Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

It doesn’t matter whether Spain or England become the winners of Euro 2024. There will be no doubt irrespective of the outcome of the final, that Spain have been the most standout team of the competition. It’s not only because they have won all six matches so far. It’s the verve, freshness and all-round ability they have displayed so far. The favourites of the bookies ahead of the battle to be fought in Berlin against a side which has reached the final of the competition twice in succession, Spain have played a refreshing brand of football. The style has been…

England lost the 1996 European football championship semi-final against Germany after Gareth Southgate misfired his shot in the penalty shootout. Wembley Stadium was the venue and England were the hosts that year. Twenty-eight years later, the venue has shifted to Germany. England are in the final under Southgate’s managership. They were in the final of the previous edition played in England as well and lost to Italy in the tie-breaker after having led for a substantial part of the game. This time, the script has changed. England have won three knockout games after having conceded the lead. It’s a rare,…

England versus the Netherlands is not as mouth-watering a prospect as France-Spain. Not on paper. Yet, semi-finals of the European Football Championships are not played on paper. On the field, calculations and equations can sometimes go for a toss and there is every reason to expect a gruelling duel in Dortmund in the second last-four clash of Euro 2024. The competition has livened up considerably after a rather dull group stage. The Netherlands have improved after the first few exchanges and they will be a charged-up lot against an England side which has been a bit underwhelming. They have reached…

A fair sprinkling of international cricket stars, family and friends will be in attendance in a gathering to celebrate Sunil Gavaskar’s 75th birth anniversary this evening. It will be held at a restaurant in central London. The legendary opener’s son, Rohan, is looking after the organising part. RevSportz has learnt that Gundappa Viswanath and his wife Kavita have travelled to London specifically for this occasion. Kavita is Gavaskar’s sister. Viswanath and Gavaskar are close friends other than being India teammates. Gavaskar’s wife Marshneil will be there, with Rohan and his wife and their two children. A special guest will be…

A lot of talk on Indian cricket centres around the pool of fast bowlers these days. Traditionally a country which produced batters and spinners, India’s identity in world cricket has changed because of the emergence of these quick men. They have won the team matches and tournaments in parts of the world India had negligible success previously. I saw the genesis of this transformation. It was the first match of an ODI series against Zimbabwe, in Cuttack in December 2000. India fielded four medium-pacers and one spinner in that game at Barabati Stadium. Back then, one spinner in a match…

It was India’s turn to make Zimbabwe pay for beating them in the first T20I a day earlier. The same pitch on which they had crumbled for 102, the Men in Blue plundered 234/2, which effectively ended the contest in the first half of the match. The home team could only manage 134, which saw India win by the unusual margin of 100 runs. It was Abhishek Sharma’s day to show how quickly fortunes can change. Out for a duck on India debut, the left-handed opener rode a bit of luck, but then launched an assault that this bunch of…

This was the India-Australia Test match in Mohali 2008. It’s remembered because in this game Sachin Tendulkar broke Brian Lara’s world record for most Test runs. The record still stands to his name. It was also the match where Sourav Ganguly registered his last Test century and Amit Mishra marked his debut with a five-wicket haul. India won that game and eventually the series. Hidden somewhere between these milestones was an unforgettable passage of play. Despite the efforts of Tendulkar and Ganguly in that first innings, Indian needed someone to hold fort, so that they could take the game beyond…

Bukayo Saka was the most abused footballer in England three years ago. He had fluffed the decisive penalty in the shootout against Italy in the European championship final. He was just under 20 years of age at the time, and too young to be written off. The Arsenal star with roots in Nigeria resurrected the English campaign in Euro 2024 with a stellar show in the quarter-final against a resolute Switzerland side, which blinked only at the end of an exciting contest. England won the Duel of Dusseldorf 5-3 on penalties after regulation and extra-time ended 1-1. It may not…

After high-voltage clashes in the first two quarter-finals of Euro 2024, a couple of comparatively low-intensity contests are coming up. England versus Switzerland and the Netherlands against Turkiye are, on paper, not as exciting as Germany-Spain or France-Portugal. But, let’s not presume. Knockout matches in a top-tier international competition are always potential thrillers. There isn’t a lot of gap between the teams when it comes to current form and they can always produce edge-of-the-seat thrillers. Who thought Turkiye versus Austria in the pre-quarters would be such a nail-biter! So, get ready for some riveting action. England vs Switzerland England did…

Here is something for the statistically minded. Euro 2024 has witnessed 100 goals so far, in 44 matches. Cody Gakpo (the Netherlands), Georges Mikautadze (Georgia), Jamal Musiala (Germany) and Ivan Schranz (Slovakia) are the joint top-scorers with three goals each. There are eight players who have found the target twice. That makes own-goals the highest-scorer of the tournament so far. There have been nine of them, and this is two short of the record high of 11 seen in the 2020 edition, played in 2021 because of Covid-19. Seven more matches are still to be played in Germany this time.…