Euro 2024 is up and running folks and we’ve already seen some scintillating action. England and France have got off to winning starts while Portugal have plundered ten goals form their opening two matches.
Minnows Kasakhstan pulled off the result of the round, winning a five goal thriller against Denmark, and Iceland scored a magnificent seven away to Liechtenstein.
But, after the first round of fixtures, which players have dominated the Euro 2024 highlights? Here are my fantastic four …
Bukayo Saka: England
Saka has been in great form for Premier League leaders Arsenal this season and he won a man-of-the match award after England’s 2-0 victory over Ukraine on Sunday. The attacking midfielder scored one goal and set up the other as the Three Lions cruised to a second victory in a week and head coach Gareth Southgate was gushing in his praise for the 21 year old, saying that every time he’s through on goal you expect the net to bulge; and the boss puts that down to a shift in mentality.
Saka has scored 12 goals and supplied ten assists in the Premier League as the Gunners home in on a first league title in two decades, and he is playing with such vision and confidence that his fans at club and country are hopeful of a sparkling decade ahead. His cross for Harry Kane’s opener against Ukraine was world class and then he scored a stunner from distance to round off a near perfect display.
He put in a great shift when England beat Italy last Thursday but Saka stole the show on Sunday.
Antoine Griezmann – France
Atletico Madrid star Griezmann put aside his disappointment at being overlooked for his country’s captaincy by scoring the first in France’s impressive 4-0 win over the Netherlands. Kylian Mbappe has been given the skipper’s armband by Didier Deschamps and he marked the occasion with a late brace and Griezmann showed there was no bad blood between the two megastars when he celebrated Mbappe’s first.
But his own goal, which came just two minutes into the game was a beauty, as he curled his shot beyond Jasper Cillesen and into the net.
He has been in fine form for Atletico Madrid and the Frenchman has carried this into his international role, which he played so well at the Qatar World Cup.
Danny Ward – Wales
With eight efforts to one on target Croatia really should have beaten Wales quite comfortably but some wastefulness in front of goal and the superb performance of Wales keeper Danny Ward eventually cost the Croats dearly. Ipswich striker Nathan Broadhead scored an injury time winner on his dream debut, stabbing home from close range as the Croatian defence panicked.
Leicester City keeper Ward pulled off seven strong saves to keep the hosts at bay and was only beaten by Andrej Kramaric’s well hit strike on 28 minutes. Wales rode their luck a little and they had the woodwork to thank when Ivan Perisic’s angled drive crashed back off the crossbar when 2-0 looked on the cards.
But the visitors grew into the game and stuck to their task and when Broadhead got on the end of a long throw the work of the whole team, Ward in particular, was richly rewarded.
Abat Aimbetov – Kazakhstan
The SBOTOP Award for All-Action Hero goes to Aimbetov who scored a dramatic winner for the minnows of Kazakhstan against Denmark and then managed to get himself sent off!
Denmark is a strong team with some top class players and they looked to be coasting to a comfortable win when Rasmus Hojlund scored twice to put them in charge. But the underdogs fought back through Baktiyor Zainutdinov, with a penalty on 73 minutes, and Askhat Tagybergen, with four minutes of normal time remaining, to tee up a grandstand finish for Aimbetov who headed home a dramatic 89th minute winner.
Denmark threw the kitchen sink at it but Kasakhstan held out, though Aimbetov wasn’t on the pitch to celebrate after he picked up a second yellow card, six minutes into stoppage time, for flinging an elbow at a Danish player.
The Euro 2024 betting odds didn’t give Kasakhstan much chance but they matched their illustrious opponents with 14 shots each and had eight on target to Denmark’s seven. And when Aimbetov headed the winner to send the crowd at the Astana Arena into ecstasy, ranked 115th in the world, they caused the biggest upset of the competition so far.
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