correct and totally gut-wrenching.
Combine that with the fact that Hungary entered the tournament in lovely form and had the single best and most creative player on the pitch , and I was pretty confident Hungary was going to handle Switzerland on Saturday and stake a claim to second in Group A.
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