SPAIN HELD BY SWEDEN
Schick stunner downs Scots at Euro 2020
Spain opened their Euro 2020 campaign with a goalless draw against Sweden in Seville on Monday after their preparations were badly affected by COVID- 19, while Patrik Schick scored one of the championship’s great goals in the Czech Republic’s 2- 0 win over Scotland.
Elsewhere on Day 4 of the tournament, Slovakia edged out 10- man Poland 2- 1 in Saint Petersburg.
They lead the early Group E table ahead of Spain and Sweden, after the Scandinavians held on for a point at La Cartuja, with Alvaro Morata wasting the hosts’ best opportunity.
“There are no doubts about a striker like Morata,” Aymeric Laporte said of his teammate.
“We know what he can do, it didn’t go in for him today, it’s true, but in the next game he can score three and shut everyone’s mouth.”
Jordi Alba captained Spain in the absence of Sergio Busquets, who is still self- isolating at home after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Defender Diego Llorente was only allowed to rejoin the group on Saturday after giving a fourth consecutive negative test and was an unused substitute against the Swedes.
The squad was forced to train individually and their last friendly against Lithuania was passed over to the under- 21s.
But Spain, bidding for a record fourth European Championship title, started strongly against Sweden, dominating possession.
Morata fired the clearest chance of the first half wide though, while Alexander Isak saw an effort deflected onto his own post at the other end by Marcos Llorente.
Juventus striker Morata dragged another effort off target early in the second half, while Sweden striker Marcus Berg miskicked wide of an open goal.
Spain laid siege to the visitors’ net late on, but a series of blocks and an excellent save by Robin Olsen to deny Gerard Moreno preserved Sweden’s point. The Scots, absent from major tournament finals since the 1998 World Cup, were sunk by Bayer Leverkusen striker Schick in front of 12,000 fans at Hampden Park.
The home side started the
Group D contest brightly in Glasgow but fell behind shortly before halftime as Schick headed home Vladimir Coufal’s cross.
There was even better to come from the 25- year- old Schick, as he struck a high, curling shot from just inside the Scotland half over the head of back- pedalling Scottish goalkeeper David Marshall and into the net.
“The ball bounced back, the goalkeeper was quite high, I took a look, I saw he was out there so I slammed it in,” said Schick.
Czech goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik made two important second- half saves from Scotland striker Lyndon Dykes as the hosts tried to force their way back into the game.
But there was no way through for Steve Clarke’s men, as the Czech Republic moved top of Group D ahead of their game with Croatia at Hampden on Friday.
The Scots will next face old rivals England, who made a successful start to their campaign with a 1- 0 win over Croatia on Sunday, at Wembley on Friday.
Kawhi Leonard recorded 31 points and seven rebounds before exiting with an apparent injury, and the Los Angeles Clippers notched a 118- 104 victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday night to tie their Western Conference semifinal series at two games apiece.
Paul George also scored 31 points and collected nine rebounds as Los Angeles won its second straight game in the best- of- seven series. Marcus Morris Sr scored 22 of his 24 points during a first half in which the Clippers led by as many as 29 points.
Donovan Mitchell poured in 37 points to tie the Utah franchise playoff record of six straight 30- point outings held by Hall of Famer Karl Malone ( three in 1995, three in 1996).
Game 5 is Wednesday at Salt Lake City.
Leonard left the contest with 4: 35 remaining and didn’t return. His departure came less than a minute after he grabbed at his right knee following a collision with the Jazz’s Joe Ingles.
Utah’s Mike Conley ( hamstring) sat out and has missed all four games of the series.
Ingles scored 19 points and Bojan Bogdanovic added 18 for the top- seeded Jazz, who shot 42.9 percent from the field and were 17 of 42 ( 40.5 percent) from 3- point range.
Fourth- seeded Los Angeles Clippers made 46.8 percent of its shots and hit 15 of 37 ( 40.5 percent) from behind the arc.
Ingles drained a three- pointer to pull Utah within 112- 102 with 2: 10 left before Los Angeles scored six of the next seven points en route to closing it out. Utah trailed 68- 44 at halftime but trimmed its deficit to 14 early in the third quarter. George tallied five points during a 9- 3 burst to give the Clippers an 84- 64 advantage with 4: 12 left in the stanza.
Los Angeles took a 9473 lead into the final stanza. Luke Kennard’s three- pointer increased the Clippers’ advantage to 101- 75 with 10: 37 remaining before Utah answered with a 19- 6 spurt to move within 13 points with 3: 56 to play.