Havertz nets on landmark night as Germany advance

Kai Havertz marked his 50th cap for his country by netting his second goal of Euro 2024 to help Germany reach the quarter-finals in a 2-0 success over Denmark.

In one of the tournament’s most exciting games so far, the hosts had a Nico Schlotterbeck goal ruled out for a foul before a huge thunderstorm interrupted play, forcing both teams to return to the changing rooms for 20 minutes until it passed.

Once the game resumed, the Danes thought they had taken the lead when Joachim Anderson scored but the goal was ruled out for a marginal offside in the build-up, and then two minutes later the same player was controversially deemed to have handled inside the box, allowing Kai to step up to the spot and fire a precise spot-kick past Kasper Schmeichel on 53 minutes.

That was his second successful penalty conversion of the tournament so far, following on from his opening night strike against Scotland. He is only one of seven players to have netted at least twice at these finals, with his teammate Jamal Musiala netting his third of competition on 68 minutes to lead the race for the Golden Boot, and seal Germany’s passage into the last eight.

Kai nearly added to his 18 goals for his country late on when some brilliant skill saw him dash away from two defenders and race through on goal, but his dinked effort over Schmeichel went fractions wide of the post.

His next game will be on Friday night against the winner of the Spain v Georgia last 16 clash, as the hosts look to try and reach the semi-finals. A goal for Kai in that game would see him join Gerd Muller, Mario Gomez and Jurgen Klinsmann as the German players with the most goals in European Championships finals history.

Jorginho exits

However, the Euros dream ended for one Gunners as the knockout stages got underway, as Jorginho’s Italy were eliminated courtesy of a 2-0 loss against Switzerland.

Our midfielder was dropped to the bench by manager Luciano Spalletti, where he remained for the 90 minutes as the Swiss, led by former Gunner Granit Xhaka, cruised to a comfortable victory to ensure the holders exited the tournament.

Jorgi featured three times at the finals, amassing 216 minutes of action for the Azzurri.