Thank you for joining me in the build-up to England vs Slovakia and Spain vs Georgia. I’ll leave you with the link to our first minute-by-minute of the day. Following the action in Gelsenkirchen we will be moving straight over to Cologne for the later match so make sure you stay tuned!
We’ll be back tomorrow with another Euro 2024 news blog. But until then, enjoy the rest of your day!
Lamine Yamal scored his first senior international goal against Georgia just last year in a 7-1 win. It just so happened to be his debut for Spain. Fast-forward nine months and he is now prepared to face Willy Sagnol’s side once again, but on a much bigger stage.
Gareth Southgate was keen to radiate a bit of positivity during his pre-match press conference yesterday. The England manager explained: “There’s definitely an excitement and a good feel around the group over the last few days. It also coincided with being able to have a day off the training pitch [on Wednesday] and relaxing a little bit. A bit of golf. Stuff like that. It’s not always science.
“We’re surrounded by science and data in our world now and sport is about joy and enjoyment. Sometimes in a tournament it [the football] is all you’ve got to think about and you need other stuff to talk about and enjoy and focus on. I feel we’ve been through a good few days in that sense. A nice balance of thorough preparation but also some time to switch off.”
England fans have arrived in Gelsenkirchen ready for today’s match!
The stage is set. Arena AufSchalke will play host to England vs Slovakia in the round-of-16 in just a few hours!
Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand was left furious following his team’s 2-0 defeat to Germany last night. Watch the video below:
“Perhaps the most gripping part of England’s Euros at this stage is Southgate’s own plot-line. Starting with Slovakia, we are now at a stage where every game actually could be his last in charge. The wheel keeps turning, Gareth still strapped to its spokes, unbowed, beard jutting, still talking about culture and process, as Fortuna rotates between the fire and the sky. Where will it leave him?”
In a bit of transfer news, Tottenham have emerged as the favourites to sign Archie Gray from Leeds.
Gray’s £40m move from Leeds to Brentford collapsed at the 11th hour after the two clubs failed to agree a mutually-satisfactory payment structure, leaving Tottenham in pole position for the 18-year-old’s signature.
Read Ben Fisher’s latest Euro 2024 diary – from the Deutsche Fussball Museum to a town renowned for producing locks and “Germany’s answer to Leicester”.
Luciano Spalletti is set to remain as Italy head coach following yesterday’s 2-0 defeat to Switzerland. In a press conference this morning, FIGC President Gabriele Gravina insisted he still believes Spalletti will be successful with the national team. “We have nothing to hide, but we must continue to take responsibility,” he said. “There was a long chat with the coach yesterday and I think that it is unthinkable to solve the problems by abandoning a multi-year project after eight to nine months.
“Central to our project is a coach who has been here for nine to 10 months, who has not always had all the players available. Our trust has to work as there is already a new challenge in 60 days’ time.”
It appears Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne aren’t for everyone. Michael (not Michael Butler, who was just with you, but another Michael) says: “Not really sure why anyone would be worried, the line up at Glastonbury seems to be made up of middle of the road pop boredom.”
One could say ‘That don’t impress me much’.
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Hello again! Lunch has been had and now I’m back with you in the countdown to kick-off! T-minus 3hrs and 24mins to go until England get under way!
Emillia is back from her break, so I will hand back to her. Cheers!
Won’t somebody think of the Glastonbury goers?
England’s Euro 2024 football match against Slovakia, after making it through the group stages to the final 16, kicks off at 5pm on Sunday, immediately after Shania Twain’s Legends slot and shortly before Avril Lavigne takes to the Other stage at 6pm.
Glastonbury organisers announced weeks ago that, should England (or Scotland, who got knocked out of the competition last week) qualify from the group stages, it would not be showing any games, saying they could clash with big names.
Here’s Nicky Bandini on Italy, after their woeful defeat to Switzerland on Saturday.
Meanwhile, back in England, good to see that Jack Grealish has taken being left out of Southgate’s squad well.
Can’t lie Jack Grealish is giving Kevin and Perry vibes 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/jsgfrWZIm9
— Man City Kippax🏆 (@ManKippax) June 30, 2024
Hello everyone. Really excited to watch Georgia later. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is the talisman of that team but Georges Mikautadze has been the standout player so far in this tournament. Remarkably, he leads the Golden Boot standings with three goals.
The Ligue 2 Player of the Year in 2022/23 with Metz, Mikautadze earned a big move to Ajax last summer but things didn’t work out in Amsterdam. There were some interesting quotes from Mikautadze about his time at Ajax in a piece we did on the Georgian back in April.
I spent more than two months in a hotel. I was alone in this room, I was going crazy, and the club didn’t help me much in looking for an apartment. In the fall, we rented an Airbnb and the whole family came to live with me for over a month. I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t speak the language: the conditions were not met for me to succeed. All players need to feel good about themselves, to feel respected to perform. At Ajax, I was forgotten.
Moving back to Metz in January, the 23-year-old put some up silly numbers in the second half of the season, and although Metz were relegated from Ligue 1, there will certainly be interest in his signature this summer.
For those who don't know current Euro top scorer, Georges Mikautadze 🔝🇬🇪
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) June 26, 2024
2⃣2⃣ games played
1⃣4⃣ goals
4⃣ assists pic.twitter.com/NVQ3ms9O6Q
Going to grab some lunch now, so will hand over to Michael Butler for a bit. Cheers!
Want to learn more about everyone’s favourite Euro 2024 underdogs? Read Ben Fisher’s rundown of the Georgia national team here:
Spain face tournament debutants Georgia on the other side of the draw this evening. Luis de la Fuente’s side were the only team to finish the group stages with maximum points, making them strong contenders to go the distance in the knockouts.
Meanwhile, despite a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Turkey in their opening game – which will go down as a Euros classic – Georgia bounced back to become one of the best third-placed teams. Willy Sagnol and his players left Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. stunned when they earned a 2-0 win over Portugal on Wednesday.
Spain manager De la Fuente insists he will not underestimate the underdogs tonight. “The most important game is always the next one and now a different European Championship starts,” he said. “We are bracing for a very difficult game, and we will go with the best weapons we have to get out with a win.
“We all have seen surprising things happen in football and I don’t think that will stop happening. Georgia beat Portugal, we have to respect them as opponents, work hard and take the game with the importance that it has so it doesn’t happen to us. They are fast in the counter-attack and very good in the set-pieces. We need to be vigilant and aware, so we don’t end up exposed to counter-attacks in speed.”
Take a look at England’s last-16 opponents with Paul MacInnes’ report of Slovakia, which delves into the team’s tactical approach, strengths and main weaknesses:
England had a full squad of 26 players training yesterday. Despite re-joining the squad, Luke Shaw is not deemed fit enough to start today’s match against Slovakia.
With everything going on at Euro 2024 it’s easy to completely forget about the transfer window. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Click below to see all of the deals that have already been completed across Europe’s top five men’s leagues.
Gareth Southgate has claimed England’s Euro 2024 group stage struggles are “irrelevant” ahead of today’s match against Slovakia. He said: “Everything that’s happened is now pretty irrelevant. We have things we can build on but this is also a different test, a different phase.
“Each game takes place on its own merit and can take a wild direction at times. This is the exciting part and it’s the bit nobody can predict. We need to find our next level, which I believe we can. Slovakia are a very well-coached team and they’ve got a clear playing identity.”
Recap the action from yesterday’s games with The Guardian’s latest Football Daily podcast featuring Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Nedum Onuoha and Nicky Bandini.
Also worth a listen if you’re a fan of Shania Twain…
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In some other football news, Reading have officially withdrawn from the Women’s Championship and will now look to compete in tier five. It follows months of financial uncertainty and the collapse of an 11th-hour takeover bid that had attempted to save the women’s team over the past week. Staff, players and fans are said to be devastated by the news.
England will face Switzerland if they beat Slovakia later today. Meanwhile, the winner of Spain vs Georgia will go on to face tournament hosts Germany.
How the knockout stage looks ahead of today's #EURO2024 fixtures 👇 pic.twitter.com/UfKcpAQnjZ
— England (@England) June 30, 2024
Kobbie Mainoo is ready to relish the “biggest night” of his fledgling career if he starts for England this evening. The Manchester United midfielder caught the eye after coming off the bench at half-time in the goalless draw with Slovenia on Tuesday and now looks set to start against Slovakia.
“Yes, probably,” he replied when asked if the Slovakia game would be the biggest of his career so far. “Do I relish it? Yes, that is what you play football for, the big occasions. You don’t win anything big unless you play in the big occasions. I feel I want to be a great player and great players are made in those big occasions so I have to do my best whenever they come about.”
Some of our writers out in Germany have picked their preferred England starting XI for today’s match. Click below to see who has made the cut:
England winger Anthony Gordon made the headlines this week – after falling off his bike. The 23-year-old was launched head over handlebars following a mix-up with his brakes, much to the amusement of Gareth Southgate. He said: “The bike has not just slowed down, it has fully come to a stop … and I haven’t. I have gone 10 feet into the air, chin first. I carried on and finished the bike ride, and when I got back to the camp I had to put the stuff on, which absolutely stung. That was the worst bit. To be fair, nobody had seen it and I didn’t press record so there were some positives!”
Gordon continued: “He [Southgate] laughed. Like everyone else did. It wasn’t too serious. I could have been injured with the speed I was going down the hill, I could have ended up anywhere. It was on the golf course and I’ve managed to land on the only bit of gravel there was. So, really lucky in some instances and unlucky in others.”
Right then, let’s talk England team news. Gareth Southgate is expected to make just one change to the team that faced Slovenia this afternoon, with Kobbie Mainoo in line to replace Conor Gallagher.
Gallagher, who replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield, was hauled off at half-time on Tuesday. Mainoo went on to stake his claim for a start while Cole Palmer, who took over from Bukayo Saka, also impressed. However, Southgate is set to stick with the same front three.
As for the defence, Luke Shaw has returned to full training but he is not currently deemed fit enough to start. Kieran Trippier, who stepped into the left-back position in Shaw’s absence, missed two days worth of training this week but he is expected to retain his spot in the starting line-up.
Feel free to send me an email with your thoughts on today’s games – Who will start for England this afternoon? Who deserves to start? Should anyone be dropped? Southgate in? Southgate out? Let me know!
Alternatively, we can chat about anything else – like Coldplay’s Glastonbury set, for example – absolutely anything!
Here are some more photos of the storm that delayed yesterday’s match between Germany and Denmark:
It was a strange game in Dortmund last night, not least because of the wild thunderstorms that suspended play for almost 25 minutes. By the end Denmark and Joachim Andersen in particular were left feeling pretty aggrieved. He had a goal disallowed because Thomas Delaney’s big toe was offside in the buildup and three minutes later was penalised for a ludicrously soft handball.
The match was full of big calls – Nico Schlotterberg had an early header chalked off – and afterwards there was invariably plenty of focus on the referee Michael Oliver and the VAR Stuart Attwell. Andersen described it as “one of the worst refereeing performances” he has seen and the Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard said it was a “doubtful” display from the English officials.
“I’ve had Michael a few times in the Premier League and I’ve always seen him as a very good referee, he’s always been at the highest level, but I think even he would admit that this game that today was a doubtful performance,” Norgaard said. “I get it, like us as players also have doubtful performances now and then. It felt like he had to make up one mistake with another mistake, another mistake, another mistake. It was just like that throughout the whole game.”
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Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand took aim at football’s “ridiculous” handball rules following his team’s 2-0 defeat to Germany. He said: “I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball rules. We cannot require our defenders to run with arms like this [flat to their side], it’s not natural. Joachim is running normally, it’s a normal situation. He jumped up and was hit by one metre. I rarely talk about decisions but it was very decisive in our game.
“It’s frustrating for our team. Being 1-0 in front would have changed everything. In my opinion this is not how football is meant to be.”
On the referee’s decision to disallow Denmark’s goal, he said: “I have the photo here, it was one centimetre. In terms of statistics and date it doesn’t make sense. This is not how we are supposed to be using VAR. It’s one centimetre.”
In case you missed it, Switzerland stunned reigning champions Italy 2-0 in Berlin yesterday. Granit Xhaka was the man of the moment once again, pulling the strings in midfield. Remo Freuler broke the deadlock in the first half and Ruben Vargas sealed the win just 27 seconds after half-time. Murat Yakin’s side will now face either England or Slovakia in the quarter-finals.
Then, Euro 2024 hosts Germany managed a 2-0 win over Denmark thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Jamal Musiala. Joachim Andersen thought he had fired the Danes into the lead just after half-time, but his goal was disallowed after Thomas Delaney was deemed to be a toenail offside. In a crushing turn of events for the defender, he then gave away a penalty with a controversial handball just a few minutes later. Havertz tucked away the spot-kick before Musiala made it two in the 68th minute.
Updated
Preamble
Hello and happy Sunday! We’re back for another day of last-16 fixtures, starting with England vs Slovakia. Gareth Southgate’s side limped through the group stages and somehow finished at the top of Group C following a win over Serbia and successive draws against Denmark and Slovenia. This time around they face Slovakia, who qualified for the knockouts as one of the best third-placed teams.
Then, we have David vs Goliath – Spain vs tournament debutants Georgia, who stunned Euro 2016 winners Portugal with a 2-0 win earlier this week. Will we see another huge upset?
I’ll be with you all day! Join me!
