The round of 16 comes to a close
Today brings a close to the final day of round of 16 fixtures at Euro 2024 as Romania take on the Netherlands while Austria go head-to-head with Turkey.
Romania kick off the day against the Netherlands in a match that promises to be an intriguing watch with Romania being a bit of a surprise package, topping their group, while the Netherlands carry the weight of their history everywhere they go.
Romania will probably be feeling somewhat hard done by after topping group E ahead of Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine only to be handed a round of 16 tie with former champions the Dutch.
The Oranje had a disappointing group stage, summed up probably by the fact their highlight was a 0-0 draw with France after they only beat Poland late on with a Wout Weghorst strike, while they lost out in a 3-2 thriller to a strong-looking Austria.
Romania have looked good themselves, beating Ukraine convincingly in their opening match 3-0 and drawing 1-1 with Slovenia was enough to see them through in top spot and were unfortunate not to take their chances against Belgium.
Meanwhile, the talent the Dutch squad possesses is irrefutable and on paper puts them as firm favourites to win most football matches with today being no difference.
Luckily for Romania football is played on grass not paper.
Romania take on the Netherlands this afternoon at 5pm on BBC One.
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In today’s later game, Austria play Turkey in surely the day’s top billing as far as watching entertaining football is concerned.
Although not the biggest of names in European football, these two nations have played some fantastic football so far with Austria sitting as second top goal scorers of the tournament with six goals, while Turkey have netted a respectable five times.
Austria have been so impressive this far that some United fans have even been calling for the return of former interim Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick who has led the Austrians into the knockout stages for just the second time in their history.
Meanwhile Turkey have looked dangerous, despite their slight immaturities in such a young squad.
The nation has the second youngest squad at the tournament with an average age of 25.8 years-old and that lack of experience may have shown in their 3-0 loss to Portugal that saw some undesirable defending.
However, with fantastic young talents like Real Madrid’s Arda Güler and Kenan Yildiz of Juventus, there is plenty of attcking ammo in the Turkey team to give Austria some real problems.
Austria face off with Turkey tonight at 8pm on ITV1
