Euro 2024 Daily | Ronaldo’s tears and why imperfections

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

Good Will Hunting is a great movie for many reasons. Robin Williams’ outstanding performance, Ben Affleck’s petty squabbling with his on-screen and actual brother, the fact that Affleck and Matt Damon’s Oscar-winning screenplay is actually (a little bit) autobiographical – both hailing from Massachusetts, Affleck’s father was a janitor at Harvard, while his mother went to the university, as did Damon, before dropping out. The film is a great watch, a classic and pleasing arc of self-discovery, with a happy-ish ending that avoids the pitfall of being too twee. The protagonist (Will, played by Damon) is a complete eejit – sucker-punching people, fighting police, insulting his mentor’s dead wife, ignoring the time and energy of others while taking his seemingly god-given talent for granted – but we end up rooting for him anyway, because genius is a bewitching and beguiling thing.

Further to Peter Oh’s comparison between Glastonbury’s Saturday night headliners Coldplay and 11 other English plodders (yesterday’s Euro 2024 Daily letters), I was at the Pyramid Stage the next afternoon, with an anxious eye on Rob Smyth’s MBM for the England game. As extra time began, Janelle Monáe began to play Tightrope, and by the time I had a phone signal again, it was 1-1. I’d like to think it was this bit of musical serendipity that kept England in the tournament, though the song’s lyrics – “Ha ‘cause you get too high, no you’ll surely be low” – don’t bode well for the quarter-final” – Ian Rodin.

It seems clear that since Brexit happened, all the bile and fury previously directed at EU apparatchiks now flies around our society like the contents of Spud’s bedsheet. I therefore call on Gareth Southgate to perform one last great sacrifice for his country, and stay on as England manager For All Time, so that he becomes the eternal lightning rod for all the anger and frustration of the English people. This will allow us to go about our lives in an atmosphere of calm and goodwill toward our neighbours, knowing that an opportunity for a spittle-flecked rant is only ever the next England game away” – Chris Goater.

Looking towards the conclusion of the Euros, if it ended up as a Germany v Switzerland final (not impossible), this would work wonders for the self-esteem of the Tartan Army. Why, a defeat and a draw against the finalists? That’s as good as third place surely? Surely?” – Ken Muir.