Euros Quarter-finals preview: Which Man City players will be playing who & when?
By Hidayah Ali
The quarter-finals of the European Championships have been decided and for Manchester City, they continue to have a wide representation of players in the next round.
The last round of 16 of the Euros concluded on Tuesday night, with all eight teams booking their place in the quarter-finals.
Man City went into the former round with only two fewer players than they started off with, as Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic came third in their group with only two points, which obviously proved not to be enough to get them a place as one of the best third-placed teams.
In the last 16, City lost a further two more names with Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku losing 1-0 to France in the 85th minute.
The Belgian duo disappointingly missed out on continuing their Euros journey, and for De Bruyne this elimination brought up some frustration that ended up being displayed in a press conference after a question about Belgium's failure was asked.
As eight teams remain in contention for the European trophy, Man City will have 10 players involved in the quarter-finals.
Quarter-finals schedule
Spain vs Germany (Rodri) - Friday, 5th of July at 17:00 (UK)
Portugal vs France (Silva, Dias, Nunes, Cancelo) - Friday, the 5th of July at 20:00 (UK)
England vs Switzerland (Foden, Walker, Stones, Akanji) - Saturday, the 6th of July at 17:00 (UK)
Netherlands vs Turkey (Nathan Ake) - Saturday, the 6th of July at 20:00 (UK)
All four fixtures will feature Cityzens, giving a much stronger chance that a winner's medal could be on the way back to Manchester City.
On Friday, there will be two stellar games to keep your eyes on as hosts Germany will meet Spain.
For Spain and Rodri, they have given great performances to get to this point of the competition; from winning their group and winning 9/9 points.
In the last round, the Spanish faced Georgia and despite a very early goal for the opposition, Spain thrashed them 4-1 with Rodri getting his name on the scoresheet.
After Germany vs Spain, the attention will be focused on Portugal and France's encounter.
Four players are included within the Portgual squad, with Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo being regular starters, while Matheus Nunes has been preferred on the bench.
It's fair to say that the Portuguese have been rather underwhelming so far, considering the talent in their team.
Their round of 16 fixture came against Slovenia, and it went all the way up to a penalty shootout to determine the winner after a 0-0 draw in normal and extra time. Bernardo Silva was one of the three players to score a penalty, in which resulted a three-0 shootout win for Portugal.
The next day will bring an all-city-themed matchup with England and Switzerland set to battle it out for a semi-final.
Manuel Akanji and Switzerland reached this stage with a 2-0 win over current champions Italy, which might have come as a surprise to some. But, with the performances that the Swiss have been displaying, they have proven themselves not to be written off.
As for Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and John Stones, England have struggled in pretty much all their games so far; winning only one in the group while drawing two.
They last took on Slovakia and scoring goals proved once again an issue for them, as it took until the 95th minute to equalise Slovakia's 1-0 scoreline and then took it to extra time, where they got themselves another, winning the game 2-1.
And then to close the quarter-final stage, Nathan Ake's Netherlands will meet Turkey, who have been quite the underdogs in the competition.
The Netherlands have lost one game out of four, which came in the group to Austria 3-2. They last played Romania, where the Dutch were comfortable winners with a score of 3-0.
Overall, there will be some very exciting matchups to decide who becomes semi-finalists and who exits the tournament.