EURO 2020 QUARTER FINAL PREVIEW

Euro 2020 has now reached fever pitch and we cannot wait to see how it all pans out. The Round of 16 offered us crazy non-stop entertainment that kept us at the edge of our seats. From Italy's Extra time revival to Switzerland stunning France the Euros have well and truly lived up to expectation. Nothing compares to tournament drama .

France was given a friendly reminder that football is played on the pitch and no one is assured of victory. The Spanish were given one hell of a scare by Croatia who came from 3-1 down to tie it up in normal time . England somewhat surprised their own fans by edging Germany in what was a tight encounter. Czech's stunned the Dutch while Ukraine's fight proved too much for Sweden. Belgium did a professional job to dump out Portugal leaving a new king to be throned this month.

Football fans all over the world are living a dream . What more could we ask for?

The drama is far from over as we now take a look at the Quarter final matches.

BELGIUM VS ITALY

This is undoubtedly the tie of the round. Two teams who deserve to be champions but only one of them will progress. Two brilliant managers with a talented pool of players . While Mancini has done an incredible job so far one could argue that Roberto Martinez has underperformed come the big stage. Belgium have been world number one for over two years now but have not won a major tournament. Italy are a team on the up , the progress is there for all to see but can they win it ?

For Belgium this is it. This is the time to win it. Majority of their golden generation are in their twilight years and will not get a second bite at the apple. Belgium have been here before and failed . Euro 2016 dumped out at the quarter finals by Aaron Ramsey and co before falling narrowly in the Semi finals of the World cup to France. Could they go one better this time?

One man my hold the key to this . Romelu Lukaku. The in form striker in world football. There have always been doubts surrounding his capability to deliver for Belgium but he has never been more ready. Having delivered Inter's first league title in 10 years Lukaku is full of confidence . He will fancy his chances against an aged Italian backline who he knows extremely well from Serie A.

The supporting cast isn't bad either as shown by Thorgan Hazard's excellent goal against Portugal. Kevin De Bruyne should be fit for this one while Hazard did show flashes of his old self against Portugal.

Tactically Roberto Martinez has persisted with the 3-4-3 . While there are worries about the age of his backline , Belgium set up well against Portugal covering spaces Denmark had earlier exposed.

Italy survived a scare against Austria but unlike France , they were able to drag themselves to the quarters. It will have got Mancini thinking alot. They were so poor for majority of the second half but were saved by their quality from the bench. However that performance planted a seed of doubt in not only pundits but also the Italian fans.

There are so many questions that only Mancini has the answers to. Does Verrati start or does Locatelli come back to the side ? Who starts upfront? Does Chiesa start or come of the bench? Does Chiellini come into the team ? So many questions that we will only know come kick off.

How we I see the game panning out

It will be one of those tactical battles that will be won by genius decisions by the managers, individual brilliance or mistakes. Belgium should learn from Austria and put the Italians under pressure especially in midfield . Jorginho controls everything and if they can put him off his game then the battle will be half won. Without the ball Belgium should put numbers in the box to track the runs of Barella and Immobile. As shown by Austria immobile isn't what you need against a very deep block. Give him space however and he will exploit it. Upfront Belgium should try as much as possible to give Lukaku chances to run at the Italian defense . It is for sure not the quickest.

For Italy there are more questions than answers at moment. But they will hope Belgium will not sit back too much so that their dynamic forwards in Insigne Immobile Berardi or Chiesa can get space to run into. Denmark exploited this part perfectly earlier in the group stage. If Italy can stretch the Belgian backline then they will have a big chance of winning. In midfield they need to be compact and press Belgium as much as possible .

It will be interesting to see whether Mancini decides to be a little more cautious so as to protect his backline.

This will be a fascinating tactical contest and we back whoever wins this tie to go all the way.

Verdict : BELGIUM 1 : 2 ITALY

SWITZERLAND VS SPAIN

Switzerland have been to the dead and back. Their comeback against France will push them to win against Spain. The Spanish however, look to have finally got their scoring game on. First two group games they couldn't score but 10 goals have followed in the last two games.

Defense is one area both teams could improve on with both conceding 3 in the round of 16. The Spanish will likely dominate possession but like Croatia showed , if you put balls into the box you always have a chance against them . Haris Seferovic will be the danger man especially in the air and if the Swiss can deliver quality crosses he will trouble Spain.

However we should remember Switzerland were 3-1 down and were it not for France's complacency they would have been eliminated.

Verdict : SWITZERLAND 0 : 2 SPAIN

ENGLAND VS UKRAINE

In some ways English fans and media were surprised with their win against Germany. There was so much negativity surrounding Gareth Southgate's tactics that the win against the Germans caught them all by surprise. The newspapers were ready to batter Southgate but football is a funny old game. Gareth Southgate got his tactics spot and the reward? A ' kind' route to the final.

Ukraine was a team I highlighted in my Euros preview. They had really strong performances against France and Spain prior to the tournament. Their team spirit is their strength complimented by the talents of Yarmolenko , Zinchenko, Yaremchuk and Malinovskyi. Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk especially have been really impressive this tournament.

England have been rock solid this Euros and I expect they will prove to have too much quality for Ukraine. Sterling seems like a man out to prove his doubters wrong and with Harry Kane notching his first goal of the Euros England will be heavy favourites.

Southgate has a wealth of talent to call upon especially if Ukraine decide to play deep.

Verdict : ENGLAND 2 :1 UKRAINE

DENMARK VS CZECH REPUBLIC

Denmark were incredible in their 4-0 demolition of Wales . Despite missing Yussuf Poulsen , Kasper Dolberg stepped up scoring a beautiful goal and causing havoc left right and center. Mikkel Damsgaard had another good game once again and is promising to be one of the standout young players of the tournament . They have put Eriksen's incident behind them and are now looking forward to making history by booking their ticket to the Semi finals.

The Czech have been proving everyone wrong all tournament. They had a terrible build up to the tournament suffering a heavy defeat to Italy only 10 days to the tournament but have been superb so far. They have a core of quality hard working players plus a striker in form . Patrick Schick has been outstanding for them together with the duo of Coufal and Soucek. They can frustrate any team when they decide to be compact.

The Danish have a strong midfield pivot in Delaney and Højberg who work extremely hard in both boxes . I feel that the Dutch game suited the Czech's as we all knew how fragile the Dutch were defensively under De Boer and if you could be compact you always had a chance of frustrating them . Well that's exactly what Czech did . With Denmark I don't get that sense of fragility in defense and think it will be a really tight encounter considering both teams are solid .

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