A tap in from Wayne Rooney clinches a 1-0 victory for England and sets up a quarter final showdown with Italy on Sunday June 24. France go through as Group D runners-up despite a 2-0 loss against Sweden that saw Laurent Blanc’s side lose for the first time in 24 games – hardly the perfect preparation for their last eight clash with champions Spain:
England 1 Ukraine 0
Roy Hodgson makes just one change from the XI that started the previous match against Sweden. With his two-match suspension now over, Wayne Rooney made an instant return to the first-team as Andy Carroll dropped to the bench. The United man made the difference up front, firing four shots and scoring the only goal of the match, courtesy of a close-range tap-in early in the second half. Steven Gerrard created three goalscoring opportunities and provided the assist for Rooney’s goal – the England skipper now stands on 18 points and is one of only four players to pick up attacking returns in all three rounds of group matches.
Joleon Lescott’s clean sheet and extra point for recovered balls took his tally to 17 points – at 5.6, he’s been the best value player in Hodgson’s side and, like Gerrard and Rooney, can expect plenty of Fantasy investment prior to Thursday evening’s deadline. While the likes of Lescott has over 18% ownership, Rooney has a mere 4.4% due to his recent ban and looks like a decent differential armband option for day four of the quarter finals.
A tournament that had started so promisingly ended in bitter disappointment for the co-hosts. Ukraine’s Matchday one victory over Sweden was no more than a distant memory, as back-to-back defeats against France and England sealed their fate. Oleg Blokhin tinkered with his starting XI, changing four of his first-team for the must-win match. The front two were changed – Andriy Shevchenko was unable to shake off a knee injury and only made the bench, while Andriy Voronin was also omitted, with Marko Devic and Artem Milevskyi handed the forward roles. At the back, Yaroslav Rakitskiy replaced Taras Mikhalik at centre-half, while Sergei Nazarenko dropped out for Denis Garmash in central midfield.
Yevhen Konoplyanka had five attempts but managed a mere one on target, while both Yevhen Selin and Andriy Yarmolenko created four goalscoring opportunities apiece but England – aided by a bizarre linesman’s call – held firm to chalk up their first clean sheet of the tournament and set up a showdown with Italy.
France 0 Sweden 2
Erik Hamren’s men finished the tournament with their pride intact, after stunning the Group D favourites 2-0. The Sweden boss made a couple of enforced changes – with Johan Elmander and Rasmus Elm both injured, Ola Toivonen and Emir Bajrami were handed starting roles up front and on the left respectively. Seb Larsson was the star man on the night for the Swedes – the Sunderland winger provided a goal and assist and had four attempts on goal, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic rewarded his 17% of Fantasy owners by notching his second goal of the tournament.
Laurent Blanc rested Yohan Cabaye after the Newcastle midfielder picked up a thigh problem in the previous match, allowing Yann M’Vila his first start of the tournament. Out wide, Jeremy Menez missed out despite scoring against Ukraine –Hatem Ben Arfa was the replacement as France kept with the 4-2-3-1 formation that helped them defeat Ukraine last time round.
Karim Benzema was heavily backed for the armband last night and had as many as eight attempts, though failed to muster a single shot in target. The Real Madrid man also created four goalscoring opportunities for his team mates, as did Samir Nasri and Mathieu Debuchy but Blanc’s side passed up chance after chance to find the net. With just three goals and a single clean sheet over their trio of group games, the tournament has been a bitter disappointment thus far and, with their unbeaten record now gone, morale in the camp – and Fantasy faith – will have considerably dipped ahead of the game with Spain next Saturday. Blanc will now need to make at least one change for the weekend – Philippe Mexes picked up his second yellow card and is now suspended, with Laurent Koscielny looking likely to replace him at the back.
