Patrick Schick’s sensational second goal sunk Scotland to a defeat in their opening match of the UEFA Euro 2020. Later, Spain could not breach a robust Swedish defense and thus dropped their first points of the tournament.
Audacious, Sensational, Unimaginable – are just a few of the adjectives one can use to define Patrik Schick’s second goal against Scotland in the Czech Republic’s opening match of the 2020 UEFA Euro. The Bayer Leverkusen striker scored the goal of the tournament and perhaps an early contender for the 2021 Puskas Award, when he curled the ball above the retreating David Marshall from the halfway line.
Schick broke Scotland’s resolve late in the first half with his first goal. The towering forward flicked a cross by West Ham United’s Vladimir Coufal into the far corner. Marshall, who was sensational in the Scotland goal, could do nothing to stop the ball from going in despite being at full stretch.
Scotland tried to hit the Czech Republic back after the break. However, attack after attack was repelled by a resolute Czech defense, while Scotland attackers’ wastefulness didn’t do them any favors.
The crushing blow arrived seven minutes after the restart when an effort by center-back Jack Hendry was blocked, following which, the ball fell nicely into the path of Schick. The Czech striker saw Marshall off his line – the goalkeeper quite advanced due to Scotland’s dominant phase of play – and hit a stunning, curling effort on the first time of asking. Marshall did his best to try and keep out the shot, but the spin on the ball took it away from him and into the back of the net. It finished 2-0 on the night for the Czech Republic.
Later in the day, Euro 2008 and 2012 champions Spain opened their campaign against Sweden with a 0-0 draw. Sweden’s Robin Olsen was in inspired form to keep the Spanish attackers at bay. He made several good saves to deny them the opening goal, but the best chance of the match fell to his compatriot Marcus Berg at the other end, who somehow missed an open goal.
