The Longshot: Spain Basque in Euro glory, we bask in Rob wins

A Sporting Chance

Spain’s Nico Williams was surely the player of Euro 2024.

Felicidades Patatas Bravas Espana! Now that England didn’t win it we can at least give a gaze back to the Euros just gone without a sense of nausea.

There have been calls in northeast Spain for the region to finally secede considering how influential Basque players were to ultimate victory. At the centre of their defence Aymeric Laporte was French-bred. Robin Le Normand was French-bred too. Are those pain-ful attempts at a forced pun? Well, one baguettes another.

Shifting the goalposts

It wasn’t a tournament for sharpshooters. Harry Kane surely had an injury and Kylian Mbappe couldn’t have been much worse in front of the posts if the mask he wore hadn’t got holes for his eyes. Then, on the Thursday before the final, Uefa announced the top scorer award would be shared among players if there was a tie at the top. Previously the prize went to whoever had the most assists. So Dani Olmo was leading following the semis, but a rule change the next day meant he had to share the award with five others on three goals when neither he nor Kane bagged in the final. Did they hastily have the extra golden boots manufactured?

Best national characteristics

English radio presenter Iain Dale fell into the Spanish anthem trap. “What a contrast between the two teams. Every England player belted out the national anthem with gusto. Not a single Spanish player opened his mouth,” he pointed out. Eamon Dunphy famously once put this tight-lipped reserve down to the 2012 winning squad putting aside political and cultural differences “for the purposes of football”. Dale was quickly informed the Spanish ‘song’ is a wordless tune. Considering Spanish sides have now won 27 finals in succession between the Euros, World Cup, Champions and Europa League since 2001, could they not stretch their talents a bit further and Uefa could insist each player has to bring out a different instrument and have a go at the melody.

Most frazzled brain

Former Ireland international Declan Rice and several of his colleagues seemed more interested in fronting up to criticism off the field than the challenge on it. At one stage the Arsenal midfielder even addressed comments made by James McClean on RTÉ.

Best correction

Roy Keane rightly pointing out to Gary Neville during an impromptu hurling chat on ITV that Jimmy Barry-Murphy is a better name than TJ Reid. Never give an inch.

Worst commentary

When someone on RTE decided Mbappe would have been better off keeping schtum about the distinct possibility of a political party founded by former Waffen-SS members taking the reins of power in his country. Keep out of it, footballer, it seems.

Biggest mystery

What was in the Lidl bag under Kenny Cunningham’s seat that one evening in the RTE studio?

Best lookalike

The German cop who was the bulb off Gareth Southgate and got serenaded by English fans. Graham Potter is now 5/4 favourite to take over as England boss, while Newcastle boss Eddie Howe is 4/1 and Mauricio Pochettino is 11/2.

Most dramatic weather

Denmark played with the Wind in all their games, but Wolfsburg striker Jonas failed to billow the net (how many wordplays is that on the page today? It must be a record. Apologies). The most intense intervention from the heavens came when they faced the hosts in the round of 16 and the game had to be halted by a thunderstorm. The Danes lost 2-0 and their boss was afterwards asked if he thought the weather affected his team? The answer the reporter probably least expected from Kasper Hjulmand was that he fully supported the decision because in 2009 when he was an assistant manager at FC Nordsjaelland, their player Jonathan Richter was struck by lightning during a game, had a cardiac arrest, was placed in an induced coma and eventually had a leg amputated.

Needless feedback

When Cristiano Ronaldo was left in tears after missing a crucial penalty in extra time against Slovenia a caption on the BBC’s post-match analysis was ‘Misstiano Penaldo’. It’s not a great play on words in fairness, but the broadcaster felt it necessary to issue a statement to address the concerns of viewers who contacted them suggesting it was inappropriate. John Terry even labelled it “a disgrace”.

Best assist

Cristiano was through on goal against Turkey and decided to set up Bruno Fernandes for a tap-in. Out of character until you realised it meant he went joint-top to most ever assists at the Euros. Priorities.

Best pass

A controversial choice but we are going to go for one from the Copa America (cut me some slack). Joining Mbappe at Real this summer will be young Brazilian Endrick who is being hyped up on that side of the Atlantic as much as Yamal is here. He got his first start in the quarters against Uruguay and managed one successful pass in the game. That it was the first-half kick-off made it extra special.

Best goal

Bellingham’s bicycle was the most dramatic but Yamal’s curler pearler was more pretty on the eye.

Best player

Rodri, born on the day England beat Spain on penalties at Euro 1996, had to go off at half-time in the decider. It looked like a massive moment. But Spain improved after the break without him. Has to be Nico Williams in that case.

Most disappointing

Les Bleus. Guess who are favourites for the World Cup in North America in two years? France, so insipid here, are 6/1 alongside Brazil, who were dumped out of the Copa America in the quarters. Followed by England at 7/1. Copa winners for the second time running and World Cup champs Argentina? 10/1. Presumably, they will play the next tournament minus Messi, who left the final against Colombia injured and in tears in the early hours of Monday morning, but who knows. Spain and Germany, the two best sides at the Euros are the same price. Incredible.

Can Rory McIlroy win a fifth major at Troon this week?

Last week, we compared Rory McIlroy’s struggles to add a fifth major to his clubhouse locker to eating nettles.

Of course, nettles can be consumed pleasantly in a soup form (I am told), and it should come as no surprise the Down man is the 8/1 second favourite to end his decade-long wait at Troon this week, considering how well he has been playing (two wins and two top 5s in his last six starts) when he hasn’t been facing career-defining three-foot putts.

The Open Championship winners’ list here at the Troon was the preserve of Americans in the modern era, until Henrik Stenson won his epic duel at the Scottish venue in 2016 with Phil Mickelson.

Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Marc Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard and Todd Hamilton were the Americans to win here prior to the Swede lifting the Claret Jug, and the imperious Scottie Scheffler is 5/1 favourite to add his name to that list by winning on links for the first time. The Texan’s rapid career progression means this is only his third Open appearance and, after a debut eighth finish, he has ended slightly outside the top 20 the past two years.

Another caveat: No world number one, apart from Tiger Woods, has won since the turn of the century..

The other two major winners this year follow in the betting, with Xander Schauffele 10/1 and Bryson DeChambeau 12/1.

The latter’s record at the final major of the year is not amazing, but his game and maturity have developed recently. Jon Rahm (28/1), Cam Smith (40/1), Brooks Koepka (45/1) Joaquin Niemann (66/1) are also LIV golfers in contention.

Ludwig Aberg will surely become the second Scandinavian male major winner, after Stenson, at some stage of his career, but he performed poorly in the finishing holes at the Scottish Open and is uninviting at 12/1. Then, we have Offaly’s Shane Lowry coming in at 40/1 to win like he did at Portrush five years ago.

Troon is distinct to other courses on the Open rota, with its tiny greens (a quarter of the size of St Andrews dancefloors; the 125-yard Par 3 8th is named the ‘Postage Stamp’), so precise approach play will be crucial and no one is better than Scheffler at that. Tommy Fleetwood (25/1) is also a fine practitioner from the fairway and has missed only one cut all year, but he never seems to move past the fringes of contention.

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There seems little point in going into too much detail over the hurling next weekend considering the extensive coverage elsewhere in these pages.

Suffice to say I think Cork will lift Liam for the first time in 19 years. As recently as April 30 we pointed out that Pat Ryan’s men had drifted to 50/1 in the championship after opening defeats to Waterford and next Sunday’s opponents Clare.

I didn’t suggest backing it admittedly, but did draw your attention to it! A couple of weeks back we did get behind Darragh Fitzgibbon at 10/1 to be named hurler of the year and the Charleville man is now 5/2, behind only the Banner’s marquee forward Shane O’Donnell, who is even-money favourite.

After the 2013 final replay defeat (thanks mainly to the hat-trick of O’Donnell) Cork won their next five championship games against the Saffron and Blue, but have since lost four of their last five meetings.

Get on the Rebels to score first, lead at half-time, and win at 3/1.

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The FAI finally appointed a new Ireland football boss last week and everyone’s immediate reaction was ‘Who?’ The second reaction, when we found out he is a dentist, was an avalanche of toothy puns being polished on Twitter now that John O’Shea is no longer filling in.

We got well-drilled, new caps and let’s not judge too early and come back and check up how he is getting on in six months.

The response to his delayed appointment (who hasn’t been guilty of this when a dentist is involved?) was underwhelming, but perhaps there will be a silver (rather than enamel) lining and Heimir Hallgrimsson can put the smiles back on fans’ faces if we can put a few pearlers into the top corner against the newly crowned European chumps (v chomps) when they come to Dublin in September for his first game in charge in the opening Nations League encounter.

Suppose we better mention Kerry, who might have to opt for an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, as they had to swallow another defeat at what is quickly becoming Choke Park for them as they lost another big game from a winning position.

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The Tour de France is rolling towards its end in Lyon next Sunday, and it is again under a dark cloud after one of the riders was fined last week for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour during the race and damage to the image of the sport”, according to the race jury’s report.

What exactly did Julien Bernard do that drew the ire of organisers? He stopped to give his wife a kiss. Will this sport ever manage to throw off its dirty reputation?

The French rider was fined €200 for the tender moment as he rode close to his home village. Is it not better to inject some passion into a performance than other chemistry.

We also had a fan arrested for throwing crisps at leader and the now firm favourite Tadej Pogacar and chaser-in-chief Jonas Vingegaard on Saturday’s mountain stage. Will the two-time defending champion be able to mount a challenge now the chips are down?

The Bet

Modesty doesn’t prevent us from mentioning we recommended Bob MacIntyre to win his home Scottish Open after being cruelly denied Rory McIlroy in the run-in last year (nevermind we tipped Ireland to overcome the Springboks in their second Test at 3/1). Considering he was priced 55/1 we don’t feel bad opting for Scottie Scheffler to win his third major at the Open at just 5/1.