Netherlands 3-2 Ukraine
Netherlands marked their return at the European Championship with victory after edging Ukraine in a five-goal thriller in their Group C opener on Sunday evening.
The Oranje were still without centre-back Matthijs de Ligt, who joined Virgil van Dijk in the injury list and the three-man centre-defence of Jurrien Timber, Daley Blind and Stefan de Vrij came to the fore while Wout Weghorst and Memphis Depay spearheaded the attack.
Netherland had a quick start as Depay and Denzel Dumfries had two good chances inside the first nine minutes but they were denied by goalkeeper Georgi Bushchan.
The Dutch came close to breaking the deadlock just before the half-hour-mark after Weghorst went through on goal and thought he had rounded Bushchan but the Ukrainian shot-stopper made a last-ditch save, grabbing the ball off his feet.
Frank de Boer's charges had a strong finish in the latter stages of the second stanza as Georginio Wijnaldum forced a breath-taking save out of Bushchan with a volley inside the box before Dumfries missed a sitter five minutes before half-time.
Wijnaldum finally gave Netherlands the lead seven minutes inside the second stanza with a looping strike into a gaping net after Bushchan parried a low cross onto his path.
Andriy Shevchenko's troops were opening up at the back, as Weghorst doubled the lead for Netherlands six minutes later with a cracking strike from a rebound at the near post after the Yellow and Blue failed to clear their lines.
Ukraine did not drop their heads, as the game opened up and Andriy Yarmolenko pulled a goal back in the last quarter of an hour with a sensational curling strike from just outside the box that found the top corner.
Shevchenko's troops then snatched the equaliser 11 minutes before time, with Roman Yaremchuk nodding home a free-kick by Ruslan Malinovskyi.
However, the Dutch had the final say as Dumfries netted the winner for the Dutch in the last five minutes with a header at the back post after a lofted cross by Ake.
Austria 3-1 North Macedonia
Austria won their first ever game at the European Championship after thrashing debutants North Macedonia 3-1 in a Group C opener on Sunday evening.
Austria went winless in 2008 as co-hosts and in the 2016 edition while North Macedonia qualified for the first time.
David Alaba captained Das Team at centre-back role while North Macedonia's veteran forward and skipper Goran Pandev was paired with Aleksandar Trajkovski upfront.
Das Team had a great start after Stefan Lainer gave them the lead in the 18th minute with a volley across goal at the back post after a sublime cross by Marcel Sabitzer.
However, Igor Angelovski's charges got the equaliser ten minutes later after Trajkovski pounced on a mistake by shot-stopper Daniel Bachmann, who could not hold onto a low cross, which allowed Pandev to slot into an empty net.
With the sides going at each other in the early stages of the second stanza, Austria decided to make a double change just after the hour-mark after taking out Christoph Baumgartner and Sasa Kalajdzic for Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic.
The changes paid off as Gregoritsch made it 2-1 for Franco Foda's troops in the last 12 minutes with a first-time finish past Dimitrievski at the near post after a well weighted cross by Alaba.
Arnautovic sealed the deal for Austria with the third goal in the last minute of regulation time with a strike into an empty net after rounding Dimitrievski from Konrad Laimer's flick on.
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