semifinals were played in the euro 24 . in the first game france played spain . france played 4-3-3 while spain too started with the same formation . france brought in dembele in place of griezman . the thinking about bringing dembele in the squad was to use his pace and most importantly he is good in one on one situations but hopeless in positional reading and most importantly is extremly one dimensional . spain brought in olmo in place of pedri ( how many times had i recommended this kid ) . the game started with spain dominating the possession and france trying to break on the counter . the trouble was with the midfield and the no. 10 position . first off france's midfield three were not able to compete against the spain middle three . the reason being that there was no cohesion in the team . france is the team of superstars but there is no cohesion in the team. they play like individuals and i am sorry to say but they had been carried by mbappe's brilliance ( the reason i am calling him brilliant is because he is just not good running with the ball but very good technically ) he needs a proper no. 9 in the form of giroud who is severly missed by france . the tr4ouble with france was that they couldnt compete with the spain's midfield . the cohesion that the middle three of spain ( rodri,fabian and olmo ) was way better than france's middle three . still france took the lead . now i had been telling this in past posts as the body position that the centre backs take when they defend and thats what happened there. laporte lost kolomuani because his body position wasnt correct . mbappe showed that he is just not a good dribbler but also very crosser of the ball .
the trouble for france was that they just couldnt compete with spain the midfield most importantly they were just not able to pick up runs from olmo . there was always a question as to whom will pick him whether the centre backs or the midfielders picked him . i think it was tchoumeni's job but he failed miserably in that . spain had flat two in front of the back four but france had kante and rabiot high up the pitch and not along side tchoumeni and that was causing a lot of trouble . i think deschamps should had put on midfielder besides his holding man for cover . secondly he should had just started griezman instead of demebele who is wastes chances .
spain responded very nicely . yamal equalized for spain . now just look at the way spain were defending against mbappe . as soon as mbappe received the ball there would be the right back navas and luiz who would drop on mbappe helping navas to deal with mbappe . now i dont know why france didnt use mendi who is much better defender compared to hernandez who is good at going forward but cant say that about his defense . now the second goal .everybody is talking about the second goal as to how he fooled tchoumeni but still in the that half just look at the the flick that olmo did to put ball at morata's feet . i had said that the striker should be always ready to pull the trigger . he didnt expect the ball but that just shows olmo's reading of the game and his ability . france chased the game in second half but since there was no game plan and cohesion spain were just comfortable . he brought giroud but it was little too late . i think its time france bid goodbye to deschamps it would be stupidity to waste such talents cause a good coach can gel them together and can create a very good winning team
england started the game with 4-3-3 while netherlands started with 4-2-1-3 . many call saka and watkins the hero of the game but for me the kid mainoo was the hero of the game. england started the game better the reason being that england had 3 against 2 in the middle of the park and the were able to defend very nicely the reason why england dominated is because simmons who was suppose to playing no.10 was very poor . dutch took the lead when simmons who was just hopeless ( i wonder how he is 50 mil player) dislodged rice another hopeless england player off the ball and had a shot which he will remember for the lifetime . on the other hand mainoo was just dominating the england midfield the kid was running the game and very good on the ball . had there been a better coach then he would had asked him to play him no.10 atleast no.8 and asked others to play around him . his passing ability and game reading ability is very good and will only improve .
i think that palmer should had been brought earlier his passing ability is similar to me . seeing the angles and most importantly passing the ball right to the feet with proper weight . watking just finished what palmer served him i think he should start in the final game . last but not the least if tripper keep his place for the finals then we will see a drubbing by spain .
last but not the least but the game has got ugly and to be honest coaches just dont think about the offensive game anymore they are just concerned of not conceding rahter than scoring .
