Oranje Crush: Czechs Kick Netherlands Out

The Czech Republic won the five o’clock kick-off, upsetting Frank de Boer’s Netherlands in the process.

Dutch defender Matthijs De Ligt was shown a red card for deliberately handling the ball in the fifty-fifth minute.

De Ligt pinned all the blame on himself pic.twitter.com/NtjqCsapSI

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 27, 2021

The Netherlands had dominated the first but had nothing to show for it and the momentum swung in the second half.

Slavia Prague right-back Tomas Holes scored the opening goal in the sixty-eighth minute to give his country the advantage over the 10-man Netherlands.

Netherlands goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg came off his line and left it open for Holes to put his side ahead.

Frank de Boer’s selections and substitutions proved ineffective in the Netherlands’ first European Championship knockout game since 2008.

Tournament star Patrik Schick finished off the helpless Dutch with the second of the game and his fourth of the tournament coming in the 80th minute.

The Czech Republic will face Denmark in the quarter-finals on Saturday at 5 pm.

Belgium Down Portugal To Keep Euro 2020 Hopes Alive

Later on, the Belgians beat reigning European champions Portugal to earn themselves a date with Italy.

A Thorgan Hazard wondergoal lit up an otherwise dull first half and forced the Portuguese to attack Roberto Martinez’s side in the second half.

Fernando Santos’ selection of Renato Sanches and Joao Palhinha did not pay off as the Portuguese side failed to break down the Belgians.

Cristiano Ronaldo was unable to score his 110th international goal against Belgium, which would have put him out on his own in the all-time international scoring charts.

Belgium (0.23) 1-0 (1.56) Portugal

— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) June 27, 2021

Santos’ side failed to take advantage of the opportunities they had, registering 1.53 expected goals on the night without finding the net.

The 101-year-old defence of Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Vermaelen and Toby Alderweireld kept a clean sheet and helped their side progress to the quarter-finals.

Belgium will play Italy in their quarter-final on Friday at 5 pm.

The post Euro 2020: Czech Republic and Belgium Through appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

The u21 European Championships 2023 qualifying draw took place today with 53 teams eagerly awaiting their fate.

Ireland were amongst those teams in anticipation after narrowly failing to qualify for the 2021 edition of the tournament which is being hosted by Romania and Georgia.

Coincidentally, they were drawn in an almost exactly identical group as the last qualifying campaign. 3 of their 5 opponents – Italy, Sweden and Luxembourg – were also included in their previous qualifying group.

Maybe luckily for Ireland, though, several of the players which turned out in the last campaign are also available for selection for the upcoming one. That is not the case with the other countries.

Although some of those players have since graduated to the senior squad – Parrott, Idah, Knight etc. – there is still a number of quality players that could excel at u21 level, as well as those which will inevitably come up through the age ranks.

The experience at that level that Ireland have over their opponents could prove to be a decisive factor in regards to their qualification chances.

u21 boss Jim Crawford may already have a squad in mind with the qualification campaign kicking off in March.

Ireland can only qualify given they finish top of their group or as best runner-up.

Confirmed | #IRLU21 have been draw in Group F for the 2021-2023 Under-21 Qualifiers against:

Italy
Sweden
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Montenegro
Luxembourg

The games will take place between March 2021 and June 2022#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/jCQRvGkHnr

— FAIreland (@FAIreland) January 28, 2021

The post Ireland u21s drawn against familiar foes in Euro qualifying group appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.