UEFA Euro 2016 France

[Trane]

Italy vs Belgium was a pretty good match - that is: for the Italian part.

Belgium were a huge disappointment. Tactically they were completely outclassed by the Italians. Too bad: I had high expectation for this Belgium side. They probably have THE best group of individual players in the tournament. They really have to get their defense and tactics sorted out though.

Italy was the best side I have seen so far this tournament.

I kind of disagree... if you look at the stat and saw the near-misses, you'd assume Belgium would've won 2 - 1 or even better.

Italy however is a lot more realistic, they got three real chances and almost made it 0 - 2 in the closing seconds. Belgium occupied the terrain much better, except for the last 10 m of the Italian net. The number of yellow cards against Italy showed they had to resort to dirty tactics to stop their classier opponents. Furthermore, the dragging down off Felaini in the rectangle late in the game should've been gratified by a red card and a penalty (IMHO)... Italy did the perfect hold-up, but then again they've done that for the last 4 decades, so it's not like there is something new under the sun.

Yes, Belgium's defence can't compete with the WC in Brazil's version, because Kompany is out for the count and Van Buyten has retired.

[thedunno]

I kind of disagree... if you look at the stat and saw the near-misses, you'd assume Belgium would've won 2 - 1 or even better.

Italy however is a lot more realistic, they got three real chances and almost made it 0 - 2 in the closing seconds. Belgium occupied the terrain much better, except for the last 10 m of the Italian net. The number of yellow cards against Italy showed they had to resort to dirty tactics to stop their classier opponents. Furthermore, the dragging down off Felaini in the rectangle late in the game should've been gratified by a red card and a penalty (IMHO)... Italy did the perfect hold-up, but then again they've done that for the last 4 decades, so it's not like there is something new under the sun.

Yes, Belgium's defence can't compete with the WC in Brazil's version, because Kompany is out for the count and Van Buyten has retired.

Comon Trane. Italy completely ruled the first half. Only the last half hour Belgium was able to put pressure on Italy and created some chances but still the Italians looked dangerous on the brakes. 2-0 was a fair result I'd say.

[Trane]

Comon Trane. Italy completely ruled the first half. Only the last half hour Belgium was able to put pressure on Italy and created some chances but still the Italians looked dangerous on the brakes. 2-0 was a fair result I'd say.

Anti-Belgium eliminated Dutch people couldn't possibly have a fair view on anything who kicked your butts out of our place

Italy had only one occasion in the first half, and it was 0-1 (yes, they played realistic football), while the Red Devils could've scored twice. OK, I admit that Italy was better in the first half.

Just look at the stats... they rarely lie in football.

[PeterG]

TRIVIA FACT: In the Switzerland v Albania game the other day something happened in a European International match that has never happened before, two brothers played against each other. Granit Xhaka (Arsenal) Switzerland and Taulant Xhaka (Basel) Albania. Their parents are Kosovo-Albanian and moved to CH before the boys were born. Both played for the Swiss national youth team, but once you choose you're adult team, that's it, no more changes.


If we include the rest of the world, there are a few other sets of siblings representing different countries:

Jerome (Germany) and Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana)
Rafinha (Brazil) and Thiago Alcantara (Spain)
Paul (France) Florentin (Guinea) and Mathias Pogba (Guinea)
Christian (Italy) and Max Vieri (Australia) - that huge difference is due to the fact that Christian was born in Italy, his family later migrated to AUS where Max was born.

[Trane]

another trivia

Belgium almost had two pairs of sibling in this current team

Romelu Lukaku (forward in Everton) and his younger bro Jordan (defence in Belgium) are both selected

Eden Hazard (forward in Cheldea) is selected, but his younger brother Thorgan (forward for Moenchengladbach) didn't make the final cut

[PeterG]

Trivia

These are the three Euro 2016 squads without a single home league player:

Ireland - they all play in English league teams. Except Robbie Keane who plays for LA Galaxy
Northern Ireland - they mostly play in the English league, a few play in the Scottish league, and one plays for an Australian team.
Iceland - they're all over Europe - 7 in Sweden, 3 in Norway, 2 each in Italy, Germany, Denmark, 1 each in England, Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, Wales and France.

[NogbadTheBad]

Great result for England, awful goalkeeping by Hart on Bales free kick, 2 subs worked and turned all the possession and territory into goals.

[PeterG]

Great result for England, awful goalkeeping by Hart on Bales free kick, 2 subs worked and turned all the possession and territory into goals.

I'm a wee bit sad for Wales though. That said, I'm glad somebody won and that it wasn't a draw, I didn't really care who won. Because the win puts pressure on Russia and Slovakia.

[PeterG]

Well pleased for Northern Ireland, 2 - 0 against Ukraine. Great stuff! Their first EVER win in an international competition. I know my cousins in Belfast, Newtonabbey and Carrickfergus will be happy today.

[Sunlight Caller]

He's a badass - I loved watching him this year with West Ham

He has been utterly brilliant this year, and as a West Ham fan I'm almost scared his profile will rise too high and Barca or Madrid will come calling. That said we move into our new 65,000 seater stadium in August, it could be the making of us, and although we can't offer Champions League next year we are in the Europa League, and Dimi has signed a contract extension.


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[Sunlight Caller]

Great result for England, awful goalkeeping by Hart on Bales free kick, 2 subs worked and turned all the possession and territory into goals.

I feel I can put my head above the parapet finally!!

England should have beaten Russia but that loss of concentration really put the pressure on yesterday. I think Hodgson should have started with Vardy and Sturridge up front but no matter, it all came right in the end.

I fancy Wales and their never say die spirit to take all points against Russia, though they must not sit back too deeply and need to take the game to them. Hopefully we will close out top spot against Slovakia.


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[Trane]

You know, I have some second thoughts abiout Euros being some money-grubbing kind of farce

There are now 50 Europeans teams (including fucking Gibraltar!!!!!!!!!) in the qualifying .... Of which almost 50% are qualified (24 teams)
First round Euro pools will only eliminate 1/3 (8 teams) to finally arrive at 1/8 finals carrying 16 teams


I kind of long to a return of the 16-teams tournament

[PeterG]

You know, I have some second thoughts abiout Euros being some money-grubbing kind of farce

There are now 50 Europeans teams (including fucking Gibraltar!!!!!!!!!) in the qualifying .... Of which almost 50% are qualified (24 teams)
First round Euro pools will only eliminate 1/3 (8 teams) to finally arrive at 1/8 finals carrying 16 teams


I kind of long to a return of the 16-teams tournament

It is a 16 team tournament. But they have to have play-offs to get to the 16 teams that qualify for the tournament. The Euros proper only started a week ago when the 16 teams in 4 groups started to play matches. That's how it has always been in international football.

[Trane]

It is a 16 team tournament. But they have to have play-offs to get to the 16 teams that qualify for the tournament. The Euros proper only started a week ago when the 16 teams in 4 groups started to play matches. That's how it has always been in international football.

Sigh!!! there are 24 countries entered in six groups of four

There will be 16 left by the middle of next week...

And no... euros were played in 8 teams until 84 (or something like), which was a little too few, IMHO

Then it went to 16 teamqs; which was perfect (IMHO) .... until +/- the early 00's, when they downgraded to 24

[NogbadTheBad]

I agree that 16 is the ideal number, it ensured that the elite played and no weaker teams like the WC. Every game was a battle. I'm not really a fan of this 24 team format & third place teams getting through to the knockout feels forced. I guess part of it is due to the fragmentation of Europe and the proliferation of teams. If you took the qualification group winners, put the rest of the seconds and the top thirds through a playoff you'd have had a tighter contest

Group winners - France, Czech, Belgium, Spain, Germany, England, N Ireland, Austria, Italy, Portugal
Playoff - Iceland, Wales, Slovakia, Poland, Switzerland, Romania, Russia, Croatia, Albania, Turkey, Hungary, Ukraine

Format history
1960 to 1976 - 4 teams
1980 to 1992 - 8 teams
1996 to 2012 - 16 teams
2016 - 24 teams

[Trane]

Well, now we've seen the real Red Devils this afternoon...
Admittedly Ireland played a fairer kind of football (more open), not locking down their back field, like Itally has done for three decades (the Dino Zoff era)

[PeterG]

Sigh!!! there are 24 countries entered in six groups of four

There will be 16 left by the middle of next week...

Oops,my bad, I thought there were only 16. I think in my excitement I was mentally jumping a stage ahead i.e. beyond the group matches.

BUT when I wrote "That's how it has always been in international football." I didn't mean 16 teams, I meant that there are always play-offs first before the final groups are decided, but that's academic as I got the number of teams wrong anyway

Congrats on the win over us yesterday! Anything else would have been a real surprise. FIFA ranked No. 2 in the world last time I looked, thus no. 1 in Europe.

[Trane]

Congrats on the win over us yesterday! Anything else would have been a real surprise. FIFA ranked No. 2 in the world last time I looked, thus no. 1 in Europe.

well, YBH, I think that's BS >> never trusted these ranking as they're quite arbitrary... We belong around the 7th or 8th place, but should've never gotten to N°1 (like some five or six months ago) or 2... As I said, I don't really expect the Devils to go beyond the 1/4 finals >> Defence held up yesterday, but it's still quite weak...

[PeterG]

Well, just finished watching France v Switzerland, and all I can say is, MY GOD but the Swiss play REALLY boring, awkward football, they spent most of their possession kicking the ball around between themselves in their own half. Their playing style and methods almost look backwards. For me watching the Swiss was like trying to read a book from back to front, I couldn't figure out what they were trying to do. One thing was very clear though, the lack of interest and ambition in the game and that both teams were happy to finish on a draw as both are going through anyway.

[PeterG]

YESSSSSSSSSS!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!! Ireland beat Italy 1-0, to give us 4 points and a chance at advancing as one of the best group thirds. Sweden played a terrible game and lost to Belgium, as expected, and finished last in the group.

[jake]

But there is really only one story today, isn't there?

[PeterG]

And rightly so. I'm so happy for them, a country of only about a third of a million, in their first ever tournament. Considered underdogs, but look at the league teams their players play for and one can better understand why they are playing so well.

[Trane]

YESSSSSSSSSS!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!!! Ireland beat Italy 1-0, to give us 4 points and a chance at advancing as one of the best group thirds. Sweden played a terrible game and lost to Belgium, as expected, and finished last in the group.

You do realize that this is not the same Italian that played the first two games do you? They rested their main players as they were qualified for first spot, whatever the results were.... This said, a B-Italian team is still an Italian team to beat, so kudos

Spain's loss to Croatia (who is no slouch) is the biggest upset to these pool eliminations, thus creating a first big clash between them and Italy.

My picks:

Switz - Pol
Croatia - Port
Wales - N Ire
France - Ire
Hung - Belg
Ger - Slov
Ita - Spain
Eng - Ice

[NogbadTheBad]

Damn, the two halves of the draw sure split up with most of the traditional powers in one half. Portugal, Belgium have to be happy to avoid Germany, Italy, Spain & France.

[Trane]

Damn, the two halves of the draw sure split up with most of the traditional powers in one half. Portugal, Belgium have to be happy to avoid Germany, Italy, Spain & France.

Things are looking better for the Devils, I must say... Semi-finals become a possibility for us.. I'm now expecting them to go that far...

Though let's face it, Poland & Croatia & Portugal & Wales (Belgium always had a togh time against them) are also powerhouses