Spain survived another scare to beat 10-man Switzerland in a dramatic penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals of the European Championship. Swiss substitute Ruben Vargas was in tears at full-time after he blasted his penalty over the bar, allowing Mikel Oyarzabal to score the decider for Spain. They were in front in St Petersburg against Switzerland, Denis Zakaria deflected Jordi Alba’s shot into his own net to give Spain an early lead. Xherdan Shaqiri equalised following a mistake at the back by Spain but team-mate Remo Freuler was sent off nine minutes later. They held on to force extra time and a shootout but missed three spot kicks which ultimately proved costly.
Italy were deserved winners after producing a confident display to beat Belgium 2-1 in a tense Euro 2020 quarter-final in Munich. Nicolo Barella’s opener and Lorenzo Insigne’s stunning strike opened up a two-goal lead before Romelu Lukaku halfed the score before half-time in a thrilling contest. Lukaku did come close to an equaliser and with Kevin De Bruyne on the pitch, Belgium were always a danger to Roberto Mancini’s side but the second goal just would not come.
England reached the Euro 2020 semi-finals as Harry Kane struck twice in a comfortable victory over Ukraine in Rome. As quarter-final ties go this was a fairly straightforward evening for the Three Lions, who ran out 4-0 winners at the Stadio Olimpico and will meet Denmark in the last four. Kane got the night off to a fine start with an early strike before heading in his second shortly after Harry Maguire had doubled the lead immediately after half-time. The fourth came courtesy of substitute Jordan Henderson, who broke his England goalscoring duck to seal a fine team performance.
Denmark’s impressive and emotional Euro 2020 campaign continued as they marched on to the semi-finals courtesy of a victory over the Czech Republic in Baku.The Danes have gone from strength to strength in the tournament since the trauma of their opening game, in which midfielder Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest. They led from the fifth minute, when Thomas Delaney evaded his marker to head in from a corner. A continual threat on the break, they made it 2-0 just before half-time, with Kasper Dolberg volleying in a superb cross from Joakim Maehle to add to the two goals he scored against Wales. Their momentum was checked early in the second half as Patrik Schick coolly volleyed in his fifth goal of the tournament, taking him level with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot. But Denmark were able to hold on to the lead to ensure the victory and a semi-final at Wembley on Wednesday.
For now, we’ve got enough time to quickly reflect on some of the mouth-watering stats from from match day 4 via OPTA stats.
- 7 – England have kept seven consecutive clean sheets for the first time in their history, with the Three Lions run without conceding currently standing at 662 minutes.
- 2 – Gareth Southgate will be just the second manager to take charge of England in the semi-final of both the World Cup and the European Championship, after Alf Ramsey in 1966 and 1968.
- 4 – England have scored four goals in a knockout stage match of a major tournament (World Cup/EUROs) for only a second time; the other instance was the 1966 World Cup Final against Germany (4-2).
- 1 – Jordan Henderson has scored his first ever goal for England, in what is his 62nd appearance and with his 43rd shot attempted for the Three Lions.
- 1992 – Denmark have reached the semi-final stage of the European Championship for the first time since 1992, with their 29 year gap between last four appearances the longest in the history of the competition.
- 5 – Patrik Schick is now the joint-highest goalscorer at #EURO2020, moving level with Cristiano Ronaldo on five goals.
- 3 – Kasper Dolberg has become Denmark’s joint top scorer in European Championship history with three goals (along with Jon Dahl Tomasson, Brian Laudrup, Henrik Larsen and Frank Arnesen).
- 24 – There have been 24 headed goals scored at #EURO2020, the most in a single edition of the competition in its history.
- 8 – Jéremy Doku completed eight dribbles against Italy, a record for a teenager since we have full data for the World Cup (1966+) and EUROs (1980+).
- 15 – Including the qualifying rounds, Italy have won each of their last 15 European Championship matches – a new competition record. Belgium themselves had won 14 consecutive matches before today’s defeat.
- 5 & 6 – Romelu Lukaku’s penalty means that no Belgian player has scored more goals than him at either the European Championships (six) or the World Cup (five, level with Marc Wilmots)
- 19 – Jéremy Doku is the first teenager to win a penalty in a European Championship match since Wayne Roonev France for England in 2004.
- 6 – Spain are the sixth nation to progress from two separate knockout matches of a single European Championship tournament that went to extra-time or beyond – all five previous sides to do so went on to win the competition.
- 5 – Pedri is only the second European player in major tournament history (World Cup/EUROs) to start as many as five such matches at the age of 18 or below, after Northern Ireland’s Norman Whiteside, who started five times when aged 17 at the 1982 World Cup.
- 4 – This is Switzerland’s fourth quarter-final appearance in a major tournament (World Cup and EURO), and their first at the EUROs. They have lost their previous three such games – 3-2 vs Czechoslovakia (1934), 2-0 vs Hungary (1938) and 7-5 vs Austria (1954).