Euro 2016: Round of 16 XI featuring Chelsea and Manchester City stars

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The first ever Round of 16 to take place at the European Championships was one that threw up several surprises, including Italy’s composed victory over defending champions Spain and England’s humiliating 1-2 exit at the hands of Iceland, whose population equals roughly that of the city of Leicester. One of their stand-out performers features here, but who else made the cut over the long weekend which yielded several historic and memorable results?

Coach: Antonio Conte (Italy)

The man who will be on his way to Stamford Bridge after Euro 2016 takes his place in the dugout to lead our Team of the Round for the second time in these championships. Italy’s victory against Spain was won in the fine details, and Conte’s favoured 3-5-2 setup with quick transition from defence to attack and vice versa proved to be the defending champions’ undoing.

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Italy left nothing to chance, playing with intensity that made one of the greatest footballing nations in recent years look ordinary, and were able to burst forward just as quickly and ruthlessly as they could withdraw to defend and shut out the Spanish threat. He looked animated throughout, stalking the touch-line and constantly communicating with his players, and he was not short of passion either as he jumped on top of the dugout when Graziano Pellè’s goal clinched the contest in stoppage time.

Conte has also played the game of expectation very carefully, talking down his team’s chances in the presence of the media, whilst demonstrating the drive in the dugout of a man who believes his side can go all the way and keep heads turning at this tournament.

Formation: 4-3-2-1

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Goalkeeper: Lukasz Fabianski (Poland)

Lukasz Fabianski gets the nod in goal after a fantastic performance in Poland’s Round of 16 clash with Switzerland. Amidst a Swiss onslaught, the Swansea City shot-stopper produced superb saves to deny Ricardo Rodríguez and Eren Derdiyok, and showed composure and command of his box in claiming crosses and corners.

He was only beaten in normal time by Xherdan Shaqiri’s superb strike, and it took something exceptionally special to get the better of him. Any keeper in fact would have struggled to reach it. His performance in shutting out Switzerland and denying two certain goals in extra-time for Derdiyok is enough to edge out David De Gea, who put in a world class performance for Spain with some sensational saves of his own, but couldn’t prevent Spain from going down 0-2 to Italy.

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Right-Back: Alessandro Florenzi (Italy)

Florenzi proved a real threat on the right flank in Italy’s victory over Spain. He positioned himself well when Italy withdrew to defend, but burst forward superbly when Italy looked to attack, full of running throughout, and constantly putting dangerous balls into the box.

He neutralised the threat of Nolito down the Spanish left well, and he will need to keep putting in such performances if Conte’s Italy are to go all the way.

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Centre-Back: Jérôme Boateng (Germany)

The Bayern Munich centre-half set the tone for his performance with a superb 25-yard volley to net Germany’s opening goal in their 3-0 victory over Slovakia. His distribution and composure at the back from then on were precise for the entire match, and he was also defensively solid.

His mentality for driving forward from the centre-back position and the quality of his strike was enough to ward off competition from Italy’s Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini for the jersey.

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Centre-Back: Ragnar Sigurdsson (Iceland)

Sigurdsson, who plies his trade in club football with Russian outfit FC Krasnodar, was probably Iceland’s Man of the Match in their sensational 2-1 defeat of England. He took his goal well, stabbing in at the back post a mere 60 seconds after Wayne Rooney opened the scoring, before a brilliant last-ditch recovery challenge which denied Jamie Vardy a certain goal-scoring opportunity.

Gylfi’s name-sake was solid at the back for the Icelanders throughout and epitomised what the underdogs have been about so far in France: grit, determination and opportunism.

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Left-Back: Mattia De Sciglio (Italy)

De Sciglio was deployed in the left wing-back position for Italy to devastating effect in their toppling of defending champions Spain. The Milan player looked full of energy on the left flank and was key to Italy’s quick transition of defence to attack.

His positioning was accurate throughout, and he looked dangerous in attack when Italy looked to surge forward. He kept the threat of David Silva in check for the ninety minutes, and his contribution will be critical as Italy gear up for their quarter-final showdown with world champions Germany.