With 11 days until the spectacle in Germany, the warm-up for the European Championship started - two big favorites, but also one who is certainly in the narrow circle of those who could go all the way, were the first to run onto the field.
England defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina (3:0) in Newcastle, Germany and Ukraine were not in the mood for goals in Nuremberg (0:0), while Croatia easily got the better of North Macedonia (3:0) in Rijeka.
Gareth Southgate decided to play a combined team in the first preparatory match, so BiH held on well for 60 minutes on the debut of head coach Sergej Barbarez.
The first goal for "proud Albion" at "St. James Park" was scored by a specialist for penalty by Cole Palmer from the penalty spot, in order to finish the match Trent-Alexander Arnold from the volley and eternal master Harry Kane made the final 3:0.
In the duel in Nuremberg between the selections that will perform at the Euros, the Ukrainians were certainly more satisfied, who mostly defended themselves, but were also dangerous from the few chances they created.
Julian Nagelsmann fielded a strong lineup with Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Ilkay Gundogan, Jamal Musial, Florian Firtz and Kai Havertz, but failed to find the back of the net.
More precisely, the closest to that was the reserve and debutant Max Bayer - the Hoffenheim striker hit the crossbar as soon as he entered the game, then took another dangerous shot...
The flight to the Euros was caught in the right way by Croatia, which defeated North Macedonia 3:0 at "Rujevica".
Lovro Majer had a great evening, twice shaking the national team led by Blagoj Milevski - the Wolfsburg midfielder's first goal was free kick mastery, while the other arrived after nice assists from Bruno Petković.
The end of this game was put by the guy who plays it in his stadium - Marko Pasalic, midfielder of Rijeka.
Albania and Scotland were the easiest rivals to start with from the selections that will perform at the Euro - our south-eastern neighbors defeated Liechtenstein (3:0) with goals from Armand Broja, Jasir Asani and Ernest Mući, while the Islanders, through Ryan Christie and Che Adams, were better than Gibraltar (2:0).
Bonus video:
