Euro 2016

Watching England is almost torturous. Why was Henderson chosen again?

Christ England looked awful today. Congrats to Wales tho. Such a tiny country topping the group ..tho the biggest European country is out already so I dunno how much size says.

England! What a natural depressant taped the game glad I worked.

Not totally awful, just lacking in ideas against a team completely happy to keep everyone behind the ball the whole match and play for draw.

Vardy completely ineffective in this kind of game. Sturridge had occasional good moments but not in the box. None of the midfielders had the nous to get through the middle and we didn't get the full backs involved enough (Clyne was good when he did get forward; Bertrand was not).

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We get runner up of group F and having looked at it, Portugal actually highly unlikely to finish 2nd: they win vs Hungary and they most likely finish top, they draw and they most likely end up 3rd behind Hungary and the winner of Iceland/Austria.

Hungary/Iceland the most likely runner up. Hungary would be the better opponent in some ways as Iceland could frustrate us like Slovakia.

Bottom half of the draw looks like it'll be stronger overall. France and Italy already there, Germany will be if they win their group + whoever finishes 2nd of Croatia/Spain.

It amazes me how predictable we are in these games we would be better of resting our forwards and play with none for the first 45 minutes. Play deeper and allow the game come to us. Anything would be a positive change than watching us pretend we control the game.

Roll on Monday I hope they completely surprise everyone and start playing like a seasoned footy team    

Well, now opponents know what to do, park the bus and win in penalties, cause penalties are a sure fire win. Problem with all the same type of attacker Roy, should have brought Carroll. Would have disrupted the back line.

Iam glad u face will france in quarters. Finally an interstimg battle. And otherwise france might have a way to semi without facing any top 20 (?) side.

I've not seen much due to extenuating circumstances, my impression though is that there are too many poor teams, which we knew would be the case. England seem pretty poor, it's looking like 3 shit tournaments in a row for Roy, give him another contract.

I read u played pretty good though. It seems smaller teams are better at defending with all men these days. So wait for the bigger clashes.

Antarion wrote:I read u played pretty good though. It seems smaller teams are better at defending with all men these days. So wait for the bigger clashes.

Then our poor defence will be exposed.

There was no über Team so far and you did a good job in qualification. I hope to see a England - France battle in quarters.

@antari

do you have ANY idea why there is so little enthusiasm for the Mannschaft this year ?

down here in Munich , there are virtually NO flags on the cars, no flags ANYWHERE

NOBODY can be bothered

It's the same here at the Bergstraße and close to Aschaffenburg, Frankenland.

Nearly no flags at all. Ok I have one flag at the front window of my house and one neighbor has one too. But overall a draught.
I have no real explanation though. If it's just a German thing, maybe everybody still remembers 2014 and you can't top that. Which would still be a bit strange, because ist always a big Chance to add another big title with a functioning team.

I for one are pretty much not much interested so far, seen only a handful games. Hope for more excitment during the KO rounds.

There seems to be a lack of excitement in general with this German team. I imagine it is because German fans had watched this team be close so often from 2006-2012 and they finally got the trophy they wanted but afterwards the team didn't seem to become the new Spain. Instead, it seems like they have weakened after 2014 and are satisfied after finally winning. I'm guessing that might translate into the fans.

Yeah it was like a perfect Fairy Tale for us...the lowest low in 2000-2004, the build-up, then coming Close, and finally winning the biggest title in brazil no less. Lahm AND Löw should have retired then.

As for the new Spain...I hve no Problem with Spain but I sure hope they don't win it a third time in a row. Football on international level deserves more diversity.

The president of Croatia's Police Union has confirmed that he has warned French authorities that further crowd disturbance is planned during Tuesday's fixture




French authorities have been warned that Croatia fans are planning to attack referee ​Bjorn Kuijpers during Tuesday’s match against Spain.

In protest towards their own Football Federation, Croatia fans threw multiple flares and firecrackers onto the pitch during their 2-2 draw with Czech Republic last week.

Croatia were fined €100,000 over the incident but there are now renewed warnings of further crowd disturbance in their final group fixture, as well as a direct threat towards Dutch referee Kuijpers, who will take charge of the game.

This group is now weirdly poised because if Czech were to win and get 4pts, 3rd place in this group is guaranteed to qualify and get Wales in 2R and avoid any of the biggest hitters in QF (Belgium/Portugal/Hungary the likeliest). Whereas 2nd place gets Italy and then Germany.

If Czech were to take the lead (and they have to win or they are out), by my reckoning Croatia would then be sensible to play to lose by 2 or 3 in order to ensure they finish 3rd on GD and land in the nicer part of draw

debaser wrote:This group is now weirdly poised because if Czech were to win and get 4pts, 3rd place in this group is guaranteed to qualify and get Wales in 2R and avoid any of the biggest hitters in QF (Belgium/Portugal/Hungary the likeliest). Whereas 2nd place gets Italy and then Germany.

If Czech were to take the lead (and they have to win or they are out), by my reckoning Croatia would then be sensible to play to lose by 2 or 3 in order to ensure they finish 3rd on GD and land in the nicer part of draw

This modus is very bad indeed. With this level playing field so far, I can actually see 32 teams in the future.

Iniesta is by far the best player of this tournament so far.

So we are one croatian goal away from the most loopsided brackets ever

Aaaand of course it happend. That top half


Ok no disrespekt to Croatia, worthy group winners, great team. but still

Spain, Italy, Germany, France & England are all in the same half of the draw

Tournament's a fucking mess

Belgium Semi-Final

I love the fact we get a lot of Italy-Spains these days!

Okay we gotta kick ourselves more now. Wales get Northern Ireland/Turkey in 2R and a worse case scenario of Portugal/Belgium QF, then Poland/Croatia SF - that's as good a path to final as you could hope for in this tournament.

Murray wrote:Spain, Italy, Germany, France & England are all in the same half  of the  draw

It's actually possible that Belgium and Portugal will end up this half too. Portugal can finish 2nd & face England while Belgium can be 3rd and face France if they lose to Sweden

So if that happens, we get a suprise finalist!

debaser wrote:

Murray wrote:Spain, Italy, Germany, France & England are all in the same half  of the  draw

It's actually possible that Belgium and Portugal will end up this half too. Portugal can finish 2nd & face England while Belgium can be 3rd and face France if they lose to Sweden

It's very unlikely that Portugal will finish second, I think it can only happen if they have a higher scoring draw than Iceland - Austria.

Murray wrote:

debaser wrote:

Murray wrote:Spain, Italy, Germany, France & England are all in the same half  of the  draw

It's actually possible that Belgium and Portugal will end up this half too. Portugal can finish 2nd & face England while Belgium can be 3rd and face France if they lose to Sweden

It's very unlikely that Portugal will finish second, I think it can only happen if they have a higher scoring draw than Iceland - Austria.

It can also happen if they win but Iceland also win and edge out the GD. Yeah, 'tis unlikely though. And you'd expect Belgium to at least draw Sweden and get 2nd

Sleeping a night over it, the brackets are great imo

Better get some exciting games now and face toughest Opposition before the final. If we lose against Spain/France/Italy better now than in final. I also like a hard path for Spain because I wouldn't like them to win it 3rd time. If they still do with this Horror path, they deserve it. Same for France, Italy, England.

Finally (hopefully) some interesting games at this cup. And hard opposition didn't stop us in Brazil either Bring them on!


As for the other half of the bracket: There are also some interesing games. Poland - Croatia is possible (in quarters) and Belgium - Portugal.