Germany into EURO 2024 knockouts, Albania draw with Croatia

Hosts Germany became the first team to secure a place in the last 16 of EURO 2024 following their convincing 2-0 win over Hungary on Wednesday.

The hosts took the lead in the 22nd minute through Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, who leads the Golden Boot race with two goals in his first two games.

Barcelona’s Ilkay Gundogan then extended Germany’s lead in the second half, greatly diminishing Hungary’s chances of advancing into the knockout stages.

However, Hungary’s coach, Marco Rossi, felt hard done by the officiating.

“I’ve never complained in my career as a coach. I’ve never looked for excuses, but what the referee did tonight — I mean, come on,” he said.

“It’s something that I think even the Germans have seen – the referee had double standards. The VAR at this level didn’t say anything.

“Germany would have won anyways because they were better than us, but the referee was the worst on the pitch.”

Germany remain firm favourites to lift the European Championship, pegged at +375 on Bovada.

Meanwhile, Switzerland settled for a 1-1 draw with Scotland, with Scott McTominay and Xherdan Shaqiri scoring the goals, while Croatia were held to a 2-2 draw with Albania.

Albania took a surprise lead in the 11th minute through Qazim Laci, only for Croatia to go ahead midway through the second half thanks to Andrej Kramaric and an own goal by Klaus Gjasula.

Nevertheless, Gjasula became the hero in the 95th minute when he equalised for Albania, earning his side a golden point.

The draw means Croatia are now bottom of Group B, albeit level on points with Albania.

The battle for top of the group will be contested on Thursday when leaders Spain take on defending champions Italy, with both sides sitting on three points.

Online bookmakers have Spain as +119 favourites to win the encounter, with Italy paying +292.

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