Sweden V Ukraine (Hampden Park 29/06/2021)

Sweden V Ukraine – UEFA Euro 2020 Round Of 16 (29/06/2021)

Massive thanks to Gary for sorting me out with a ticket for this game, not going to lie I think I would rather have been at Wembley than watching it on my phone in Hampden three hours before kicks off. It’s even worse that I had a ticket for England v Germany but couldn’t get the time off work, real life sucks.

The train from Glasgow Central to Mount Florida sounded like it had seen better days as the creaks and screeches were pretty worrying, due to the heat I had guzzled down a cold can of Fanta lemon and the trains toilets being out of use was far from ideal.

I watched the England game on my phone but switched to the big screen as my phone was a few minutes delayed, realised this when Sterling scored. Did enjoy a few English fans starting singing “It’s Coming Home” at full time though.

My seat was next to the majority of the Sweden fans and there seemed to be a lot of them, unless a lot of Scots own Sweden shirt and flags. Pre-match the fans created a good atmosphere, enough that you would think there was a lot more in the stadium than there was. Bit of a shame that a contingent of drunken idiots thought it was ok to boo the national anthems.

The game started with both teams going for it as you would expect in a last 16 game, the game was being fought for in the middle of the pitch and seemed pretty even. That was until Ukraine took the lead when Yarmelenko played a superb pass with the outside of his boot to Zinchenko who smashed the ball across the keeper from a tight angle.

The Swedes equalised right before half-time through the impressive Forsberg with a strike from outside the box that took a slight deflection before going in, perfect time to get back in the game.

The woodwork was struck 3 times in the second half with Sweden hitting it twice and Ukraine once. The Swedes were dominant and the keeper kept Ukraine in it with an awesome save. In the last 10 minutes it was all Ukraine though but as the game headed towards extra time it was the Swedes who looked most likely to grab a later winner. But it wasn’t to be as it ended 1-1.

Extra time looked as if we were destined for penalties as neither team looked threatening. Both teams were kicking lumps out of each other with stoppages left right and centre. VAR came into play after a reckless tackle from Danielson, a yellow became a red and the Ukraine player left the field injured. Just as it was heading to penalties Zinchenko put in a cross and Dovbyk headed past Olsen in the 121st minute. The Ukrainians went mental even with a topless (male) pitch invader, as you would expect with such a late winner.

So it will be England against Ukraine in Rome on Saturday night in the quarterfinals. After a later finish than expected I left Hampden and decided on the shuttle bus back into the city as most fans were heading to the train station. That brings an end to my Euro 2020 games I’m going to unless I somehow get a ticket to one of the semi’s or final at Wembley (never say never).

So onto my ratings…

Ticket Price – £50

Programme – £10

Programme Rating – 10/10

Refreshments – N/A

Stadium Facilities – 8/10

Getting to stadium – 8/10

Stadium rating – 8/10

Thanks for reading my thoughts on Sweden against Ukraine.

Daz Carding