Photo courtesy of Benoit Tessier via REUTERS
The first international break of 2024 happened during March for a shorter period than usual. The games mostly included friendlies to prepare the EURO 2024 and the Copa America 2024 which will both be held in June and July. But there were some games at higher stakes, in fact some were playoffs to qualify into the last three spots available for the EURO 2024.
2 rounds of the playoffs were played during this international break, the first one was made of twelve teams, offering six games. The winners of those games were able to go to the second one while the teams that lost didn’t have any more chances to qualify for the EURO 2024. The teams that were sent back home were the following: Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Finland, Estonia, Bosnia and Israel. Which left the three spots to the following countries: Georgia, Greece, Poland, Wales, Ukraine and Islande. These six teams contested the three spots for the EURO 2024 in three different games.
Two of these three games ended in penalties. For the Polish forward Robert Lewandoswki’s potential last EURO of his career, the stakes were high, but the Polish team managed to win at penalties against Wales who will not be present at this EURO.
An historical event happened following penalties, in fact Georgia qualified for the first time ever in its history for the EURO against the 2004 winner, Greece. This victory was unexpected in the soccer world but made the fans witness a happy moment of football history, at the sake of Greece who will not participate this year.
Finally, Ukraine managed to qualify against Islande thanks to a last minute goal scored by the recent Chelsea transfer midfielder, Mykhaïlo Mudryk, who is highly criticized for his performances with his club. Ukraine needed this victory to bring some joy to what the country is undergoing with the war.
Still in Europe, bigger countries were playing against each other in friendlies. Germany, who will be hosting the EURO this summer, displayed a level of football that set the tone about how far they will want to go this summer. In fact, the new German coach, Julian Nagelsmann has been doing some incredible work with the team, who had been declining since the EURO 2016 when they had been kicked out in the semi-finals by France. With his new philosophy and breath of fresh air, Nagelsmann led his team to beat France this time 2-0, with a first goal scored at the seventh second by Florian Wirtz. The French had very little envy and impact during the whole game, which scared the fans as Les Bleus were seen as the favorites for this edition with England.
The other favorite also struggled during these friendlies as they first lost against Brazil. The young revelation Endrick scored the winning goal for the Southern American country. The British then tied against Belgium 2-2. Despite being led 2-1 during the entirety of the game, Jude Bellingham managed to get the Three Lions a tie with a last minute goal.
The two favorites have been showing struggle as the EURO is approaching while the underdogs, the nations no one was expecting to see with great level for this edition, are revealing themselves again after years of gaps, such as Germany. Spain could also be part of this category with their individualities.
In fact with a young generation arriving, Spain seems to have assets to maybe pretend to reach a top spot this summer. When it comes to the friendlies they played this week, La Roja inclined itself against Colombia 1-0, despite having more occasions and accuracy on goal. Spain then played against Brazil at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s stadium. This game ended with three goals and one penalty for each team. Manchester City midfielder Rodri scored two goals for Spain, and while not scoring, the 16 years old FC Barcelona player Lamine Yamal did an incredible game owing him a standing ovation at the Bernabeu, which is something that highly surprised the fans as there is a lot of political tension related to Real Madrid and FC Barcelona relationship. On Brazil’s side, Endrick scored the goal to tie their opponent and end the game at 3-3. Both youngsters are seen as the next great rivalry that was Messi and Ronaldo during the last 20 years.
Overall these games showed that at the moment anyone could be a pretender to the EURO as none of the favorites made great impressions during this international break. The Southern American teams played great performances letting us know the level of football there will be during this summer’s Copa America. The next time national teams will reunite will be in June. In the meantime, all eyes will be on the Champions League.
Sophomore Agathe Vanmassenhove is the Sports Editor. Her email is avanmass@fandm.edu.