Türkiye bring the excitement with the fastest-ever goal at the Euros knockout stages, and the save of the tournament, while a Dutch super-sub bags a double and the Georgian team returns home to a hero's welcome.
Here are the five quick hits from overnight at the European Championships.
1: Türkiye lights up Leipzig with fastest Euros knockout goal
It's fair to say that Türkiye were ready to go when they faced Austria in the final game of the round of 16 when it kicked off in Leipzig.
The game got off to a ferocious start. Both teams had chances inside the first 30 seconds and Merih Demiral scored inside the first minute after the Austrian defence failed to deal with a corner.
Christoph Baumgartner's attempted clearance rebounded back off teammate Stefan Posch to goalkeeper Patrick Pentz, who scooped it off the line only for Demiral to pounce on the rebound and score.
Coming after 57 seconds, it was the second-fastest goal ever at the Euros — and, indeed, the second-fastest goal at this tournament.
Albania scored after 23 seconds against Italy in the group stage.
Austria almost responded at the other end but Demiral — doing his normal job in the centre of defence — somehow did enough to keep Baumgartner from scoring on the line.
Demiral went on to score a second goal in the 59th minute, that looked to be enough to send his team on to the last eight.
2: Türkiye's Mert Gunok's save of the tournament seals win over Austria
It wasn't all over quite yet, however. Michael Gregoritsch pulled one back for Austria seven minutes later, setting up a nervous finale.
That left the score at 2-1, and neither team was able to add to it with the minutes counting down.
In the fourth minute of added time, the Austrians were on their last chance.
Gregoritsch was outjumped just outside the box, and the ball was headed wide where it fell to substitute Alexander Prass.
His swinging cross from the left was perfectly met by Baumgartner's head from close range, but goalkeeper Mert Gunok saved the day for Türkiye.
In the pouring rain, Gunok flung himself full-length to his right and somehow managed to palm the ball away, leaving a stunned Baumgartner and his teammates in disbelief.
Türkiye hung on to set up a quarterfinal clash with the Netherlands.
"I'm sure that if Baumi had scored to take the game to extra time, we would have gone on to win the match," Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said afterwards.
"The only thing we could be accused of is that we didn't score enough goals from the chances we had, and that we didn't work well twice for set pieces."
And what did the man of the hour have to say?
"We are very happy. It is difficult to find words right now. It was a great win. I thank everyone who supported us. I thank our supporters, people and citizens who continued to support us and prayed for us," Gunok said.
3. Donyell Malen double sends Dutch through against Romania
The Netherlands bounced back from a group-stage loss against Austria to book their place in the quarterfinals, with a 3-0 win over Romania.
Liverpool striker Cody Gakpo had given his team the lead in the 20th minute, but the real game-changer came at half-time, when Dutch manager Ronald Koeman brought on Donyell Malen.
The Borussia Dortmund forward helped his side keep control of the game, and it was only what the Dutch deserved when they scored again in the 83rd minute.
Some nice play near the corner flag helped set up Gakpo to dart along the by-line, keeping the ball in and avoiding tackles, before he squeezed a pass out to Malen, who tapped in.
But if the first was a calm finish of a good move, Malen's second was a thing of beauty. Xavi Simons slid in ahead of a Romanian defender to get the vital touch and push the ball out to Malen on the right wing — but he was still inside his own half.
He controlled the ball, with a Romanian defender tracking back 15-20m infield of him, and then Malen clapped on the speed.
He raced to the edge of the box, cut inside between the original defender and a late-arriving Romanian teammate, before turning his body to plant a right-foot shot firmly into the back of the net past keeper Florin Ni?a.
Game over.
Still, coach Koeman was not totally satisfied, urging his players to keep up the intensity in their next game.
"It is sometimes difficult to say why you play bad in one game and then can reach a high level the next match," Koeman told reporters.
"We were sharp from the beginning today and that made the difference. Maybe one critical point is that it took too long to score the second goal."
4. Georgia's team returns home to a hero's welcome in Tbilisi
Thousands of jubilant Georgia fans packed into the central square of the country's capital Tbilisi on Tuesday, local time, to welcome the national soccer team home from Euro 2024 after a thrilling campaign on their major tournament debut.
The Georgia players won Europe-wide praise for a series of thrilling performances, including a shock 2-0 victory over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, before going out to Spain 4-1 in the round of 16 on Sunday.
Fan Giorgi Bendeliani had brought his young daughter in his arms to the late night celebration.
"The nation is full of joy. I'm really glad too, as an ordinary Georgian citizen," he said.
The players drove through Tbilisi in an open-top bus to cheers and applause before mounting a stage alongside the country's president and prime minister in front of thousands in Tbilisi's Freedom Square.
President Salome Zourabichvili presented each player with the Order of Honour, one of Georgia's highest civilian awards.
Georgia's brief but high-octane Euros campaign electrified the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million.
Georgian players were well represented in Soviet Union national sides before 1991, but the country had not qualified for a major tournament since independence from Moscow that year.
Now, after a successful Euros debut, led by midfielder Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and striker Georges Mikautadze, one of the tournament's top scorers so far, many Georgians now hope their small country has put itself on the soccer map for the future.
5. Goodbye to the round of 16 ... hello quarterfinals!
With Wednesday morning's two results, that wraps up the round of 16 — which means we now know the teams and the match-ups for the quarterfinals.
Looking at who's left, you have to say that there is one stacked half of the draw, and the other ... not so stacked.
It all kicks off on Saturday morning, Australian time, at the Stuttgart Arena, where Spain's all-conquering outfit — who have scored nine and conceded one so far — take on Germany.
The winner of that game will face the winner of the other game on Saturday, Kylian Mbappe's France or Ronaldo's Portugal meeting in Hamburg. That one should be worth getting up for!
Then on Sunday morning, the attention switches to Düsseldorf, where England fans will hope that Jude Bellingham can rip out another "worldie" to get his team past Switzerland.
The winner of that will advance to the last four, to face the winner of the Netherlands and Türkiye in Berlin.
No offence to the latter four sides, but the top half seems like a tougher road to the final! We shall see.
- July 6, 2am — Spain vs Germany (Stuttgart)
- July 6, 5am — Portugal vs France (Hamburg)
- July 7, 2am — England vs Switzerland (Düsseldorf)
- July 7, 5am — Netherlands vs Türkiye (Berlin)
(All times AEST)
AP/Reuters/ABC
