Euro 2020 has been an excellent tournament so far, full of excitement, quality and nail-biting drama.
The presence of fans in the various stadiums has been a big reason for this intensity, while we have seen some shock results and stunning comebacks already.
As the tournament moves into the last stages, it is important to look back at the tournament so far to see what we have learnt about the teams.
This can also help us try and make sense of the upcoming matches, with TwinSpires one of the new US sportsbooks to launch right now, offering brilliant offers on the tournament on gamble-usa.com.
There are huge question marks around Germany
All of Germany’s young attackers – Leroy Sane, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Serge Gnabry, failed to fire at Euro 2020.
Havertz had a few goals to his name, but his performances have seemed languid. Gnabry and Havertz both had one high-quality game, and that was against Portugal.
They became their lacklustre selves again against Hungary and failed to impact the game against England. With Hansi Flick now taking over from Joachim Low in charge of the national side, he will need to figure this puzzle out rapidly.
Italy remain the masters of defending
Until Austria’s Sasa Kaladjzic scored in the second half of extra-time in the round of 16 tie, Italy had not conceded a goal for 1,168 minutes, which broke their previous record of 1,143 minutes, set in the 1970s.
Italy have also now been unbeaten for 32 matches, breaking their previous record of 30 games, and it will be a brave soul who bets against them for the semi-final against Spain.
Is Gareth Bale’s future as a deep-lying playmaker?
Look, the very best of Gareth Bale is already in the rearview mirror, and that’s a shame (for all of us). However, the Welsh superstar still has more outrageous talent in his boots than 99 percent of professional footballers the world over — yes, he was that good at his peak.
A la the final years of a fellow Welshman’s (Ryan Giggs) career, Bale appears to have seamlessly transitioned into a deeper, more central role, which should now see him hit stupendous pass after stupendous to set up scoring chances for Wales and his next club team.
The ball he floated and placed onto the chest of Ramsey for Wales’ goal will feature heavily in the end-of-Euro 2020 montage. The dribbling on display to set up the late goal against Turkey was equally dazzling.
Patrik Schick could end up with the Golden Boot despite being eliminated
Patrik Schick spent plenty of time in the transfer rumour mill as the “next big thing” during his progression from Sparta Prague to Bohemians to Sampdoria, AS Roma, RB Leipzig, and now Bayer Leverkusen.
There have been a handful of double-digit goal seasons in there, but there’s rarely been a question regarding his production in a national team shirt (when healthy).
Schick has five goals in five Euro 2020 games to take him level with Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the Golden Boot charts.
With Harry Kane on three goals at the moment, it could very well be that the Czech forward wins the award.
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