By Kehinde Okeowo
The assertion that football is not mathematics seems to have so far manifested in the ongoing European soccer fiesta, even the best of football pundits could not have predicted the ouster of the Netherlands by the Czechs, France defeat in the hands of Switzerland and some other upsets that we have witnessed at the 16th edition of UEFA European Football Championship. The exit of football giants such as the competition’s defending champion, Portugal, reigning world champion, France and Belgium, the highest-ranked team in the world, is a testimonial to the suspense, entertainment and unpredictability the game brings.
The race to win the 2020 edition of the competition is hooting up and with a lot of casualties on the way to the semi-final stage already, any potential winner knows the margin for error is now very narrow. The quarterfinal did not produce any upset like the round of 16 and the four teams that made it to the semi-final stage of the completion are the Azzuri of Italy, La Furia Roja of Spain, Three Lions of England and Danish Dynamites of Denmark.
The Italians who won the competition once in 1968 when they defeated defunct Yugoslavia and are yet to lose a game since the qualifying rounds of the competition defeated a star-studded Belgian team to advance to the semifinal. Spain won the second edition in 1964 when they hosted the competition and won again back to back two more times in 2008 when Austria and Switzerland co-hosted the game and in 2012 when it was hosted by Poland and Ukraine, beat 10 men Switzerland in a penalty shootout to advance.
Another team, England who hosted the competition once in 1996 and one of the European soccer powerhouses yet to win it boosted their chance of winning the cup for the first time by defeating the Zbirna of Ukraine, in a contest that showed the gulf in class between the two nations and subsequently booked their semifinal place. Denmark, a dark horse, who won just a single game at the group stage and almost lost a player, Christian Eriksen, to cardiac arrest during this year’s tournament won the Czechs Republic, who pulled the feat of a giant-killing at the round of 16 and won the 1978 edition as Czechoslovakia to reach the semifinal.
Two mouth-watering semifinal encounters are expected to be played at the prestigious Wembley Stadium in England. First is a scintillating heavyweight clash between Italy and Spain, which is a match between two teams that have won the competition four times between them and a game that could easily pass for the final. The second will be a game between England, who got rewarded for their exploit with an unenviable task of playing at home in front of their passionate supporters against Denmark, who against all odds defiled all permutations to reach this stage of the competition.
Meanwhile, La Furia Roja of Spain remained the most potent team in front of the goal, after extending their goal tally to 12 in five matches. They are closely followed by Italy and Denmark who have scored 11 goals each in the same number of games. Jordan Pickford, the erratic English goalkeeper, who had a nearly disastrous moment against Ukraine at the quarterfinal stage despite composed performances at the group and round of 16 stages, remained the safest hand and the favourite to clinch the golden glove in the competition, having kept 5 clean sheets and yet to concede a goal in over 450mins of football.
Renowned soccer maestro, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Bundesliga striker, Patrik Schick of the Czech Republic still lead the scorers’ chart with 5 goals each and are in line to jointly win the golden boot, despite the ouster of their teams from the competition. They are followed by Karim Benzenma of France and Emil Forsberg of Sweden, who have 4 goals each and whose teams are also out of the competition. As the contest winds down to a befitting conclusion and with two more hurdles to cross before lifting the much-coveted European trophy, teams and players at the semi-final stage know they have a once in a lifetime opportunity to write their names in gold and enter the history books of the age-long competition.
