By Myles Palmer
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DENMARK beat Bulgaria 2-0, as you expected.
Italy played with purpose and style in the first half, Cassano stooped to nudge in a crafty header, and Sweden came back with a storming second half to earn a 1-1 draw.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a big man with skill.
Two seasons ago I was wondering whether he would do something memorable when Arsenal played Ajax twice.
He didn’t.
But tonight he did.
Zlatan got a goal that only he could have scored.
Nobody else that tall has that amount of cheek and that amount of skill, so nobody else in Euro 2004 would have tried to do what he did.
He barged past Buffon towards a high-bouncing loose ball in the box and when the ball was four feet off the ground, and he was facing the wrong way, Zlatan heel-flicked the ball so that it looped up and came down just under the crossbar, beating Christian Vieri, who was on the line by the post.
Audacious? Just a bit.
Fantastic improvisation.
THIS WAS SOMETHING WE MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN.
Few would try it, or even think of it.
Having seen 15 replays of the goal, it gets better every time.
Buffon gave Zlatan a hug at the end, a nice touch by the tournament’s No 1 keeper.
Zlatan came to Arsenal as a kid and Arsene wanted him and gave him an Arsenal shirt with his name on, but he later signed for Ajax.
Sweden maximise what they have and make smart tactical changes, as they did here.
Northern Europe is beating Latin Europe, so far.
Germany will beat Latvia on Saturday at 5pm, with Kuranyi and Ballack among the goals, I would think.
THE TWO STARS of Euro 2004, for me, are Gordon Strachan on BBCTV, and Rudi Voller’s No 2 Michael Skibbe, the tactician who blends journeymen into a fluent team.
Germany were better than Holland.
Unfortunately, Worns pulled Van Nistelrooy round the neck.
So Worns was doing two things : he was pulling Van Nistelrooy’s foot onto a ball which was otherwise very awkward for him, and he was holding RVN up, which allowed him to hook a preposterously sharp shot across Kahn and into the far side of the goal for a 1-1 draw the Dutch did not deserve.
JOHN TERRY was rusty in the 3-0 win over Switzerland’s 10 men.
England have rambunctious Rooney and a good back four, but no midfield, so they cannot control the middle of the park.
Therefore they concede too much possession and give away far too many free kicks in the last third.
Rooney was electrifying, but England wilted and wobbled in the heat of Coimbra
England don’t have a holding player and they can’t make angles for each other and can’t make runs off each other and can’t really work out who should be where.
England are leaky, like a sieve.
England are vulnerable, like a house built in a hill.
When the rains come, a river will run right through England’s front room.
While Greece and Italy play qualifying football for points in a mini-league, Sven refuses to choose between Scholes and Lampard and plays risky Cup football.
Against the Swiss, who had Haas harshly sent off in 59, they scored two late goals and won 3-0 and Sven got away with it.
Lucky Sven, again.
Rooney came off and Sven shook his hand and said, “Thanks for saving my job, again !”
WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHETHER ENGLAND ARE ANY GOOD.
Croatia can play for 25 minutes on Monday, I think.
Being Yugoslavs, they are too mercurial to play for 90 and they won’t play for 45, but they can play for 25 minutes and in that time they might damage England
France would be good if they had Kuranyi or Cassano.
Zidane would love to play with one of them.
France are doing just enough at the moment.
They can raise their game and they will surely beat the Swiss.
Croatia 2 France 2 featured two of the most feeble leg-waves for years.
On the first goal, Tudor waved his right leg and missed the ball and it hit his left shin and went in.
On the Prso goal to put Croatia 2-1 up, Desailly miskicked a clearance feebly to Prso, whose left foot blast gave Barthez no chance.
Two huge and famous centrebacks, two utterly inept leg-waves.
Anybody, any idiot, can wave a leg at a ball and miss it, or mis-kick it.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH, BOYS !
June 18th, 2004