- Macdara Ferris
- Sun, Jun 16 2024
EURO 2024 Wrap: Dutch and English wins as Slovenia and Denmark share Sunday spoils
Sunday’s matches at the European Championship in Germany saw the Netherlands and England both claim one goal deficit victories, either side of the 1-1 draw between Slovenia and Denmark.
In the early game the Dutch had to come from behind to beat Poland 2-1. Adam Buksa headed home the opener in Hamburg from a 16th minute corner but Cody Gakpo grabbed the equaliser just before the half hour mark for the Dutch with the help of a deflection.
Wout Weghorst came off the bench in the 81st minute and two minutes later he swept home the winner. It was the quickest goal for a Netherlands sub at the EUROs.
Poland failed to win a game at the last Euros and that lack of a victory continued at the Volksparkstadion.
Line-ups
Poland: Szczęsny; Bednarek, Salamon (Bereszyński 86), Kiwior; Frankowski, Zieliński (Piotrowski 78), Romanczuk (Slisz 55), Zalewski; Urbański (Świderski 55), Buksa, S. Szymański (Moder 46)
Netherlands: Verbruggen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Aké (Van de Ven 87); Schouten, Reijnders, Veerman (Wijnaldum 62); Simons (Malen 62), Depay (Weghorst 81), Gakpo (Frimpong 81)
It was all square in the Group C opener as Christian Eriksen and Erik Janža scored the goals for Denmark and Slovenia – the latter were making their first appearance at a European Championship since 2000 but they still await their maiden victory. They were thankful it wasn’t a loss as their equaliser only came 13 minutes from time and thanks to a deflection.
What a day for Eriksen who got the opener, three years on from suffering a cardiac arrest at EURO 2020. Speaking to UEFA.com after the match, he said: "This time at the EURO, my story is very different to last time. Luckily it's been a lot of games since it happened. I felt confident going into the game and I was just happy to be playing. I was very pleased [to score], I had in mind that I've never scored at a EURO. But there was nothing but football on my mind."
Line-ups
Slovenia: Oblak; Karničnik, Drkušić, Bijol, Janža; Stojanović (Verbič 67), Gnezda Čerin, Elšnik (Stanković 75), Mlakar (Celar 75); Šporar (Brekalo 90+5), Šeško (Kurtić 90+5)
Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Andersen, Vestergaard; Bah, Hjulmand (Delaney 89), Højbjerg (Nørgaard 83), Kristiansen (Mæhle 78); Eriksen; Wind (Dolberg 83), Højlund (Poulsen 83)
The late game saw England beat Serbia thanks to a solitary goal from Jude Bellingham in the 13th minute. They went close to doubling their lead when Harry Kane hit the bar in the second half but it wasn’t exactly a vintage victory for Gareth Southgate’s side.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game,” said England skipper speaking to the BBC. “Serbia pose a lot of threats and have some good players. They will make it a battle for you and we dealt with it really well. There was a spell during the second half when we got camped in our box and found it hard to get out but it was an important win."
Line-ups
Serbia: Predrag Rajkovic; Nikola Milenkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Milos Veljkovic; Nemanja Gudelj (Ivan Ilic 46), Filip Kostic (Filip Mladenovic 43), Saša Lukić (Dusan Tadic 60), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Andrija Zivkovic (Veljko Birmancevic 75); Aleksandar Mitrović (Luka Jovic 60), Dusan Vlahovic.
England: Jordan Pickford; Addji Guéhi, John Stones, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker; Trent Alexander-Arnold (Conor Gallagher 69), Jude Bellingham (Kobbie Mainoo 85), Philip Foden, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka (Jarrod Bowen 75); Harry Kane.
