Euro 2020: More Brighton players in quarter finals than Real Madrid
How is this for a stat? As Euro 2020 (in 2021) enters its quarter final stages, Brighton & Hove Albion now have more players left at the tournament than both Real Madrid and Arsenal.
Three Seagulls remain in the last eight of the competition. Ben White with England, Leandro Trossard with Belgium and Robert Sanchez with Spain.
Given that those nations all feature in the bookies’ top four for tournament winners, it seems likely that one man will make history as the first ever Albion player to be involved in a major competition win for their nation.
Where else can we start our last 16 round up than at Wembley? England gave football in this country one of its greatest nights when beating Germany in a knockout game at a tournament for the first time since the 1966 World Cup Final.
Wembley rocked despite being only half full as goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane won it 2-0 for the Three Lions. It was an emotional evening, not least for Gareth Southgate who might have finally got some closure 25 years on from that penalty miss at Euro 1996.
When Southgate was busy seeing that decisive spot kick saved by Andreas Köpke, Brighton had just been relegated to the bottom tier of English football, were homeless with only one year’s tenancy left at the Goldstone Ground and seemed to be heading out of business.
To have White in the squad – albeit he has not made it onto the pitch yet at the competition – is a sign of just how far the Albion have come since the summer of ’96.
England eliminating Germany from Euro 2020 (in 2021) also paved the way for that little stat we threw out in the introduction – Toni Kroos of Real Madrid was banished from the tournament, leaving Brighton with more players than the Spanish giants in the competition. Again, that seems ridiculous.
Of course, that means there are more Brighton players in Spain’s Euro 2020 (in 2021) squad than there are Real Madrid. Sanchez was an unused substitute as Luis Enrique’s side booked their quarter final berth with a crazy 5-3 win over Croatia.
The Albion goalkeeper watched on from the bench as Unai Simon made a terrible error to gift Croatia the lead, failing to control Pedri’s back pass from 50 yards away and letting the ball slip under his foot. Sanchez would never…
Enrique looked furious with his goalkeeper but any chance of Sanchez usurping Simon for the next round appear unlikely as Simon recovered impressively, going onto make some crucial saves to redeem himself.
The interventions of the Athletic Bilbao number one looked like they would help Spain into the last eight in normal time. They led 3-1 going into the final five minutes thanks to goals from Pablo Sarabia, Cesar Azpilicueta and Ferran Torres.
Croatia though had other ideas and managed to secure an additional 30 minutes through late efforts from substitutes Mislav Orsic and Mario Pasalic.
The momentum seemed to be with the Croats. Spain though showed that they can fight as well as string 100 passes together and rack up even more impressive xG stats than Brighton as Alvaro Morata and Mikel Oyarzabal finally won it.
In Seville, Trossard and Belgium eliminated the holders Portugal via a 1-0 win. Thorgan Hazard hit a wonderful distance drive towards the end of the first half to leave Cristiano Ronaldo throwing toys out of his pram all over southern Spain at the final whistle.
Worryingly for Belgium however, they saw both Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard injured. The creative duo are now doubts for the Red Devils’ mouth watering quarter final with Italy on Sunday, which might give Trossard an opportunity to play. He was an unused sub against Portugal.
Sanchez and Spain take on Switzerland on Saturday at 5pm. England and White are in action against Ukraine at 8pm. There may be a lot of sore heads across the country on Sunday morning.
One man who will not be in action again at Euro 2020 (in 2021) is Joel Veltman. Having cruised through the group stage with a 100 percent record, the Netherlands suffered a shock 2-0 defeat against Czech Republic.
Matthijs de Ligt was sent off for the Dutch in the second half for denying dangerous Czech forward Patrik Schick a clear goal scoring opportunity.
Shick has been linked with a summer move to the Albion from Bayer Leverkusen with no lesser judge than Glenn Murray suggesting that Shick has everything needed to thrive in the Premier League.
The striker showed that again when adding the Czech’s second, completing a famous win after Tomas Holes had headed his nation into the lead 13 minutes after the red card.
You may remember that our last Euro 2020 (in 2021) round up mainly ended up being about Moises Caicedo earning rave reviews in the Copa America for Ecuador.
Unfortunately, this turned out to be something of a jinx as Caicedo exited Ecuador’s final group game against Brazil with what appeared to be nasty looking knee injury after only 17 minutes.
A scan later confirmed that miraculously there was no long term damage. It has even been reported in Ecuador that Caicedo might be fit to face Argentina in the quarter finals at 2am on Sunday morning English time.
That clash with the Argies was booked via a surprise 1-1 draw against Brazil, enabling Ecuador to climb above Venezeuela in Group B and into the last eight.
Eder Militao headed Brazil into the lead, only for Angel Mena – the man who replaced Caicedo – to equalise eight minutes into the second half as Ecuador ended the Seleção’s 10 game winning run
Of course, the Albion have been here before with players on international duty with South American nations picking up knee injuries and them being misdiagnosed.
Jose Izquierdo’s problems all stemmed from a problem at the 2018 World Cup with Colombia which went onto be chronically mismanaged by everyone involved. Brighton will be hoping that this is not a case of history repeating itself for Caicedo, a young player who has the world at his feet.
