Not surprisingly, the post-mortem after Holland’s Euros defeat to Czech Republic has not been kind to Frank de Boer.

Positioned on the friendly side of the draw, the reverse at the hands of the underdogs is being viewed as an opportunity lost for a nation returning to the major tournament stage after a seven-year absence.

The decision to take off Donyell Malen and replace him with Quincy Promes is being compared to Dick Advocaat’s 2004 Euros decision to sub off Arjen Robben and bring in Paul Bosvelt. That effectively cost him his job and De Boer is now coming under similar pressure.

De Boer has limited credit in the bank because Ronald Koeman has collected the praise for rebuilding the team after the failure to make the 2018 World Cup. His departure for Barcelona opened the door for the ex-Crystal Palace manager.

But he’s on a sticky wicket now with a decision to switch from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 also high up the rap sheet. You fear this won’t end well for him, even if the Czechs do go on to perform with credit in the latter stages.

Tallaght visitors making their mark

Finding an Irish angle to the European games can be a stretch but there’s a certain satisfaction in seeing names who regular match-goers on these shores might have seen in the flesh before they were famous.

There’s a very high-profile example today seeing as Harry Kane’s first competitive goal for Spurs came against Shamrock Rovers in a Europa League dead rubber in Tallaght Stadium ten years ago.

Sweden star Emil Forsberg also has experience of scoring against a League of Ireland side. He was on target against Drogheda United back in 2013 while he was on the books of Malmo, coming to the fore in a 2-0 second leg victory after the first encounter in Tallaght finished scoreless. Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen was an unused sub.

Joachim Low ponders the possibility of penalties

When England are due to play Germany in a major tournament, there is always the question of penalties, but Low played down the importance of practice.

“In a penalty shootout anything can happen. We were lucky here and there in the past, especially against the English side they were a little bit unlucky, but in terms of nerves it’s a totally different story. You need to have this calmness, this clarity about what you’re going to do there. You can talk about it beforehand but the walk up to the penalty point is a totally different story,” he said.

Post of the day

One to watch:

Alexander Isak (Sweden)

Their clash with Ukraine is going to be overshadowed by events at Wembley but the 21-year-old Real Sociedad player has been the one source of enjoyment from Sweden’s campaign to date.

Number of the day: 23

Shots registered by Portugal in their defeat to Belgium on Sunday, a competition high in terms of a team who took aim without scoring a goal.

Stat of the day

Quote of the day

“Football is about mistakes. I haven’t seen any player in my whole career that hasn’t made mistakes right throughout teams.”

Luis Enrique excuses Unai Simon’s costly mistake for Croatia’s first goal

ON TV

Today: England v Germany, RTÉ2/BBC, 5.0; Sweden v Ukraine, RTÉ2/BBC, 8.0.