Following Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliant performance against Holland, we thought we’d take a quick look at which players have stood out from the rest of their team-mates so far! We have seen some fascinating tales unfold, and we’ve not even progressed from the Group stages yet! Carry on reading to find out who Soccer Reviews thinks has stood out so far…
Alan Dzagoev – Russia 4 – 1 Czech Republic
The young CSKA attacking midfielder has interested many top clubs recently, including Manchester United, but this performance was undeniably brilliant. He scored 2, and was involved in pretty much all of Russia’s good spells of possession. Renowned for being two-footed, and having a good turn of pace, this performance against the Czechs certainly showed Dzagoev’s true potential.
Mezut Ozil – Germany 1 – 0 Portugal
Many of you may argue with us on this one, but Ozil is undeniably the best playmaker at Euro 2012. The young Real Madrid superstar covered a terrific amount of ground (around 10km) and he completed a remarkable 29 of his 33 attacking passes in the final third. He has an opportunity to take Germany to glory this summer, especially as they will be playing Greece in the Quarter Finals. Expect to hear a lot more about him over the coming weeks.
Georgio Chiellini – Spain 1 – 1 Italy
Spain, quite frankly, are the best team in the world. Yet Italy kept them extremely quiet for large periods of the game. The man who instigated this defensive magnificence was Chiellini, making challenge after challenge and showing commitment that is horribly missing in certain other players (Robben, we’re looking at you). If Italy make it through the Group, they’ll make tough opposition for the winners of Group D.
Jakub Blaszczykowski – Poland 1 – 1 Russia
The host nation were inspired by captain Jakub Blaszczykowski in this game, and his fine overall performance was capped off by a wonderful strike from the edge of the box. He, alongside Lewandoski, has been heavily linked with the Premier League after inspiring Borussia Dortmund to the title in Germany. With all-action performances like this, it’s clear to see why.
Mario Gomez – Holland 1 – 2 Germany
I felt a slight chill erupt inside me when watching this game. How good are Germany? Their awe-inspiring performance against one of the best teams in the world in Holland was slightly terrifying to watch. The man who produced the goods up front was Mario Gomez, scoring two to take his total three goals in the tournament. We here at Soccer Reviews feel that Germany are set to dominate for many years to come.
Theo Walcott – Sweden 2 – 3 England
Being an Englishman, I had to include an English player somewhere. While watching the game on Friday (which was surprisingly open), England lacked a spark on the wings. After falling behind to a cruelly poor goal, on stepped Theo Walcott to inspire England to a vital win. First scoring a dipping, swerving effort that completely bamboozled the Swedish goalkeeper, then setting up Danny Welbeck to backheel a wonderful goal. It’ll be interesting to see whether he starts against Ukraine.
Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal 2 – 1 Holland
We had to conclude the article with THAT performance. Ronaldo had been in misfiring form before the Holland game, but he put any concerns aside here. It was a majestic performance, dominance in the air, powerful shots which constantly troubled the keeper and full of clever runs that Holland quite simply couldn’t deal with. After the game, Ronaldo was awarded a fantastic 9.5/10 by Opta, one of the highest ever scores in an international game. He single-handedly won Portugal the game, and it’d be a good bet to predict Ronaldo to finish as top-scorer now the confidence is flowing.
With the knockout stages just around the corner, we can’t wait to see what twists and turns lie ahead in the coming days of the tournament. Be sure to stay with Soccer Reviews as we will be writing an article once the tournament has finished to give our full opinion, for now.. Disagree? Be sure to leave your comments below.
About Jon Nicholson
Why not Andersen against Holland
Please Jon you are too patriotic. Walcott’s shot went on Swedish block and therefor “scoring a dipping, swerving effort that completely bamboozled the Swedish goalkeeper” lol. I don’t know if you have seen Czech vs Poland but in that game Pilar was dominating. If you have not seen his performance you definitely should.
Hey Perdo,
Walcott’s shot actually did not take a deflection. When I first saw it, I thought it did. But having seen replays (and Walcott also admitted it), it definitely didn’t take a deflection.
What position does Pilar play? I saw the game but don’t remember him.
I doubt Walcott is telling the truth… Vaclav Pilar was playing left midfielder. Look for the little guy who was not only great offensive but defensive too.
Walcott was fantastic, nevermind that lucky goal.
“I doubt Walcott is telling the truth”. It’s quite hard to lie about something that people saw and can watch again and again online if they want. It was lucky but it didn’t take a deflection, no reason to call the kid a liar.
I feel like Benzema should be in the list…
Why do you think that Brayan?
I’m not sure if this is enough of an argument to include Benzema in this list, but he has been a key player in all France’s games in the Euro. But that’s just my point of view.
Hmm. I understand what you’re saying Brayan, but personally.. I just don’t rate France. They have some ‘decent’ individuals like Nasri, Benzema as you say. But they have large weaknesses throughout the team, for example, central defence.
Seriously? You don’t name France because they are too bad but yet you rate England, Poland and Portugal. Where’s the logic?
How could you forget andriy shevchenko against Sweden, 2 great headed goals, great bit of movement on his second goal to make zlatan look stupid!!!
Excellent suggestion Nick – can’t believe I forgot about that performance!
Voronin was better than Sheva in that game. Or do you mean as in performance scoring goals?
if you’re a striker, 2 goals is a good performance.
Bastian Schweinsteiger vs Holland deserves to be in here. He set up Gomez perfectly twice and dominated the midfield the entire game
What about Samaras in Greece v Russia? In the preceding fixtures he was sluggish, bereft of ideas and completely anonymous but he was sparked into life when it mattered most. He was imperious in that game taking on multiple Russian players, harrying back to assist with defending, breaking up the Russian play, feeding his teammates and in all had a stellar performance -his only error being taking a shot from outside the penalty area rather than playing Gekas through when the Russians were back-pedalling which would have likely resulted in the 2nd and deciding goal.
I think Pepe should be in this list since he had been playing really good so far in the Euro and scored a goal on the win against Denmark. He also is being a really good leader and him with Bruno Alves and Coentrao are making a good defense.
WHERE IS HESKEY?!?!?
Heksey is probably skying footballs left, right and centre in his back garden right now.
If you would have wrote this tonight I think Zlatan should be on the list.