As is so often the case in football, it is the hope that kills you. Continuing a long tradition of dark horses who never turned up for the races, Turkey have failed to live up to their billing in the most spectacular fashion.

The European Championships show that it’s time Irish football fans stopped putting on the poor mouth. The situation is not hopeless for the national team. We should be able to not just reach the Euros, but acquit ourselves well there.

Harry Kane faces heartbreak over his dream to move to a Champions League club, with Manchester City unwilling to get drawn into a prolonged transfer saga.

The scoreless draw has long been afforded a degree of tolerance in British football, which sometimes seems perverse given the degrees of intolerance displayed in many other parts of the game.

For most of the life of an England manager, he finds himself in a position more akin to that of technical director: scouting players, planning the future, defining a style of play and a team culture, while the footballers who will one day fit into it are preoccupied elsewhere.

In Italian football jargon, the current calendar year is not 2021 but rather 4da (‘4 Dopo L’Apocalisse’ or 4 After the Apocalypse). The Apocalypse came on the November 2017 night when legendary Italian goalkeeper Gigi Buffon cried his eyes out on live TV, minutes after Italy had failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Paul Pogba’s towering performance against Germany last Tuesday is more an indictment of, than a boost for, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Wales tackle Italy in Rome on Sunday looking to make sure of a place in the last 16 of Euro 2020.

Spain boss Luis Enrique admitted his side failed to make the most of a “crucial moment” after seeing a second-half penalty miss prove costly as Poland fought back to draw 1-1 in Seville.

Robert Lewandowski struck to keep Poland's Euro 2020 hopes alive after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Spain in Seville, where the hosts missed a second-half penalty.