England make hard work of Serbia in their Euro 2024 opener – Football Daily

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Well, let's not peek too soon and all that.

It was definitely coming home after 12 minutes.

Not so much much for a lot of the rest of the game.

Bellingham was excellent, but with Kane so high, he barely got a touch.

Foden never got into the game.

Everything good from England came down the right.

Declan Rice was good.

Mark Gay was good, but a lot of questions for Gareth Southgate.

But a win is a win.

Also in England's group, four years after his cardiac arrest at the last Euros.

Christian Erickson gives Denmark the lead, but Slovenia come back, equalising after creating lots of good chances in the second half.

And then all hell vout.

international football the true home of the big man he scores the winner with his first touch off the bench to beat poland who'd taken the lead and done okay with that Lewandowski in front of their superbly dressed manager.

We'll look ahead to tomorrow's games as Belgium and France get their tournaments underway.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Troy Townsend, welcome.

I'm Max.

Hello, Lars Ivertson.

Hello, Max.

And hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hello.

Before I chat to you, Lot, Johnny Lew is there in Gelson-Kirshen.

The game finished about 10 minutes ago.

Johnny, how was it for you?

Alright.

I'm in a bit of a nightmare getting there.

I think lots of thousands and thousands of England fans having real transport issues and another UEFA organisational foul up as usual.

The game, like maybe seven out of ten.

It'd be interesting to see what the other guys, how the other guys rate it.

I think they won.

Like, it's very easy to not win.

And I think if

they suffered a little bit from Serbia basically

kicking the shit out of them for a bit, like knocking them off their stride, It took them, I think, a good half an hour to work out how to deal with that.

I lost count of the number of times Harry Kane was like just pulled down.

But the first half hour was pretty good, I thought.

They got a goal, and

then there were fewer alarms in the second half, but and obviously they will need to improve, and obviously, certain players didn't play that well, but

it was okay.

I mean, it'll be doom and gloom, obviously.

It's not really the done thing to say it was okay, was it?

But it was okay.

Yeah, I mean, there were, I suppose there were, from my point of view, and we'll get into it with the rest of the panel, some issues about the left side, and, you know, like Bellingham clearly was great, and he's in a great position, and that's his position, but it meant Kane was so far forward that he didn't really touch the ball that much.

Foden wasn't really in the game.

You know, there are questions for Southgate to answer or things to work out.

Yeah, I was on whoscored.com, you know, following Harry Kane's touches.

And at one point, you know, Bellingham was on 45 and Kane was on one.

And so I started watching him for a bit it's like is he is he playing one of those blinding you know no touch games that that where he's doing a lot of invisible no and I realized after a bit no he's just not getting in the game at all Foden was getting in his space Bellingham was getting in his space they couldn't get the ball to him and and yeah I think that there were

there were times when England crowded themselves out a bit but I don't think that was where the problems were.

The problem was they basically ceded a whole load of space to Serbia, like just before the end of the first half and then into the second half.

They just, I don't know, the intensity dropped.

Serbia kind of got on top of them a little bit.

And all of a sudden, it doesn't take much, you know, the Serbia are a kind of a vibes team.

They don't do a lot of tactics.

It's all about manliness and vigour and showing who's the boss.

And Serbia showed who was the boss for about half an hour, and England didn't really know how to deal with it.

And they couldn't get out all of a sudden.

What was the atmosphere like?

There was some video footage of some few skirmishes earlier on, but it seems to have passed by fine.

Well,

interestingly, I'm not really going to write about the football at all tonight.

I'm going to write about everything else around it and basically a really long tram ride from Essen to Gels and Cook and it's going to be fascinating stuff.

But one of the things I kind of find remarkable is that apart from the actual football bit, which is great, and basically the whole point of the exercise,

all the stuff around going to football, especially at a big game, especially a sort of a big, like highly curated tournament like this, it's just so miserable.

Like, you have to queue for everything, you actually get treated like shit,

like all the time.

Just whether it's security or stewards or transport queues or the airports or whatever.

And then, you know, a brawl breaks out in one cafe, and suddenly all England fans are scum or, you know, whatever.

And it's just, it's such a thankless experience.

And

the surprising part for me is that there isn't more trouble because the way that the shambles that was getting to the stadium, like thousands and thousands of England fans literally walking four miles from Gelsnofogen out to the arena because there was literally no other way of getting there and jogging as well because they were going to miss kickoff.

You know, how is it not kicking off more?

How are they not sort of rioting?

And you know, it is

a remarkable show of actual patience and restraint, I think, not to just totally kick off.

I can imagine this

article will be greeted by

an orchestra of tiny violins.

Well, I mean, you know, I mean,

me and Jacob were sitting

on a motionless tram for 40, 45 minutes.

And, you know, where's my charity appeal?

Where's my, you know,

you know, I

almost filmed like a tearful TikTok going, I can't believe it.

But

it was more just like the the lack of and outside there were sort of hundreds of hundreds thousands of England fans like trying to get on the tram milling around the rain it was absolutely biblical rain it was like a scene from children of men there were like random sort of police bat on charges and no nobody knew anything nobody knew where they were going nobody knew what they were doing and I just honestly think there was a better way of doing this but you did get a free park run out of it that's you didn't want it but you did you know naught to 5k you you you had to do that anyway look well thanks for coming on Johnny look forward to that miserable article when it comes out thank you mate yeah I look forward to pod cheers Johnny Lou there,

hopefully with a quicker ride home.

He gave them seven out of ten.

Barry, what would you give England?

I wasn't sure whether he was giving England seven out of ten or the game in general seven out of ten.

I saw England were bang average, quite lucky to win.

They did win, and that's all that matters in the long run.

But

I saw a lot of familiar failings

from a very dominant first half hour in which they went ahead and then kind of sat back and went, Yeah, we we've done enough now and they let Serbia back into the game.

Um

and I think with

better deliveries, uh you know, better crosses, better balls from deep,

uh slightly better weighted passes, Serbia could easily have equalised and possibly got another goal or two.

Jordan Pickford had to make a couple of saves and I think if it wasn't for

Philip Kostich having an absolute nightmare,

Bikaya Saka had him on toast in the first half.

Him and Pavlovich,

I wasn't sure, you know, England were just moving the ball around, not really doing a whole lot with it.

And Saka was their

their source of inspiration in the first half.

So I would say it was a bang average performance and and england were very much sort of hanging on at the end troy

parry's kind of summed it up um i thought they were exceptional i've got to say this i thought they were exceptional for those first 25 minutes high tempo great creativity in in terms of their shape at the start of the game And it just seemed only a matter of time.

But as England do, it's almost like they lose focus, they lose concentration, and they think the game is easier than what it is and the next half an hour was serbia just getting up to tempo um and then minute the second half started you saw a complete difference they were in england's faces um saka hardly got on the ball in the second half um they turned the gas on and went toe to toe and were very much um in the ascendancy for most of the second half i have some things about serbe i i don't understand mitrovic's role uh tonight i really don't understand it a you know a player that can put pressure on england's two centre halves.

And if they start to, you know, not like the battle against him, then he's kind of won the mind game.

But he was dropping.

He was playing like a Harry Kane for Serbia.

You know, I didn't understand.

And then they took him off when they decided they were going to throw balls into the box and go for it.

So I was a little bit confused by their tactics.

But again, it's one of those games where, look,

you've got to get off the mark.

You got off the mark.

I still don't think Gareth trusts his whole squad because I thought there was a number of changes that could have been made and maybe made a lot earlier.

This pigeonhole in Phil Foden into the left side, if it doesn't show now that it doesn't work, then it never will.

And I thought there was an opportunity for Anthony Gordon to kind of show his kind of the excellent season that he's had and get him on and maybe drive the right back further to back.

But look, it's one of those, I don't think it was a seven.

There's parts of it where I thought England were very poor and there's parts of it where I thought they were very good.

So

six, six and a a half,

whatever.

It doesn't matter.

They won the game 1-0.

Yeah, it's interesting, Lars, isn't it?

That Bellingham is clearly so good.

And for that first 25 minutes, I think Troy's right, he was brilliant, and he's such a brave header.

Charlie saying, was that the most Robbie Earl-style goal scored at a major tournament since 98?

Yeah, you know, it was a great header.

It was really brave.

But

he's playing there, which means Foden can't play there.

But carry on, Lars.

yeah.

But Foden doesn't really play there for City either.

I was looking at this now through the very excellent Transform

archives where they sort of note down the position of every player in every game.

This season, Foden has played 21 games at right wing for Man City, and he's played 10 games at left wing, and then he has played 15 in the centre.

But he's played like two-thirds of his season for City outwide.

Now, he comes inside a lot because that's kind of how the city system works.

But I don't think the position is kind of the biggest problem.

If we're going to go have a deep

dive into Phil Foden, I think he's one of those who's so attuned to the system he plays at club level that when you take him out of that context and into a team that obviously doesn't have the same rotations and the same movements and the same patterns, he does occasionally struggle to get into the game, is what it always looks like to me for England.

But he's obviously incredibly gifted.

On England in general, what I wonder, and I'd be intrigued to hear what Southgate is willing to say publicly about this.

I think they

did it on purpose, a lot of the things we were talking about.

I thought the first hour, first half hour, was almost perfect in terms of how you should approach this game, I think.

Because we talked about it in the group preview of this with Philippe Oclaire about how Serbia, if you let them come on to you, they can hurt you because they have some dangerous individuals going forward, but they're a really bad team defensively and they don't have a ton of mobility in there.

And we saw when England were aggressive and when England moved the ball quickly and were kind of,

you know, played

assertively and on the front foot, Serbia couldn't deal with it at all.

In the first 30 minutes, England had 70% possession.

They were so in control.

But then almost exactly on the halfway mark, that changed.

And I noticed this because

I was cooking whilst watching the TV.

And I was so, well, Serbia have now had the ball for quite a while.

And I looked at it for the first time in the game, and it was around the 30-minute mark.

And then the last 15 minutes of the first half, Serbia had 70% possession.

It was a complete switch.

And I was kind of confused by some of the punditry at halftime where people just didn't seem to have noticed that a full third of that first half, England, had just let Serbia have the ball.

And I think that was intentional.

I don't think the team just completely goes, we're not going to press anymore.

We're just going to sit back just randomly after half an hour into the game.

I suspect that's something that you do.

Now, in the second half, it wasn't as dramatic, but again, I thought England let Serbia have a little bit more space, as Johnny Liu touched on, than I would like to see.

And I thought they were a little bit lucky that Serbia didn't punish them.

Serbia, a bit of a rabble in the end, a little bit chaotic.

Fully agro with Troy.

I don't understand understand the use of Mitrovich.

And again, to echo Lou, very much a vibes team more than a system and structure team.

And I think

trying to defend, because South Kid's going to get a lot of criticism

from people who are just kind of sat at home on a Sunday night hoping to watch a good game of football.

To try to defend him a little bit.

It's probably not viable to play the way you played in the first 30 minutes for the full 90 minutes of every game during the tournament.

You're going to burn off everyone and they're going to be knackered by by the time you get to, hopefully, the quarters of the semis.

Like, you want to arrive at the crucial moments of this tournament with players who've still got some juice in their legs.

But I still felt they maybe, in terms of like easing off and giving the opponent space and maybe saving some energy, they took a huge gamble in this game in letting Serbia have as much time and space as they did.

And they were maybe a bit fortunate that Serbia weren't better because I think this team can be a lot better.

They were just a little bit rubbish on the night.

Troy?

Two points there, Max.

And Lars is right about Foden's Foden's position.

I'd love to have watched the game from an aerial point of view for the first 10 minutes because he went exactly where he wanted to go.

He went inside.

Do you want us to fund a blimp for you?

Well, it could, it would help.

You know, it'd help give my analysis a lot more, make my analysis a lot more sense.

But he went everywhere, and then it was almost like he was told off.

I'm not saying he was.

And then he just stuck to the left-hand side and

not sulked, but seemed to not like the advice of staying there because he wanted to float inside and out and then that second half um there was a quite clear four five one a very very obvious four five one from england getting into shape being hard to break down i disagree with lars a little bit and i don't like to do this because he listens back quite a lot so um

i don't think they've done it on purpose

I don't think they've done it on purpose.

I just felt that the Serbians really decided that, you know, it's either sink or swim here.

We either get out of England, who, yeah, they had a good 30 minutes, but they ain't that great.

And I think that they tried to chance their arm.

And maybe with a bit more luck, they might have got something out of it.

I think they'll be disappointed, the Serbians, tonight.

Yeah, Barry, it's an interesting game for Harry Kane because obviously he was told not to drop deep.

And in a sense, that's sensible, right?

We've got lots of good midfielders.

He's occupying the defenders.

He's creating space for others.

I think he only had one touch in the first half.

I mean, he wonder how he sort of is.

I think Anshira or I think Lineke said it half time, didn't he?

He said he won't care.

But I wonder, you know, it's not his natural game, that, is it, Mary?

No, but you have to do what you're told.

And there's a reason he was told not to drop deep.

And

I would imagine you would care because if you're just running around and jogging from side to side, and even if you are taking players out of position and creating space for other people, you are going to be very conscious of the fact I have not touched the ball for 25 minutes.

I'm not doing anything.

Now, maybe he wouldn't be.

I certainly would be.

But,

you know, the chance that Lineker and Scheer were talking about did come his way.

And he was denied by

quite frankly astonishing save

by the

Serbian goalkeeper

who pushed it onto the crossbar.

I was sure.

I couldn't believe that didn't go in.

So I wouldn't be critical of him necessarily.

I think Lars

and

Johnny are doing Serbia a bit of a disservice, saying they're just a vibes team and

didn't really have any discernible tactics.

Because I thought

before this game, everyone was worried about Kieran Trippier, you know, playing it left back and

how would he cope.

But it was actually the other side, the Serbia quite clearly targeted, trying to get the ball between Walker and John Stones.

And they did it to good effect on several occasions.

And crosses were coming in, but there was no one there to get on the end of those crosses.

I think Vlavic got one in this sort of side-footed volleyed cross that he was just begging to be tucked away, but there was no one there to do that.

Lars, what did you think of Trent Alexander Arnold in central midfield?

Yeah, I'm not.

I think it's completely fair and smart for Gareth Southgate to try that in the group stage, but I still don't think he looks like a central midfielder to me.

I know he plays a role at Liverpool where he moves into that area of the field when Liverpool have possession, but I just thought he looked kind of

lost at times in this game.

It doesn't seem to fit him very well to me.

And again, like, he's played, he started at central midfield three times for Liverpool ever.

Again, according to the extensive Transfer Market Archives, he has played there six times for England, but that was against Andorra, Malta, North Macedonia, and a very poor Bosnian team.

Like, this is a different level.

This is not, you know, and I

thought, again,

putting Gallagher in was a good idea, bringing a bit of extra energy since England were, again, a little bit, you know, sitting off a bit and the game was a little open at that point.

I think it's completely fair to try it, but I'm not sold on this being the best solution to that midfield when it comes down to when it comes down to facing the bigger teams in the tournament.

Yeah.

What is the solution?

I mean, I guess you might be on his coaching staff if you had the answer.

No, I'd much prefer to be up in the blimp with Troy.

I think the Troy Townsend tactics blimp.

I think it's too late now, but I think for the next tournament, we should really try to get enough sponsorship going to just have Troy up in a blimp for every, certainly every England game, maybe every game full stop, needs to be a very speedy blimp so he can get around.

Because the next tournament is in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

Have to be an incredibly fast blimp to get around to all the games.

We might have to just pick one situation

and have the tactics blimp.

And then we could have a raffle so we could have football weekly listeners to come and join us in the blimp.

I think this has really been a good thing.

We sent flat now then, please.

Yeah, excellently.

Well,

I was just thinking that, you know, Andros is doing excellent work.

It's for one of them, ITV or BBC.

And, you know, we don't want to give him ideas because I like the idea of Andros on CoComs going, let's just check with Dad, who's up on the blimp.

That'd be amazing.

What was my question?

It was about midfield, wasn't it?

What do you think, Troy?

No, listen, I had an inkling that Trent would play this game.

But I think this game was everything as to why Trent.

Listen, again, you listen

just before the game and Gary Linux saying, I've been talking for years that Trent should be playing centre mid.

It's his best position and no one disagreeing with him.

And I think this is the nature of this pod is that we're not like just friendly with people.

We want to disagree.

We want to have conversation.

Trent is a very, very good player, but is he a European class?

He's not even well class, central midfield player that will come up against potentially France, Germany, with the qualities that they have in that role.

And the answer has to be no.

Is it Maynu?

Is it Gallagher?

Gallagher did well when he came on.

I'm not a massive fan, but he actually, I think he would stabilise the midfield without having to drop Rice and Bellingham one back.

But I looked at Declan Rice's positioning today.

And if you do want someone that's going to sit there, it should be Declan Rice.

Yeah, he's really good.

It should be Declan Rice.

Yeah.

Yeah, it does maybe take away from him sort of galloping forward, but he was always there and he was covered when other players were out of position.

He was covering.

Mark Gay had a decent game, I thought, Barry.

Yeah, he didn't do much wrong, really.

It's gun the air, gun the floor.

I thought a lot of the commentary early in the game was quite patronising.

It was like he'd never played football before.

And

anytime he managed to get a pass away without tripping over his own feet,

he was singled out for praise.

I think he made one error, maybe gave the ball away.

But I I thought he did fine.

Yeah, no

problem here.

Yeah.

You wanted to mention Saka a lot?

Yeah, I just thought of a very honourable mention for him for that first period in particular, where he really gave that that left-hand side of Serbia a huge problem.

And that is

it is such a such meat and drink for him because Serbia play with wing backs who are both kind of converted wingers.

So they're not they're not converted full backs, which is kind of a big difference.

Now Kostic has played quite a lot of wing back now now, and he knows the gig, but you could tell him and Paolovich were really struggling to figure out what to do with Saka.

He kept making a lot of trouble down that flank.

That's, of course, where the cross for the goal came from.

And he is very, very good, Saka.

And I thought he faded in the second half.

Maybe, again, not aided by the fact that England weren't as assertive and didn't have the ball as much and couldn't feed him.

But the first half was really terrific by Saka as well.

And he's very good.

Yeah.

And actually, Gareth Halkey gets criticised a lot for his changes.

You wanted some bit earlier, troy but gallagher and bowen did both make a difference yeah bowen obviously within

what was it within a minute of coming on produced that excellent cross for kane the one that barry was talking about to save from uh rykovich i think so he did make a difference immediately but i just felt with the game the way the game was turning the changes could have come a couple of changes could have come earlier you know people have been clamoring for palmer people have been clamoring for anthony gordon i actually thought gordon would have started to give them the natural on the the left-hand side and to provide something a little bit different.

Although Saka, as Lars says, was superb, so was creating that issue for the wing back.

But I just think if he fully trusts this squad, now is the time to really show them and give them minutes in important games where you're either seeing the game out or you're changing the way the game is being played.

There was no way another centre forward was coming on, so Ivan Tony and Ollie Watkins better get used to the position that they're in unless England are winning by Gallup.

But I do think he needs to, yeah, he needs to look at that.

He's trusted the squad, he's made some big decisions about the squad, he's left some big people out of this squad, and I think he's got to start trusting those that he's brought in.

That's an interesting point, isn't it, Barry?

That isn't, you know, isn't the key that you know we know

how good Bellingham is and Saka is and Foden.

But if they're not having a great game, you could take them off, and it doesn't mean you think they're terrible.

You know, you've got to judge each game as it is happening and trust in Palmer or Eze or

Bowen or whoever you want to bring on.

Yeah, they're all terrific players.

I mean, we are being very critical here, and it's important to remember: England did win the game, and ultimately, that is what matters.

But

it's funny,

when Troy mentioned Cole Palmer there, I went, oh, yeah, I forgot about him.

He's sitting there, he's ready to come on.

I'd completely forgotten he was in the squad.

So there you go.

So,

you know, there are a few positions where if someone gets injured, like, uh-oh.

But there are quite a few where it wouldn't be far from the end of the world.

Foden's a funny one because he didn't have a good game.

And it could be argued that him playing football for England and him playing football for Man City, it's like playing two different sports, isn't it?

And he never looks as at home with an English shirt as he does with City because, as Lars has already pointed out, there are the same patterns.

He doesn't always know where the ball is going to be.

It's not as fast.

It's not ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.

It's just, it's a completely different sport.

What he's quite good at, but not as good as when he's surrounded by largely better players.

And

yeah,

and he's much more clued in as to where the ball is going to be and where he needs to be and where everyone else is going to be.

Yeah, it feels really counterintuitive, doesn't it, that you maybe play a player who isn't as good as him because they would be more used to playing with players who aren't as good as the players that he plays with.

It sounds ridiculous.

It sounds ridiculous, but it might be true.

It is worth mentioning, Lars, Serbia, as Johnny alluded to, absolutely brilliant as a team of...

Let them know you're there.

You know, like

every single time.

I mean, maybe I'm biased, and I'm always worried when I'm watching for England that I'm just totally biased.

But it's like every single time an England player passed it, a Serbian would just tread on them to say, good evening.

No, I mean, we should always be a little bit careful with national stereotypes and stuff, but that is one that I find holds true.

You rarely see a Serbian professional footballer who doesn't know how to throw an elbow and leave the odd stud here and there.

It does seem to be just kind of part of the football education thereabouts.

And they have a lot of lads over

six foot who know how to use their physiques.

And again, I would love to see them.

Yeah, a bit of a vibes team, I thought they were, but I still think they've got a fair chance of progressing from this group because uh not massively impressed by either denmark or uh slovenia as we are getting to later in this episode absolutely um as we'll get to now unless anyone has any strong final thoughts can i it's not a strong final thought can i just say there was an incident in the second half where ledenovich got the run on john stones onto a through ball he squared it to meetrovich

who was quite clearly shoved over by kieran tripier uh he appealed for a penalty.

He didn't get one.

I have seen them given for less Clive.

Yeah, well, actually, interestingly, I mean, in one of my football team WhatsApp groups, my friend Jean-Baptiste Godin immediately said, How is that different to Te Hernandez on Mason Mount in the World Cup?

I said Hernandez was a bit more blatant, but you make a very good point.

Anyway, that will do for part one.

And

part two, we will discuss the other games.

It is worth mentioning that for some reason, despite the great quality in Barry's audio for this part,

he will perhaps decide to

lower the quality for parts two and three.

So,

you know, that's his want.

He's been here a long time.

He could do as he pleases.

We'll be vibing.

I'm like, Sorry, I'm playing on vibes.

And your vibes for part two and three are shit audio quality.

We look down a well.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, man.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Mark writes, I'm a huge fan of the pod and have just listened to the latest episode, which was recorded and edited out of chronological sequence.

It It was absolutely great and reminded me of the first time I saw pulp fiction.

My satisfaction of working out at which point Bruce Willis returns to his flat and John Travolta is on the toilet was very similar to realising that Dan Bardell hadn't yet gone into his kitchen to get a fork for his son's fruit plate as he described his disappointment at Croatia's kit for the second time.

More of this playing with time, please.

Yeah, just so you're aware, we normally record most of the pod after the second game so we can go to bed and so we can get the show out as quickly as possible.

So at the moment, none of us know the England result yet, so I am in a good mood.

Let's go with the other game from England's group then that's just finished.

Slovenia won, Denmark won.

Lars, Denmark's so much better in the first half, but they kind of Ali McCoy said on Coco, they kind of lost their way and Slovenia, who are the most get it in the mix aside so far, in my opinion, they really took it to them.

They really did.

I have to, you know, with apologies, I know we have a fair few Danish listeners.

and again, me giving anyone who's in the tournament stick seems bad because I mean, Norwegians basically, I don't, Norwegians haven't been to a tournament since before Alan Holland was born.

I think that's just fair to say.

So, I mean, this is not good for, but like the Danes, I was really disappointed.

We need to stop apologizing and prefacing everything with it.

I'm sorry, my country hasn't been in the tournament for a long time because if we do that, we're going to be here all night.

Fair enough, Barry.

I just think I was really disappointed by how they seemed very complacent in the second half, Denmark.

They really let Slovenia back into the game, and that's not to take anything away from Slovenia, who clearly upped their game a little bit, but I thought they went a bit low energy, Denmark.

I even have here, like, in my notes, like, around the 66-minute, I write, like, feels comfortable for the Danes, but still just 1-0.

And Slovenia had a big chance.

74 minutes.

Another dangerous moment for Slovenia.

Danes complacent?

I write in my note.

75 minutes.

Sesco hits the woodwork.

Yeah, you you get the idea.

Like, it was massively coming, that goal.

And I thought they switched off.

And then, after they concede a goal, the coach makes a ton of changes.

Kind of feel like maybe they should have happened.

Like, maybe you needed to liven this up a bit sooner because you were massively walking into a problem here, having been so on top of the game.

And Slovenia were just growing and growing back into it.

And with the one goal lead, you're super vulnerable.

And now this is really bad for Denmark.

in terms of their prospects in this group because this is was sort of the winnable game and i'm not convinced that Slovenia are actually that much better than we thought they were, having seen this game.

But it's just the Danes kind of messed it up.

It's a bit of a shame, Barry, that the goal wasn't that Sheshko shot that hit the post, but was like a minute after it.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think anyone's Slovenia is going to care.

Don't even think Shesko will care.

He had a good chance in the first half, a shot from distance, similar to that one that hit the post, whistled just wide.

That one hit the post, and from the ensuing corner, Slavina got their equalizer.

I mean,

Denmark were vastly superior in the first half.

I still didn't think they were particularly good.

And

without wanting to sound glib, the last Euros match Christian Ericsson played in the Euros, he died.

And he's back in this one.

And in the first half, he was running the show.

He was just

absolutely bossing the game, finding pockets of space, playing like a quarterback, picking out runners and teammates.

And

Slovenia just could not get any sort of foothold into midfield.

And that's something, and

I found it weird.

I found it hard to reconcile that Christian Erickson, of whom I'm a massive fan and always have been since he was a kid, with the Christian Erickson I saw towing a caravan around Old Trafford and other grounds during the the Premier League season when you know he had his opportunities were limited and whenever he got them he was just looked hopelessly off the pace but he was brilliant in this first half but Slovenia kind of went in at the break sorted things out a bit and then I think in the last 20 minutes they went well we're only gold down let's go for it and that's what they did and they got the goal I think they thoroughly deserved.

Yeah, they probably had the best chance to win it as well just after that.

Just on the Ericsson ericson gold troy i mean it is the touch from wind i think last did uh you know a touch of wind upsets the slovenians some sort of gag on i've ruined it for youth but i enjoyed it in the whatsapp group but it's such a lovely gold isn't it troy uh very creative uh just wanted to pick up on barry's point about the manchester united christian ericson because he's played in a totally different position and the position and the

kind of reward that he has for Denmark is built around the whole of his game.

And that's why Denmark are so reliant on him whilst Manchester United, they're using him as a as a bit part, as a bolt-in, as they're trying to put him in somewhere to play.

His awareness for the goal, you know, from the minute the throne was taken, you saw him scanning, you saw him almost knowing that every stage of that, what that goal was going to end up with him getting a shot on goal.

He's a quality player.

You know, Barry mentions about the cardiac arrest, although he said it quite differently to me.

But like you think of this, this is one of football's grand stories.

And I thought that, you know, the first half, I thought Denmark thought, yeah, we've got this.

And then kind of again, went into a kind of shell where they felt that they didn't have to do much more.

And this is a tournament.

I think it's going to be a tournament where teams are going to start believing.

And Slovenia did that.

And they started to believe.

And they had the best efforts on goal.

And they got their just reward as far as I'm concerned.

Lars, I think there was, I had a computer game in the 90s on the, I think it was on the Amstrad.

It might have been on the Amiga.

I think it was Gary Lineke's international football and whenever you press the button to pass or anything all it did was shoot and I get the feeling that Benjamin Chesco plays football like that you know like because every time he got it he was just going can I can I and go he can hit a ball well yeah he can well he doesn't do that as constantly for Abi Leipzig because there he has a slightly better team around him but he looked like a player who was well aware that if someone's going to do something here it's going to have to be me and then he kind of played the game like that and he's obviously very confident.

I think I'm right in saying he scored in his last seven appearances this season for Leipzig, seven games straight.

He scored in every game.

So I think this is the first game he's played since March in which he hasn't scored a goal.

So clearly, he's coming in.

He's an incredibly promising player.

He's coming into the tournament with a real sort of head of steam behind him.

And

he looked like he knew I'm the guy who's going to have to do it.

But then, of course, ironically, he had a pretty good chance

towards the end, which he then put wide.

But yeah, he is a very, very good player.

And I I think we saw

some of why, you know, a lot of clubs around Europe who are even bigger than the mothership of the Fizzy Drink Empire are kind of looking at him this summer.

Yeah.

Like Barta Jim saying, big fan of Cash Bush Michael, shouting bastard at the deflection.

Before we move on from this game,

interesting to note that Denmark's male footballers have decided to refuse a pay rise for playing for the national team in order to ensure their female counterparts get equal basic pay.

So that is good of them.

In Group D, then the Netherlands beating Poland 2-1.

And last, big wout, the hero.

I know you're a Veghorst, you know, part of the fan club.

I mean, I appreciate players who like have a very clear function and who know that this is their function and this is what I do in the team.

And they don't muck about.

They don't try to be anything they're not.

They just know exactly what part I have to play here.

And they play that part.

Players like that I like.

And players like that are often capable of like kind of ascending higher in the footballing hierarchy of this world than their natural God-given talent perhaps suggests that they should.

And I feel like Veghorst is very much in that bracket.

He is a useful tool to coaches.

And his recent record for the Dutch is really good.

He's got seven goals now in his last 11 appearances for the Dutch.

So like he is a really useful guy for them to call on.

And I thought for sure the way this game was set up with the Dutch having a lot of possession, having some shots, but not creating a ton of great chances.

I thought it was just beautifully poised for Big vout to come on.

It would have been better, I think, if it was like a crashing header.

What it actually was was a really clever bit of movement, I thought.

I mean, the way he positioned himself to be in a dangerous area if that ball comes in, and a very neat finish, but still, you know, that was a classic vout all around.

Yeah, he's lots of people doing this stat.

He's scored with all of his last three shots in major tournaments after scoring those late two against Argentina in Qatar.

I wonder, Troy, if

kind of international tournaments are sort of of the last place for the classic big man to be at the, you know, on the top table, because it's sort of hard to be a classic big man,

you know, you know, in the Premier League or in La Liga, but here you can be.

He's very similar to Crouchy, isn't he?

You know,

everything about him kind of says that he should only be good in the air and nothing else.

But what he's doing is he's proving...

that he's a poacher.

You know, he's good with his feet.

He's got great awareness.

And I don't know what happens when he goes back and plays in the leagues.

I really don't know.

But what happens when he plays for this Dutch side is he's their main man.

And I think Kuhman knows that at any stage, he can bring him on and he will make a difference.

And, you know, he's done it again.

If you don't mind me just going into the game, I really enjoyed the Netherlands performance to start with.

I was quite excited.

I thought that they, you know, Gap Poe and Dumfries.

I thought wide players were doing very well.

And I thought they were causing Poland so many problems.

They they get the goal and then they concede what i just now think is just one of the most awful goals that you concede because of this zonal marking

hang on they no poland took the lead didn't they so sorry poland took the lead yeah sorry i woke up at the point poland took the lead i'm so sorry um yeah when poland took the lead you know it was just one of those awful goals this zonal marking where no one does anything and almost waits for the ball to land on top of their heads and and bookser if i'm right you know got in great header great goal But the Dutch turned up the heat again.

And this is why I enjoyed their first half performance because they turned up the heat.

They created a couple of chances.

I thought they looked good on the counter.

And yeah, it kind of exploded into the kind of game that I thought we were going to see.

And then very similar to what we've just spoken about, I thought they fell asleep a little bit in the second half.

And, you know, Poland took over and showed great spirit, great tenacity, and got themselves back in the game.

Yeah, I was impressed with Poland, Barry, actually.

Yeah, I was too.

And I, you know, there's sort of, we all think it's Robert Lewandowski and 10 other blokes with respect to Chesny.

And Robert Lewandowski wasn't playing because he'd a thigh injury.

So he was on the bench.

He'd gone, ah, well,

they're not going to score us.

So they put two up front instead of just him and his own.

And

I thought maybe they were a little unlucky to lose.

But

when they took off Peter Zielinski, who was their best player after 75 minutes,

I presume it was because he was knackered and not for any other reason.

The game sort of got away from them at that stage.

But

they had chances.

Jacob Kirior had a shot saved by Bart Verbruggen.

Zulinski.

had a header saved by Verbruggen that he should have probably scored.

But, you know, Netherlands missed good chances as well.

Memphis.

Memphis was wearing a channeling his inner Steve Foster by wearing that white headband with a gold number 10 in Boston.

And I sort of went at the start and go, oh, yeah, you're kind of asking for trouble.

I think it was for cosmetic purposes or sponsorship purposes.

I'm not sure.

But there was one stage, he missed a really good chance, smashed a volley high and wide when he had lots of gold to aim at.

And on Cokems, on the BBC, Martin Keown said, when you're in front of gold, you have to be ruthless and clinical.

And I'm thinking, no, when you're wearing a white headband with a gold number 10 on it, you have to be ruthless and clinical because

your every mistake is going to be really highlighted.

Yeah, I think ultimately the strength and depth the Netherlands had, you know, with so many good players to call on from the bench is probably what swung it in their favour.

Yeah, there was a nice tweet from Dan who said Depay's headband stuck in the football accessories paradox.

You need to be good enough to pull off accessories, but when you are good enough, you don't need to wear accessories.

Either way, as he closes on a goal record, I'm not sure if he's good or not.

What other notes do I have for this game?

I mean, just on Veghorst, Jack Deal wrote a great

tweet.

And I know I'm obsessed with big target target men, but he just wrote, full crew, Veghorst, that geezer hungry brought on who looks like he lives in the woods.

We've got our football back.

I really like that.

Nick says, can we have a deep dive into the Polish manager's attire?

Yes.

Mikhail Probiette's suit Troy.

That was a light brown and cream number.

I don't know how impressed you were with

his suit or have you spent any time looking at it.

I wasn't impressed with the waistcoat.

The suit was decent.

I thought the suit was good.

It's the kind of colour that

I like,

brings out a colour in my eyes and all that kind of stuff.

But the waistcoat, I don't know how he got into the mirror and decided that that waistcoat was going to be the one to match that suit.

Right.

It's been mildly successful, you know, for Gareth Southgate in the past.

Zosia tweets here to inform all of you, new fans, of Michel Probietz's style, that he even has his own menswear line

called Lancerto Polska.

And there are three photos of him.

One in that exact suit doing keepy-ups with a very old football.

One of him,

just waistcoat, no, two, just waistcoats sitting on a stool.

Is that who Gary Neville has modelled himself on?

Well, I haven't watched a lot of G-Nev's

clothing yet.

Always worried about clobber banter, but I engage in it.

I'm a massive hypocrite.

Look at you.

Yes, it's true, Barry.

Lars, you disappeared from the Zoom call briefly, but you wanted to come in with, I presume, a football thought, which is, I suppose, important.

Well,

I just, maybe we've we've all moved on now, but I just wanted to note: just being the curmudgeon in the room for once, which isn't often my role, to just, I think you're all being very generous to both Poland and to Holland.

I didn't think, I didn't think Holland were that great.

They had a lot of possession and they did some tidy things, and clearly, you have a lot of technically gifted players there, but they didn't create a lot of great chances and they looked a bit wasteful.

I thought they looked weirdly vulnerable when they lost the ball.

And if Poland had more fast players, I think they could have really hurt them on the break, but Poland kind of don't have that.

And

Poland, of course, could have done more to exploit those things.

I'm not super impressed by anyone, is kind of my sort of Grinchian sort of interjection here.

And unless you covered it while I took you a sort of very brief internet connection-related sabbatical,

have we addressed the clip of Ronald Kohlen?

Oh, picking his nose.

No, you absolutely please carry on.

I mean, because he's done a full yogi love here.

Ronald Kohman, I mean, if you're on social media, you may have seen this clip already.

The cameras caught him having a a good old route around

up his trunk, up his nose, and

eventually consuming whatever came out of there, which I just

fundamentally do not understand human beings who do this.

We've had this with Yogi Love.

Why are you eating this?

Are you not sufficiently fed at home?

Are things going very...

How much is the Dutch FA paying you?

Can you not afford lunch?

Like, what's happening here?

It's kind of actually,

you don't want to wipe it under the chair, which I reckon I've done a few times.

You know, I'm saying when I was a little bit of a child.

You've got a massive grass field in front of you, just wipe it off on the ground or something.

What's happening here?

And also, it really does, for me, raise the question, which other bits of like human detritus ends up going into Ronald Coleman's mouth?

Like, does he do this with the airwax?

If there's, like, if there's, if there's gunk in his ear, does he eat that?

I mean, I guess the real question here is.

I must admit, I went somewhere else.

I went somewhere else.

I was like, that's quite the accusation.

Because I didn't particularly enjoy this game, as you can tell.

I wasn't as impressed by the Dutch as you guys were.

So it really left me.

The big overriding thought I had coming away from this is, not to put too fine a point of it, does Ronald Komen eat his own poo?

Which I don't think he necessarily does, but the fact that he eats what comes out of his nose, it certainly raises the possibility.

I think you've taken this a bit too far.

I think it was a good observation.

I think you've been a bit silly there.

I don't think anyone makes that jump.

I don't think

anybody ever makes that jump, if I'm being honest.

If I can do a massive gear change, there was a major operation that took place in Hamburg before the game after a man with an axe threatened police officers, according to officials in Hamburg.

Police say they shot and seriously injured the man who's receiving medical attention.

According to media reports, the incident took place near a fan zone for supporters of the Dutch football team.

It's not thought to be related to the game between the Netherlands and Poland.

That'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll look ahead to tomorrow's game and complete any other business.

Hi, Pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, here too.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase play or claim.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So look, two o'clock, we've got Romania, Ukraine, five o'clock, Belgium, Slovakia, Austria, France at eight o'clock.

And interestingly, Barry, like France, obviously one of the favorites, Austria, the dark horses that people seem to think might be dark horses.

Yeah,

they're under Ralph Ranik.

He's been in charge for two years.

A lot of our listeners will mainly know Ralph Ranyek from his time at Manchester United, which was preceded by lots of

sort of

chin-strokey pieces about what a genius he was by various people who are more familiar with Bundesliga football and the whole RB Red Bull operation than we are.

and

or certainly than I am.

And then he came to Manchester United, and it really didn't work out for him at all.

So, my kind of impression of him is that he's a kind of clown, but it clearly isn't.

Austria fans were totally disengaged from their side.

He's changed all that.

He's changed them from sort of low-block, counter-attacking boars to high-pressing, reasonably exciting side.

And the crowds have come back to fill the stadium in Vienna when they're playing at home.

So, yeah, they're here now.

They're being mentioned as

potential dark horses.

If they get a result against France, everyone will get very excited indeed.

But

I can't see that happening really.

Yeah, I mean, France and Troy are very much horses,

aren't they?

Just horses.

It'll be interesting because, again, the opening games of the tournament

have been quite open, but the dominant

sides have won.

I'm really keen to watch France.

I want to see them make a mark on the tournament early doors.

Obviously, they have such an array of talent right the way through that squad.

And yeah, I'm looking forward.

Now Mbappe's managed to get himself over to Spain.

or will be announced midway through next month.

I'm looking to see a fresh player who continues to take the world stage by storm.

And I know this is a European competition, but he's scoring goals in all of these major competitions.

And I think he's going to be, I've got him down to be the top goal scorer of the tournament because I do believe that his shackles will be off and he'll go and express himself where he's been held back a little bit in the kind of argument in leaving Paris Saint-Germain.

So I'm looking forward to the French.

Austria will give them a game, no doubt, but I think the quality will prevail.

Interestingly, Marcus Turam, Mbappe, and Usman Dembele have all spoken out about the sort of rise of the far right in France.

Philippe is on tomorrow, so we will talk about that in a bit more detail tomorrow.

Lars,

also tomorrow, Belgium,

the rusting golden generation

with a bit of young doku added in beginning against Slovakia.

I feel like that's a straightforward victory for them.

Yeah, probably.

I mean, Slovakia, they do have some guys in there.

Like, their midfield should be Lobotka, Kuchka, and Duda, who have all played in Serie A.

And that sort of there are some players there who are played at a reasonable level.

They've got Dubravka and Gol, who we know from Newcastle, of course, and a center-half period of screen yard in Vavro is not terrible.

So I think Slovakia might not be dreadful in this group, but obviously Belgium is not where you expect them to do anything.

And Lukaku has a pretty incredible international record.

It wouldn't be a surprise to see him add to this here.

And no, De Bruyne is fit as far as I'm aware.

So this should be a pretty straightforward game, yeah.

And Lars, what about remaining Ukraine?

Other people, you know, in my desperation to find, I probably should just stop saying dark horses when we get to tournament things, but in my desperation to find one, Ukraine as well seem a little bit, I mean, not fancy to win it, but fancy to be interesting.

Yeah, I have Ukraine along with Austria as my sort of two teams who might do something this summer out of the big long shots.

And I don't mean like get to the final, but maybe a quarterfinal or something.

Because I just think,

obviously, it's kind of hard to find the right language for this because football is kind of trite compared to what's going on in Ukraine at the moment.

But having that backdrop, it can give the players an incredible sense of mission.

Like you've seen several players come out and talk about how they get messages from soldiers on the front line cheering them on saying that we're watching you.

And it must give them an incredible feeling coming into a tournament like this.

And there's no team in this entire tournament to have a greater sense of mission to try to do something.

And just the team is pretty good.

Like if you go through the team, there are some good players in here.

From Sabarni, who's had a great great season for Bournemouth at the back.

You know, you have the combination of Dobbik and Sijankov, who were tremendous for Girona in La Liga this season.

You know, Mudrik has had a frustrating year with Chelsea, but he's got a lot of natural talent.

He's really fast.

You know, he can do something at international level, I think.

So there's a lot of decent players in here.

I like the look of Ukraine much more so than Romania, who I'm not expecting much of anything from.

And yeah,

Austria and Ukraine are my sort of teams who might do something and be interesting.

All right, fun day tomorrow then.

Onto a bit of feedback and any other business.

We discussed hyperdynamic range as a way you can watch these football matches.

Richard's been in touch to explain what it is.

He says the hyperdynamic range thing is upscaled HD

as opposed to true 4K,

except graphics such as team sheets, scores, et cetera, which are 4K.

UEFA haven't offered 4K to broadcasters.

I mean, I hope that means something to someone.

Alex says, I can't help feeling that Max is missing the key part of ITV's ball revolutions per second.

The closer to zero, the more the ball stayed ball, which, as we all know, is the only metric that matters.

He's absolutely right.

And actually, somebody sent me that with

the shot of Fulkrug's goal for Germany against Scotland from behind.

And absolutely, that was zero on the ball revolutions per second.

On double jeopardy, Barry, that you mentioned yesterday, Dave says, should Ryan Porteus have been extended the double jeopardy letoff then?

Which I thought was quite funny.

Uh, let's finish with this nice message from uh Apolline says, Hi, Max, just a little message to say thank you and the rest of the pod for all the work you do.

This week's been one of the most challenging weeks of my life.

Uh, both my parents are extremely ill, and having the pod to distract me daily has been amazing.

I'm looking forward to the daily pods rather than weekly for the next month to help me get through this difficult period, hearing familiar voices every day and learning more about one of my favorite sports from some genuinely good people.

Uh, he hasn't mentioned any of you specifically, by the way.

Uh, I love also the pods about human rights and racism, etc.

I discovered the pod during World Cup 2018.

I've been a big fan ever since.

Uh, please be kind to my national team, Belgium.

They bring hope to my country during this uh turmoil of political times.

And uh, you'll never walk alone with the pod.

I'm a Liverpool fan, too.

Big thanks to you, and also Barry and Philippe from Mini Wall.

There are other teams other than England.

Uh, warm wishes at Apollene.

Uh, thanks very much, appreciate your message, and uh, thanks to everyone for listening.

Can I just give a tip of the hat to the good folks at uh Brixton Ritzy Cinema who

put a big sign up over the door where the names of the films usually are.

I can't remember what that thing is called.

There is a name for it.

But they just had a lovely message in memory of Kevin Campbell instead,

which was very nice of them.

Yeah, absolutely.

Did you know him, Troy?

Yeah, I did, yeah.

So extremely sad day.

I know his son as well.

So he's just been released from Stoke, but that will pad into significance at the moment, won't it?

But but yeah, very, very sad day yesterday.

Yeah, we talked about it yesterday, but yeah, such a great bloke.

Um, all right, that'll do for today.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Thanks, Troy.

Cheers, Max.

Cheers, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

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