Germany made short work of Slovakia in their pre-quarterfinal tie in Lille courtesy of goals from Julian Draxler, Mario Gomez and Jerome Boateng. They will now face the winner of Monday’s round-of-16 tie between Italy and Spain in Bordeaux next weekend.
Player Reactions
Slovakia succumbed to an easy defeat against the Germans, who were rampant in front of goal, creating chance after chance, with their midfielders putting on an excellent display. Julian Draxler who played the best game of his life in a Die Mannschaft shirt was the big talking point of the game.
He spoke at length in the post match interview – “I am happy I played a good game and helped the side. We have a lot of quality in our side, it is not a problem not to play matches and I wanted to show in training I could play in the side. The coach gave me a lot of self-confidence and trusts in me.” (via BBC)
However, striker Mario Gomez maintained that Spain or Italy will be a far difficult test for them – “In the next game, we will play Italy or Spain, they will demand a lot more from us, they are better than the opposition we have had, it has not been easy against the defensive sides. We will try to impose our game and try to play with the same emotions as today.” (via BBC)
Twitter Reactions
THT looks at some of the reactions to Germany’s decisive win against Slovakia, from Ozil’s penalty miss to Germany’s goals.
When you have an Arsenal player in your team; don’t put him on penalties #ozil #xhaka
— Tom Kimber (@TomKimber_) June 26, 2016
Mesut Özil: Is the first player to miss a penalty for Germany in a competitive match since June 2015 (Schweinsteiger vs Gibraltar) #GERSVK
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 26, 2016
Özil didn’t score the pen cause it’d break #SVK hearts and that’s a sin. No sin in the holy month of Ramadan #GERSVK
— SaM (@MesutIsMagic) June 26, 2016
Germany is winning. In other news water is wet.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 26, 2016
Brilliant work from Julian Draxler before his assist for #ger‘s second goal vs. #svk: pic.twitter.com/QINh12JFiu
— FootballGIFs (@GIFsFootie) June 26, 2016
Slovakia trying to score vs Germany pic.twitter.com/I8cm1O4UTl
— Gabryela (@gabryBoschetto) June 26, 2016
If #MUFC‘s interest in Draxler is genuine, his price tag may have just gone up €10m or so after today. #GERSVK
— Ryan Baldi (@RyanBaldiEFB) June 26, 2016
Draxler is on ????He has impressed me more than anyone in this tournament. #Gifted #EURO2016 #MUFC
— Mudiaga (@Mudi_Mats) June 26, 2016