Euro Cup: France, Croatia and Portugal out of race

Galore of goals in two thrillers of the day… poured in Spain vs Croatia and France vs Switzerland. Spain won the eight goals thriller in extra time while Switzerland after 3-3 score in full time outwitted France in penalty shoot-out. Now Spain will take on the fancied Switzerland in Quarterfinals on 2nd July.

Both Spain and Croatia displayed classic game. Although Croatia took the opening lead which came through own goal from unfortunate Spanish Pedri in 20th minute. Thereafter Spanish forwards in swift counter attacks equalized the score when Pablo Sarabia took goal earning shot in 38th minute. They continued attacking game in the 2nd half. Cesar Azpilicueta in 57th minute put his team in lead 2-1 and Ferran Torres increased the Spanish lead to 3-1 in 77th minute. Croatia strongly came back in the game.With the goals from Mislav Orsic in 85th minute and Mario Pasalic in the injury time, the Croatians leveled the match 3-3 in regular time. And the match went into extra-time. Spain grabbed the opportunity in 100th minute and Alvaro Murata’s goal put Spain ahead 4-3. Mikel Oyarzabal sealed the game with 5-3 score in 103rd minute. With this hard-fought win, Spain also became the first team to record two successive wins with 5 goals in the European Championship history. They had earlier defeated Slovakia 5-0 at Group stage in the ongoing tournament.

Another interesting clash of the day was France vs Switzerland… full of ups and down. Haris Seferovic netted the first goal in 15th minute and Switzerland went into second half with this early lead at 1-0. After the break, French players bounced back and went ahead with 3-1. Withing two minute, Karim Benzema scored two goals. His first goal came in 57th minute and the 2nd one in 59th minute. Thereafter Paul Pogba found the target in 75th minute to make the score line 3-1. But their lead did not last long enough.The Swish men in counter attack scored two goals in 81st and 90th minute and leveled the game 3-3 in full time. The winner of this clash was decided in the penalty shoot-out. Switzerland knocked World Cup champion France out of the Euro Cup title race with 5-4 score.

On Sunday, World number one ranked Belgium showed the defending champion Portugal the exit door. They defeated mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo led Portuguese by 1-0 in pre-quarterfinal clash. Thorgan Hazard scored the only decider of the match in 42nd minute for the Belgians. Belgium will now take on the tough Italy on 3rd July.