Good morning mates.
One thing magical has occurred. The solar, the fantastic ball of fireside in area that has not been seen in Dublin for a lot of aeons now, has appeared this morning and the air is heat. So, I’m eager to benefit from it, and as such as we speak’s weblog will comprise some brief snippets of stuff moderately than the in-depth evaluation to which you may have grown accustomed …
*cough*
… let’s begin with final night time’s 0-0 draw between France and the Netherlands. I believed William Saliba was mainly impeccable, however then that’s nothing we haven’t seen earlier than, and essentially the most attention-grabbing a part of the sport was the disallowed aim. Xavi Simons thought he’d scored, however there was a VAR examine. The title Stuart Atwell was talked about. Oh god. Couldn’t they’ve discovered somebody higher? Like Stuart Little? We waited. And waited. And waited.
The VAR within the Euros has been environment friendly, fast and that has, in no small half, seen choices accepted far more readily. Not this one. The problem was Denzel Dumfries standing in an offside place proper between the Mike Maignan and the place the ball went in. I don’t suppose the French keeper would have been in a position to get there even when he had been in a position to dive, however the presence of Dumfries was definitely an obstacle.
My rule of thumb with issues like that is to place some Arsenal context on it. Would I be sad if we had a aim dominated out for that? Completely, however then I’d be sad if we had a Maradona hand of god aim dominated out after Ben White had picked the ball up like some sort of working again and charged 60 yards up the sector. So would I be sad if that aim had been allowed to face in opposition to us? In seriousness, sure. I don’t suppose the difficulty was the choice, it was way more in regards to the time it took.
Within the earlier sport, I completely loved the way in which Wojciech Szczesny conceded a penalty. You may nearly see the precise second he thought ‘Sod it, I’m simply gonna clatter this lad’, and so he did. His ‘Ahh effectively, what are you able to do?!’ afterwards to the be-clattered Marcel Sabitzer was fairly humorous too. Clearly not as amusing for Poland as they misplaced 3-1 and at the moment are out of the event, the primary facet to be eradicated to this point.
And earlier once more, Ukraine got here from behind to beat Slovakia. Oleksandr Zinchenko was caught out for a cross which led to the opening aim, however he supplied an help for the equaliser and had an honest sport all instructed. Roman Yaremchuk’s winner was a beautiful strike, a deft contact and end, however I don’t suppose Newcastle’s Martin Dubravka did effectively sufficient within the Slovakian aim. Ukraine face Belgium of their last sport on Wednesday, and Leandro Trossard’s males are in motion as we speak in opposition to Romania. Turkey v Portugal may very well be a tasty one afterward too.
In switch information, David Ornstein studies that Michael Olise has chosen to affix Bayern Munich, which makes me slightly unhappy as a result of he’s a participant I covet like a bastard. However, I’d a lot moderately he went there than Chelsea. No good can come of any first rate participant going to such an inherently noxious organisation, and I’m glad Olise has been effectively suggested on this matter.
Proper, that’s your lot. We can have a weekend version of our Euro 2024 podcast on Patreon a bit later, for now, get pleasure from your Saturday.
