A picture of some Netherlands fans dressed up as Ruud Gullit ahead of their Euro 2024 opener against Poland in Hamburg has gone viral. While some simply saw it as a tribute to Gullit, a key person in the Dutch Euro 1988 title triumph, others felt it was a case of blackface- white football fans dressing up as black/coloured players.
Dutch football fans dressed up as Ruud Gullit photo Euro 2024
Here are the player ratings for Italy vs Albania at Euro 2024 from the big European sports newspapers. The Italians won 2-1 thanks to goals from Bastoni and Barella after Bajrami had given Albania a shock first minute lead.
Corriere della Sera Italian paper player ratings ITA 2-1 ALB
CdS gave Arsenal midfielder Jorginho a 6/10 for his performance here; his midfield partner Barella was the pick of the players in their eyes with a 8/10.
Armando Broja got a 5/10 player rating from CdS, with goalkeeper Strokosha the highest rated Albanian player with a 7/10.
L’Equipe player ratings Italia vs Albania
The French paper gave both Broja and Jorginho a 6/10 here, with Barella getting a 8.
Interestingly, L’Equipe didn’t think of Strokosha’s performance too highly, giving him only a 4/10. Broja was also the best Albanian player on the afternoon according to them, as can be seen below.
Here are the player ratings from Spain 3-0 Croatia at Euro 2024 from some of Europe’s biggest sports newspapers. It was a rare game when Spain had less than 50% of possession, but they won it on the back of a strong first half performance.
Marca player ratings Spain v Croatia
Spanish paper Marca thought Gvardiol wasn’t worthy of a rating in this game and gave Rodri a single star. They had a favourable view of Cucurella, giving him 2 stars.
Diario AS player ratings Spain-Croatia 3-0
Cucurella got 3 stars from Madrid based AS- the highest rating they gave to several Spanish players in this game. Gvardiol was again deemed not worthy of a rating here, while Kovacic got a single star. Two stars for Rodri from AS.
L’Equipe player ratings Spain 3 Croatia 0
L’Equipe was a rare publication which thought Cucurella had a poor game- the Chelsea left back was given a 5/10 for his performance by the French paper
Gvardiol got the same rating too while midfielder Rodri emerged with a 7/10, the next best for Spain in their eyes after Fabian Ruiz. Mateo Kovacic got a 6/10 (better than Luka Modric and Marcelo Brozovic)