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Fantasy Picks
Switzerland vs Spain: Spanish Goalkeeper Unai Simons (€5.3m) owned by only 8% of the players, looks like a good buy as he will have his chances to make saves and with the game expected to be very defensive, goals will be a rarity and thus chance of keeping a clean sheet is very high. Earning a total of 18 points already, he looks like a consistent performer and is worth the money.
Belgium vs Italy: Leonardo Bonucci (€5.7mil) owned by 16% of the players, has been pretty solid in the Italian defenders and as the tournament goes deeper, the Italian side would be pretty defensively set up. Getting a clean sheet is highly possible but other than that, the Italians rely on set pieces a lot to find the back of the net. Bonucci comes very handy in these situations and is always in contention for scoring a goal.
Player of the day
Unfortunately it was Sommer’s time for sadness after the conclusion of penalty shootout in the game between Spain and Switzerland but his inspired performance cannot go unnoticed. With a very dull first half, it was Yann Sommer who was Switzerland’s top passer, which is not what you want from your goalkeeper. But other than that, a very uninspired and handicapped Switzerland side was kept in the game by Sommer, who made 10 brilliant saves to stop the Spanish attackers from finding the net.
With Spain having 1.02 xG and yet only having one goal to their name all thanks to an own goal, just goes to show the impact Sommer had in the game. When the game went into Penalty Shootouts, it was Sommer who tried his mighty best to stop the Spanish side from winning, but all in vain. Even after two Spanish penalties being denied, it wasn’t enough for the Swiss to go through as they were sloppy themselves. Being unable to win the game, Sommer truly won everyone’s respect.
Social Media moment of the day:
With both the quarterfinal games being fiercely contested, fans had a lot to look at. With only a few moments for fans to have a laugh about, they did not miss out on them.
One such moment came in the second game, when Italy scored their first goal, Immobile was lying down on the pitch with an alleged injury but as soon as he saw that Barella had scored the goal, he quickly got up to celebrate, showing no signs of injury. Proper Gazprom acting from Immobile today.
Fever of own goals in these Euros continued in the first quarterfinal, as Spain took the lead early on thanks to an own goal from Zakaria. With that own goal, social media was filled with some mind boggling stats. Someone decided to put some humour in it, and presented an outrageous stat.
With Belgium losing, it was a pretty lacklustre performance from a lot of players. But, a 19-year-old Jeremy Doku caught everyone’s eye. Bossing the wing and surging forward every single time he got the ball, he was not afraid to take defenders on. This allowed him to achieve a great feat.
Semi-Finals Preview
Italy versus Spain promises to be a great tactical battle between two absolute masterminds of the game. Roberto Mancini, who has been spot on with everything he has done in this competition, would be looking to take one more step further to Euros Glory which they desperately want. Only conceding two goals in the competition so far, they are defensively very solid and the setup of the team is very defensive as well. On the other hand, Luis Enrique who had a very concerning start to the tournament, has settled his team and his Spanish side looks to function in full flow.
They haven’t been at their best a lot of times in this competition but when they turn up, there is no stopping them. They would be very aware of the style of football the Italians play and won’t be in a hurry to get on the scoresheet either. It is expected to be a very cagey affair as both the teams would be testing each other’s patience and strength and it will all come down to who breaks first. With the form and stability the Italians possess right now, it does look like they might go on to the finals. A game not expected to be full of goals, but for all the fanatics of tactical plays, this game will be a joy for them.
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