France vs. Switzerland
In a thrilling six-goal draw that went all the way to a penalty shootout, Switzerland upset France 5-4 (on penalties) today at Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania. In regular time, the game was quite similar to the earlier Spain vs. Croatia match. Switzerland would take an early lead in the 15th minute from a perfectly placed header by striker Haris Seferović.
France came back and scored three goals, including a brace by Karim Benzema (57th and 59th minutes), and a golazo by Paul Pogba. His shot, taken from about 25 yards out, curled into the top right corner of the goal; no keeper could have saved it.
The Swiss leveled the scoring in the last 9 minutes with another header from Seferović in the 81st minute, and a great goal by Mario Gavranović in 90th minute. He received a great through ball from Granit Xhaka, would avoid one defender, and from the edge of the box, shot it hard and into the bottom left corner. Regular time ended with a 3-3 draw.
The game then went into overtime where, after two scoreless 15-minute halves, a penalty shootout was needed to decide the game. The Swiss made all five of their penalties and France made four. Kylian Mbappé stepped up to take France’s fifth and final kick. He would shoot hard and to his left, but it was not placed well enough as keeper Yann Sommer would dive and get his hand on it.
This win means that Switzerland are now into the Quarterfinals, where they will play Spain.
Spain vs Croatia
After a poor start to the game, Spain came out the victors, beating Croatia 5-3 in overtime today at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. In a game that first looked to be a low scoring one, both teams would surprise the audience in the second half as a total of six goals would be scored from the 57th minute and on.
The first goal came, at the 20th minute, as a surprise to everyone as Spanish midfielder Pedro López (Pedri) would play a simple 30-yard pass back to the wide-open keeper Unai Simón. The keeper seemed to lose the ball for a second, as it would roll over his foot and into the goal to gift Croatia the early lead.
Spain went on to fix their mistake as they scored three goals (Pablo Sarabia at the 38th minute, César Azpilicueta at the 57th minute, and Ferran Torres at the 76th minute) as Croatia looked to be unsure of what to do.
Croatia managed to find a way of tying the game with Mislav Oršić scoring at the 85th minute, and Mario Pašalić at the 92nd minute to send the game into overtime.
Spain would score two early goals in the first half of overtime to eventually give Spain the win, as Croatia were too tired to respond. Álvaro Morata would finally get his goal in the 100th minute, followed by Mikel Oyarzabal in the 103rd minute to close out the game.
This win means that Spain are now into the Quarterfinals, where they will play Switzerland.
Photo: Yann Sommer, Wikipedia, Creative Commons