July 7: England are taking on Denmark in the UEFA Euro 2020 semi-final in London on Wednesday at 12:45 AM.
What's the story?
The Three Lions will be brimming with confidence as they return to Wembley off the back of their biggest victory at EURO finals – the 4-0 success against Ukraine was their first four-goal haul in the knockout stages of any major tournament since the 1966 FIFA World Cup final. Gareth Southgate's side are also the first team to keep five consecutive clean sheets at the start of a EURO finals campaign, so it is clear England are in good shape at both ends of the pitch.
Denmark, however, put a spanner in the works as recently as last year and are similarly resilient at the back – Christian Eriksen's penalty at Wembley was the sole goal between these sides in their two UEFA Nations League meetings in 2020. Kasper Hjulmand's men have found their scoring boots at the right time too, with their 11 goals at the finals – ten in the last three matches – eclipsing both of their semi-final teams from 1984 and 1992. Having seen off Wales and the Czech Republic in the knockout phase, the dark horses are no longer lurking in the shadows.
Predicted line-ups
England: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Phillips, Rice; Saka, Mount, Sterling; Kane
Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Kjær, Vestergaard; Stryger, Højbjerg, Delaney, Mæhle; Braithwaite, Dolberg, Damsgaard
Form guide (most recent first)
England: WWWDWW
Denmark: WWWLLW
Source: UEFA
July 4: The UEFA Euro 2020 semi-final ties have been confirmed following the completion of the quarter-finals.
Spain and Italy will clash for one of the semi-finals with Spain beating Switzerland on penalty shoot outs and Italy edging past Belgium.
Similarly, Denmark beat Czech Republic 2-1 to meet England in another semi-final clash who thrashed Ukraine 4-0.
Semi-finals
Italy vs Spain (00:45, Tuesday 6 July, London)
This is the fourth straight Euro in which Italy have played Spain. At UEFA Euro 2008, Spain won 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 quarter-final draw in Vienna.
Four years later, they drew 1-1 in the group stage in Gdańsk and then met again in the Kyiv final, Spain winning 4-0.
Italy turned the tables with a 2-0 round of 16 win at Stade de France.
In 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, they drew 1-1 in Italy and Spain won 3-0 at home, and they have another semi-final lined up in October in the UEFA Nations League in Milan.
England vs Denmark (00:45, Wednesday 7 July, London)
England and Denmark have met once at a Euro, a 0-0 draw in the 1992 group stage in Malmö.
Ten years later, England won their World Cup round of 16 tie 3-0 in Niigata.
More recently in the UEFA Nations League, it was 0-0 in Copenhagen in September 2020 before Denmark won 1-0 at Wembley a month later thanks to a Christian Eriksen penalty.
Final
Italy/Spain vs England/Denmark (00:45, Sunday 11 July, London)
Source: UEFA
ST PETERSBURG, July 2 : Three-time European champion Spain needed to fight until penalty shootout to see off 10-man Switzerland in St Petersburg on Friday, reaching the semifinals of the Euro 2020 by 4-2.
The two teams tied in 1-1 in regular time and could'n't split after the extra time. But Spain finally wrap it up by winning the penalty shot 3-1.
The opening goal of the match came eight minutes after the start when Jordi Alba's low shot outside the box was diverted into net by Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria's leg.
Spain kept their dominance in possession in the second half but Xherdan Shaqiri brought Switzerland back as the Swiss captain pushed Remo Freuler's pass into net in the the 68th minute.
Switzerland were resilient enough to drag Spain into extra time even though Freuler was sent off in the 77th minute. But they couldn't keep lucky in the shootout as they were against France.
Spain will face the winners between Belgium and Italy in London's Wembley Stadium next Tuesday.
(Xinhua)
June 30: As Ukraine knocked out Sweden in an extra-time 2-1 thriller on Wednesday, all eight teams for the quarter finals of the UEFA Euro 2020 have been confirmed.
Earlier, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane's second-half goals helped England overcome Germany 2-0 at Wembley on Tuesday, reaching the quarterfinals at the Euro 2020.
The quarter-final ties will be played on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.
All kick-off times are shown in NST ( Nepal Standard Time ).
Quarter-final ties
Friday, 2 July
Switzerland vs Spain (21:45 , St Petersburg)
Belgium vs Italy (00:45, Munich)
Saturday, 3 July
Czech Republic vs Denmark (21:45, Baku)
Ukraine vs England (00:45, Rome)
Semi-finals
SF1: Belgium/Italy vs Switzerland/Spain (00:45, Tuesday 6 July, London)
SF2: Ukraine/England vs Czech Republic/Denmark (00:45, Wednesday 7 July, London)
Final
Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2 (00:45, Sunday 11 July, London)
BUCHAREST, June 28: Switzerland knocked world champions France out of Euro 2020 in 5-4 penalty shoot-out win following a thrilling 3-3 draw after extra time, reaching the quarterfinals on Monday.
Switzerland's goalkeeper Yann Sommer denied French striker Kylian Mbappe's spot kick to earn his side the victory. Switzerland will next play against Spain, which beat Croatia 5-3 after extra time, in St. Petersburg on Friday.
Both teams were perfect from the penalty spot until Mbappe stepped up to take the last of France's five scheduled kicks, but Sommer dived to his right and got a strong hand to the striker's effort, swatting it away to send the Swiss through.
Mario Gavranovic's 90th-minute strike allowed Switzerland to take France to extra time at Euro 2020 as the last-16 tie in Bucharest ended 3-3 after 90 minutes.
Haris Seferovic gave the Swiss a half-time lead in the Romanian capital but Hugo Lloris saved a Ricardo Rodriguez penalty early in the second half before a Karim Benzema double turned the game on its head.
A stunning Paul Pogba strike then had the world champions 3-1 ahead but Seferovic scored again to reduce the deficit before substitute Gavranovic equalized.
It was the third game in the round of last 16 to go to extra time but the first to be decided by penalties.
(Xinhua)
June 29: Monday's dramatic round of 16 games tipped the UEFA Euro 2020 goals tally and goals per game ratio into record territory.
Switzerland contributed to a dramatic day of Euro action on Monday in their match against world champions France.
UEFA EURO 2020 has set a new record for final tournament goals after Mislav Oršić's strike for Croatia against Spain took the tally to 109 – surpassing the previous best, set in 2016.
There was still time for nine more goals on Monday alone.
A total of 14 goals were scored on Monday --- 8 during Spain-Croatia and 6 in France-Switzerland matches.
Most EURO finals goals
2020: 118 goals
2016: 108 goals
2000: 85 goals
Best goals per game ratio*
2020: 2.81 per match
2000: 2.74 per match
1984: 2.73 per match
*Since group stage introduced
Overall tournament statistics
2020: 118 goals, 42 games (2.81 per match)
2016: 108 goals, 51 games (2.12 per match)
2012: 76 goals, 31 games (2.45 per match)
2008: 77 goals, 31 games (2.48 per match)
2004: 77 goals, 31 games (2.48 per match)
2000: 85 goals, 31 games (2.74 per match)
1996: 64 goals, 31 games (2.06 per match)
1992: 32 goals, 15 games (2.13 per match)
1988: 34 goals, 15 games (2.27 per match)
1984: 41 goals, 15 games (2.73 per match)
1980: 27 goals, 14 games (1.93 per match)
1976: 19 goals, 4 games (4.75 per match)
1972 : 10 goals, 4 games (2.50 per match)
1968 : 7 goals, 5 games (1.40 per match)
1964 :13 goals, 4 games (3.25 per match)
1960: 17 goals, 4 games (4.25 per match)
Source: UEFA
LONDON, June 13 : Raheem Sterling's second-half goal helped England beat Croatia 1-0 in the opening match of Group D at Euro 2020 on Sunday.
This game was played at London's Wembley Stadium as the British capital is one of the 11 cities to host the event. This is the first time that England has won its opening game at a European Championship. In its previous nine appearances in the tournament, England had drawn five and lost four of its openers.
England threatened Croatia's goal early as Phil Foden hit the far post after five minutes and Kalvin Phillips' shot from outside the box forced Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic to save low down.
The Three Lions dropped their pace after 20 minutes, but Croatia captained by 35-year-old Luka Modric could barely create any chance in the first half.
Croatia, who ousted England from the semifinals at the World Cup three years ago, improved a little after the interval but Sterling gave the 2018 World Cup runners-up a blow by sending Phillips' pass into net from close range after 57 minutes.
"To be honest, I always said to myself if I come here, growing up two minutes down the road, I know I have to score here. It was a great feeling to actually do it," said the Manchester City striker after the match.
Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic made several changes after 70 minutes, but the team could barely challenge England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
England boss Gareth Southgate also tried to refresh his front line by substituting Foden with Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford and replacing Harry Kane with Dortmund teenager Jude Bellingham, but the Three Lions failed to add another but wrap the game up 1-0.
England will wait at Wembley to host Scotland on Friday before facing the Czech Republic on the same pitch nest Tuesday.
Scotland and the Czech Republic will play their first match of Group D at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Monday.
(Xinhua)
ROME, June 11 : Italy started their Euro 2020 campaign with an easy 3-0 win against Turkish side in the Olympic Stadium in Rome on Friday evening.
Italy looked sharp from the beginning with Roberto Mancini's favored 4-3-3 formation.
Giorgio Chiellini's powerful header from a corner was tipped over by Turkish keeper, Ugurcan Cakir, who was impressive all game. Moments before the halftime whistle, Italy had a good penalty appeal rejected after Leonardo Spinazzola's cross clearly hit Zeki Celik's arm.
Turkey produced very little in attack in the first half and things didn't change much after the break, although Cengiz could have done better than see his shot blocked after a rare break.
Italy took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute when they finally found a 3 against 3 in attack and Domenico Berardi found space on the right with options to cross or shoot. He opted to drill the ball across the area and the ball rebounded off Merih Demiral into his own net. It was bad luck for the defender, who plays for Juventus.
The goal left Turkey groggy and Italy began to pepper their goal with shots, first Spinazzola was denied by Cakir, before Lorenzo Insigne saw a shot deflected over.
Ciro Immobile doubled Italy's lead in the 66th minute as he slotted home from close range after Cakir had blocked Spinazzola's shot.
Insigne netted a third in the 79th minute with a curling shot after a wonderful pass.
With inputs from Xinhua
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