Portugal have advanced past Poland to the semifinals of Euro 2-16 courtesy of Ricardo Quaresma’s match-winning penalty in a penalty shootout.
The match finished 1-1 after 120 minutes of play. After an early goal by Robert Lewandowski in the 2nd minute, the second earliest in Euro history, it seemed like this game was going to be an electric affair.
In the United States, it’s an old adage that “all ballers want to be rappers, and all rappers want to be ballers”. The intersection of music and sports seems to draw professionals to each other’s line of work. In Germany, it appears that all footballers want to be DJs, and all DJs want to be footballers.
The 90+ minute winner from Graziano Pellé was enough to seal a two nil victory over the 2012 Euro Champions and advance Italy to the quarterfinals. The Spain Italy affair was one taken by Italy and not given. David De Gea for most of the game, kept Spanish hopes alive with some beautiful saves but he couldn't keep everything out. Italy moves on to face Germany on Saturday. Imagine how out of hand this game could have gotten without the beast in net....
England were unceremoniously dumped out of Euro 2016 by a plucky, vastly underrated Iceland side, and now everyone in England is mad. They are mostly mad at Raheem Sterling (for no real good reason), but they are also mad at Harry Kane.
They are so mad someone made this very funny video of Harry Kane, who is a legitimately nice dude and doesn't deserve this, kicking set pieces in every direction except toward the goal.
ICELAND.
For those of you making Game of Thrones "winter is coming" jokes, you are well intentioned — and we appreciate your intentions — but you are off base.
Winter is here, y'all.
Yes, Iceland, little Iceland, beat England, 2-1. Surely you know the statistics by now: 325,000 population, eight percent of which has shown up in France for Euro 2016.
It is surprising that it took Boateng 7 years to get on the score sheet for the German national team but he got his first tally in a very important knockout game vs Slovakia. As a cross was rebounded out, Boateng came striding in to hit the ball straight on. It was a great connection that beat the Slovakian goalie bottom left. On to the quarter finals!! This isn't the only big moment Boateng has had for Germany this Euros. What can we expect against Italy next?
Spain were sent crashing out of Euro 2016 at the hands of Italy following a 2-0 defeat in the round of 16. In a rematch of the 2012 final in Kiev, a dominant victory for a brilliant Spanish side, Italy met Spain in an early round of 16 clash of the titans.
Before Hungary were knocked out of Euro 2016 by Belgium Sunday, their 40-year-old keeper Gabor Kiraly and his sweatpants became the breakout stars of the tournament.
Kiraly initially made waves because his old-man rec-league sweatpants getup is perfect for the Internet to latch onto and/or fall in love with.
We didn't expect much from Kiraly and Hungary, in part because of the sweatpants and in part because the Hungarian National Team are not exactly considered world-beaters.
The world champions have awoken in France, and the rest of the field have been warned. Germany’s comprehensive 3-0 victory over Slovakia in their round of 16 encounter gave evidence to the brilliance, balance and cohesion this German side is able to muster.
Jerome Boateng scored a wonderful opening goal in the eighth minute, Mario gomez added a second in the 43rd and Julian Draxler capped a superb individual performance with Germany’s third in the 63rd minute.
In case you missed it this weekend, Xherdan Shaqiri scored a goal that most people would only try in the backyard. And in that sense, missing the ball is the most likely outcome. However, Shaqiri defied the odds to score a gorgeous goal. It had the announcers in shock, it had Poland in shock and it had every single viewer in absolute shock because of how epic it was. A late 1-0 Poland lead was diminished by this goal from Shaqiri in the 82nd minute which sent the game to extra time and eventually penalties.