The Marvellous Manuel Ángel and a near-miracle: UEFA U-19 EURO, Matchday 1

An amazing comeback, a slick City winger, and more from MD1.

The UEFA U-19 EURO is like lemon sorbet – a much-needed a palette cleanser after a heavy summer of youth international football. It’s sharp and refreshing, a tasty dollop of 15 games slipped into a brief 13-day period. Any more and it would be sickly – but the eight team format is juuust right.

While this tournament may not be jam-packed to the brim with the powerhouses, matchday one didn’t disappoint. It was an exhilarating set of games, topped by Norway’s comedic-then-dramatic 5-4 victory against Greece.

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Cruising at half time, 5-0 up no less, a raft of substitutions for both sides set the scene for a near-sensational comeback as Greece fell just short of pulling off a miracle on the 19th anniversary of their miraculous Euro 2004 title.

Elsewhere? Italy converted three out of the four penalties they received in a comfortable 4-0 win over hosts Malta, Portugal undwhelmed in a 2-0 victory against Poland, and Spain survived a late scare to defeat Iceland 2-1.

There were no real surprises in terms of the results, but there were so many fantastic individual performances to delve into from these opening four matches, so let’s get right into it!