Soccer-Quick guide to Euro 2024 semi-finals
By Karolos Grohmann
BERLIN, July 8 (Reuters) -The four remaining teams at the European Championship will take centre stage in the semi-finals to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here is a quick guide to the fixtures (times in GMT).
SPAIN v FRANCE
Tuesday – Munich, 1900
Spain, three-times European champions, will try to earn a shot at a record fourth title against 2022 World Cup finalists France.
Spain, with 11 goals so far in the tournament, have the highest tally of all four teams in the semi-finals with 10 of those goals coming from inside the box.
They are the only team to have won all five of their games so far at Euro 2024, while they also have the highest number of goal attempts (102).
Despite featuring one of the world's top strikers in Kylian Mbappe, France, twice European champions, have only three goals in their five matches so far, via two own goals and a penalty.
They have managed to keep four clean sheets in their five matches so far but have just under 30% fewer goal attempts than their opponents going into the semi-final
NETHERLANDS V ENGLAND
Wednesday – Dortmund, 1900
The two sides met five years ago at the same stage of the Nations League with the Dutch winning 3-1 in extra time.
Neither team have been convincing at the tournament to date despite the array of talent at their disposal, but they have potential match-winners who only need an instant to find a decisive moment.
England were seconds away from elimination before a 95th minute Jude Bellingham overhead kick rescued them against Slovakia in the last-16.
Despite England's below-par performances in Germany, they are unbeaten in their last 12 Euro matches (not including their shootout defeat in the 2020 final), winning eight, and last tasted defeat against Iceland in 2016.
Netherlands had their best performance of the tournament in their comprehensive 3-0 win over Romania in the round of 16, but needed to dig deep to score twice in six minutes to come from a goal down and edge Turkey 2-1 in the last eight.
The Dutch have reached the Euro last four for the first time since 2004 having finished third in their group behind France and Austria.
Netherlands and England are both aiming to reach their second Euro showiece match, with the latter eyeing back-to-back finals after losing to Italy in 2021. The Dutch have not reached the final since lifting the trophy back in 1988.
Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
