By Kehinde Okeowo
Euro 2020: Round of 16 draw and fixtures with dates and kick-off times | LiveScore
The group stage of EURO 2020 ended dramatically on Wednesday with 16 teams out of the 24 teams who took part booking their participation in the round sixteen ties which is scheduled to commence on Saturday.
Teams that have progressed to the next stage are Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Wales, Denmark, Austria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Croatia , Spain, France, Switzerland, England , Germany, Sweden and Ukraine. These teams qualified by winning their groups, coming second or emerging as one of four best third placed teams in the groups.
The six groups recorded a lot of intrigues. The much celebrated footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal led the pack of highest goal scorers with five goals, Patrik Schick of Czech Republic, Emil Forsberg of Sweden, Romelu Lukaku of Belgium, Georginio Wijnaldum of Netherlands and Robert Lewandowski of Poland all scored 3 goals each to come second.
The most potent attack belonged to Netherlands who scored a total of eight goals, while Italian keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Jodan Pickford, his English counterpart, excelled as the safest hands by not conceding a single goal in the three games they played.
Belgium, Italy and Netherlands won all their games at the group stage and earned all the available points to win their respective groups.
Turkey and North Macedonia, who earned the not so enviable record of neither winning or drawing a game in all their matches also doubled as the two most generous rear guards in the competition by conceding eight and seven goals respectively.
It is therefore, not a surprise that they joined the group of eight early birds who exited the competition after the group stage. The English captain, Harry Kane, remained the most notable top striker in the competition yet to score a goal.
The round of 16 will kick off with Wales going up against the Danes in Amsterdam, Netherland and Italy squaring up against Austria, a team with a captain of Nigerian descent, David Alaba, on the same day in London, England.
The next day, Sunday, June 27, 2021, two more games between leaders of Group C, Netherlands and third placed team in Group D Czechs Republic will be played in Budapest, Hungary, thereafter a heavy weight clash between Belgium and Portugal will be played in Seville, Spain.
The final day of the round of 16 games will witness a match between England and Germany in Wembley Stadium in London and another game between Sweden and Ukraine in Glasgow, Scotland.
The competition is yet to record the exit of a European football super power, but Germany only squeezed a draw against Hungary in a group football pundits called the group of death to qualify as the third best team behind France and Portugal.
But the stakes are now higher, the competition is more fierce and stiffer because the competition has entered the knock out phase and teams now have little or no margin for error.
Football fans should look out for Netherlands who blew away all competitions at the group stage, Italians who have shown dexterity by not conceding a single goal at the group stage, Belgium who remained at the summit of the world ranking, France who is the reigning World Champion and Portugal who is the current European Champion.