Spain vs. Switzerland
Spain defeat the Swiss 3-1 on penalties today at the Krestovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg. Spain took a quick lead as an unfortunate deflection off of Swiss defender Denis Zakaria puts Spain ahead in the 8th minute. Spain would dominate possession while the Swiss spent most of the game defending. In the 68th minute, Switzerland would get a break as Spanish defenders fumbled the ball and left it for Remo Freuler who passed it to teammate Xherdan Shaqiri who passed it off the post and into the open goal from about the penalty spot.
In the 77th minute, a questionable red card was given to Freuler after he made a tackle where he clearly got the ball. After it was decided that he put the opposing player at risk, and he was off. The Swiss had to finish the game with 10 men.
After countless missed chances by Spain, and great defending by Switzerland, the game ended 1-1 and needed extra time. Again, the Swiss would do their best impression of a brick wall, not allowing Spain to score for another 30 minutes, taking the game into penalties.
This was a poor penalty shootout with more misses than goals. Spain started off with a miss but managed to pull through Mikel Oyarzabal socring the winning penalty and making it 3-1 for Spain.
This win means that Spain are now into the Semi-finals, where they will play Italy.
Belgium vs. Italy
Italy continue their scoring ways in a 2-1 win against Belgium today at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. Italian midfielder Nicolò Barella started the scoring in the 31st minute. He would turn and beat two defenders inside the box and then blast it across goal and in off of the lower left post. 13 minutes later, Lorenzo Insigne would make it 2-0 with a beautiful shot, taken from outside the box, and curled into the upper right side of the goal, just outside the reach of keeper Thibaut Courtois.
In the 47th minutes, just before halftime, Belgium were awarded a penalty and striker Romelu Lukaku passed it into the middle of the goal to pull one back for the Red Devils.
Italy continued to control the game in the second half finishing with 54% of possession. Belgium had chances to tie the game including a point-blank shot from Lukaku that somehow bounced off the back of Italian defender Leonardo Spinazzola’s thigh.
This win means that Italy are now into the Semi-finals, where they will play Spain.
Photo: Mikel Oyarzabal, Wikipedia, Creative Commons
