Midfielder is as close to a footballing certainty as you can get, ensuring Luis de la Fuente’s side broke Georgia’s hearts

Nothing in football is certain, but Rodri is perhaps as close as it’s possible to get. There are times when it seems he is the teacher stepping in to a kids’ game to make sure it doesn’t become too one-sided, the grown-up who doesn’t have to bother with the things like running. He just strolls about, delivering accurate pass after accurate pass and, occasionally, scoring vital goals.

This was Rodri’s 89th game since Manchester City lost 1-0 at Tottenham in the Premier League on 5 February 2023. Since then he has lost only twice. If you take out games in which Scott McTominay was on the opposing side, he hasn’t lost at all. Quite why McTominay should be his kryptonite is unclear, but rivals should as a matter of urgency isolate whatever the active component is and start trying to manufacture it synthetically. Until Georgia’s legs went in the second half, they were excellent on Sunday but for that one vital absence: they lacked a McTominay.

Forward is at his best coming off the flank, but this may cause an imbalance in the side as they take on Belgium

When some teams are dull and unimpressive, it is because they are dull and unimpressive. When France are dull and unimpressive, it is because they are managing the tournament. With a World Cup triumph, plus defeats in another World Cup final and a European Championship final under his belt as head coach, Didier Deschamps has earned that sympathy.

Portugal’s success at Euro 2016 and France’s at the 2018 World Cup are the examples on which Gareth Southgate has to a large degree based his philosophy. Keep it tight, reduce as much as possible the possibility of the opposition scoring and rely on the excellence of the forward players to win the margins. Deschamps clearly learned a lot under Marcelo Lippi at Juventus, but in his approach to tournaments he follows Aimé Jacquet, under whom he captained France to the World Cup in 1998.

The incoherence and panic that gripped lethargic players against Denmark shows their problems are deep-rooted

Italy won the World Cup in 1982 and Portugal the Euros in 2016 after drawing all three games in the initial group. Spain in 2010 and Argentina in 2022 both began their World Cup-winning campaigns with defeat. This year, Ivory Coast lost group games 1-0 to Nigeria and 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea, qualified for the last 16 only because Ghana conceded twice in injury time against Mozambique and still went on to win the Africa Cup of Nations.

Only Brazil, in 2002, have won seven games out of seven at a major tournament. It is possible for a team that has begun poorly to win it. But just because something is possible, doesn’t mean that’s how you should do things. Tournaments are short; average teams sometimes can be mysteriously energised. England haven’t ticked a box by getting in a couple of bad performances when it didn’t really matter. Planning tends to win out over shrugging and hoping for the best.

The first knockout stage has several intriguing matches, including Spain against Georgia and France v Belgium

Italy are unbeaten against Switzerland in 11 games stretching back to qualifying for the 1994 World Cup but they look vulnerable here. They were worryingly open against both Albania and Spain and the switch to a back three against Croatia only seemed to make them flatter going forward. In goal Gianluigi Donnarumma has had a fine tournament, but a lack of creativity and the absence of a top-class centre-forward are major issues.

• Tedesco claims he had two minutes for pre-match talk
• Coach is ‘so proud’ despite team being booed by own fans

The Belgium head coach, Domenico Tedesco, condemned the local organisation after a 0-0 draw against Ukraine on Wednesday, a result which secured qualification for a tie against France in the last 16.

“We arrived at the stadium in circumstances I never saw before,” Tedesco said. “It took one hour to come from the hotel with a police escort. The road was completely free, but they slowed down to 20-25km/h. Every traffic light was red. I had two minutes to make a preparation talk and we had to reduce the warmup. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable …”

At one end of the ground, one team stood, exhausted, in the penalty area in front of their fans and were warmly applauded. At the other, their opponents could barely approach the box before being driven back by the fury of their support. The oddity was, it was Ukraine who had gone out who were celebrated, and Belgium who had gone through who were booed and jeered to such an extent that Kevin De Bruyne told the players to go to the dressing room.

In the end, Ukraine just didn’t have the energy or the guile. They will feel unfortunate to have been eliminated from the Euros having picked up four points, the same as every other side in the group, more than Denmark who qualified in second and various third-placed teams. But in the final minutes, when it became apparent that they would need a goal after all, they had nothing.