Euro 2020: How the world's media reacted to Scotland's defeat to Czech Republic and Patrik Schick's 'breathtaking banana' goal
Some notable names from world football praised the striker’s 49.7m strike – the longest recorded since the Championships began counting these things in 1980.
Le Monde called it a ‘masterful lob from the centre line’. El Pais compared it to a ‘golf ball hit with a wood from the tee: from outside in and up and down’.
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Hide AdCzech newspaper Blesk described it as ‘that cunning, breathtaking "banana" enchanted the world!’
However the occasion for Scotland after a well-documented 23 year wait, was not lost on many outlets across the world.
The game
The play had ‘the messy and passionate tone of the game’ according to El Pais in Spain. Italy’s Gazetta dello Sport called it a ‘fun match’ with ‘great expectations in Glasgow but soon established a pattern after a ‘rocket start of the hosts, dragged by the public, but the script was understood immediately: Scots racing and fighting, Czechs of technique and reasoning.’
By the end, Toby Davis in the Sydney Morning Herald was lamenting the home team’s efforts. "Scotland had battled gamely on their return to tournament football after a 23-year absence and spurned a number of excellent chances of their own, with Lyndon Dykes guilty of wasting two superb opportunities.
“Yet the Czechs were worthy winners, soaking up Scottish pressure in the first half, and hushing a noisy Hampden Park crowd, who were seeing their side play in a major tournament for the first time since the 1998 World Cup.”
Das Bild described ‘Czech Republic cheers, Scotland on the ground’, adding ‘for the first time since 1996 they are back at the Euros. "Hopefully we can put a smile on people's faces," said Scottish captain Andy Robertson before the game against the Czech Republic. Doesn't work’, they brutally wrote.
Pundits and players
Naturally, the goal was the focus of most coverage.
“Ohhhhhhh Schick! I think we already have the goal of the tournament, " said Mesut Ozil on Twitter, and picked up by Twitter. "That goal was Schick” tweeted the BBC presenter Gary Lineker.
In the Czech TV studio former Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer laid the blame at David Marshall’s door despite Steve Clarke backing his number one. “I don't know why he stood so high. It was his fault. What was he doing there? It was completely useless there.
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Hide Ad"The fact that a goalkeeper is halfway there won't help anything. Without question. if I was the coach and a mistake made by a goalkeeper, I will be mad at him.”
But Stefano Boldrini in Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport was much less scathing than Smicer.
"The goalkeepers were among the best in the field: Vaclik, number one of Sevilla, avoided serious problems, while Marshall, holder of Derby County, was very good in several situations, but in the 2-0 he was found unprepared, in too advanced a position.”
Gazzetta did however highlight an online Spiderman image which followed the game, showing the superhero and David Marshall entangled in the Hampden netting ‘Schick, the Eurogol turns Marshall into a meme’.