..… Eniols Olatunji writes for Newspot.
…Stands Bye for the Winner of England Versus Netherlands semifinal.
La Roja of Spain on Tuesday night at the Allainz Arena, Muinich in Germany spinned off Les Bleu of France in the semifinal of the Euro24 in a 2-1 victory to go into the finals on Sunday.
Spain made record as the first European team to win six straight matches in any competition final tournament from the continent.
France broke the ice with a floater from Mbappe from the left flank to his former PSG team mate, Kolo Muani who released a powerful header in the 8th minute for France first goal in open play at the Euro 24.
16 year old Barca teenager, dazzled with leg work before scoring the equalizer in the 21st minute off a Morata assist. At that age (16 yeaars and 362 days), Yamal became the youngest goal scorer at a major tournament world cup or Euros, a record previously held by the late soccer legend, Edson Narento De Nascimento known as Pele (then 17 years 239 days) against Wales at the 1958 world cup.
Danni Olmo of RB Leipzig connected a pass and shot with a ricochet off the leg of Kounde of France into goal just in the 25th minute for the winner and his 3rd goal at Euro 24 opening him up for a possible Golden Boot award.
France had 9-6 shots at goal with a 3-2 shots on target; Spain shined more with the passes at 500-339; but France came in the 2nd half to be very aggressive earning 14-9 foul calls but the yellow cards were two flashes each side and France had 6-4 corner kicks.
Ref Slavo Vincic of Slovenia was eagle eyed as the 62,042 spectators roared in support of their team.
France reached the last four without scoring a goal in open play.
Spain played without midfielder Pedri who is out of the tournament with knee injury. Defenders Robin Le Normand and Dani Carvajal are under match suspension.
Spain also won group B with 9 fantastic points winning all her matches not conceding a single goal but scored just 5 goals. Croatia was tamed like a Croc with 3-0; piped Italy 1-0 and beat Albania 1-0. Spain pounded elastic Giant killers of a Debutante Georgia 4-1 in the Round of 16.
Spain with current world ranking at 8 had beaten high profile and hosts Germany 2-1 at the MHP Arena in Stuttgart before a crowd of 54,000 fans with Ref Anthony Taylor of England in the quarterfinals. Olmo had opened scoring for Spain in the 51st minute and Wirth equalized for Germany in the 89th minute but Merino scored the winner in the 119th minute of Extra Time.
Spain is the only team to have won all five matches at Euro 24 but no side has ever won six consecutive times at the Euro Football Championship Games
France was 2nd in Group D with 5 points scoring a meager 2 goals and conceding one. France beat Austria by a lone goal; played goalless with Netherlands and 1-1 with Poland in the group games. France was dashed an own goal by Vertonghen of Belgium in the 85th minute of the Round of 16 match at Dusseldorf.
France with current world ranking at 2, earned the semifinal ticket via penalty shootout winning 5-3 after the Extra time had ended 0-0 at VolksparkStadion in Hamburg before 47,789 fans and Ref Michael Oliver of England as Ref.
On the head to head toll, Spain won 16 matches; France won 13 and there were 7 draws. Let’s take some records. In 2000 Euro quarterfinal, France won 2-1; in 2001 Friendly match Spain defeated France 2-1; at the 2006 world cup quarterfinal, Spain lost to France 1-3; in a 2008 friendly match, Spain won 1-0; she again won another friendly match in 2010 2-0 before spanking France 2-0 in 2012 at the Euro quarterfinals.
At the build up for the world cup Eufa qualifying zone group 1 in 2012 they drew 1-1 and in 2013 Spain took the 2nd leg 1-0.Spain won by a lone goal in France. A friendly in 2017 Spain won 2-1 and the last time both teams met on 10th October 2021 at the UEFA Nations League finals France ran away with 2-1 victory.
Both Spain and ousted Germany hold highest record at UEFA with three titles each. Spain won in 1964; 2008 and 2012 and was runners-up in 1984. Apart from the three times Spain won the title, she was Runners-up in 1984 when she lost 0-2 to France; in 2012 when she won her 3rd title she defeated Italy 4-0 and was a semifinalist in 2020.
Germany won in 1972; 1980 and 1996. Germany lost in the semifinal in 1988; were Runners-up in 1992 when the team lost 0-2 to Italy. Defeated Czech 2-1 to win in 1996 but in 2012 when Spain won, Germany lost in the semifinal and also lost at that stage in 2016.
The winner of the Spain versus France match would meet the winner of the England versus Netherlands duel in the grand finale on Sunday, 14th July at 8pm Nigerian time at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
The other semifinal match will be played between the Three Lions of England and the Orange Boys of Netherland at the Westfalenstadion, Dortmund at 8pm with controversial Ref. Felix Zwayer of Germany expected to handle the match. Zwayer had once been suspended for match fixing and football fans are arguing he is not morally fit to handle such match.
The English player, Bellingham who playing in Germany uttered the statement that led to the suspension of Zwayer and other German officials will feature for England tomorrow; Eufa has not reacted to the call for replacement of Zwayer as at press time of Tuesday night.
This is the 17th edition of the European Championship that has now seen 108 goals scored with 2,554,762 attendances as at today (62,042 for France vs Spain match for today just included). There are now five joint top scorers in Georges Mikautadze of Georgia; Jamal Musiala of Germany, Cody Gako of Netherlands, Ivan Schranz of Slovakiaand now Danni Olmo of Spain all having three goals each.
-Eniola Olatunji reporting for Newspot
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