EURO 2024
Quick guide to Euro 2024 quarter-finals
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/euro-2024-1.jpg)
The eight remaining teams at the European Championship will take centre stage in the quarter-finals to be played on Friday and Saturday. Here is a quick guide to the fixtures (times in GMT).
SPAIN v GERMANY
Friday – Stuttgart, 1600
A quarter-final meeting between the two most successful nations in Euros history with three titles each and aiming to become the outright leader on that list this year.
Germany will have home support at Stuttgart Arena, but that will not worry a Spanish side that plays on the front foot.
Germany (10) and Spain (9) are the top two scorers at Euro 2024 and the two leading sides when it comes to passing accuracy with Germany at 92.2% and Spain on 91%.
The Spanish are the only team with a 100% record at the finals so far and have also had more goal attempts (84) than any other side.
Spain beat Germany 6-0 in the Nations League in 2020, but their most recent meeting in the World Cup group stage in Qatar ended 1-1.
PORTUGAL v FRANCE
Friday – Hamburg, 1900
A repeat of the Euro 2016 final in Paris when Portugal stunned the hosts to win 1-0 thanks to an extra-time goal from striker Eder.
Neither team have been convincing at the tournament to date despite the array of talent at their disposal, but they have potential match-winners who only need an instant to find a decisive moment.
France have conceded one goal in over six hours of football in Germany, from a penalty, and of their three goals scored one was a Kylian Mbappe spot kick and two were own goals.
Portugal continue to funnel much of their attacking play through 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, who has had more attempts at goal in the tournament (20) than any other player, but is yet to find the back of the net.
The teams last met in the group phase at Euro 2020 and played out a 2-2 draw.
France will be without suspended midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who had started every game for them in the tournament so far.
ENGLAND v SWITZERLAND
Saturday – Duesseldorf, 1600
England were seconds away from elimination before a 95th minute Jude Bellingham overhead kick rescued them against Slovakia in the last-16 while, by contrast, Switzerland cruised past defending champions Italy with a comfortable 2-0 win.
The Swiss have won only three of their 27 past meetings with England, the last a 2-1 success in Basel in 1981.
Despite England’s below-par performances in Germany, they are unbeaten in their last 11 Euros matches, winning seven, and last tasted defeat against Iceland in 2016.
But they have a 50% win record from six previous quarter-finals, losing two of the last three on penalties. Switzerland’s only previous quarter-final was at Euro 2020 where they lost on penalties to Spain.
England are without suspended centre back Marc Guehi.
NETHERLANDS v TURKEY
Saturday – Berlin, 1900
Netherlands saved their best performance of the tournament so far for the comprehensive 3-0 win over Romania in the round of 16, while Turkey edged Austria 2-1 and have been among the most entertaining teams to watch in Germany.
These two sides are fifth and six on the list of most chances created at the finals, with Netherlands amassing 63 and Turkey 56, and both have netted seven times, the joint third most of all teams.
They most recently met in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers with 13 goals scored in the two games. Netherlands won 6-1 at home and Turkey triumphed 4-2 in Istanbul.
Turkey will be without two players through suspension, midfielders Ismail Yuksek and Orkun Kokcu, who was born in the Netherlands.
-Reuters
EURO 2024
Nigerian-born Swiss player, Akanji misses penalty to hand England Euros semi final slot
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/england.png)
Trent Alexander-Arnold converted the winning spot kick in a penalty shootout to send England into the semi-finals of Euro 2024 after Manuel Akanji whose father is a Nigerian, missed for Switzerland.
Alexander-Arnold fired into the top left corner to send pre-tournament favourites England through, winning the shootout 5-3 after the match was level at 1-1 after extra time.
Breel Embolo had put Switzerland ahead after 75 minutes when he poked home from close range after John Stones failed to clear, and Bukayo Saka levelled for England five minutes later with a brilliant strike in off the far post.
England will meet either Netherlands or Turkey, who play later on Saturday.
-Reuters
EURO 2024
Missed penalty was bad luck says Martinez as Portugal exit Euros in shootout
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/portugal.png)
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez said there was no blame to cast after Joao Felix missed the penalty that resulted in their exit from the European Championship and likely brought the curtain down on Cristiano Ronaldo’s international career.
Felix fired his penalty against the post — the only miss of the shootout — and then buried his face in his hands, with France winning 5-3 in Friday’s quarter-final after a goalless stalemate at the end of extra time.
“I can tell you that the whole squad was supporting each other and only players who never shoot a penalty never miss,” Martinez said. “Joao has great control of the inside game, he worked hard to be there and this penalty is bad luck.”
The miss from the 24-year-old Atletico Madrid forward gave France the advantage and Theo Hernandez fired past goalkeeper Diogo Costa — who had been superb in stopping three Slovenia penalties in the last 16 — to send France to the semi-finals.
The loss likely marked the end of Ronaldo’s 21-year international career, as he has said his record sixth Euros tournament would be his last.
The 39-year-old converted Portugal’s first kick in the shootout but was also responsible for squandering perhaps their best chance of the night.
After the final whistle, centre-back Pepe collapsed sobbing into Ronaldo’s arms, the curtain surely also coming down on the 41-year-old defender’s international career.
“Pepe is everything he showed in the tournament, not just during the matches, but the way he works through training sessions, the way he supports his colleagues, his commitment,” Martinez said.
“And his tears are tears of frustration. Because when you play against the better opponents, there’s no tears. The tears are there because it’s hard to accept that tonight with our performance, we will drop by the wayside
“But other than that, Pepe is a role model in Portuguese football and what he did tonight and during the tournament will stay with us, with the next generations.”
Ronaldo has gone nine games without a goal for Portugal and missed a golden opportunity to score during extra time when Francisco Conceicao broke behind the French defence and cut back a pass to Ronaldo just outside the six-yard box.
However, Ronaldo launched the ball wildly over the crossbar — far from a fairytale ending, if it is indeed the end, of an international career that has brought 212 caps and 130 goals.
Martinez said there were plenty of positives from the game, including the fact Portugal had 63% possession.
“The individual talent of this team is there for all of us to see,” he said. “They showed great unity and knew how to suffer, always with the desire to win.
“We lost but we lost with pride, always giving everything in every minute, in true Portuguese style. We won’t stop here. In the future, we will give everything.”
-Reuters
EURO 2024
Portugal’s Euro exit likely to herald Ronaldo’s international retirement
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ronaldo.jpg)
BY MARK GLEESON, REUTERS.
Defeat for Portugal at the European Championship on Friday likely brought down the curtain on the extraordinary international career of Cristiano Ronaldo.
While Portugal’s totemic forward has made no pronouncements on his future with the national team, the 39-year-old struggled to revive former glories at the tournament in Germany and departed Euro 2024 without scoring apart from in shootouts.
Portugal lost 5-3 to France on penalties in their quarter-final after a goalless stalemate in which Ronaldo missed a glaring chance in extra time but converted one of the kicks in the shootout.
“It’s too soon and raw after the match to talk about that and there have been no individual decisions made,” coach Roberto Martinez said when asked if it had been Ronaldo’s last game in a Portugal jersey.
There will forever be debates about where he sits among the greatest footballers — in or behind the exulted company of three-times World Cup winner Pele or the extraordinary talent of Diego Maradona or long-time rival Lionel Messi.
All of them won the World Cup, which Ronaldo has not, but in terms of statistics in national team colours the 39-year-old is out there on his own.
Friday’s loss to France at the Volksparkstadion was Ronaldo’s 212th cap, significantly ahead of Messi who won his 185th for Argentina against Ecuador in the Copa America on Thursday.
Ronaldo’s 130 goals for his country is also way out on its own at the head of most scored in international football, with Messi recently moving second on the list with 108.
“Cristiano is in the national team of Portugal because he deserves to be,” Martinez had said earlier in the tournament.
In terms of longevity few can match Ronaldo, who debuted for Portugal in 2003.
He was 18 years-old when he came on at halftime to replace Luis Figo in a friendly against Kazakhstan in front of roughly 8,000 in Chaves. Days earlier he had signed for Manchester United, convincing manager Alex Ferguson of his potential after tormenting the team’s defence in a pre-season friendly.
By the next year he was a regular for Portugal as they hosted Euro 2004, upset in the final by Greece.
He is the first to play at six European Championships and his 14 goals in 30 matches is also a Euros record. He won the trophy in 2016 when Portugal beat hosts France in the final.
RONALDO’S TEARS
Ironically, in Portugal’s Euros triumph Ronaldo went off early in the decider in Paris in tears with a knee injury.
If you add in his goals in Euro qualifying, Ronaldo has scored 55 times in the competition, with Harry Kane next on 29.
At the World Cup, Ronaldo has played 22 times, scoring eight goals, in five tournaments, while Messi has played four times more and has the appearance record.
In the 21 years Ronaldo has played for Portugal, they have not missed out on qualifying for the World Cup, with a semi-final place in 2006 their best return. That year, Ronaldo netted the decisive penalty to beat England in the quarter-finals.
It has been an extraordinary career, highlighted by five Ballon d’Or awards, and it is not over yet … certainly not at club level. Ronaldo top-scored with 35 goals in the Saudi league last season and has another year’s contract at Al Nassr.
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