Following Italy’s dominance of Wednesday’s European Championship action by beating Switzerland 3-0 in Rome, it was the turn of Ukraine, Netherlands and Belgium to take centre stage on Thursday.
Ukraine 2-1 North Macedonia
Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk put Ukraine into an early lead over Goran Pandev’s side in the earliest of the days three games, with Ruslan Malinovskyi starting.
Ezgjan Alioski pulled one back for North Macedonia, but it wasn’t to be enough to overturn the 2-0 deficit they found themselves facing at half time.
Denmark 1-2 Belgium
Nothing that happens on the pitch for Denmark is likely to be of any significance after the terrifying collapse of Christian Eriksen over the weekend although, thankfully, the Inter player is doing well now.
Yussuf Poulsen did manage to put the Danes ahead inside two minutes, but Kevin De Bruyne’s half-time introduction changed the game.
The Manchester City star assisted Thorgan Hazard to level and then went on to score the winner himself.
Netherlands 2-0 Austria
With just about 10 minutes played, the Netherlands got themselves in front through Barcelona target Memphis Depay, with Real Madrid’s David Alaba having conceding a penalty.
Alaba’s troubled night continued as he let Memphis get in behind him, but the Dutchman couldn’t take advantage once behind the Austrian backline. Memphis had another glorious chance for a second just before half time but send his shot over the crossbar from right in front of goal.
Both Stefan de Vrij and Matthijs de Ligt went close on the end of a set piece, and it started to look as though the Dutch just wouldn’t be able to find the second goal their performance deserved.
Midway through the second half, though, it came. A swift counterattack put Donyell Malen through and as he approached goal he squared to Denzel Dumfries to tap into an open goal.
