David Marshall's Euro Diary - Day 2: Samstag Nacht (Patreon)

Good evening, I feel that tonight I must start with an apology. I understand that last night a match with Germany took place and my article contained not one joke relating to World War Two. I know this is not the standard you have come to expect of myself or Heart and Hand. I can guarantee when they play next, the article will be littered with obvious and thinly veiled puns. 

Now with that out the way, let’s dive into day two like Rudolf Hess into a Hamilton farm. 

The second day of the tournament started with a struggle, for me mostly. You see, I have my kids this weekend and, to my surprise, they don’t seem too bothered about the Euros or the commitment that Dad has made to write about it every day. Thankfully, we shot over to my brother’s house and my nephew kept them occupied, leaving me free to watch the game. Top dadding from the big man. 

Possibly the first shock of the tournament? I feel these were two teams with contrasting expectations coming into this one. Switzerland, with little expectations who have seemed to dip recently after a fairly disappointing qualifying campaign and a Hungary side that has real dark horse potential. 

Maybe that expectation got the better of the Hungarians as Switzerland were good value for the win today and their first-half performance was enough to take the game away from Hungary before sewing it up late on. 

Right, well, time for me to leave my brother’s house and get home for the second game. What? You want dinner? For Christ's sake. Unfortunately, my offspring decided that Spain vs Croatia wasn’t adequate tea-time viewing as I sat watching Peppa Pig instead of the game I was really looking forward to seeing today. Thankfully, Spain took care of Croatia in routine fashion. Peppa Pig went to visit Rebecca Rabbit’s house for anyone wondering how that turned out. 

But I got them in bed, watched a bit of Toy Story 2, which is always class, and I was ready for the final game of the day. I got settled just in time to see Nedim Bajrami score the quickest-ever goal at the European Championships. Securing his place in pub quiz folklore in the process. 

It didn’t take the Italians too long to respond and they were leading the game just after a quarter of an hour. From there, it was a bit of a strange game. Italy were in complete control but couldn’t kill it off and the Albanians didn’t seem to have much interest in finding an equaliser. Right up until the 90th minute when one long ball over the top was nearly Italy’s undoing. 

Similar, but in a different way, to the Germans last night I don’t know how much you can take from this game to evaluate Italy. I’m sure they will be happy enough with the three points and have the scope to grow into the tournament from here. 

The good news, from my journalistic point of view, is that the kids go back to their mum’s tomorrow at lunchtime leaving me free to watch all the games tomorrow. The funny thing is that the other half thinks we’re going for a walk tomorrow afternoon haha…someone let me know how the first half of Poland and The Netherlands gets on please.