Merry Monday to you all! An absolutely chaotic day yesterday saw four teams wave goodbye to their hopes of being the 2020 CM Cup champion. 8 more will put their places in the tournament on the line today as we look to complete the quarter final lineup. Here’s how the bracket looks:

So many potential winners on show today. We have former winners Dan and Ross in action and the form of Spain and Italy is hard to ignore. It’s going to be a great day.

Spain vs Finland

It’s good news for Rob Tait – Alfonso is back to 100%. Spain won all of their group games and it’s difficult to see them losing to Finland, but we’ll see.

A tough task for Finland has been made all the more difficult. I had to load a new save to set these games up and Sami Hyypia doesn’t have a set position in the database. He was a centre back in the groups, now he’s left winger. Heinola is in at centre back to replace him.

Paatelainen! Finland lead in the Camp Nou. A beautiful lobbed finish and the upset is on. Spain absolutely batter the Finns but Jakonen repels the few efforts on target whilst Alfonso’s finishing is wayward. Finland are hanging on but Jakonen fells Kiko and gets his marching orders. Niemi is on but Alfonso blazes the penalty over. Surely not?

It takes nearly 20 minutes of the second half but Hierro eventually heads in from a corner. Finland’s best hope now is penalties but Heinola smashes one into his own goal to break the Moomin resistance.

You can’t really argue Spain didn’t deserve it but they’ll be in for shooting practice in the morning.

Well done to Rob and commiserations to MK who did brilliantly to get Finland this far, in my view.

England vs Scotland

The battle of Britain! It seems quite fitting that after ITV repeated Euro 96 and we’ve spent a lockdown clinging to the past that we’d get this clash of all clashes. 2017 winner Dan Williamson will lead England into battle without Le Saux and Ince, who are both missing through injury. Batty and Phil Neville deputise, who will go on to make high profile England errors.

Zak has an almost fully fit squad after his striker crisis in the groups so Ally McCoist is here and he’s joined by Scott Booth. They’re not favourites.

It’s a fairly quiet opening but then England’s front two blow this one wide open. Shearer nets his 5th of the tournament and then barely a minute later Fowler nets his 7th to take him level with Sean Dundee in some sort of Liverpool love in. Speaking of which, McManaman makes it 3 after just 30 minutes and this is a nightmare for Scotland. Zak throws on Big Dunc and former World Snooker champion John Spencer and it pays immediate dividend as Ferguson is hauled down  for a penalty. McAllister gets revenge against Seaman but there’s work to do. Sadly for Zak that work is too much of a struggle and despite some chances, Dailly’s red card five minutes from time ends the contest.

England were by far the better side despite a plucky second half from the visitors.

No shock there then but up next is a team who upset the form book to get this far.

Austria vs France

Tom shocked Group C with three wins when some expected them to get maybe one at best. He has been dealt a blow here though as star man Marcus Purk is ruled out with injury. Herzog is in but that’s a big loss.

Dan hasn’t won a game to get to this stage. Three draws were enough and he’s stuck with his diagonal wing backs despite the big zero in the W column.

This is the France we expected to see. 3-0 up inside 23 minutes and 4-0 before half time. Austria do briefly threaten the greatest comeback of all time thanks to Wurz and Michelle Pfeifenberger but France continue to pepper Konsel’s goal and after 35 shots, Austria are lucky to get away with just 4 in the end.

That’s…massive.

Good effort all round but Austria just couldn’t handle the French attack. It was unfortunate for Tom to win a group and have to face such a strong third place team.

One game to go…

Belgium vs Italy

Ross is our current champion but he’s got his work cut out here. Belgium are good going forwards but I’m not sure the defence can cope with Italy’s many, many forwards.

Nikolai was flying through Group A until that shock defeat to Wales. Italy have such a strong squad, our Anglo-Italian champion has shuffled his pack and tactical selection to come up with this:

Will it work? Well, Carbone has two and Del Piero gets off the mark for the tournament and we’ve only played 38 minutes. Ross goes four up front to try and get back into the game and Oliveira pulls one back. Game on? Belgium keep pushing and they get a penalty after a Maldini handball. Up steps Phillipe Albert and…wide. With that, the game is gone and so is Ross’ grip on the CM Cup.

As you can see, Belgium came roaring back but Italy had enough from their first half heroics.

Commiserations to Ross then and indeed all eight of our managers whose journey finishes here. Let’s take a look at the bracket ahead of Thursday’s quarter finals:

Germany remain the bookies favourites, they’ll travel to Poland. Sweden will host Wales whilst Spain and France will also have home ties. How much will it count for? See you on Thursday to find out!