France 2 - Romania 1
The first half was totally boring. Things started to pick up after 10 minutes in the second half.
Tomorrow UK-Russia (in Marseille). Some fights already started tonight among the supporters
Quote from: Spineur on June 10, 2016, 01:01:32 PM
France 2 - Romania 1
The first half was totally boring. Things started to pick up after 10 minutes in the second half.
Agreed. Romania did not play bad, though, and were it not for Payet´s fantastic shot on goal, it would have been a draw. Anyway, congratulations and good luck further.
Quote from: Spineur on June 10, 2016, 01:01:32 PM
France 2 - Romania 1
The first half was totally boring. Things started to pick up after 10 minutes in the second half.
Tomorrow UK-Russia (in Marseille). Some fights already started tonight among the supporters
England v Russia :)
Europe - 0
Usurpers- 1
In the just concluded Children of Albanian Refugees, where much of the players from both teams seem to be children of Albanian refugees, the best few plays for Switzerland while the rest represent Albania, Swiss 1 : Albania 0
Interesting to the Xhaka brothers play each other.
I went mountaineering in Albania from Montenegro 3 years ago. I felt I was transported back in time by a few centuries. Poverty there is worse there than in the poorest villages in Marocco. It is pretty amazing that so little effort from core European countries to help these populations which are both so close geographically and so far in time from us.
At least, their existence is recognized in football. It be nice if these "children of albanian refugees" would use this occasion to speak up and tell us some truth.
Well, wtf is all this England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland trick? Do you know of any sovereign country thus named? Why should the United Kingdom be treated as one country when it comes to Brexit, yet as four different countries when it comes to Euro 2016? ;D ;D ;D
England oh England.
Hodgson oh Hodgson.
Taking Rooney out instead of Sterling, who was sprinting around a lot again but mostly ruining promising fast breaks.
That guy is just not able to make the right decisions.
And then Milner in, just to defend a 'certain' lead.
Vardy was needed, he's the excellent counter-attack striker.
>:(
Sad, because I like the way they played.
Three points should have been in the pocket.
Good fighting result by Wales this afternoon, btw.
I liked that.
And those Welsh fans: WOW.
England 1 - Russia 1
England dominated outrageously the first half, but lacked precision at the finish. In the second half England scored at one of the many penality kicks, but didnt bother to lock their advantage, and the russians took this opportunity to obtain a draw.
In spite of their qualities, I dont see England winning the Euro, because of the lack of precision at the finish.
Next match England-Wales (see Florestan comment !) Wales won 2 to 1 againt Slovakia.
Best song at the tournament so far:
"Are you watching, England!" by the Wales fans.
Typically dispiriting and entirely predictable behaviour by a section of the English 'fans'. 'Glorious and Inglorious' as one of the newspaper headlines here put it. The 'Glorious' being a reference to HM's 90th birthday celebrations.
Because of the blowing up to 24 teams, only 8 teams will be eliminated in the group phase, so probably no strong candidate will be eliminated (the toughest groups are D and E I guess). I do not like this ineffecient bloating of the tournament. In 1986 and 90 (I think) this was the way the world cup was played and back then with only 2 points for winning it led to boring and uneventful group phases because with three ties a team was almost certain to qualify for the next round.
Quote from: Florestan on June 11, 2016, 10:15:57 AMWell, wtf is all this England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland trick? Do you know of any sovereign country thus named? Why should the United Kingdom be treated as one country when it comes to Brexit, yet as four different countries when it comes to Euro 2016? ;D ;D ;D
An eventual Brexit may, in time, well cause a breakaway and reentry of the European community of and by Scotland.
Quote from: Christo on June 12, 2016, 02:55:59 AM
An eventual Brexit may, in time, well cause a breakaway and reentry of the European community of and by Scotland.
Yes, this is likely I think.
alluuuu akbaaaar!!
Yesterdays football (all three games) has been particularly dire in generally awful tournament. Augmentation to 24 teams was a huge mistake. Lets hope it gets a bit better from here, can hardly get worse.
At least now one can buy Kiraly's track bottoms:
http://kiralyshop.hu/ruhazat/k1raly-nadrag.html
I agree that 24 teams are bizarre, not mainly the sheer number but the odd modus that kicks out only 8 teams in a lengthy group phase and now for whatever reason led to a strange division into a much stronger (with a "final" like Italy-Spain right away) and weaker half.
16 teams was certainly enough. (It had been only 8 in the 1980s which led to the bizarre situation that it was easier for a European team to qualify for the World Championship than for the European one).
24 teams was already not ideal in 86-94 for the world cup as the group phase often got boring because so few teams were kicked out and teams had a good chance (even better with only 2 points for a win) to advance with three tied games)
Italy did very well against spain (2-0), and played well throughout the match.
I agree with everybody. Too many matches, many boring. The domination of money.
Kiraly track bottom have a pyjama look. That may be a nice use for them :)
Iceland eliminates England 2-1
"Il faut boire le vin jusqu'à la lie"
So, only one British team left in... A strong Welsh element in England's elimination, with fine performances from Gylfi Sigurðsson and especially Aron Gunnarsson.
Time for a quick complaint about the constant description, even in the Welsh media, of this tournament as "Wales's first since 1958". Not so - they got to the quarter-finals of what was then called the European Nations Cup in 1976. Even Gabby Logan, daughter of Terry Yorath, one of the team of '76, doesn't seem to be aware of this.
I did not see England - Iceland... unfortunately... as I expected an easy win for England...
Italy - Spain was pretty good. Spain was lucky in the first half but very unlucky in the end. Taking both halfs into account, 1:1 and overtime would have been o.k. although overall Italy was better.
Italy - Germany is going to be quite tough and probably the decisive match of the tournament. Whoever wins this will certainly have a very good chance for the title (unless France rises to the occasion - but what they showed so far would not be enough against Italy I think)
England's performance was the 'icing on the cake' (no pun intended) for what has been going on in the country.
Iceland are apparently managed by a dentist.
Semi-finals
Portugal-Wales
France-Germany
Wales may get into the final as Portugal has not won a single match in regular time despite Ronaldo. Quite a disapointing team.
Germany should be the other finalist even if France has been steadily improving through its matches.
Germany - France is going to be fairly tough with 3 German players injured (Gomez is out, Khedira probably too, Schweini might be able to play but probably not a full match).
For the other one Wales is my favorite. Portugal has been disappointing forever (basically since they lost to Greece in 04...) but especially this time.
Final France-Portugal