Romania v Ukraine: Euro 2024 – live

One of the joys of tournament football is that it gives us an excuse to spend all day every day talking football. Yes, and one of the punishments of tournament football is that it gives other people an excuse to spend all day every talking football too, but still.

Sometimes, though, we find ourselves in a situation – such as this one – in which talking football feels gauche … yet it is incumbent upon us do so with even greater alacrity than before. Because though Ukraine are defending themselves against Vladimir Putin’s expansionist war, and though their miraculous presence at this competition is part of that story, their team is a football team, their players are football players and their football team will contain football players playing football; as such, we owe it to them to focus on them – without ignoring the stuff that’s outside of their control.

And Ukraine are a decent outfit too. Goalie Andriy Lunin did well when called upon by Real Madrid in last seasons’ run-in; defender Illia Zabarnyi has excelled at Bournemouth; Oleks Zinchenko is extremely well-suited to the less physical nature of the international game; and Mykhalo Mudryk reeks of the domestic irrelevance, tournament excellence cycle we see at such time. Then if to that you add Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko and Valencia’s Roman Yaremchuk, plus Girona’s Artem Dovbyk and Viktor Tsyhankov, you have a side well-placed to benefit from a very friendly draw.

Which brings us to Romania, a nails but prosaic squad who reached Germany by besting perennial qualifiers Switzerland in Group I – a fine effort, but one expected to end there. Until – like Ukraine, and Slovakia – they saw their opponents and thought right, we’ll have some of that.

And so, given this is the first working-day football of the competition, will we – even if it means acquainting ourselves with the thoughts of others.

Kick-off: 3pm local, 2pm BST