Preview of today’s Euro 2016 matches

The knock out phase will commence today with three matches being played later on during the day.

Croatia players preparing for their Euro 2016 match against Portugal
Croatia players preparing for their Euro 2016 match against Portugal

At 3 p.m., Switzerland will play against Poland in Saint-Etienne. Later, at 6 p.m., football fans will be assisting to another British derby as Wales will face Northern Ireland at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris.The last match of the day between Portugal and Croatia is scheduled for 9 p.m, and will be played in the stadium of Lens.

Switzerland vs Poland

This should be quite a balanced encounter between two sides who produced very good performances in the group stage. Poland managed to win two matches, and drew only with Germany, while the Swiss got a win and two draws.

Poland will be without Kapustka who is suspended, while Szczesny is recovering from an injury. However, they can still be considered as fovourites due to the depth that they have in their squad.

History also favours Poland since they managed to beat Switzerland four times in the previous ten matches, whereas Switzerland won one. The remaining five matches ended up in a draw.

The referee of this match will be Mark Clattenburg from England.

Wales vs Northern Ireland

This match will see two British teams meet each other for the second time in the tournament after Wales already played against England in the group stages.

Wales will start as favourites after having good performances in the previous matches, though they will need to work hard to go past Northern Ireland’s well organised defence.

These two teams played against each other not less than ninety eight times. Wales won forty six of such games, while the Irish won twenty seven. Twenty five matches ended up in a draw.

The referee of this match will be Martin Atkinson from England.

Croatia vs Portugal

After beating Spain in their last group stage fixture, Croatia will be up against Portugal who managed to qualify as one of the best third placed teams.

Croatia will be considered as favourites for this match, but Portugal are still looking to prove themselves in this tournament. They will definitely need their star man, Christiano Ronaldo, to be in form if they are to beat one of the best squads in Croatia’s football history.

Croatia and Portugal only played against each other three times. Portugal won all the three matches. However, this is not a guarantee since Croatia are showing that they are one of the best sides in Europe.

The referee of this match will be Carlos Velasco Carballo from the Spanish federation.