England has tried to head off criticism after a “concerning” draw against Denmark, Serbia threatens to boycott over racist chants, and Spain advances past Italy after an own goal.
Here are five quick hits from overnight at the Euros.
1. Serbia threatens to quit Euros over racist chants
Serbian football officials have threatened to quit the European Championship after they were offended by fan chants reportedly heard during the Albania-Croatia match.
The game on Wednesday ended 2-2 in Hamburg and Serbia Football Association general secretary Jovan Šurbatović reportedly said he heard fans chanting “Kill the Serb”.
“What happened is scandalous and we will ask UEFA for sanctions, even at the cost of not continuing the competition,” Šurbatović said.
“We will request UEFA to punish the federations of both teams. We don’t want to participate in that, but if UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed.”
In a separate statement on Thursday, the Serbia FA condemned the “shameful racist behaviour” of the Albanian and Croatian fans and said the match should have been suspended as soon as the chants started.
“Such insulting of a nation with cries that they should be killed has not been seen at sports events for a long time,” the statement read.
UEFA did not respond to requests for comment on the threats from Serbia.
Serbia drew 1-1 with Slovenia in its second group match against Slovenia in Munich. Its third and potentially last game is on Tuesday against Denmark.
The animosity between Croatian and Albanian fans toward the Serbs, and vice versa, dates to the 1990s wars in the Balkans.
Serbian fans are notorious for their chants against Croats and Albanians as well as racist shouts and vocal support of convicted war criminals responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands during the bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
UEFA fined the Albanian and Serbian federations 10,000 euros each after their first group matches for fans displaying banners with nationalist maps.
Albania fans displayed a banner with a map of their country extending its borders into the territory of neighbouring countries and a Serbian fan banner included the territory of Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008, and a slogan, “No Surrender”, in the 1-0 loss against England in Gelsenkirchen.
UEFA has also launched an investigation into claims of monkey chants aimed at England players during the clash.
2. England’s pre-emptive defence against criticism
After a slim 1-0 win over Serbia in its opener, England eked out a 1-1 draw with Denmark in Frankfurt to remain unbeaten at the tournament, but one win from two matches against teams ranked outside FIFA’s top 20 is little more than business-like for the 2021 runners-up.
After hitting the front in the 18th minute, England conceded a long-range bullet from Morten Hjulmand and struggled for the rest of the game.
Vice-captain Kyle Walker’s post-match interview seemed focused on heading off criticism from fans.
“It’s tournament football. This is a good Denmark team and we’re top of the group, so let’s try and take a positive from this game,” he said.
“We’ve not lost, we’ve conceded a great strike from outside the box. We’re top of the group, so let’s move on to the next game.”
Walker reiterated those last two points — that England is atop Group C and it was time to “move on” — four times each in a two-minute pitch-side interview and also stressed the team was not trying to “park the bus” in defence but was riding the ebbs and flows of the game.
“As defenders you try and think of what if rather than me charging forward they go and score, and then all of a sudden they’re blaming us as a defence that we’re not in position,” Walker said.
“Everyone wants us to steamroll teams 3-0, 4-0 — it’s not football these days. We’ve got a point, we’ll move on as I keep saying, we’re top of the group and we’ll just keep going like that.”
Fans on social media and former England striker Alan Shearer were less than impressed with the tone of the interview after a poor performance from a team that has not won a major trophy in almost 60 years.
The end of England’s last campaign at the men’s Euros was marred by racist abuse of young black players Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho after they missed penalties in the shootout of the final against Italy.
3. Kane and his England co-stars cop flak
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and perhaps no chalice is as poisoned, no sword as double-edged, as the England men’s football captaincy.
Add to that England’s tendency to play a sole striker, and Harry Kane often comes in for it when the goals aren’t flowing for the team.
He also turned the ball over in the back third leading directly to Denmark’s equaliser.
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“Harry Kane needs to do a lot better,” former England striker Gary Lineker said on BBC.
“His movement was minimal. He didn’t look to go behind and he doesn’t often, but even when he comes short, he’s just drifting short very lethargically, he’s plodding short. And that’s not going to help.
“I think he needs his manager to say ‘I need a little bit more from you, Harry’. I would’ve expected that if I’d had that kind of performance.”
Alan Shearer agreed Kane was immobile and said England looked better when Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins came onto the pitch, but Kane was certainly not the only player in the crosshairs of the Premier League’s all-time leading goal-scorer.
“It was very poor. It wasn’t good enough. I mean, where do you start?” he told BBC.
“No energy, no guile. I wouldn’t say lack of effort or not trying, but there’s so much more to come from those players out there.
“Look at Jude [Bellingham] tonight, he couldn’t put one foot in front of the other, he couldn’t get forward. Phil Foden, is he affecting the game? No chance. Look at [Bukayo] Saka and Harry Kane.
“It was really, really poor and it is concerning absolutely.”
4. A royal turnout
The king of Denmark and the future king of England shook hands on a draw between their national teams.
The clash was watched by Prince William, King Frederik X and Princess Josephine of Denmark, although Australian-born Queen Mary was nowhere to be seen.
Neither team won but there was little doubt Denmark had played better.
Both teams are in contention to advance to the knockout round at Euro 2024 in Germany.
Prince William is president of the English Football Association and a regular spectator at games played by the Three Lions, although he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were criticised for not flying to Australia when England reached the final of the Women’s World Cup last year.
On a big day out for European aristocrats in Germany, King Felipe VI of Spain was at the later game as Spain played Italy in Gelsenkirchen.
5. Italy keeper left fuming after own goal
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was the hero on multiple occasions for Italy but, in a cruel twist, it was his deflection that ultimately led to a 1-0 loss to Spain.
The Spaniards had 20 shots and nine on target, but Donnarumma stopped everything that came his way, including tipping away Alvaro Morata’s touch on a Nico Williams cross.
Unfortunately, the nudge went straight into Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori, off his legs and back into the Italians’ net for the only goal of the game in the 58th minute.
“We are angry,” Donnarumma said after the match.
“Let’s use this to motivate ourselves for the next games, our destiny is in our hands.”
Spain goes through to the last 16 regardless of what happens in its next match against Albania, while Italy moves on to a final group game against Croatia, with a win guaranteeing progression.
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