Here are the biggest takeaways after the Euro 2024 semifinals in which Spain defeated France 2-1 and England took down the Netherlands 2-1.
Ollie Watkins was always this good
With a bit of individual brilliance and a perfectly-tucked finish into the far corner, Ollie Watkins wrote his name in the history books by firing England back into a European Championship Final with a 90th-minute winner against the Netherlands.
After Jude Bellingham unforgettably played the role of the hero with his late bicycle kick against Slovakia, it was now a more underrated player’s turn to prove the Three Lions’ proverbial “clutch gene” in the semis.
Watkins didn’t have the over-the-top Adidas commercial and wasn’t hyped up as some sort of a savior or a Ballon d’Or candidate before the Euro 2024 tournament began, but he was, in his own right, a Player of the Season contender in his league.
The Aston Villa striker has never even started a game for England at Euro 2024 because record-breaking Bayern Munich star Harry Kane is in the team, but Watkins can claim to have been even better as an all-around striker than Kane, who has now set the benchmark for playmaking No. 9’s with a declining Karim Benzema spending his last days in Saudi Arabia.
That’s because Watkins had 19 goals and a whopping 13 assists for Aston Villa last season, leading the Lions to a top-four finish in one of the best stories of the season in all of European football.
So if you didn’t already know that Watkins was capable of a moment like the one against the Netherlands, then, my good friend, you had been comatose for the entire season. That’s on you. (Unless you actually were incapacitated, then my sincerest condolences to you.)
Honoring Cody Gakpo’s tournament
There have been a number of tremendous tournament performances so far at Euro 2024, with the Spanish trio of Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, and the underrated Fabian Ruiz standing out as players particularly deserving mention here.
But even though the Netherlands won’t be heading to the European Championship Final, it’s hard to make a case against Cody Gakpo being the single most important player to his team’s success at the tournament.
Take Gakpo out of the Dutch side, and you get a team that likely would have crashed out of the tournament much earlier, akin to many of the country’s past failings at major tournaments under inept managers. (Judging by his career track record, Ronald Koeman deserves no better descriptor than this).
Gakpo was a decent player for Liverpool last season, but he wasn’t a truly important one for Jurgen Klopp, making more appearances off the bench than starts.
Clearly, that should not be the case in the 2024/25 season under new manager Arne Slot of Feyenoord, because the former PSV star was the breakout superstar of the Euro 2024 tournament.
Gakpo, who is only just entering his prime at 25 years old, scored three goals with an assist in six matches for the Oranje. He averaged a healthy 2.0 key passes and 2.8 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game.
The Liverpool man was intelligent, hard-working, and clinical. His creative work cannot go underappreciated, because as important as his goals were, his overall movement and willingness to link up with his teammates made the Netherlands a success.
After falling short of the true Premier League title race at the very end of the season between Manchester City and Arsenal, Liverpool need at least one more attacking player to step up as a true superstar next to Mohamed Salah. In Gakpo, it looks like the Reds have found their man.
Kylian Mbappe is downright voracious
Look, Kylian Mbappe was far from the worst player at the European Championships, and he wasn’t even close to being the worst player on his own national team.
France somehow plodded their way to the semifinals despite not scoring an open-play goal, with Mbappe responsible for their only two goals in forcing an own goal and then converting from the spot in a later match.
Mbappe averaged 3.4 dribbles per game at this year’s Euros and assisted Randal Kolo Muani’s goal at the Allianz Arena in the semifinal vs. Spain, but, by and large, this was a below-average tournament from the new Real Madrid star.
Especially by his standards, Mbappe underwhelmed. How much the nose injury and mask affected him his anyone’s guess, but no elite athlete who has produced Mbappe’s performances at two literal World Cup Finals would be proud of the way he played at this tournament.
Superstars aspiring to be legends are meant to transcend the game at times like these, but in Mbappe’s case, he was outshone by an actual 16-year-old and his future decade-long Barcelona rival, Lamine Yamal.
What stands out the most about Mbappe’s tournament isn’t the disappointment, because French national team icons remembered fondly today have flopped harder at big tournaments before. Ever heard of Thierry Henry?
No, what’s most remarkable is that for all that has been said in slander about Mbappe’s mentality, the guy comes off like a superstar in every interview and is down to earth, to the point where his self-criticism is refreshing at a time when many superstars are accused from hiding from the music.
He said the following after France’s loss to Spain:
“In football you’re good or not good. I wasn’t good. My Euro was a failure. I wanted to be European champion… I will now go on holiday, I will rest well, it will do me a lot of good, then I will get ready to start a new life. There’s a lot to do”.
For Mbappe, next up is a grand presentation at Real Madrid and the start of a new chapter in his career – one that has been anticipated for years.
Being the main superstar at Real Madrid is a different level of pressure, and it is one that his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, handled gracefully.
Mbappe will be on a team of other superstars, namely Ballon d’Or candidates Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior, so he won’t be alone.
But in that regard, more scrutiny may be placed on Mbappe because he will be directly compared with other great players on his own team. It is up to the Frenchman to stand out, and his self-awareness and humility will take him far.
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