On Reflection's trends of the last 16: Coaching tells, Griezmann development a lesson to all

The round of 16 games started slowly but the drama increased and the result of the round was saved for the final match, with Iceland beating England 2-1. England coach Roy Hodgson resigned – three days before his contract was set to expire – and the inquest into the England team will be a long one. Here are some thoughts about a Round of 16 that ignited the tournament…

Roy Hodgson was explicit about his game-plan ahead of the tie against Iceland. He wanted Raheem Sterling to stretch the pitch and, with his pace, to cause Iceland’s narrow defence problems in wide positions. He wanted Daniel Sturridge to do the same on the other flank. For three minutes, the plan worked a treat; Sturridge crossed for Sterling, who was brought down for a penalty. England were ahead.

But just as against Russia, they switched off after the goal and allowed Iceland a route back into the game. Just 34 seconds after the restart, Iceland equalised. And then, for some unknown reason, England’s game-plan went out of the window. No width. No pace or dribbling from Sterling. No crosses from wide positions by Rose, and only a few from Walker. And there was no intensity.

Compare that to Iceland, whose game-plan after levelling up was executed to perfection. They defended solidly with an organised but hardly exceptional back-line. But the key was the execution; they had a plan, they stuck to it, and they delivered.

Italy did the same against Spain. Italy coach Antonio Conte gave his players precise tactical instructions which they followed to the letter, and that’s how they beat Spain, deservedly, 2-0.

Hodgson may have given his players instructions to beat Iceland, but they forgot them as soon as that third-minute goal went in. Hodgson pays for that with his job; but whose fault is it?

No-one can doubt what type of captain Vincent Kompany is. He is one of those inspirational leaders, with an aura of authority and influence. He carries himself like that on and off the pitch. Not everyone is like that, and so it was some surprise when Belgium coach Marc Wilmots handed the captaincy to Eden Hazard when Kompany withdrew from the tournament injured.

Hazard, even the player himself would agree, is not a Kompany type of leader. “Many people were surprised that I gave to the armband this little guy,” Wilmots told Sport/Foot magazine. “But this little guy, you need him to grow. We must create a context where he can express himself. Against Hungary it was impossible to get the ball off him.”

Hazard admitted that he lacks some authority in the dressing-room, and that he has been laughed at when he tries to speak to the players. “He has to speak with his feet,” said Wilmots last week. He did just that against a Hungary side that was happy to let him do just that.

His assist for Michy Batshuayi for Belgium’s second goal was his third of the competition, as many as he managed all last season at Chelsea. He completed 11 dribbles, more than twice Hungary’s total of five. When he was asked if the weight of the armband was too heavy for him, Hazard joked, “Don’t worry, I’ll do some body-building.” Hungary may have made life easy for him by dropping off in numbers and allowing him space, but Hazard certainly let his feet do the talking, just as Wilmots wanted.

The story of how Antoine Griezmann got spotted by Real Sociedad should be a cautionary tale for every academy in France. The young Griezmann was football-mad but rejected by Lyon, Auxerre, Saint-Etienne, Sochaux and Metz for being too small. Real Sociedad scout Eric Olhats had other ideas. He happened to be a youth tournament in Paris to meet some friends – it was not a working trip and anyway, he was not a youth scout – when he saw Griezmann in action, and he was transfixed. Olhats persuaded the Griezmann family to allow young Antoine to move to Spain and train at Sociedad, where he came up through the ranks. He burst into the French consciousness with a Champions League goal against Lyon, of all teams, and, back in Lyon on Saturday, scored two goals to edge France past Ireland and into the last eight.

Griezmann has already spared French blushes once this tournament, coming off the bench and scoring late on against Albania. France scored again soon after. His equaliser against Ireland had the similar effect, as France took the lead minutes later. Both Griezmann’s opening goals were power headers after he found space in the box; for a player who was deemed too short to succeed by French academies, and whose football education was wholly Spanish, it’s ironic that his headers are propelling France in the competition. A possible semi-final could await against Spain. Griezmann once told L’Equipe magazine that he feels more like a Spanish player (he also speaks to his dog in Spanish). They at least know will know how dangerous he can be.

Glenn Hoddle knows a thing or two about passing the ball through the eye of a needle and he was very quick to claim that Nani’s 115th minute effort that found its way to Cristiano Ronaldo, whose shot on target was the game’s first, was a mis-hit shot. If it was, there was a huge amount of fortune about it: an outside-of-the-boot-toe-poke that somehow avoided three Croatian defenders and found its way to the country’s all-time leading scorer, a player that all team-mates are expected to pass to wherever possible? What luck!

I prefer to take the intentional approach: Nani saw Ronaldo in his peripheral vision – great players look up and evaluate the state of the field before they receive the ball, not after – and he measured a perfectly-weighted pass into his captain’s path. Only Nani really knows the truth – for Croatia, it doesn't matter either way.

For all the brilliance of the Iceland story, and the fact that Croatia won its group by beating Spain, both teams benefited from group-stage penalty misses. Aleksandar Dragovic missed a spot-kick for Austria against Iceland – bizarre that he took one given his last scored penalty was in November 2014, while Marko Arnautovic scored three for Stoke last season and David Alaba scored for Austria from the spot last September – and Sergio Ramos missed the chance to put Spain 2-1 ahead against Croatia.

Other players to miss spot-kicks include Ronaldo, whose effort against Austria missed the target, and Mesut Ozil, whose unconvincing run-up continued his miserable record from the spot. The misses of Dragovic and Ramos (whose miss essentially landed Spain their tie against Italy) had a big impact. As the tournament enters its later stages, though, a penalty record of six conversions from ten kicks already suggests the pressure is getting to some players.

The standard of refereeing has been superb in the tournament, and Nicola Rizzoli put in the performance of the round in his decision to send off Ireland’s Keith Duffy for his foul on Griezmann in the France game – he also gave a free-kick outside the area, another correct call.

But the deeper Italy go in the tournament, the more chance Rizzoli will miss out on a chance to officiate the final. At the moment, it’s between him and Mark Clattenburg, who has also been excellent. Clattenburg is on a good run at the moment: he refereed the FA Cup final and the Champions League final; will he complete the hat-trick with the European Championship final too?