David Marshall's Euro Diary Day 3 - Easy Like a Soontag Morgen (Patreon)

Happy Father’s Day to all my fellow Rangers Das out there. I got the best present any dad could ask for today, peace to sit and watch the games.

With my dad duties out of the way, I settled down on the couch just before 2pm and I have barely moved since, digesting everything Day 3 had to offer. First on the menu was Poland vs The Netherlands.

Now there’s plenty of potential in this one to fill my WW2 quota, but I’ve been asked to keep the jokes to our side so I think it’s best if I skip this one. What was in the place however was a very pleasant game.

The Dutch got off to a strong start but were undone at a corner for Poland to take a surprise lead as Adam Buksa broke free of the zonal marking to open the scoring. I am not someone who has an instant dislike for zonal marking. However, the problem is when it goes wrong it looks terrible with multiple fail points. Whereas when it’s man-marking you can point the finger at the one twat who didn’t picked up his man.

It did little to slow The Netherlands however, who continued to pepper the Polish goal. When Cody Gpako finally did equalise it was the most coming goal that ever did come.

This set up an interesting second half with the Dutch continuing to be on top but being unable to put Poland away, which could have led to the chance of the Poles knicking it.

But when it looked like both teams would have to settle for a draw, Wout Weghorst got a late winner after only being on the park for two minutes. There was plenty of skill and nice football from the Netherlands during this game, but it was a big bastarding number nine that won it. Beautiful.

That sets up The Netherlands nicely for their next game against France while Poland will take on Austria. Christ, this really is the group for the puns.

Next up, Denmark vs Slovenia and possibly the fairy tale of the tournament as Christian Eriksen got the Dane's first goal of the tournament. A man who we all thought we saw die on the pitch in this tournament three years ago, scoring what was a wonderful goal for his country. No jokes or puns here, that’s just simply incredible.

Denmark will be disappointed that they let this one slip and allowed Slovenia to get back into the game. They will of course point to the fact that they were done by a deflected goal but I felt that Slovenia were playing for a draw and they got it. Two points dropped for Denmark for me.

To the main event then, England expects yet again as they got their campaign underway against Serbia. It was all a bit meh wasn’t it?

England started strong and got an early goal through the wonderful Jude Bellingham. When that went in I thought England would go on to win this 3 or 4-0, but they somewhat declared at that. Especially in the second half they really let Serbia into the game.

I would still say England looked relatively comfortable but there was a few times where a defensive calamity didn’t look too far away, where you would imagine a better team would take advantage. They will be happy enough with the win I’m sure and, like Italy last night, there is plenty of room to improve and grow into the tournament. Still, I don’t think any of the questions surrounding this England team were answered tonight.

Back to work tomorrow then and for those of us who work from home the joy of three games to watch as we do the absolute bare minimum on our laptops. The wonders of the modern world.