On Thursday, heritage day is celebrated at Euro 2024 with three monuments on the grass: the reborn Spain and the current champion Italy, protagonists of the ‘Latin classic’ in Gelsenkirchen, and the eternal candidate England, who plays against the needy Denmark in Frankfurt.
It will be the fifth consecutive European Championship in which they face each other, the 41st episode of an eternal rivalry.
A mirror or a role model?
His coaches couldn’t offer a more different analysis. The Spaniard Luis de la Fuente highlights the similarities: “It’s like looking in a mirror; “It is a growing team, with young people and a new coach.”
“We have to progress before we can play your football,” Luciano Spalletti however responded to a Spanish journalist. “We were inspired, it is offensive, pressure football, in which even the goalkeeper participates,” he described.
De la Fuente had understood his colleague’s game. “Spalletti is a great coach but flattery is not going to weaken us,” he said with a half smile.
On the first day the Red left a better taste in the mouth than the Azzurra. The first won 3-0 against Croatia in a display of efficiency, while the second lost 1-0 against Albania from the first minute and managed to come back (2-1).
Their clash will be the unofficial final of group B: If there is a winner, they will be in the round of 16 before the last day, with a good chance of taking first place.
England wants to improve
The only team qualified at the moment is the host Germany, which unleashed a concert of car horns throughout the country by sealing its place by beating Hungary 2-0 in Stuttgart on Wednesday, without the brilliance of the debut (5-1) but with the necessary solidity in a great tournament.
“We know we have to be better against a strong Danish team. The players will notice that they have a first game under their belts,” declared their coach Gareth Southgate.
Denmark arrives after having started with an unexpected slip, the 1-1 draw against the Slovenian team of Jan Oblak and Benjamin Sesko.
With morale through the roof after this point, Slovenia will play on Thursday against Serbia, bottom of Group C, in the first round (1:00 p.m. GMT).
