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Euro 2020: The last-16 game-by-game preview

Updated / Tuesday, 29 Jun 2021 07:23
Jogi Low and Gareth Southgate face an enthralling Wembley battle
Jogi Low and Gareth Southgate face an enthralling Wembley battle

Who will be the final two teams to join Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2020?

England v Germany, London, 5pm

Neither side has been impressive for different reasons so far. England have been organised and competent defensively but look laboured in attack and have yet to find a way to see their creative midfielders flourish nor talisman Harry Kane.

Aside from the first game against Croatia, England have taken on teams more willing to sit back and given that they don't have deep-lying playmakers to find holes against a lower block, facing a front-footed Germany may be more to their liking.

The Germans have been a bit Jekyll and Hyde. Second best without being terrible against France, Jogi Low's side showed their attacking prowess against Portugal with direct balls to attacking wing-back Robin Gosens before struggling to formulate any plan as they scraped a draw at home to Hungary.

Their main vulnerability has been at the back where direct balls saw Hungary score twice, while Portugal also found gaps in netting twice and France only failed to add to their one-goal tally by inches as VAR flagged offsides.

On our Euro 2020 Podcast, ahead of the Portugal game, RTÉ Soccer panelist and former Germany international Didi Hamann had called for a different midfield make-up that would see the talented Joshua Kimmich brought inside permanently from wing-back to partner the scorer of the equaliser against Hungary, Leon Goretzka, whose box-to-box stylings have not seen him usurp the technically brilliant but less mobile duo of Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gundogan so far.

Germany legend Lothar Matthaus also made a similar point ahead of this last-16 fixture against England when he suggested that the current outgoing manager has not been consistent in his planning, saying of Kimmich being moved around constantly against Hungary: "Joshua Kimmich played four positions (against Hungary). He started on the line, playing like a number seven. Then at the start of the second half he was playing number eight.

"After 10 minutes, he was number six where (Toni) Kroos was playing before. And then we had to go all in because we needed a goal and he was playing in the back four as a right-back."

Thus in stark contrast to previous major tournament meetings, it seems it's England who have slightly more of a plan than Germany which could swing the contest in the hosts' favour.

Sweden v Ukraine, Glasgow, 8pm

Thanks to the platform of a disciplined performance to hold Spain, the Swedish got the job done in Group E by seeing off both Slovakia and Poland.


Typically organised and determined, the sprinkling of stardust provided by the effective Emil Forsberg and the silky striker Alexander Isak has proven enough to get them to another knockout stage and with Ukraine proving disappointing in the way in which they wilted against Austria, Sweden will be favourites to do what they did at the last World Cup by finding a way to get to the quarter-finals.

Sweden are not about possession - they are second last at the tournament on that count - or passing accuracy (they are last on that score by quite a huge margin compared to second-last Poland) so expect them to be comfortable allowing Ukraine, who are also not an overly possession-hungry side, to try and break them down.

Watch every game of Euro 2020 live and watch nightly highlights on RTÉ2 or RTÉ Player | 11 June to 11 July

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