Euro 2016 - On Reflection: Strikers and some keepers struggle, midfield magicians set tone

Dmitri Payet’s late winning goal for France in Euro 2016’s opening match may have been the moment of the first round of group matches. Sadly, hopes that the West Ham winger’s wonderful left-footed strike would ignite the tournament and encourage other teams to go for it in the first game proved unfounded.

What we saw instead was a succession of cagey games where avoiding defeat seemed more important than winning – or at least the line from many players, “a draw is not a bad start for us,” suggests as much. Italy’s win over Belgium and two shock results from Group F redressed the balance ahead of Wednesday’s second group matches.

Here are some other early patterns – it’s too early in the tournament to call them a trend – that caught our eye after the first set of matches:

Centre-forwards scored a total of three goals out of 22 in this round of games: Olivier Giroud against Romania, Graziano Pelle against Belgium, and Adam Szalai for Hungary (though his description as centre-forward is generous, considering his last goal was 18 months and 49 games ago). The first team to win by more than one goal, Germany, played without a recognised striker for the first hour against Ukraine.

What’s going on here? Germany scout Urs Siegenthaler discussed the counter-attacking success of Leicester City and Atletico Madrid with coach Jogi Loew before the tournament began and wondered if it might have an impact on how teams face up against "big-name" opponents. To an extent, we saw this in action: Ukraine and the Czech Republic were happy to defend deep against Germany and Spain, and look to score on the counter (neither did, though they both had opportunities). Northern Ireland defended deep against Poland, but struggled more when it came to the counter-attacking bit.

Other teams deployed their strikers in varying positions: Thomas Muller started wide on the right for Germany, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic dropped so deep for Sweden, at times he was playing in midfield. (This has been an ongoing issue with the Sweden team, which allows Ibrahimovic to go where he wants. However, no-one complains as he is the true game-changer in their side, as he showed by setting up the equaliser against Ireland.)

And some teams, like Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain have issues in attack that the coach is yet to resolve. Haris Seferovic, Romelu Lukaku and, to a lesser extent, Alvaro Morata, are all fighting to keep their places in the starting eleven after lacklustre opening-game performances.

Spain won Euro 2012 without fielding a striker in the final but since then has had problems finding someone to put away the chances. Spanish expert Sid Lowe, writing in The Guardian, believes “there is something in Spain’s style that complicates life for the striker. Chances are usually few and when they come they have to be taken.”

Maybe there was a natural caution – or simply nervousness – among all the teams because of the occasion, or the new format that sees 16 teams go through to the next round. The early lack of striker success is worth keeping an eye on.

There was a noticeable lack of complaints before the tournament about the ball that’s being used. Usually at least one goalkeeper complains that it’s too light, swerving or colourful. Not this time and although there were a few decent goalkeeper performances – Manuel Neuer, Hugo Lloris and Yann Sommer stood out – there were also some shockers.

Ciprian Tatarusanu set the tone with his failed effort to clear Dmitri Payet’s cross for Olivier Giroud to head home the tournament’s opening goal. In the next match, Etrit Berisha made a woeful attempt to punch a corner but was beaten to it by Fabian Schar.

Later that day, Slovakia number one Matus Kozacik left Gareth Bale with a clear view of goal at a free-kick from which he scored. And in the evening game, Russia’s Igor Akinfeev set up a wall that left Eric Dier with a clear view of the half of the goal he was aiming for.

The two best individual performances came from similar players: Andres Iniesta and Luka Modric. One set up the winning goal for his team, the other scored it. It may be too early to judge whether these players will dominate the tournament, but one cartoon in a Spanish paper summed it up best. It was an image of the players’ dressing-room, with the Spanish players’ names above each peg. There was Pique, with his boots hanging up on his peg. Ramos was there too, boots and all. And there, hanging off Iniesta’s peg: a magician’s wand.

"I always try to have a high responsibility when I play," said Iniesta after the game. "It's not about the moment, I enjoy football and that's how I try to do it. It's no different now. We all have to give our best, so in that sense I try not to shirk responsibility."

It was his fourth man of the match award in his last seven games at the Euros, going back to 2012. He was a decisive figure back then; will we see a repeat?

Former UEFA president Michel Platini’s plan to expand the Euros format to 24 teams, with this group stage getting rid of only eight teams, made for a fascinating qualifying campaign, but the expectation was that the tournament’s group stage would be unwieldy and boring. Not true: certain results – like Wales beating Slovakia, Italy beating Belgium and Hungary beating Austria, not to mention Portugal dropping points to Iceland – have opened up their groups to make compelling round-two and three – matches. It means that we may yet see a team like England or Belgium, seeded to top their groups, finish elsewhere and end up in a different half of the draw to what was expected.

Perhaps the over-riding lesson of the first round is that there is no outstanding team in this competition. Germany, Spain and France showed moments of vulnerability. Portugal and Croatia impressed in parts while Italy put in the performance of the first round. But as all the coaches in France would say, it’s not how you start the tournament, it’s how you end it that matters.