Euro 2024 news: Switzerland get big England boost as Cristiano Ronaldo shows true colours

Thanks for following coverage of today’s Euro 2024 action. 

Despite the lack of match action until Friday, we’ll be back in the morning with another live blog to build up to the quarter-final ties. 

So if you want to know the very latest on the England camp and beyond, make sure to return to our pages tomorrow morning. 

For now, you can get up to date with the latest news from Euro 2024 and the Premier League by reading below, or by navigating to our football page. 

We now know all four quarter-final ties for Euro 2024. 

Friday:

Spain vs Germany

Portugal vs France

Saturday: 

England vs Switzerland

Netherlands vs Turkey

Turkey survive a late onslaught and are through to the Euro 2024 quarter-finals. 

They will face the Netherlands in the last eight. 

Goalkeeper Mert Gunok made a remarkable save late on. 

Hold on…

Austria have grabbed a goal back. 

Michael Gregoritsch heads home. That’s three goals from set-pieces in this game. 

Turkey have one foot in the quarter-final!

Demiral has headed home his second of the game from another set-piece. 

It’s a sensational start in Leipzig!

Merih Demiral converts inside the first two minutes. 

Austria then go up the other end and a corner trickles all the way along the goal-line without being converted. 

Austria and Turkey will battle to face Netherlands in the quarter-final.

Here are the two line ups, with kick off imminent.

Austria starting XI: Pentz, Posch, Danso, Lienhart, Mwene, Seiwald, Sabitzer, Laimer, Baumgartner, Schmid, Arnautovic.

Turkey starting XI: Gunok, Muldur, Bardakci, Demiral, Bardakci, Ayhan, Yuksek, Yildiz, Yilmaz, Kokcu, Guler.

Donell Malen added gloss to the scoreline with a third goal just before half-time. 

The forward drove into the penalty area and wrong-footed the goalkeeper. 

The Netherlands will learn their quarter-final opponent when Austria face Turkey later this evening. 

And that’s the game. 

Former Arsenal forward Donyell Malen has added a second for the Netherlands. 

It comes about 10 minutes after Cody Gakpo saw another strike ruled out for offside. 

The deadlock has been broken in Munich!

Cody Gakpo cuts inside from the left and fires a shot inside the near post. 

No evidence of a shock materialising in this one…

Just 20 minutes until the penultimate last-16 match gets underway.

Here are the two teams.

Romania XI: Nita; Ratiu, Dragusin, Burca, Mogos; M Marin; Hagi, R Marin, Stanciu, Man; Dragus.

Netherlands XI: Verbruggen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Ake; Reijnders, Schouten; Bergwijn, Gakpo, Simons; Depay.

The Netherlands will be hoping to avoid a shock in today’s early game. 

They face Romania in Munich, kicking off at 5pm. 

That match is followed by Austria vs Turkey in Leipzig, at 8pm. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has explained why he burst into tears after missing a penalty for Portugal during last night’s victory over Slovenia.

“I could have given the national team the advantage, but I didn’t manage it,” he said after the final whistle.

“I didn’t miss once during the year, [but] when I needed it most. It’s a feeling of sadness and joy at the same time, but the most important thing is the progress, the team deserved it.

“Slovenia spent almost the entire time defending. The team deserves congratulations, especially our goalkeeper who made three good saves.

“Even the strongest people have their days. I was down and I was sad because the team needed me.”

Granit Xhaka will be cleared to play against England after undergoing a scan earlier today, according to The Sun.

It is said that he will train away from his Switzerland team-mates but is expected to be named in the starting line-up on Saturday.

There were initial concerns that Xhaka could miss the match after suffering an adductor issue, but it seems he will be fit enough to play.

Jordan Pickford has put himself forward as a potential penalty taker for England if Switzerland take them to a shoot-out in the quarter-finals.

“I’d step up,” he said. “I’m not the manager, but I’d be prepared if it come to that.

“Everyone has got to practice them because anybody could be on the pitch at any given time.

“The history of winning major tournaments shows that you’ve got to go into extra time sometimes and maybe win a penalty shoot-out.

“You’ve got to learn from those experiences and take them into other tournaments.”

Granit Xhaka could be sidelined for Switzerland when they face England in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

The former Arsenal man is set to undergo an MRI scan to determine the extent of an adductor problem, according to Blick.

He received treatment during the first half of Switzerland’s win over Italy but went on to finish the game, seemingly without any issues.

It will be a major blow for Switzerland if Xhaka is ruled out of the England game.

He has started every match for his country at Euro 2024, continuing his strong form on the back of a stunning season with Bayer Leverkusen.

Didi Hamann has accused Cristiano Ronaldo of letting Portugal down by bursting into tears following his missed penalty against Slovenia.

“All he thinks about is himself,” Hamann told RTE Sport. “I think he showed his true colours again.

“Missing the penalty, he starts crying on the pitch, he starts crying at half-time in extra-time. And I’m thinking: ‘It’s not all about you’.

“There’s a squad of 26 players. There’s 20 staff, there’s 30 or 40,000 fans in there. It’s not about you. You try to be mutual, but I was cheering Slovenia on because I thought the reaction was embarrassing.

“I thought it was out of order. I’ve never seen anything like it. Once you show emotions, once you get emotional, it’s the end of it, so that was the point where the manager had to say you’ve got to come off because you’re not in the right frame of mind to carry on playing.

“He will start the next game but I can’t see any other outcome than a France win.”

Jamie O’Hara believes Gareth Southgate is ‘finished’ as a top-level manager despite getting lucky in England’s win over Slovakia.

“Jude Bellingham has probably saved Gareth Southgate’s managerial career,” said O’Hara.

“Before that goal, it almost looked like Southgate was finished as a top-level manager. There’s possibly reason to think he wouldn’t have landed a job in the Premier League after that.

“He has looked miles off it. The team sheet was all wrong and the substitutions weren’t good either. He isn’t learning from other tournaments.

“As a manager, you’re meant to develop and learn from your mistakes, but I don’t see anything different from Southgate from any of the previous tournaments.

“If anything, he’s become worse and more stubborn. He doesn’t make substitutions.

“We said after the last game that we wanted to see earlier changes and more proactivity, but there was nothing of the sort from Southgate on Sunday.”

Scotland boss Steve Clarke will not be relieved of his duties in spite of their abysmal group stage exit at Euro 2024.

That’s according to the Scottish Sun, who are reporting that Clarke’s future as head coach will be left entirely up to him.

He will be allowed to carry on in his role if he wants to, with the SFA happy for him to continue.

Scotland were thrashed by Germany in their opening game before drawing with Switzerland and losing to Hungary.

They earned just one point from their three group stage matches, conceding seven goals and scoring twice.

John Stones and Kieran Trippier have insisted they will be ready to play in England’s quarter-final meeting with Switzerland this weekend.

Stones played the full duration of Sunday’s win over Slovakia but was spotted leaving the stadium with strapping on his right knee.

He later said he would be ‘fine’ when asked if the apparent injury would rule him out of contention to face Switzerland.

Trippier, meanwhile, revealed his withdrawal was a tactical decision rather than an enforced one despite being left with a ‘sore’ knee.

“I think it was a really bad tackle, to be honest,” he said.

“The knee is just a little bit sore. Gareth made a decision to maybe tweak things, and it worked. I think I’ll be fine. It’s just about recovering.

“We have five or six days until the next game. This took a lot out of us mentally, going into extra time, but it shows the character of this team.”

John Terry has branded the BBC a ‘disgrace’ after they used a mocking caption to describe Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty miss against Slovenia.

The broadcaster sparked fury by using the caption ‘Misstiano Penaldo’ over a replay of the Portugal star’s effort from 12 yards, which was saved by Jan Oblak.

Terry shared the caption to Instagram and slammed it as a ‘disgrace’.

The BBC is yet to comment.

Hello and welcome to Express Sport’s rolling coverage of the latest news from Euro 2024.

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