Europe

Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal survived a massive scare from Czechia with a 2-1 victory in their Euro 2024 opener. With all the star power on the field for Portugal, their winning goal came from the unlikeliest of sources as Francisco Conceicao scored his first international goal.

Fans believed that Portugal securing three points from their opener was a given and a look at the stats would back that theory. The Euro favorites had 19 shots to Czechia’s five, 13 corners to Czechia’s zero and 74 PERCENT POSSESSION.

A world class Arda Güler goal vs Georgia proved to be the difference in Group F’s wildly entertaining first game as Turkey secured an enthralling 3-1 victory.

Georgia entered the tournament as the lowest ranked team in Euro 2024 ranked 75th in the world. They showed no signs of being the underdog as they pushed Turkey to the limit with a Güler worldie separating the two teams.

France secured an unconvincing 1-0 victory vs. Austria on Monday and two moments really stood out. One was an unusual Kylian Mbappé miss and the other was an even more shocking Landon Donovan hair on air.

Monday’s game was Donovan and broadcast partner Ian Darke’s third game in charge of this Euros. Fans hardly, if at all, got to see the two men in the broadcast booth during the first games. They were on the screen on Monday and good goly Donovan’s hair was something.

Landon Donovan hair during Euros broadcast

You couldn’t write a script like this. The Christian Eriksen goal vs Slovenia during Denmark’s opening Euro game on Sunday was the stuff out of movies.

Three years ago, Eriksen was fighting for his life after collapsing on the field during Denmark’s opening game of Euro 2020. The soccer world was in shock as Eriksen was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation by the incredible and quick medical staff who saved his life.

Saturday’s festivities began with a viral video of an Albania fan breaking spaghetti in front of Italy fans. That was a declaration of war.

The video spread like wildfire across the internet as the precious pasta of Italia was destroyed for all to see.

Albania fan breaking spaghetti

Tw: Italianophobia

Albanian fans snapped spaghetti in front of Italian fans ahead of the Italy-Albania Euro 2024 match. pic.twitter.com/7c3c5rByOI

Spain bested Croatia 3-0 on Saturday in a game where everything went wrong for the boys wearing red and white. A good summary of Croatia’s game was a disallowed goal late in the second half during a penalty kick.

Trailing 3-0, Croatia were given a lifeline with a penalty kick after Rodri brought down Bruno Petkovic who was about to score. Rodri escaped with just a yellow card.

A penalty was given for this challenge in the box by Spain