Kickoff chronicles

Romania vs Netherlands

The final day of Round of 16 kicked off with Romania playing the Netherlands in what looked an exciting knockout tie. Romania came out strongly for the first 15 minutes, playing the ball quickly and dominating possession. They weren’t able to get anything out of their little spell though as the experienced Dutch defence kept them at bay. Romania soon wore themselves out, allowing the Netherlands to hit back at them. It was in the 20th minute when the Oranje found the lead through the exciting young striker Coady Gakpo. The Liverpool man received the ball from Xavi Simons down the left wing where he looked to beat his defender and cut in. He did so successfully before cracking a shot at the near post, fooling Romania keeper Florin Nita as it fizzed in at the closer side. Netherlands dominated the rest of the half and only resilient Romanian defending prevented them from going into the interval with a 0-2 lead. The score at the break was 0-1 with Romania offering up nothing in an attacking sense since the opening 15 minutes.

Gakpo thought he had found his 2nd of the match when he prodded the ball into the roof of the net after Donyell Malen brought down Jerdy Schouten’s cross down from him inside the 6 yard box. Gakpo never looked confident that he was onside when Malen controlled the ball down for him and his hesitation to celebrate was justified when VAR chalked the goal off. With Romania somehow managing to hold on and keep the score to just 0-1 for the majority of the second period, the Dutch finally sealed their place in the final 8 when Malen scored to make it 0-2 in the 83rd minute. Gakpo received the ball deep inside the Romanian penalty area before he took it to the bi-line. He was then strong, holding off the challenge from Radu Dragusin while still managing to keep the ball in play. Gakpo then poked the ball into the middle of the 6 yard area, putting the ball on a plate for Malen to tuck away, capping off a brilliant Dutch goal. Malen then put the cherry on top of a perfect Netherlands performance when he received the ball in his own half with space to dribble as there was no one back for Romania. He progressed into the penalty area before slicing between two defenders and then drilling the ball into the bottom left corner. The full time whistle went with the score finishing 0-3 to the Netherlands. They were to find out in just a couple of hours who they were playing, the winner of the final Round of 16 tie, Austria vs Turkey. Romania couldn’t hold on in the end but it was a tournament to be proud of, especially their 3-0 drumming of Ukraine with some spectacular goals scored in that match.

Austria vs Turkey

The last game of the Round of 16 kicked off in the Leipzig Stadium with two dark horses going at each other with Austria playing Turkey. Starting off electrically, Turkey found a lead inside 1 minute. Ardu Guller’s corner was dangerous, causing all sorts of mayhem in the Austria area as it was eventually punched off the line by keeper Patrick Pentz. In the end, centre half Merih Demiral slid in to smash the ball into the roof of the net. Austria dominated the rest of the half and came so close to scoring on multiple occasions, having to watch the ball agonisingly just glide wide of the post more than once. The half finished 0-1 but Austria had definitely found their feet in the game.

Unfortunately for Ralf Rangnick and his Austrian team, they went down 0-2 in the 59th minute thanks to another well worked Turkish set piece. It was totally against the run of play, but Turkey didn’t care. It came via another Arda Guller corner which was headed in perfectly by centre back Demiral. Having never scored for his national team before, Demiral had capped off a perfect personal performance, defending well so far to keep the Austrians out plus scoring a brace. It was only a matter of time before Rangnick’s side eventually found the back of the net and they did in the 66th minute from a corner. With all the magnificent goals the two sides had scored so far, it was a bit of a shock that all 3 goals in the tie had come from set pieces. Marcel Sabitzer crossed in the ball where Stefan Posch flicked it over to the back post. There to smash in the flick on was substitute Michael Gregoritsch who made no mistake, drilling it into the roof of the Turkish goal. Now that the game had sprung back to life, Austria were desperate for a late equaliser to send the game into additional time. They weren’t able to conjure up a major chance in the normal time of 90 minutes but they found the perfect chance with just 6 seconds of injury time to play. The ball bounced out to Sabitzer who was down the left wing. On the volley, the Borussia Dortmund midfielder smashed the ball back into the box. Making a late run to the back post was Christoph Baumgartner. He executed his header to perfection, powering the ball into the turf making for an almost impossible save. Little did Baumgertner know, he had just unearthed a new Turkish legend, watching as shot stopper Mert Gunok somehow leapt to his right to deny Austria the late, late, equaliser and send Tukrey through to the last 8. Turkey cleared the corner and the final whistle was blown sending the Turkish fans wild. Mert Gunok was the hero in the end, making a spectacular save which some pundits are already rating as one of the best in football history, and definitely the best in Turkish history. Turkey will continue their underdog tale in the quarter finals as they play the Netherlands in 4 days time. Austria will be disappointed after they had such a successful group stage, topping it with the likes of France, Netherlands, and Poland. Many people had them to go through all the way to the final on this side of the bracket.

Written by Ollie Wade