Roy Keane said England teenager Bukayo Saka should not have been given the task of taking their crucial fifth penalty in Sunday's shootout defeat by Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
Saka, 19, had to score to send the shootout to sudden death but his kick was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Italian goalkeeper had also saved from Jadon Sancho after Marcus Rashford had hit the post.
DONNARUMMA SAVES THE PENALTY!
International tournaments often seem like a red carpet event for the biggest names in world football, yet often the most intriguing players on the pitch are the up-and-coming stars, the b-listers of the footballing world, if you will.
Euro 2020 introduced us to a wide range of talented young players. Some were familiar by name and statistical output, but this was the first chance for them to prove themselves on such a large stage. Others were relative unknowns, ony entering the public footballing consciousness within the last month.
LONDON - While England exulted at reaching a first major final since 1966, there was increasing outcry abroad over the penalty awarded for a foul on Raheem Sterling in extra time to give them a 2-1 win over Denmark in their Euro 2020 semifinal.
An array of media and football figures joined Danish fans in condemning the penalty as too cheap for such a big game, some saying England's haughty views on diving looked hypocritical in view of Sterling's tumble at the lightest of touches.
Extra time is about as entertaining as watching your parents try to pick out furniture. You’d rather be anywhere else on the planet than stuck watching extra time. Those must be the worst 30 minutes of bonus time.
Like Bernie Sanders posted up at a presidential debate, Euro 2020 offered the world a chance to turn into vociferous fans of Denmark. Christian Eriksen’s collapse was numbingly tragic, but the way the Danes responded in the moment and the days after was the sort of archetypal hero story usually only reserved for myths.
After watching Italy’s performance against Switzerland on June 16 I was sold. The Azzuri were going to win Euro 2020. This team was firing on all cylinders and looked one step ahead of all the other 23 teams in the tournament. Three weeks later this team is in the final.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil forward Neymar said he hopes Argentina will be their opponents in the Copa América final and has no doubts that the hosts would come out on top against their fierce rivals.
Brazil beat Peru 1-0 in Monday's semifinal in Rio de Janeiro thanks to a 35th minute goal from Lucas Paquetá to book their spot in Saturday’s decider at the Maracanã stadium.
The second semifinal between Argentina and Colombia is on Tuesday.
MANCHESTER, England - Four teams head to London for the final week of Euro 2020 and as well as promising close battles, the two semifinals present a fascinating clash of football styles and tactical approaches.
While football has its ideologues, who insist that a particular approach is the right way to play the game, the “final four” are proof that there really is no single formula to success.
The18’s renowned data scientist introduced the team to an API (application programming interface) that gave predictions for games in the European Championship. We naturally took that as a challenge to see if we could predict the outcomes of games better than the algorithm. We’ll show the results from the Round of 16 before sharing our Euro 2020 quarterfinal predictions.
Five of our staff, including Grant the data scientist, took the challenge to outsmart the algorithm. After eight games in the Round of 16, this is what the leaderboard looks like.
When I first heard UEFA's plans to not have just one host city for Euro 2020, I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised.
The idea makes sense. Spread fans out across eleven host cities, which prevents hundreds of thousands of supporters descending on one particular country or city. It mitigates the COVID-19 risks (not something that was on the minds of organizers in 2020, but is beneficial in 2021) and helps the many host countries and cities financially without giving too much home field advantage to one country — at least in theory.