Well the opening games of the 2020/21 tournament, (can they just say the 2021 tournament as we all know it got postponed from last year, but were playing it in this year now...!!) and it's been surprisingly very open, well apart from the England/Croatia game.
The Italians, despite playing a deep sitting Turkish side took their home advantage and put in a good performance, as did the Swiss against the Welsh but they couldn't get the 2nd they needed so let them back in. Sets that group up nicely for the remaining games...
Belgium looked strong but to be fair our local village team could have run rings around the labored Ruski's so bad was their game. The bookies 2nd group favourites Denmark had the worst sporting event to happen to them after Erikson collapsed on the pitch and got CPR, I really do feel sorry for those players going forward in the tournament now, though Finland have put themselves in a great position to go through to the knock-out stages. Fingers crossed that they can do Erikson proud and get a win to help him on his road to recovery...
Game of the tournament so far is undoubtingly the Dutch beating a Shevchenko's Ukrainian side 3-2 after both sides could have been 5-4 after the opening 15minutes of the game. I have them as the winners in my betting but after watching them last night they will either do a Kevin Keegan Newcastle job and entertain us each and every time they take the pitch only to let us all down...!! The surprise package was the North Macedonians giving the Austrians a right ole scare and the 3-1 score line definitely dosn't reflect the closeness of the teams... Could be a good group to watch going forward...
As for our beloved England side, they won, that's about it. I don't see a real cutting edge of a side and the fact we are full of midget gems running around the oppo's ankles all match, passing too and fro to one another dosn't feel me with great hope that we will go on to win it. Croatia looked a bit one dimensional to me, not the team who swept us away the last time we met in the World Cup a few years back... Saying that, is was bloomin hot, they had their toughest match up first in the competition so things can and must improve. Scotland start their campaign in a wee while so this group is still very much open to them...!!
The rest have yet to play but from what weve seen so far it could be a good tournament to watch...!!