Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 28

Portugal win Group F and Belgium get off the mark – Football Daily

Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Lars Sivertsen as Portugal and Belgium win and Georgia hold Czechs

On today’s podcast: Portugal ease past Turkey to win Group F with lots of help from Turkey’s defenders, including a candidate for best own goal of the tournament so far. Bernado Silva, Pepe and Ronaldo all shone for Roberto Martinez’s side, who can now rest players for their final group game.

In the other game in Group F, Czech Republic were held to a draw by Georgia in a really entertaining game, which leaves the group wide open. Belgium get their first win, with goals from De Bruyne and Tielemans, but the Lukaku curse continues with two more goals ruled offside.

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Africa Cup of Nations has been clobbered by Fifa’s unwanted Club World Cup | Jonathan Wilson

African football changed to fit in with the world game. But it’s always those down the chain who suffer for careless leadership

The Confederation of African Football announced on Friday that the 2025 Cup of Nations will kick-off in 2025. Which is something, given neither of the past two Cups of Nations were played in the right year. But it won’t end in 2025, kicking off on 21 December and finishing on 18 January. Yet the truth is, that is probably the least bad option available – and for once it isn’t really Caf’s fault.

This will be the seventh Cup of Nations in a row that has not gone ahead as originally scheduled for a variety of reasons including unrest in Libya, Moroccan panic over an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, delays in the construction of Cameroonian infrastructure, Covid and the Ivorian rainy season. But this is slightly different.

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Euro 2024: trio of games await as Belgium face crunch Romania clash – as it happened

The latest updates from the tournament with Xaymaca Awoyungbo as the group stage rolls on

It seemed apt that after his Austria side ignited their hopes of reaching the last 16, Ralf Rangnick – famed for imposing a high-pressing style across the Red Bull group – plumped for an energy drink, pouring himself a glass in his post-match press conference. A well-earned victory provides hope of qualifying from Group D when they meet the Netherlands here on Tuesday.

In the other big game of the day, Austria beat Poland 3-1.

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France stall against Netherlands and Austria on the up – Football Daily

Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Ali Maxwell, and Jonathan Wilson to discuss the latest matches

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On today’s podcast: France and the Netherlands serve up the first goalless draw of the Euros, as a VAR decision denies Barry’s favourite, Xavi Simons, what would have the winning goal. The panel discuss that decision and Poland’s early exit, confirmed by events in Leipzig after a very exciting Austria swept them aside earlier in Berlin.

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Ukraine show ‘different spirit’ as Yaremchuk completes comeback in win over Slovakia

At the final whistle, the Ukraine players gathered in the penalty area in front of the mass of their fans and performed a thunderclap, the connection between those on the pitch and those in the stand obvious.

The second-half comeback would have been remarkable enough anyway but for them no game is just a game. Every appearance is an opportunity to remind the world of their continued existence and suffering; every win has a resonance far beyond football.

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Italy thankful to avoid a hammering from Spain’s deftly modern superstars | Jonathan Wilson

It quickly became apparent for the holders that this was about survival – but at least they kept the score down

Scorelines can be great deceivers. At half-time it was 0-0 but that made little sense. It didn’t make much sense it was only 1-0 at full time. There was one side playing deft, modern football and there was one clinging on. Because that side was Italy, and because of their history and reputation, the thought lingered that perhaps they could somehow see it through. They could not.

These meetings have become something of a Euros tradition. Spain beat Italy on penalties in the quarter-final in 2008, a game that, given their complex about the Italians, was seen as a pivotal psychological moment in Spain’s ascent to winning three tournaments in a row, and since then the nations have met at least once in every Euros. They drew in the group then Spain won 4-0 in the final in 2012, Italy won 2-0 on the day England lost to Iceland in Euro 2016, and then Italy put Spain out on penalties in the semi-final three years ago. Which perhaps justifies the Spanish paranoia about the Italian capacity to defy logic and find a way: Italy had won only one of their previous 11 meetings and yet had somehow eliminated them in each of the past two Euros.

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Eriksen the bright light but state of Denmark in question for England test | Jonathan Wilson

Opening draw with Slovenia has put Euro 2020 semi-finalists, and manager Kasper Hjulmand, under pressure

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Denmark’s game against Slovenia on Sunday was how familiar it all felt. A side highly reliant on one outstanding creator taking the lead in a first half they controlled and then unexpectedly losing their way against physical opponents in the second half, leading to a great gnashing of teeth about what had gone wrong and why things weren’t as good as they had been at the last Euros. But for the fact that Slovenia scored an equaliser and Serbia didn’t, Denmark’s start was very similar to England’s.

To outsiders, the big story from the game was Christian Eriksen, who was brilliant in the first half, dropping deep, dictating the play and scoring the opening goal. Given he had a cardiac arrest in his previous game at the Euros, three years ago, the symbolism of return and recovery seemed obvious.

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Klaus Gjasula strikes late after own goal to snatch Albania draw with Croatia

When Klaus Gjasula came off the bench after 72 minutes for Qazim Laci, the player who had put Albania ahead, what was he expecting? To sit at the back of midfield, to be a damp blanket stifling the game, to preserve the Albanian lead? Maybe he thought he would make a couple of tackles, be a useful breakwater in front of the defensive line. Maybe he dreamed of a heroic block he could tell people about for years but for him, a quiet game would have been a good game. As it turned out, his game could hardly have been noisier.

Gjasula, now at Darmstadt having played for a series of Germany’s less storied names, had been on the pitch for two minutes when Andrej Kramaric squeezed a shot through Elseid Hysaj’s legs to equalise.

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Can the USMNT prove they are among the world’s best at Copa América?

The US has a squad full of players from Europe’s top leagues. But Gregg Berhalter’s side have continually struggled against top competition

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The theory always was that what the USMNT needed was for more of their players to be playing with the best in Europe. Good, tough, regular competition, proper professional training, exposure to best practice at the highest level the game has ever known. That was what would transform the raw material the US produces into a genuinely top-level side that might be able to compete regularly with the world’s elite. Practice is never that straightforward.

The friendly against Colombia earlier this month was the first time the US had been able to field a starting XI all of whom play in the top flight of the Big Five European leagues (there’s a quibble over whether France can really be included in that grouping or whether Portugal or the Netherlands is more worthy, but let’s go with it for now as a useful shorthand to denote high European level). Was this then to be the breakout, the moment at which the US finally became a major world power in the men’s game?

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

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Christian Eriksen shines and scores but Denmark held late on by Slovenia

When Christian Eriksen collapsed in Denmark’s opening game of the European Championship three years ago, his unconscious body surrounded by his teammates as he received CPR, what then would have seemed a reasonable hope for the future? To survive? To lead a relatively normal life? To resume his career? Did anybody in those dreadful moments think he might play at Euro 2024? Even the most optimistic, surely, could not have foreseen a performance quite like this. But brilliant as Eriksen was, his display was not enough to deliver a win for Denmark.

Slovenia, at their first major tournament since 2010, were slightly overawed, as their coach, Matjaz Kek, acknowledged. For them, the final 30 minutes could hardly have been more different from the first 60 and, although there had been times when they had seemed to be ­hanging on, by the time it happened, Erik Janza’s equaliser felt vaguely inevitable.

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