Euro 2024: trio of games await on day two as Scotland react to thrashing – as it happened

That will be all for today’s buildup blog. As previously advertised, Rob Smyth has Hungary v Switzerland here:

Barry Glendenning will have Spain v Croatia later today before John Brewin blogs Italy v Albania this evening.

Below are today’s Euro 2024 pieces if you missed anything. Enjoy the games. Bye.

Spain v Italy, surely the most attractive match of the pool stage, is coming up on Thursday night.

Here is Sid Lowe on Spain – who of course were knocked out, arguably undeservedly, by the Azzurri in the semi-finals three years ago:

A very interesting read from Nicky there, both on Spalletti’s selection options, as well as his rules on things such as computer games in Italy’s Euro 2024 camp:

“What interests me is that people sleep at night,” said Spalletti, pointing out that, far from banning consoles, his staff have set up two “very beautiful, modern Playstations” in the games room at the team hotel, so that nobody would need to have one in their own bedroom. “Everyone plays on those,” he said. “Even I’ve had a go. But they do it in the correct hours.”

Having failed to qualify for Qatar 2022, this evening will see Italy return to major tournament football for the first time since they defeated England in the Euro 2020 final. They meet Albania at BVB Stadion Dortmund.

Here is Nicky Bandini on how Luciano Spalletti’s men are shaping up for their title defence:

Harry Kane is loving life in Germany since signing for Bayern Munich.

Here is Christian Falk on how and why he’s settled in so well:

If you missed it, this is a good line on England from last night: Kyle Walker saying he understood Gareth Southgate’s decision to leave Jack Grealish, his Manchester City teammate, out of the squad based on form.

“I think Jack would be the first one to say he could have had a better season,” Walker said.

Gareth Southgate was able to run the rule over his full 26-man squad as England trained on the eve of their Euro 2024 opener against Serbia.

The whole group took part in Saturday’s morning session at England’s base camp at the Spa & Golf Resort Weimarer Land.

Southgate and his players will travel to Gelsenkirchen later today, with the manager and captain Harry Kane due to take on on media duties at the Arena AufSchalke.

While the full squad trained, Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw is still expected to miss out as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury suffered in February.

After opening their Group C campaign against Serbia, Euro 2020 runners-up England face Denmark and Slovenia as they look to go one better in Germany this time round. (PA Media)

Yannick Carrasco: “Being an outsider is beautiful.”
Timothy Castagne: “We can achieve something beautiful.”

Can I find the hat-trick of Belgian beautifuls, quotes-wise, before closing this blog?

More from Reuters on Belgium’s injury concerns here:

Belgium remained tight-lipped over their defensive injury woes but said Axel Witsel returned to individual training before Monday’s Group E opener against Slovakia.

Belgium held a closed training session on Saturday and journalists were requested not to ask about players’ fitness at a media conference, though right-back Timothy Castagne confirmed Witsel had done an individual session.

There was no response to questions about the fitness of Jan Vertonghen and Arthur Theate and their absence, along with Witsel’s, poses a potential crisis at the back for coach Domenico Tedesco.

“I’m not worried about the fact that there are some absentees. Everyone who will play is ready, there is enough quality,” Castagne said. Wout Faes and the 20-year-old Zeno Debast are the other centre backs in the squad and Castagne, with 43 caps, is ready to take a leadership role.

“I’m the most experienced player at the back. I always talk, but now I must do so even more. Of course, when I’m on the right, I can’t talk to the left back. When there is a pause in the game I use that time to make adjustments.”

Castagne said there was no instruction from Tedesco to take things easy in training but admitted that the last thing the team needed were more injury problems. “We give it our all, we were not extra careful because there are a lot of injured players. But of course, we won’t do stupid things. There’s no point in making unnecessary tackles.”

Even with a depleted backline, Castagne believes there is enough quality in the Belgium side for them to win a maiden Euro title, having been runners-up to West Germany in 1980.

“The group is a good mix of experience and youth. I’m not here to prove to you that we have a chance, it has to happen on the pitch … The most important thing is that we believe that we can achieve something beautiful.”

Rob Smyth has now switched his focus to Hungary v Switzerland, the first item on this Saturday smorgasbord of top-level association football:

On ITV last night, Roy Keane said essentially the same as Gordon in his email below about Scotland’s display, in that allowed Germany’s flair players time and space to do their stuff. Albeit in stronger, classically Keanesque terms:

“Andy Robertson said: ‘We weren’t aggressive enough’. You have to be aggressive in a game of football. When you’re up against opposition that are much stronger than you, being aggressive is part of a footballer … my goodness, when you’re playing football at this level, you’ve got to hit people! Hit them properly, hit them aggressively, do it in the right way. If you step off against them, like Scotland did tonight … it’s no good talking after the game: ‘We had a game plan.’ It’s rubbish.”

“Hi Luke, I’m on a train from Munich to Frankfurt right now,” emails Gordon. “Obviously we are disappointed, and to be honest, embarrassed, but speaking for myself I am mostly puzzled. Why did we give Germany the opportunity to settle? Why did we give Kroos so much time and space? Why did we leave so much space between the lines? Failures of tactics or failures of execution? I know we would have probably lost anyway but we didn’t have to be humiliated.”

“Can’t someone else do it?”

That was Ralf Rangnick’s reaction in 2022, while he was still interim coach at Manchester United, when he took a call regarding the Austria vacancy. Now he’s led them to the European Championship.

Andreas Hagenauer has the story:

Scotland fans: Email me, and tell me how you’re feeling.

England fans: Ditto.

Serbia will bring a Saudi Arabian flavour to their encounter with England tomorrow. Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, two of their most dangerous players, are now teammates at Al-Hilal.

Uros Jovicic reports:

Belgium are racing to get defenders Arthur Theate and Vertonghen fit for the match against Slovakia on Monday, while veteran Axel Witsel is a doubt after he pulling up in training. Thomas Meunier is definitely out opener, leaving head coach Domenico Tedesco potentially thin in defence.

Slovakia produced a pair of 4-0 wins over San Marino and Wales in warm-up fixtures but Belgium will be a step up in quality for Italian coach Francesco Calzona.

“Belgium are definitely the strongest team in our group. They are in a moment of change with their players because of their ages, but they have really strong young players. I believe we’ll be seeing them at the top again,” Calzona told uefa.com.

Experienced midfielder Juraj Kucka has overcome a shoulder problem that had kept him sidelined since April, while centre-back Denis Vavro is fit to play after a muscle problem. (Reuters)

Rejuvenated Belgium hope to banish memories of a dismal 2022 World Cup and extend a 15-match unbeaten run in their European Championship Group E opener against Slovakia on Monday.

The country’s golden generation were tarnished by a first-round exit in Qatar but, with several fresh faces in the team, Belgium have been unbeaten since coach Domenico Tedesco took over in February last year.

Belgium have kept clean sheets in 10 of their 15 games under Tedesco and have scored 33 goals, with Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen the experienced heads among exciting young talents such as Jeremy Doku, Johan Bakayoko and Amadou Onana.

“The experience of Qatar made us more mature and makes us look at a tournament differently,” winger Yannick Carrasco said. “As a favourite, there is much more pressure. Being an outsider is beautiful but everyone knows we want to go as far as possible.

“There is a good atmosphere and a togetherness. We play board games, on the PlayStation. No-one stays in his room. Everyone is hungry and very motivated, young and old.” (Reuters)

In a little over two hours Hungary will meet Switzerland in Cologne in the second match of the tournament. Our live blog for that will be launching before long. This is what Group A looks like after Germany’s thumping win last night:

Tributes to Campbell from Everton and Nottingham Forest:

As a Forest fan I remember that Campbell mid-1990s opening-day hat-trick posted by Rob below extremely well. Partly because the headline in the next day’s Observer was “New Campbell, new danger”, referencing the slogan cooked up by the Conservatives to try and stop Labour winning the 1997 general election.

Such terrible news about Kevin Campbell. A terrific player and a lovely man.

We’ve put together this gallery to remember his life and career:

Thank you Rob. Hello everyone. And a very happy first three-match day of the Euros to you all.

It’s time for me to hand over to Luke McLaughlin for the next couple of hours. Thanks for your company, tara.

Spain v Croatia (5pm) Luka Modric, who is 22 years older than Lamine Yamal, begins his final European Championship tonight. Aleksandar Holiga previews Croatia’s campaign.

Everton have had a few relegation battles in recent times. Without Kevin Campbell, they would probably have gone down in 1998-99. After joining on loan from Trabzonspor, he scored nine goals in a month to make Everton safe. Nine goals in a month!

And another, his hat-trick on the opening day of the 1996-97 season. The third goal is delicious.

Another memory of Super Kev: the goal that put Arsenal into the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1994. For some reason that cup run is still so underrated; they beat three superb teams in Torino, Paris Saint-Germain and Parma.

Shall we talk about England? They start their campaign against Serbia tomorrow evening, so there’s every chance #SouthgateOut will be trending by ten past eight.

Oi! Stop what you’re doing, I need your help.

On this day in 1996, Paul Gascoigne scored against Scotland blah blah blah. A couple of hours later, Youri Djorkaeff scored for France against Spain.

I always thought it was a goal of unobtrusive class, the kind only the best players score, but having watched it again I think he might get lucky with the first touch. Does he inadvertently control it onto his standing foot or am I seeing things?

And yes, here’s Gazza’s goal.

Italy, champions in 2021, begin their defence against Albania tonight. Here’s Nicky Bandini on their build-up.

Kevin Campbell scored better, more important goals but I’ll always remember this one against Nottingham Forest, which I think was his first for Arsenal. The thrill of potential, the infinite possibility of youth. And the joy shared by another absolute blessing of a man taken far too soon, David Rocastle.

Any idea what the top four are?

Never mind Lamine Yamal, there are 621 other players at Euro 2024. Read all about them.

The morning after is the solemn subject of Simon McMahon’s email.

Morning Rob. I had the most awful dream last night, in which a Scotland side who qualified for these Euros with two games to spare, and who harboured genuine hopes of an upset in the opening game against the hosts Germany, were battered from the first minute to the last, conceding five times, having a man sent off and looking so far off the pace that any hopes of becoming the first Scotland team to make it beyond the group stage in a finals tournament seems like, well, another dream. An impossible one. But, hey, Switzerland and Hungary are beatable, right? We can’t play that badly again, right? Four points should still do it, right? We’ve been here before, right? We’re not out yet, right? We can still do it, right?

They can still do it! Last night was miserable but it wasn’t as damaging as Peru or Costa Rica. Scotland could easily take four points from the last two games, which would be enough to get through.

Spain v Croatia is the second game of the day, and the first in a cracking group that also includes Italy and Albania. Here’s Sid Lowe on the remarkable Lamine Yamal, who should become the first 16-year-old to play in the male Euros.

(We can’t call it the men’s Euros when he’s 16, can we.)

Last night’s opening game went swimmingly on and off the pitch. Here’s what the tournament director, my colleague Philipp Lahm, had to say.

The fan zones were full. The atmosphere in the stadium was outstanding. Both anthems gave us goose bumps. And even the weather played along. It was dry and bright and people were able to celebrate outside. That’s how it should be, that’s how I wanted it to be.

[Germany] haven’t been this strong and clear for a long time. The outstanding control of the game in the first half was decisive for that. The division of roles between Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gündogan was a good fit

Kroos was the quarter-back who pays close attention to the distances to the centre-backs, who increases the pressure and takes it off at the right moment. With Gündogan, what you know from Man City came into play. He can hold the ball between the lines in an attacking position and is therefore a very good preparer. This axis worked well for the first time.

Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala are very strong individualists who create a lot of goal threat. You also have to mention Kai Havertz. Germany have a strong attacking trio – plus the joker Niclas Füllkrug.

I’m impressed by the first game. If the German team can find their feet over the course of the tournament, they can also hold their own against stronger opponents. There is every reason to be optimistic.

Football, said Alan Hudson, is the working man’s ballet. It’s also the working man’s madeleine.

Away from the Euros, some awful news: Millwall and Montenegro goalkeeper Matija Sarkic has died at the age of 26. He reportedly fell ill in an apartment in the town of Budva this morning.

Germany were fantastic last night, with a lovely balance of delicate footballers, unsentimental ballwinners and canny … look I can’t use the word raumdeuters, because it’s too early to make a bid for Pseuds Corner, but equally it knackers the rhythm of the sentence if I say ‘canny players who take up great positions between the lines’. Ach, you know what I mean. They were really good, as is this piece from Jonathan Liew.