Euro 2016 - General Discussion

originally posted by: Nikola014

Why don't we have one thread discussing EURO?

Not a bad idea really.

Okay guys, feel free to discuss the sport. I for one don’t want to see any political discussions here or any talk of misdemeanour by supporters (if an incident occurs then go make another thread about it, I don’t want it here). Talk about the game, talk about the goals, tell us who you think are doing well and who are not earning their 6-figure pay-cheques. Talk about Brazil getting knocked out as well if you like.

I’ll start with Hamsik’s goal today. That was a stunner - I was never more than a five-a-side ‘keeper, but I sure know how to shot-stop... there is just no stopping a shot of that quality, absolutely world-class finishing.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Did Spain draw, Sweden draw Italy win....DAM YOU PIQUE!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and laid ronaldo to score anytime....easiest money ever made.

a reply to: IllegalName

Russia in trouble, but not for crowd trouble. Losing today has really dented their chances of progression.

Can Albania get something out of this game? Personally I don't think so, despite creating the better opportunities. France need to be more creative in the second half.

Looking forward to tomorrow, Wales should put up a fight and it will be tight.

a reply to: GemmyMcGemJew

I’ve actually put bets on Pique for first scorer a few times on Champions League games. Didn’t come off but that was one of the reasons I picked him. Lovely positioning and lovely finish, especially for a defender.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

France aren’t performing today. Romania stifled them well to be fair and France did well to win as it turned out, but today is seemingly a poor affair. As for England tomorrow, if I wasn’t English then I’d probably stick a tenner down on the Welsh.

Glad to see Hungary win one. It's been a long time. Can they beat Iceland on Saturday?

a reply to: schuyler

It's been too long for a country with a proud football heritage to be honest Schuyler.

Iceland got a great result and Austria are a much better side than we saw last night.

Alaba and Fuchs aside, Austria don’t really have too much going for them. No less, Alaba is a £30m player and even as a left-back he could be the key to goals, so who knows.

Meanwhile...

Go Albania. Make the group interesting.







nvm....... lol

Or not. France are riding this to the wire, but they’re through so they probably won’t complain... too much.

a reply to: Dumbass
I did 0-0 draw france. These late goals are costing me quite a bit of money

My mate has been tipping up Albania not to score 6/1....he's been riding his luck but looking good so far.

a reply to: IllegalName

Austria were ranked 10th in the World, as the competition commenced.

France finished the game well tonight and their two lauded players did well from the bench. Payet, was very average until his goal, against a very tired Albanian defence, but he took it very very well.

Blimey, I didn’t realise Austria were ranked tenth. Looking at the brief highlights Albania had a few good chances, might still get that goal yet. Another lovely finish from Payet, he’s really enjoying his game at the moment.

a reply to: IllegalName
To be honest, it´s the most boring start of an "EURO" i saw in my whole life.
But i don´t know if it is just me, thinking that there are way more important things than to watch some millionaires playing football.

Or it is just too much nowadays, for me it feels as the world championship ended last month.
Is it just too much football, too much bad quality football that is shown the whole time?

Today the hype is too much.
I mean, is it from interest for a football fan, to watch the team entering their hotel they live in the next days or weeks? Reports on how green the grass is on their training place? How nice the environment is, the weather, what the bakery in the town is offering, etc. To show training matches on TV.
To show matches with teams that before 10 or 20 years nobody would have shown on TV, because nobody is interested to watch such boring matches.
Just for the profits of UEFA, FIFA.

Till to this "EURO" now, when there was a big tournament, i knew when who played, at which time, we met to watch football and all that. But now it is different. It feels like many people aren´t interested anymore.

Or it´s because of the new rules with the 24 teams now.
Maybe people start to become interested again when the wheat is seperated from the shaft.

a reply to: DerBeobachter

I certainly agree if you’re concerned about how the game is predominantly about money and how the media parade around the players like they are all rock stars. In fact, some of them might even earn more than a rock star. I’m much less interested in the game than I used to be and that is specifically why.

No less, there have been some really good games at the tournament and, above all, plenty of outstanding goals. The quality of finishing this summer has been on another level and if it keeps up then people will be saying in the years to come how it is was the best tournament ever for goals. It’ll certainly make for an interesting transfer market in the coming months.

I like that statement, though; “The grass is always green in football”.

Bookies are gonna love that... many, many Welsh people would have had Bale for first scorer.

So will this be the tournament where everything happens in the last few minutes?

a reply to: Dumbass

Seems to be that way, doesn’t it? 96th minute for Nort’en Ireland. I was looking at the table actually while they were playing - if they lost by one goal say, then both they and Poland would have to beat Germany in order to stand a chance of qualifying. Actually, Poland could yet win which in hindsight would actually make it more difficult for NI to qualify than if Germany do.

Always worn my heart on my sleeve where football's concerned.

I've followed England all over Europe and can't begin to describe the sense of disappointment that's always come with it.

As a result I've gone in to the last two or three tournament with a very low expectation and to be honest it's felt pretty good - don't expect much then don't get too depressed when they achieve the low expectations I had.

Going into this tournament I actually believed that England had quite a good squad of players but the managers natural defensive and outdated approach would hold England back.

After todays game I'm pleasantly surprised - his substitutions were positive and his tactics seemed more attack minded.
Was this down to Woy's tactical nounce or due to media pressure?
I don't know and I don't care - the only thing that matters is the result.
We won and that gives us a great chance of qualifying.

Do I think we can win?
Why not? I haven't seen anything so far in this tournament to be frightened of - all the teams seem pretty much a simjlar sort of level.

The one thing that is different in this tournament is my support for the other Home Nations.
Previously I've never really been bothered how other UK teams performed in football tournaments.
However, in this tournament I passionately want to see both Wales and Northern Ireland qualify to the next round and to advance as far as possible.

I don't for one minute think England will win these Euros's - but I really hope I'm wrong.
And I sincerely hope we meet Wales again in the final and Northern Ireland get to the semi's - it isn't going to happen but we can all dream can't we?

The best team I've seen so far has been Italy, but its early days yet and who knows how things may change?

I did think that Spain would meet Germany in the final but jow I think anything is possible.

Probably the most open major football tournament I've seen.

originally posted by: Freeborn

Probably the most open major football tournament I've seen.

This. I was actually thinking yesterday that our main problem against Russia I think was that we were not open enough. It’s a delicate balance, we certainly couldn’t be too open against Spain or Germany, but then again what did come to mind was when we beat Germany 5-1 - maybe they were just totally appalling that day, but at the same time maybe our unusual open-play was a big surprise to them and they capitulated. I think this is what got us the game in the end - against Russia Roy made the wrong substitutions, but today he may well have listened to what the public were saying and looked at it from a different angle. With both substitutes scoring, there was obviously a clear difference between the two games. I mean, what with Bale being such a threat it could easily have gone the other way in injury-time, but thankfully we had the right attackers on the pitch at the right time - this was crucial today.

I’d love to see the home nations all qualifying, it would be absolutely unprecedented. A shame really that Scotland can’t be here to join us all.

Cmon Iceland!!!

Interesting one for sure, the first few days were really boring imo, but It was an interesting last group stage probably because of the battle for best 3rd place.
Very happy for Iceland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but I've always favoured the underdogs.

I'm part Italian so I'll be rooting for them against Spain, but it will be tough even though Spain are not as good as they were last time.
I'm curious to see the English hooligans reactions if Brexit wins tonight. (I mean the ones that caused trouble against Russia chanting 'Britain first, f*** Europe' and all that, hope they keep a cool head no matter the outcome)