Italy rally to beat Albania and are Spain the real deal? – Football Daily

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Italy kick off with a win, but only just against Albania, a blistering start.

Albania scoring the fastest goal in European championship history de Marco wasn't ready Bastoni wasn't ready not many of us were ready either the holders struck back quickly though but the underdogs almost equalized in the last minute they might not fear Spain and certainly shouldn't fear Croatia who whisper it quietly looked a little leggy out there against the Spanish 3-0 might flatter Leminia Marlin co but they took their chances and the Croats didn't yesterday we downplayed Switzerland Hungary we were pleasantly wrong the Swiss dominated the first half hungry came back before Briel Mbolo confirmed the win.

Scottish fans might be slightly worried by both those sides.

Also, today we'll look ahead to Sunday's games, including it's coming home England versus Serbia.

And we'll pay tribute to former Arsenal and Everton Centre forward Kevin Campbell, a truly brilliant guy who's died at the age of just 54.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

Dan Bardell, hello.

Good evening.

And hello, Nicki Bandini.

Hi, Max.

Let's start then in Group B, Italy 2, Albania 1.

And before we get the thoughts of the panel, Nick Ames joins us from the stadium.

Hey, Nick, how was that for you?

Hello, Max.

It was fun, or at least it was fun for 16 minutes.

And then it was almost quite Italian in the traditional sense, wasn't it?

And in the way they locked it down.

But it was fun.

I got drenched in beer after...

if not 23 seconds when Balami scored, but after 23 and a half when

the Albanians in material above me clocked onto what has happened, there's an absolute shower of booze came down onto my

test box.

It definitely took off,

well, took out a few keys from the Italian journalist next to me's laptop, which he wasn't too happy about.

Mine is sticky but unbowled so far.

I was able to file a slightly beery match report.

Yeah, onto the subject at hand.

I have had fun.

It's, I mean, it's a great stadium to be at and work in at any time, filled with, I don't know, 40 or 50,000 Albanians, made it made it particularly high octane.

The Italians played their part too.

And we nearly had, well, I say nearly, we had one of the great European Championship moments, the fastest ever goal.

And for a while, you thought, are we going to get one of the biggest ever results?

But I think in the end,

Italy managed that very well and managed it better than I think a lot of people might have thought they would, given that this is quite a new look side, as I'm sure we've covered a bit before, and a lot of not as familiar faces under Spoletti.

I thought, in the end, Italy were impressive enough and well worth the win.

Yeah, I like the idea that journalists have to feel the Croydon box park sensations with beer being thrown all over your laptops.

We had Lucy Ward on last night telling us about 50,000 Albanian fans outside her hotel.

What was the atmosphere like there?

The vibes were really, really good.

The most antagonistic it got was in the city centre

outside one of the bars.

There was a mass snapping of spaghetti conducted by some Albanian fans.

I think you can find it as well on Twitter, actually.

It's formerly known as Twitter.

It's well worth it.

And they throw the shards of spaghetti up in the air in a sort of light-hearted, provocative mood.

But all the Italians are sort of mocked weeping and cheering, and then there's like hugs at the end of it.

And

it was a really

nice affair.

Like it was intense.

I mean, I got in on the train for Munich at about, oh, I don't know, 2.30.

And you walk out of Dortmund station and there's the sort of inner city ring road in front of you.

And it had been basically repurposed into an Albanian racetrack.

And there were just all these cars with eagle flags hanging out of them,

people draped out of the sunroofs, everything

going at speeds I probably shouldn't mention, just whizzing around and tooting their horns.

And it was just going on for hours and hours, like floods of Albanian cars going around this ring road.

It was really quite something.

And then

in the city, of course, yeah,

lots of crowds, lots of people marching to the stadium um about three hours before kickoff which was quite a good sight um and i must say it was really good natured just as you want a tournament to be and i think we've had that in common haven't we with all of the matches so far i think all four games that we've had now um really big crowds big influxes from certain countries like as we saw in scotland in munich last night for example croatia i think earlier today and in berlin hungary too and it's just been really it's it's been a good start in terms of fan culture and fan behavior in my opinion and it was a nice atmosphere there today and the italians contributed for too there was a nice chunk of them of them as well and they they made their voice heard that's a long answer to your question absolutely fine nick we'll let you go um and crack on with uh the actual work you have to do cheers for coming on pal thank you guys speak to you soon nick ames there uh out in dortmond and it was a totally blistering start.

A BBC iPlay were offering the game in high dynamic range.

And I don't know if that's what I was watching, but Nikki, it certainly felt like it.

And I mean, I was not ready for that goal.

I was sort of looking, I was sort of looking at the TV, and then suddenly an Albanian was wheeling away in celebration.

I was thinking, what the hell's happened here?

Yeah, I don't actually know what high dynamic range means, but I was watching in high dynamic range as well.

This is going to be weird because we recorded this podcast out of sequence, but I say something later in this podcast that maybe felt like tempting fate.

And then when that goal went in, I thought, oh, I really have tempted some fate here, haven't I?

It was a blistering start.

But I think, as nick said just then so impressed as an italian watching it with how italy responded to it because this team has has been on an odd journey this last year you have roberto mancini who of course led them to the euros but then failed to qualify them to a world cup with loss to uh i suppose what should be next to italy a a a european minnow with inverted quotes in in the world cup playoff against north macedonia and then he leaves halfway through this next qualifying campaign.

Svelotti comes in.

He had three weeks to repair his first game, which was the loss to England.

It's all been very chaotic.

And I think I said on this podcast on the eve of the tournament, I really don't know what to expect because there's things here that I think are really good.

And there's also just so much uncertainty.

And so they can see the goal immediately.

And you think, well, this could go.

the bad way this could really go the bad way but it didn't and i think uh from an individual point of view bastoni who together with di marko was very much at the the heart of that mix-up that that led to the albanian goal scoring the equalizer was a very quick redemption arc and then uh nicolo barella who probably is the one player in this group who i would have said before kickoff look established style there's some really promising players i'm excited about but the one who's just been playing top level in Europe for a top European side in Inter and showing that he can be one of the best in the world.

This position is Barella and then him coming to the second goal.

I think it just felt like a remarkably quick bounce back from Italy.

So much so that perhaps by the end I was thinking to myself, well, Albania scored too soon, but did Italy score too soon after the too soon?

Well, I was at that moment in the last minute, which we'll get to.

But in terms, Barry, of nothing silly first five, not even that, nothing silly first 25 seconds.

It was just extraordinary.

Yeah, and like yourself, I kind of wasn't really ready for it.

I was still reeling from the national anthems when I noticed that the Albanian right-back, El Cide Haizad, number four, for anyone who wants to look him up,

was

practically a doppelganger from the extremely funny and posh stand-up comedian Ivo Graham.

And that kind of distracted me for the rest of the game, if I'm honest.

But it was a brilliant goal, a brilliantly well-taken goal.

The way Barami lashed that in at the near post, it roofed it.

I don't think the goalkeeper was at fault.

I'm not sure there's anything much he could have done about it.

But I did immediately go, oh, no, you've fucked it, lads.

It's too early.

You know, that's ridiculous.

And you could kind of see they didn't really know what to do.

because they certainly weren't expecting to be a goal up after within 30 seconds.

And they were immediately on the back back foot, defending really deep.

And

yeah,

Italy had equalised and gone ahead within 10 minutes.

So,

as ludicrous as it might sound, I do genuinely think they scored too early.

But that's a memory Barami will have to treasure for the rest of his life.

And Albania could very well have nicked a point at the end.

The sub came on, and they've been pinging long balls, diagonals, balls over the top to

Brozia all game.

And

he wasn't really able to get to any of them through no fault of his own.

They weren't playing them long enough.

They were playing them too long or too hard.

You know, they were going out for throw-ins and goal kicks or straight to the keeper.

But this ball was perfect.

Minaj,

who used to play for Watford

very briefly until his contract was terminated.

He chested it down,

aimed for the far post in a very tight space, and he would have scored, but Donaroma got something to it.

It hit his, I don't know, clavicle or something, and

it ended up going wide.

But

while Albania were thoroughly outplayed for large periods of this game, I think they would have deserved that point.

Yeah, I don't know what you think, Dan.

Obviously, from a neutral point of view, it's a shame that Italy came back so soon.

But I was so impressed with the Albanians.

I think a lot of us looked at this group and decided, well, that's naught points.

But

I think they could come out of this game feeling like they could get something out of the next two.

Yeah, I guess that's the great thing about third place being an option or a potential option for certain teams is that Albania have lost a game, but you don't feel like they're finished.

You feel like they could nab third place in their group, and we get to see a little bit more of the

goal came too early for me as well because I was getting a fork from the kitchen.

So

I missed the first goal which was very disappointing

extremely unprofessional unprofessional it wasn't even for me either that's that's the worst thing with the fork there was there's four people in the room and I'm the only one that's interested in the football but I was the one who was who was getting the fork for you were the only one that was eating with your finger no no it wasn't even wasn't I wasn't I wasn't even eating it was a a fruit platter for my stepson he was eating a eating a eating a fruit platter but I didn't think there was any jeopardy in the game because Nikki had had said earlier that you know the big teams were doing the business I didn't think there was anything to worry about in those

we'll get to nikki saying that in part

i didn't think there's anything to worry about in the first 24 seconds but you know italy coming back so quickly was a a huge blow to to the game i almost at times had to remind myself that it was only 2-1 because i just felt that italy probably until the last couple of minutes just felt like they were they were very very comfortable throughout and I think Barry's right.

The goal did come too early, but it was also a lesson in how not to react to going ahead with a surprise lead because for it to be 2-1 after 16 minutes, that must be so, so disappointing after Albany.

They've almost done the hard part by going 1-0.

I suppose, you know,

the Borella strike is so good, right?

And it sort of comes out of nothing that you think, well, that's sort of

unlucky to concede that one.

Just for just to mark your card, that the previous quickest goal ever was Dmitry Kirechenko for Russia against Greece after 67 seconds in Euro 2004.

So, not a lot of that.

Generally, did you, Nikki, watching Italy there?

I mean, I love watching Chiesa play.

How impressed were you with them sort of after from 30 seconds onwards?

Well, it's funny, just to say on that 30 seconds as well, one of the narratives about this team with Spoleti not having a long time to prepare was he's going to rely on the blocko inte, the inter block.

And so, the fact that it was two teammates who actually do know each other and should be comfortable working with each other, immediately making that mistake.

Although it should be said, there's still subtleties in that, right?

They're used to playing with a back three and inte.

This was a black four, although it sometimes looked like a back three in possession.

Also, Licato Calafiori being on one side was pushing Bastoni to the other side.

There were things in there that were a bit unfamiliar, but still, you don't expect those two club teammates to have such a bad miscommunication.

I think it's probably still not a game that clears up everything in my mind that's questions about this Italy team.

I think there were things that were really good.

Federico Chiesa was a really nice performance.

And I was thinking to myself in my head, it's a horrible comparison to draw.

And I don't mean this in a mean way, but what came into my head was like those cicadas that only show up every 17 years or whatever it is that come out of hibernation.

Because Federico Chiesa, we haven't seen a lot of in the last three years since the Euros.

He's been injured a lot.

And when he has been present, he's often not looked his best.

And there's been lots of that going into his relationship with Max Allegri at Juventus.

There's complications to that.

I'm not trying to be entirely critical of him while I compare him to an insect, but there is something in this, where have you been since the last Euros?

And it would be great if the Euros is a proper rebirth for him.

But a lot of it is injury.

I really should stress that he's had a really rough time in injuries.

I was really impressed with, for most of the game, right up until he nearly got beaten by Monage right at the end of the game, but Ricardo Calafiori, who has had a sensational season at Bologna, really wonderful, adventurous centre-back who played fullback up until this season, Thiago Motte, who we've talked about with Louis Ferguson on this show a lot, what a reinvention job he did with Lewis Ferguson.

But I think Calafiori is another of his great big victories.

And I think is someone who we've all been ready and waiting to see do this for Italy.

This is only, I think, his third cap for Italy.

So we...

We've been waiting for it, but we know he had it in him.

I think there were some really promising individual performances.

And yet, as Barry said, it was 2-1 until the end.

They gave up a good chance right at the end.

It was not, despite it all, as comfortable as it could have been.

Yeah, I wonder, actually, Baz, if they if Albania should have stuck it in the mixer a bit earlier, because they did.

I mean, they play nice stuff, don't they?

Yeah, um,

I think they did the best they could in difficult circumstances.

As I said, they might have nicked a point, they could have lost by more,

and yeah,

you know,

some teams have lost

and done themselves no credit whatsoever in this tournament already uh albania i would not number them among those teams would you would you number croatia we'll move on to spain croatia as one of them because it's an interesting question from matt saying should croatia have actually won against spain i'm convinced mario manzukic would have scored a hat-trick if he was still playing i i wonder if 3-0 i think spain had the better chances and you were on the minute by minute but i i wonder actually it was a case of just one team taking their chances and one team not.

Well, interestingly, Ante Budimer was picked to to play up front and there was some debate over who should get it he didn't play particularly well and he's uh rather unkindly known in croatia as a poor man's mario manzikic

so he had a couple of good chances headers that uh one he made no contact with at all i think another he he headed wide of the upright when he had half the goal gaping open.

I think that was him.

Simon made a good save from Brozovic and then

Mayer

had a quite presentable chance that he lashed into the side netting in a bit of a panic.

So Croatia certainly had chances against Spain.

They had more possession than Spain, which is quite interesting, and passed more than Spain, but didn't take any of their chances.

And

Spain were very worthy winners.

But

yeah, with better finishing, Croatia could have got something from that game very easily.

Yeah, I guess the interesting thing, Dan, is if you could if you go tune up so quickly, then you know you don't need the ball quite as much.

And they were ruthless, Spain, when they had their chances.

Yeah, they're almost a bit of a throwback, quite old-fashioned, Spain.

I thought when watching, they kind of got the the big centre forward, and then just pure pace and trickery out wide.

I thought, I thought Spain managed that that first half very, very well, but it was just the constant threat of the of the two wide players, really.

I think looking at the Croatia team, I think maybe that was the difference between the two teams, that the fact that Spain had those exciting young talents on the wings that they could really get at Croatia, and Croatia felt a little bit stodgy

at times.

I thought Spain are actually, I don't know whether they can be classed as dark horses, but Spain are a team that I have thought have got a really good chance of winning this tournament.

I think they've got a good mix.

Obviously, they've got Rodri in the midfield who's absolutely superb when he's not giving away penalties that I'm not even sure were penalties during the game.

But Spain have Spain have got something, and I'm always pleased to see Murata score because he's a player that gets a lot of flat.

But I think he's a really, really useful centre-forward.

And I think that puts him third now in all times, Euro's top, top goal scorer.

So, yeah, just

it was a funny game for, I guess, for Spain to win 3-0.

But I think they deserved the win.

But on another day, maybe Croatia could have taken something.

Yeah, as soon as actually I said that, I felt maybe that was probably being too generous to Croatia, you know, but

it felt closer than that.

And we've talked about Murata a lot, Nikki.

I wonder if we should talk about Fabian Ruiz because he, he, his feet for that second goal are amazing.

And I think he earlier in the movie, he'd played a brilliant pass to Yamal as well.

He had an excellent game.

He really did.

I just want to talk about Yamal because of being 16 years old and setting up a goal for someone twice age with an outrageous pass.

But you're right.

Fabian Ruiz's footwork was exceptional and perhaps

really Spain's best player in a crowded field.

as tempting as it is to get more excited about the teenager who's doing something.

I thought Spain were...

While I understand where you're coming from, that 3-0 by the end felt like it maybe flattered them.

And it did sometimes feel like Croatia were coming up with more and more creative ways not to score.

The way they went forward was so devastating, so overwhelmingly technically good that it just made you think right away, okay, yeah,

this is that Spain again.

Yeah.

Tombo says, who knew that city players' immunity from red cards extended to international football?

The penalty moment was interesting, wasn't it, Barry?

Where, for the life of me, I'm sure, is it Perisic basically had an open goal?

That's what I thought, and he should have just kicked it in, and then he doesn't, and he's sort of just touched, and then VAR confirmed it's a penalty, and then he's encroaching.

It was just a very sort of odd passage of play.

It wasn't Perisic, it was

Bruno Petkovic, and right, Yeah,

well, the ball came his way.

The goal was gaping.

And Roderick appears to trip him.

I'm not so sure he did trip him, having seen it several times.

There was a little bit of contact, but Petkovic very much did that thing where he hit his own one foot off the back of the other and went over.

Say for the benefit of the doubt, it was a foul and it was a penalty.

And I forgot this.

The reason he didn't get a red card is because of the double jeopardy rule.

So, you know, if you get the penalty, you don't get the opposition player doesn't get the red card.

It's only for

preventing and clearing an obvious goal scoring opportunity outside the penalty area that red cards are given.

Yeah, my first impression was, oh, yeah, why wasn't that a red card?

But yeah, it's the double jeopardy thing.

And I see that Michael Oliver has been getting loads of grief online for making this completely correct decision.

Well, I mean, for not brandishing a red card.

He's getting grief for not sending Roderay off.

But on this occasion, Rodri didn't deserve to be sent off.

Although, again, as it happened, Petvich went on to miss the penalty.

So

Spain weren't punished at all for the foul.

Yeah,

we touched on Yamal, Nikki, but it is worth saying.

You know, Alan says, how many times throughout the tournament will a player be described as old enough to be Lamine Yamal's dad?

You know, I mean,

probably every single one.

And he is, Nick, he's so exciting.

And just

16 is ridiculous, isn't it?

I mean, it's just, it does make you think what you were doing at 16.

And I certainly wasn't delivering this sort of performance of any level or doing anything.

Well, it's one of the fun things about, I could say it's a fun thing about getting older, I think, actually.

Like when

you're watching someone that age when you are all so young, it's impressive, but you sort of don't feel as,

I think,

shook by it as you do as you get older and you think, hang on, all this life I've had, have I done something as extraordinary as that pass in that game?

Yeah, Hedson, it's an incredible thing

to have the lower the youngest assist at a Euros ever by, I think, about two years.

You beat it, setting up someone who's literally twice his age.

And with a ball that was outrageous, they were talking about it in the ITV studio at halftime, saying basically it's an almost undefendable ball

with the angle it's played in.

Of course, it's a well-timed run, and by Carvajal to take advantage of it.

But I think that's, it comes back to what I said a second ago, Max.

Spain actually,

for another stat, Dermot Corrigan on Twitter was saying that was the first time in 136 competitive games that an opponent has had more possession than Spain.

So Croatia actually did have more of the ball than Spain,

run going back to Euro 2008, which is bonkers.

But when Spain wanted to go through that defence, they just had so many different angles.

And Yamal is only one of those.

But yeah, it's wild to see someone who's 16 years old do it as effectively as he did.

Undoubtedly, at the end of the tournament, there's a high competition for a young player of the tournament.

But it almost feels unfair now for a 16-year-old to be going up against a 20-year-old in Jude Bellingham or Musiale.

It almost feels like it's not fair for him to be going up against players who are four or five years older than him.

but he was such a wonderful watch.

Undoubtedly, the highlight for me so far in this early stages of the tournament was watching him.

And just one more thing I noticed from that game was Croatia were so dangerous from kickoffs after they conceded.

The best they played throughout the whole game was from kickoffs.

I don't know whether anyone else noticed it, but the first two goals they conceded.

People Bournemouth are good at that, aren't they?

They conceded their first two goals and the football that they played from kickoff created probably their two best chances of the game, Croatia.

Quite like the idea, you know, with Yamal.

You know, at the Wildlife Photography of the Year exhibition where I once met Damian Duff, you know, they have the under 17s, but then they have like the 8 to 11 and the 11 to 16 category.

There could be best player 11 to 16 just for Lamin Yamal to have that.

And then, you know, 16 to 20 can be the young player.

ITV lets us know.

Am I the only one who wants to know more about the wildlife photography with Damien Duff?

Is that

at least 15 times.

Okay, perhaps Deffi doesn't want to hear about it.

Are there any other of my anecdotes you want to hear this month, Barry or not?

Look at you.

Just so bedraggled and the thought that it might happen.

I'll say, I mean, there's no more than that.

It was just quite unexpected, Nikki.

That's not, it wasn't like, I didn't arrange to meet him there.

I just, he was just there.

It's an excellent exhibition.

I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

There's always like, there's always a cute little, you know, little baby gorilla staring right down the lens.

There's always, you know, like a, you know, all the little bits of a dragonfly.

So it was queer.

It's a pretty excellent exhibition.

I enjoy it a lot.

ITV, Barry, let us know the rotations per second on the ball for the second goal.

It was five.

Were you impressed with this statistic?

Is it something you'd like to know more?

If I'm honest, I don't recall hearing that statistic, and I'm not quite sure what it means.

Rotate.

I mean, I think it's how many times you've got a bunch of people.

It's like a spin bowler.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So it's a revs on the ball.

Five doesn't sound a lot.

That sounds like sort of Peter Such.

You know, sort of like

slow off spinners from 90s England cricket.

One of those things like, was it

TNT or their previous incarnation BG Sport had a couple of players wear cameras on their bibs during the warm-up?

An idea that was clearly terrible and quietly shelved after one outing, I suspect.

I'm still getting to grips with

Kantian relationalism and the other thing, and

scans, you know, players looking at things.

So it might catch on.

I don't know.

Danis, you had some strong thoughts on the Croatia kit.

I quite liked.

I mean, Producer Joel said it was a little bit too Kiddominster Harry as him.

I quite like those big squares.

It's not the best Croatia kit I've ever seen

at a tournament.

I don't think I've said earlier, my biggest gripe with it was if there's red on a kit, I mean, when are you going to wear your away kit?

If you're not wearing it technically away

against spain who are wearing wearing all red that i mean it's pretty boring that it's but that was just my my feeling during the game i think it's as you said later rather than as you said earlier but you know yeah i'm very confused with

i feel jet lagged we we need someone to be in charge of continuity

it's like memento isn't it anyway

That'll do for part one.

Part two, which we may have recorded already, will begin with Switzerland's victory over Hungary.

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America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

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A proper football journalist, man.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Switzerland beat Hungary 3-1.

JP says the expendable is looking much less expendable than previously thought.

David says, how much do the panel reckon the glue slash goulesh factory will pay for Hungary's dark horses?

So Switzerland are now second in the group behind Germany, of course.

Uh, Hungary and the Scots on no points.

Oh, that was an interesting game, Nikki, wasn't it?

I think yesterday we sort of previewed this as this will be the most boring game, but actually, it was quite fun.

I actually think this was almost the great advert this tournament needed for that.

Oh, yeah, even the two o'clock games in the middle of the day are going to be great.

I really enjoyed this game, and I was really surprised by how adventurous Switzerland were.

Um, I don't know if that's because just some

scarring.

I mean, we talked about it before the tournament.

This team actually has an incredible track record of getting through to the knockout stages, but perhaps just doesn't always show us its best once it gets there.

Although, even then, perhaps I think people are uncharitable.

But yeah, I was really surprised by how adventurous they were.

I shouldn't have been surprised because a couple of the players who were most impressive, I thought, actually, especially in that first half, were players who I've seen a lot of this season.

Danon Doy at Bologna, who's one of their better dribbles, hasn't been as impactful on the score sheet, but has been a really one of the useful line breakers in Giagomota's side.

And then Michelle Abershaire, who I thought was really, really fantastic in this game, definitely not someone you particularly expect to be popping up scoring goals.

But again, I think both of those players have been working in a really flexible system at Bologna.

If you talk about Giagomota, which there'll be plenty of time to do when he takes over Juventus,

but really his hallmark is that he's getting the best out of fairly modest talent by moving them around and giving them a lot of system flexibility and i thought that one of the highlights of this game from switzerland's point of view actually was abysser right from the beginning was coming inside whereas the other side you had um the other uh wing back who's gone out of my head for the second but was really clinging to the flank and that variety in their game i thought really just seemed like hungry weren't ready for it at all second half was completely different hungry could easily have drawn this game but the first half it was like hungry were not ready at all for how aggressive switzerland were bringing the ball forward and and perhaps for the variety in their play as well yeah and that pass from Abysshire to Quadwell Dua for the first was absolutely perfect.

His finish was brilliant for the second.

It looked like he really didn't want to shoot on the second one, didn't it?

Like, you really had to really, do I have to do this?

Fine, I'll put it in the corner.

Yeah, and a wonderful story for both of them.

Their first international goals for both of them.

It's only his second game, Dua, for Switzerland.

He made his debut on the 4th of June, currently playing for Luda Goretz, and like came in for Brillium Bolo, who came on and scored.

And actually, in that first half, Dan, like, Hungary sort of played like Scotland.

I mean, I don't know if you'd be too harsh to Scotland a second day in a row, but like Switzerland were all over them.

Yeah, a bit of naivety from Hungary.

Switzerland, obviously, the more team used to being in tournament football than Hungary.

I felt quite comfortable watching Switzerland because you just look at them and you think...

This is the same group of players that have been in the last four or five tournaments, it seems.

You know, they'll get themselves to the last 16, I suspect.

And then from nowhere, they score that first goal.

And it's a player I have never heard of in my life putting the ball in the back of the net.

So that rocked me a little bit.

I felt much more at ease when Mberlo came on and he scored the third goal.

That made me feel at ease with the Euros because I did feel uncomfortable in that moment.

That first goal went in.

I thought Hungry.

I mean, in many ways, it's not totally about you.

I'm just sadly saying, yeah, about yourself, Tournament.

I can only come on a podcast and tell you how I felt watching the game,

which is what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to paint a picture for you, Max, of me in my living room watching the game with my dog which is is is what i was doing i thought hungary carried a threat in that first half on the break but i thought switzerland just had too much nouse for them too much precision and you know that that through ball for the first goal is is absolutely sensational and you know granted there was a stat read out about granite zhacca at the time in in the first half you know something like he's lost two games of football in in 12 months you know it made me think there was a period where i didn't i was not having zacca for for arsenal at all nowadays whenever I see him, I think, wow, you are one of the most intelligent footballers out there.

Yeah, and it's so true, Barry, isn't it?

Like, the confidence that he's got, Jacker, and just the way he played in this game, it was sensational.

Yeah, he was completely running the show, especially in the first half.

And Hungary just couldn't get near him because,

well, the Swiss were outnumbering them in midfield, and

Hungary rectified that at halftime.

They

switched to a back four and stuck up an extra player in the middle.

But Shaka's experience, he's obviously coming in off the back of an incredible season

in which his bare liver cuz he only lost one game, so he's going to be full of confidence.

I mean, people go on about what an acquisition Declan Rice's was for Arsenal, but

Zach has had a better season than him, playing in arguably a worse team.

So make of that what you will.

Like Dan, I also had never heard of Quadrow Dua before he stuck the ball in the net.

But I suspect quite a few Swiss people weren't that familiar with him either because he only got his first cap a few days ago, I think, and he'd only played 40 minutes of international football.

So,

what a great start for him in

his first competitive match in his first tournament.

Yeah, I was kind of disappointed with Hungary.

One of the notes I have is that they were defending like Scotland.

That's what what you got in ahead of me, Max.

Unlike Dan,

I spent quite a bit of the first half being slightly confused that Varga seemed to be playing for both teams.

But then I realised one was a Varga and the other was a Vargas.

And I also, unlike Dan, I suspect there'll be quite a few players

doing things throughout this tournament that I have never heard of before.

I also got Varga Vargas as well

at some point in the game.

Yes, Dickie.

Obviously, needs to be said on a podcast that's

being recorded with, I think, three of us, well, all of us are currently in England,

which

that the doer who I also had not heard of, Ludicaretz striker, obviously, or at least hadn't watched,

London Born.

So if you want to claim that one a little bit for

the first English success for the tournament, I'm sure Switzerland might be having that to be honest.

But thought I'd say it.

The other thing I wanted to just sort of throw out there was, again, on that inclusion, this was really a big win for Jakin, the manager, who hasn't had the best last few months.

He's been criticised quite a lot coming into this tournament.

They've changed up the staff around him a bit.

But if you look at all the gambles he made in this game, well, starting Duo up front, immediate reward for that.

Abisher as well, he's been involved for Switzerland, but he hasn't been starting games for them.

So starting him right away, and he gets an assist and scores a goal in the first half.

And then even the substitution, bringing on Mbola and getting a really sodding good goal by the way from Mbola really nicely taken goal um really I feel like this was right at the start of the tournament a big win for the manager and the sort of thing you can I think in a tournament especially turn into momentum you can turn that into good feeling and and positive uh positive energy that carries through a tournament.

One astute observation from producer Joel was that Murut Yakin looks quite like a scientist in a sort of Godzilla Jurassic Park style movie.

His less astute observation was when Mbolo went through and his strapping fell off, for a small amount of time, Joel thought it was his pants.

The idea that that could happen when you're playing football and your underpants fall off.

It sort of sounds like a kid's book.

Most kids' books these days are about underpants and farting.

And

that was a great idea, an image that he would come through and his pants would fall off.

Can I just say, Max, that after we finished recording on the first night, I watched Meg 2 the Trench and can state that Murt Jakin looks nothing like Jason Statham or any of the other scientists in that particular movie.

Would you say Meg 2 the Trench is a step up from Meg 1, you know, just some deep water?

I haven't seen Meg 1, so I literally dive straight into Meg 2.

Wow.

Having read up on reviews, I presumed it would just be the same movie twice, but apparently Meg 2 is not very good.

Right.

By comparison.

I can confirm it's not very good.

I don't know if it's better or worse than Meg 1.

Right, I see.

Well, we've got a month, so if you could watch that at some point.

I watched that tonight, maybe.

Marvelous.

Gabby says, who would win?

One Martin Adams-sized bear or Martin Adam?

Yes, Hungry's Martin Adam came on as

the most enormous player that has come on so far this tournament on Callum Styles watch, naught minutes so far.

Something else I got confused about was I actually, when I switched it on, I was like, okay, Hungary in red and Switzerland are in white.

I don't know if anyone else felt this, but I was sort of, I kept wanting them to be in the opposite kits.

Yes.

Yes, thank you, Barry.

Yeah, and the whole

Vargas thing did not help in any way.

And I spent a lot of the first half in total confusion.

Yeah.

And I didn't like the trim.

I didn't like red.

And

Dan, what would you describe that?

The sort of it was those colours don't

they don't like link well.

You know, I don't know what I'm really struggling for the right word, but those red shorts, sort of darker, pinky shorts, I just saw purple shorts, didn't work for me.

I mean, there's been a couple of things that I don't,

obviously, we're going to talk about the other game.

There's been a few kit things I've not liked today.

Croatia, I feel, should have been wearing their away shirt playing against the team in red when there's a prominent amount of red on their shirt.

There's been some oddities with kids today, I would say.

Andros Townsend, excellent on Cocoms.

His dad joins us tomorrow.

But look, well done to Switzerland.

Great start for them.

Let's look ahead to tomorrow's games, beginning with Serbia v England.

And actually, Nikki, after the preview where I think Philippe was telling me how good Serbia were, now I'm absolutely terrified.

I don't know.

I suppose...

Peeling back the curtain here, we are recording this before I did Albania, so perhaps I shouldn't temper fate, but I suppose you could say that the early indications this tournament are actually

the nations who we perceive as the bigger footballing nations have all swaggered right into it and done what we expect them to do.

And I think I still expect that of England.

The talent in the squad is a lot.

The rumours are at the moment, Dana, that it will be Trent Alexander Arnold with Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham in midfield.

Are you happy with that?

Yeah, I think so.

I think you've got to try and make space for Trent in the team.

And with England, in my opinion, having the best right back in the world defensively and Kyle Walker, and I think England may form a back three on the ball.

I think there's definitely room for Trent in that team.

I don't think there's anyone that's a standout candidate to partner Declan Rice, but what I like in that squad is that there's a lot of variety, there's different types of midfielders for different games.

You'd expect England to have a lot of the ball against Serbia.

So playing Trent in there makes complete sense to me.

I'm excited about England's midfield and attack, but then I am scared to death of England's defence.

I'm really curious to see Milinkovich Savic, obviously someone who was such a force in Italian football for a long time at Lancio and he goes away and plays in in Saudi Arabia and I'll just be blunt about it.

I I haven't watched one game of the Saudi pro league and and um that that's just being realistic about how much football I can watch.

So I don't know how he's really got on over there and and I'm curious to see if it's affected him and if he comes back being the player that I remember.

I mean I guess what you want Baz,

not what you want, what I want is a back four that know each other and have played together.

And there's a very high chance that this four won't have ever done that.

Yeah, but they're all pretty good footballers and they're playing,

you know, I wouldn't worry too much about that in the opening game of the tournament.

I I've been thinking about this England thing, actually.

They're due a bad one, aren't they?

They're due a bad tournament.

Southgates coming probably almost certainly coming towards the end of his tenure.

And I actually think

while i appreciate you

want england to win this tournament i i i get that i think it'd be bad for the country if this was the tournament england were finally going to win because the election's on the country's very divided people are unhappy and english success is exactly what farage and richard tyson their ilk want and i don't want them to be happy at at a time when immigrants are being persecuted so maybe maybe forego this one, Max, and just bow out graciously in the opening round or in the group stages.

I know what you mean, Barry, because I wrote a piece about it today in the paper going, I just went through my life in England failures.

You know, like every two years, you just get another one, and you just sort of look at how your life goes.

I noticed in that piece, Max, you stopped just short of libeling me.

Ah, in what sense?

Because you're still insinuating that a river danced in front of your face when Croatia beat in the World Cup Yeah, 2018.

Would you have

sued me?

I mean, that would be crazy.

Well, you'll never know now, Max, will you?

No, well,

I'd stay the right side of the line, clearly.

But, you know, I'd like to get a letter from your lawyers.

I'd be a cease and desist.

I'm not allowed within what?

A Zoom call.

If you put that in, then

that's a struggle for us.

But it was interesting just thinking about those, you know, those years where we did.

stink the place out in you know 2014 and and 2012 and etc etc and maybe dan i don't know maybe we are slightly complacent now that we're good and we're good enough to go deep into the tournament.

Again, I can only talk to you from my own standpoint

on this, Max, but 2018 felt a little bit like a three-hit Southgate's first tournament.

England did very well and got to the semi-finals.

The two tournaments after that, expectations were raised.

And I've got to say, I don't go into this tournament with the same amount of confidence as I have done in the previous two.

And it is to do with what I said, to do with the defence.

I think a big part of what has made England good, especially in the last two tournaments, has been the relationships between the players that are playing.

And that back five with the goalkeeper, near enough, that's been the, you know, they've been the defence for the last two, three tournaments.

It's going to be disjointed.

That's going to be broken up.

And John Stones is one of the best centre-backs in Europe, in my opinion.

But is there a natural partner in that squad to play next to him that will work in the same way that Maguire and Stones were such a good partnership at international level?

I don't think there's a natural partnership there.

Maybe there's one that will grow through the tournament, but I actually think this first game against Serbia is a huge, huge test of that.

If you've got a new centre-back partnership and, you know, Maguire is the one that wins all the first contacts out of the England defenders.

Coming up against a physical side like Serbia, you know, I think it's a really, really tough first game.

Not the ideal type of opposition to be going up against when you've got this new defence that hasn't played together before.

So I'm actually quite concerned about this first game, probably more than I would be about game two or three.

Yeah, so so the other games we'll cover tomorrow, Slovenia, Denmark and England's group, and also Poland versus the Netherlands is also tomorrow.

That is the same group as Austria and France, and that will do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin by paying tribute to Kevin Campbell.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's talk about Kevin Campbell, who's died at the age of of 54.

Legend at Arsenal, 59 goals and 213 games for them, 39 and 151 for Everton.

He scored that goal at Anfield, which was Everton's last win at Anfield for a long, long time.

He pretty much listened to Everton fans single-handedly helped keep them in the Premier League that year.

I think it was 99.

He was a huge part of West Brom in the West Brom survival in 05, the Great Escape with Brian Robson and Jeff Horsfield.

And I knew him amazingly well, but I'd worked with him a few times.

He's definitely come on radio shows with us, Barry.

And I know, Dan, you've

met him at Sky.

Just the nicest, the nicest, nice of nice guys.

And I know we often say that a lot, Barry, when someone's passed away and it's a bit of a cliche, but he had such energy and such vibrance and such a sort of love for life.

And I was on the radio this morning when the news broke and just the number of people that rang in who had met him

and had just said how much time he'd given to them.

There was one story.

Someone had met him and got a photo, but hadn't got his phone.

So Kev said, I'll have a photo and I'll send it to you.

And here's my number.

And then occasionally, this guy would just ring Kevin Campbell up in the pub and he'd hand his phone around the pub.

And Kevin Campbell would just chat to whoever was in the pub.

He gave so much time to so many people.

And like 54, as I said, Barry, it's just no aid at all, is it?

No,

I wouldn't claim to know him well.

Actually, I've met his father a couple of times.

I was introduced to him because he's a man, or used to be a man about Brixton and Kennington, which is, I think, where Kevin grew up for Stockwell.

And like Kevin, Kevin was famous for wearing his bow ties.

And I think he got that from his dad because anytime I'd see his dad, who everyone around here in Brixton knew as Mr.

Campbell,

you know, good morning, Mr.

Campbell.

Good evening, Mr.

Campbell.

He was always impeccably turned out and always wearing a bow tie.

I heard your radio show this morning.

You and Charlie Baker did a fantastic job I thought because that was kind of sprung on you

and I've been in that position and it's quite tricky but your listeners helped out no end and there were some really moving stories but

Kevin

genuinely seems to be one of those guys who nobody has a bad word to say about and around

where I live in in South London,

you know, there's him, Barry Hales, who used to play for Fulham, he grew up around here.

Nathalion Klein grew up around the corner from me in the estate.

Roots Maneuver, the singer, he grew up around the other corner.

And the local black community,

you know, a lot of them are children of people from the Windrush generation.

The local black community are very proud of them and what they've achieved in life.

And I suspect there will be quite a few glasses of rum raised in Kevin Campbell's honour by people of different ages

in

Kennington, Stockwell, Brixton, tonight and tomorrow.

And yeah, look, 54 is no age at all.

And may he rest in peace.

Dan, you cross paths at Sky, I think?

Yeah, so when you know when the show is changing and you're coming on it occasionally, you'll cross paths with people who you haven't necessarily worked with but are on after you.

So, or you're coming on after them.

And it only happened a couple of times and i think it must have been last year actually but never met him in in my life he sat there in his in in his dickie bow he's he's one of those people that will go around and shake everyone would have gone around and shook everyone's hand said hello to them introduced himself and

even gave me a hug never met me in his life you know big handshake big hug and just from that brief interaction you could just tell how well loved he was and just someone that had a real like enthusiasm for life was so so bubbly so so pleased to be still involved in football and like i said i can't claim to to know him well at all but those brief interactions that that i had with him he just came across as a real real class act and yeah thoughts go out to his his friends and family because he's he seems like one of the good guys and as an arsenal fan nikki i mean he in a way because of the great centre forwards that arsenal have had right and especially ian right who who was incredibly emotional and did a wonderful tribute to him um on itv's coverage i i don't know if he he doesn't get forgotten at arsenal but he was some player.

Yeah,

it's strange, of course, because

the chapter when he was at Arsenal, I was a kid, Max.

I was watching football through a kid's lens.

And of course, my heroes were Ian Wright, and I love Paul Merson and Alan Smith, of course.

But listen, even in that chapter, Kevin Campbell scored the goal in the semi-final of the Cup Winners' Cup, which was one of those very formative experiences to a young fan watching us win that on TV.

So that made him an icon on its own.

And he was always, I felt like a player who was very well liked by the fans.

You could tell he always worked very hard.

And as I've got older and talked to more people around us, what you hear is actually when Ian Reich came in, he was very conscientious about it.

He said, Well, I'm not going to have the same opportunities to be the guy up front at number nine anymore.

I'm going to find other ways that I can put myself at the service of the team and work for the team.

And he did get shunted around a bit and play on the wing sometimes, behind the attack sometimes.

But he was always one of those guys that you felt like was very committed and

worked hard.

And

again, the more you hear about him now as an adult and how connected he was personally with everyone in their lives around that Arsenal team I think he's just as everyone's already said someone who's got such a tremendous amount of goodwill towards him it's a awful sad story yeah I don't really remember him at Arsenal I was probably a little bit too young but I think it's probably fair to say that Everton would have gone down that season he arrived without him coming in.

He scored a hell of a lot of goals.

He came in.

I learned from Turkey, if my memory serves me correctly.

Yeah, he went to Everton and then ended up signing permanently, but he's an absolute hero there.

We always talk about Everton have had such and such years in the Premier League, never been relegated, always been in the top flight.

I think without Kevin Campbell arriving, that wouldn't be a record that we ever talked about.

Yeah, I've talked to a lot of his ex-teammates, talked to Alan Smith this morning and

talked to Perry Groves, who's incredibly cut up about it.

And to Curtis Davis, who was a young kid at West Brom, and Chris Kirkman who was at West Brom as well came in in 05

and John Hartson who came in really young at Arsenal and what he said what they all said was just how generous he was with his time to new players and when you think about sort of how cutthroat football is like it you know of course there are nice people in dressing rooms but they're funny places dressing rooms and like for him it you got the sense that in every single dressing room like he was just like the same with everybody whether you were totally established player or not and you know we don't talk about kindness a lot as a trait in footballers and and i don't know if you know if we need to do it more but like he was an incredibly kind man and and uh yeah it's incredibly sad and you would have seen lots of amazing tributes to kevin campbell it's also really sad to to report the the death of the millwall goalkeeper mattia sarkic who's died at the age of 26 um which is just so tragic millwall said they were completely devastated and you know and not even to reach an age where you could get to legendary status, right?

Because you're so young and so young in your life, just a child, really.

And so, and we send our sympathies to his friends and families, of course.

A little bit of other news, kicking him out.

Brighton have announced

Fabian Herzler as their manager, Richard Jolly writing, Fabian Herzler becomes the first Premier League manager who is younger than the Premier League.

Yeah, he is 31 and he comes in from Sao Pauli.

He's younger than a number of players in the squad.

James Milner, Danny Welbeck, Lewis Dunk.

You know, he's probably the only manager you can't say he could be Laminia Mal's father, of course, which, you know, although I guess

he could, technically.

He was putting it about at an early age.

We don't have that information on him yet, I would say, Barry, but hopefully, as the season progresses, we'll find out what a player he was in his younger days off the field.

We've had some correspondence, Barry, regarding your pronunciation of, and let me try it, of FC Erzgeberge Au, which I pronounced Erzebirge Au.

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know if I'm right yet.

Well, that That's

little to do with the fact that I can't read my own writing.

But that is possible.

Anyway, you pronounced it yesterday like this.

It's a Saxony team called Erzgebirge.

Ar.

And we had a lovely message from a guy called Matt, who is out in Germany with a correction for both of us.

So

this is how it sounds.

Hi, Max.

For the next time that Barry needs to say the name of the team on the pod, it's pronounced Ertgebierger Auer.

Kindest for cards from Matt from Germany.

Thank you, Matt.

I don't know, Barry, if getting listeners to voice note corrections on the pod is a slippery slope.

I think that's very slippery slope.

How long the pod might be.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks so much for your time, Dan.

No problem.

Thanks, Nikki.

Thanks.

Cheers, Barry.

Thank you.

England Tomorrow Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.