MATCH REPORT
Turkey 1 - 2 Italy
Buruk 61 Conte 52
Inzaghi pen 70
Not a great first-half, but the match came to life in the second period with Antonio Conte scoring an overhead kick on 52 minutes after Inzaghi's centre was only propelled up in the air by a Turkish defender following good work by Stefano Fiore....Within 10 minutes though, Turkey had registered their first goal at a European Championship Finals, Okan Buruk the beneficiary of some appalling marking, heading home just after the hour....Although Italy were deserved winners, the manner of their clinching goal left a bit to be desired, Pippo Inzaghi tumbling in the area following a fairly innocent looking challenge, and rifling home the spot kick....The first bit of pure class was also in evidence, Alessandro Del Piero entering the fray with just a quarter of an hour to go, and still managing to hit the bar with a wickedly curling free kick and have a shot cleared off the line....In addition to this Conte also hit the bar with Inzaghi pathetically scuffing the rebound to a defender's feet on the line....All in all, a fair result...
MATCH REPORT
France 3 - 0 Denmark
Blanc 14
Henry 64
Wiltord 90
The first collective class act of the tournament, the world champions never really looked in any danger....that is, at least not after their third minute scare which involved the French defence being split wide open, Desailly falling on his arse, and Jon Dahl Tomasson (remember him? Now you see why...) tamely hitting Barthez's legs from point-blank range......Thereafter, Laurent Blanc played a double one-two with two of his colleagues after 13 minutes, and when the ball was threaded through to an incredibly onside Nicolas Anelka and Schmeichel diverted the ball away from him, Blanc had followed up, and calmly accepted his reward, slotting in as the Danish defence desperately tried to catch the play up....France's second arrived after Danish pressure was soaked up, and Zidane set Henry racing away down the left....he ran unchallenged from inside his own half to put the game safe......Then, deep into injury time, Sylvian Wiltord scored from Vieira's centre after the French got in behind the Danes once more....only this time Wiltord really was offside...but no-one cared....
MATCH REPORT
Netherlands 1 - 0 Czech Rep.
F. De Boer pen 89
And the first mugging of the tournament! The Dutch had marginally the better of the first half, Kluivert and Bergkamp both going close, but in the second half it was all 'völlig Tsechisch,' with Poborsky (remember him?) somehow missing from a yard, Koller shooting tamely at the keeper after a neat one-two, and hitting the bar with a header, and most unluckily of all, Pavel Nedved's header hitting the inside of Van der Sar's left hand post, and bouncing smack on the goal-line before the grateful goalie grabbed it.....with all this it was somehow inevitable that the Dutch would ride their luck and snatch an undeserved winner, and thus it proved a minute from the end with another debatable penalty being converted by Frank de Boer....Not bad viewing, thus far....