The Netherlands denied against France; Poland eliminated; Ukraine win

Friday saw three more EURO 2024 group games as the round of 16 began to take shape.Controversial VAR call denies the Dutch the winFrance have a very controversial VAR call going in their favour to thank for securing them a 0-0 draw against the Netherlands in a game that did not quite live up to its billing.Ronald Koeman’s side almost got off to a dream start inside a minute when Jeremie Frimpong broke free. A combination of Théo Hernandez’s tracking back and Mike Maignan in the French goal stopped him from scoring.Antoine Griezmann tested Bart Verbruggen with a cracking effort from range that the Dutch keeper did well to tip over.Griezmann and Adrien Rabiot then conspired to mess up a golden opportunity when baring down on Verbruggen. The Juventus midfielder’s sideways ball went behind his striker and the Dutch survived.The game continued at a rather leisurely pace, possibly due to the humidity in the stadium, with spurts of attacking play from both sides.As half-time came, despite several efforts on goal, there was a feeling this highly-anticipated game had not yet exploded.Little changed after the restart with both sides continuing to feel each other out without a goal ever feeling likely.N’Golo Kanté was the one star player who really showed out, as his remarkable renaissance at this EUROs goes from strength to strength.As the game progressed, France began to take control but could not apply the finishing touch. The presence of Kylian Mbappé on the bench was a symbol of that.The Dutch thought they had taken the lead in the 69th minute through Xavi Simons. After good build up play from Cody Gakpo and Memphis Depay, the ball rebounded out to the young forward, who slotted the ball home.However, Frimpong was in offside position and controversially ruled to be in the eye line of Maignan by VAR.Neither side looked like scoring for the remainder of the game as they both somewhat settled for a point.Both sides are now on four points and almost certain to be into the round of 16, and either could end up topping it.Austria beat Poland 3-1Scorers: Trauner 9′, Baumgartner 67′, Arnautovic 79′: Piatek 30′Two quick second half goals helped Austria beat Poland and leave them eyeing up a spot in the last 16 of the tournament.Both sides were looking to get their EURO 2024 campaigns underway after losing the opening game and Austria began the game on the front foot, with Stefan Posch firing in a speculative effort that was held by Wojciech Szczesny.A flurry of set pieces kept Poland under the cosh in the first ten minutes, and their flying start was rewarded as defender Gernot Trauner met a cross with a powerful header which flew past Szczesny.Poland began to grow into the game, and Nicola Zalewski fired their first effort over when well placed just before the midway point of the first half.But their increased pressure told on the half hour mark, when a scrappy corner resulted in Krzysztof Piątek firing home an equaliser for Poland.Austria began to press on once more, with Marcel Sabtizer firing wide from distance, while Piotr Zielinski saw a free kick well saved for Poland.The game continued in an end-to-end fashion as the second half began, with both sides wasting chances when well placed.Poland turned to their bench, bringing Robert Lewandowski into the fray after injury saw him miss the first game and a half.But it was Austria that re-took the lead with the first moment of quality in the second half. A dummy from Marko Arnautovic found Christoph Baumgartner, who found a fine low finish to beat the keeper and restore his country’s lead.Minutes later, Sabitzer snatched a loose ball before being felled by Szczesny, with Arnautovic converting the subsequent penalty to hand them a two goal cushion.It was a blow that Poland could not come back from, and they now cannot make the knockout stage. Austria, on the other hand, could qualify even if they lose to Netherlands in the final group game.Ukraine come from behind to defeat SlovakiaScorers: Schranz 17′; Shaparenko 54′, Yaremchuk 80′Ukraine came from behind to defeat Slovakia 2-1 and reignite their hopes of qualification for the knockout rounds.In a relatively even start, both sides had half-chances to create something but failed to due to a lack of quality with their final ball.In the 17th minute, Slovakia opened the scoring through Ivan Schranz. A looping cross from Lukas Haraslin missed all of the Ukrainian defenders and the scorer of the winner against Belgium got another, heading past Anatoliy Trubin.The nature of the goal symbolised the nerviness in Sergei Rebrov’s side, which was evident in their opening day hammering by Romania. The dropping of Andriy Lunin did not make a difference as his replacement floundered in his attempt to save the effort.Artem Dovbyk almost equalised in the 28th minute after brilliantly moving past a few defenders with some excellent feet. However, just as he was about to strike, Peter Pekarík got in his way to force a corner.Slovakia had Martin Dúbravka to thank for keeping them in the lead shortly after, first tipping Oleksandr Tymchyk’s strike onto the post before closing down Mykhailo Mudryk after he got in behind the defence.As has been the case in the tournament so far, Ukraine were nearly the architects of their own downfall just before half time, giving the ball away in a dangerous position. Fortunately for them, Trubin did well to stop Haraslin making it 2-0.In need of a spark, Mudryk almost provided it for his side, skipping past a defender before whipping the ball in the direction of Dovybyk. The LaLiga top scorer, however, got his lines all wrong for the header.Ukraine equalised in the 54th minute, Mykola Shaparenko smartly finishing inside the box after Zinchenko cut the ball back to him. It was only the second international goal for the Dynamo Kiev midfielder.The goal changed the momentum of the game with Rebrov’s side the one pushing for a winner as the game moved towards the final 20 minutes.They really should have gone 2-1 up when substitute Roman Yaremchuk broke with the ball and ran at the Slovak defence. His ball to Mudryk, though, pulled the Chelsea man away from goal and unable to finish.Yaremchuk made up for it minutes later, latching onto a ball over the top by Shaparenko. His first touch and delicate poked finish past Dubravka were both exquisite.The Slovaks looked laboured as they struggled to create any chances of note in the final 10 minutes and added time.Ukraine’s win means they move above Slovakia on head-to-head as Group E looks set to go to the wire.