09:00
Sponsors are not having it all their own way at this Euros. This from Reuters:
France midfielder Paul Pogba removed a bottle of Heineken beer that had been placed in front of him at a Euro 2020 news conference on Tuesday, a day after Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo moved aside Coca-Cola bottles in a similar set-up.
Pogba, a practising Muslim, removed the bottle when he sat down to speak to the media after he was named ‘Man of the Match’ in France’s 1-0 Group F win over Germany.
On Monday, Ronaldo removed two bottles of Coca-Cola at a news conference and held up a bottle of water shouting “Agua” in Portuguese.
08:29
So anyway, let’s look forward. We start at 2pm BST with Finland v Russia in St Petersburg. The Finns’ historic opening win over Denmark was completely and understandably overshadowed by Christian Eriksen’s collapse but, focusing on the pitch, they have a golden opportunity to progress, particularly given Russia’s pallid display against Belgium last Saturday, perhaps the poorest of any side in the opening round of fixtures. We’ll have hot minute-by-minute coverage from lunchtime.
Later, it’s crunch time for Wales, who need to improve on a slightly flat and disjointed opening display against Switzerland when they face Turkey, who produced an even flatter performance in being eviscerated by Italy. Wales are braced for a feisty atmosphere at a game where Turkey supporters will be in a clear majority. Our man in Baku, Ben Fisher, previews it all here.
But Wales’s hardy travelling fans are well used to being miles from home, outnumbered, odds stacked against them, and coming home with a few tales to tell. All of which gives me an excuse to re-up Elis James’s wonderful pre-tournament piece about the Wales away counterculture, and not just because a couple of longstanding mates get some airtime. Not just about Wales but about what football fandom in general can be with the right attitude:
08:17
Preamble
Morning everyone, and welcome to day six of Euro 2020, and at this early hour we’re still very much digesting last night’s eventful encounter in Munich, where France showed the sort of supreme, efficient economy that won them the World Cup in seeing off Germany 1-0. There was only one goal but a multitude of talking points: the pre-match Greenpeace parachute protest that went wrong when the demonstrator got caught in an overhead camera cable, resulting in several fans being injured; a briefly alarming injury on the pitch to France’s Benjamin Pavard, who admitted losing consciousness “for 10 to 15 seconds” after a clash with Robin Gosens; and, on a weirder tip, Antonio Rüdiger taking a bite out of Paul Pogba. Barney Ronay writes on the Manchester United midfielder’s imperious display here.
It was all something of a headline-stealer from His record-breaking feats with Portugal earlier in the evening. Cristiano Ronaldo embellished a not totally convincing Portugal performance against a tenacious Hungary with two late goals, having missed a sitter earlier in the game, to become the European Championship’s record goalscorer. It all sets up Portugal v Germany on Saturday deliciously. Ronaldo’s also been sticking it to The Man by seemingly single-handedly wiping off millions from the value of soft drink conglomerates.
We’ll chat about today’s games in a moment but in the meantime, inject today’s Euro 2020 Daily into your ears before facing the world: