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Post by lasttrain929 on Jun 19, 2021 23:49:44 GMT
It was always going to be a tough game. No, we were crap... No easy games at the euros, Have to say Italy look good.
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Post by dillwyn on Jun 20, 2021 20:26:21 GMT
Congrats Butler ... you have a terrific squad ... good news is we don't have to meet again until the final ... maybe next time they won't send our player off for a bookable offence
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 20, 2021 21:23:30 GMT
No easy games at the euros Let me disagree here. As I see it, North Macedonia, Finland, Austria, Scotland, Hungary and the nowadays' versions of Denmark and Turkey are easy games.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 20, 2021 21:24:39 GMT
Now the interesting part of the Euros starts for Italy, let's see if they are up to the task...
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Post by lasttrain929 on Jun 20, 2021 22:16:22 GMT
No easy games at the euros Let me disagree here. As I see it, North Macedonia, Finland, Austria, Scotland, Hungary and the nowadays' versions of Denmark and Turkey are easy games. Take it you agree with me about Italy...
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Post by Timeblue on Jun 21, 2021 6:22:50 GMT
So far it's either Italy or Belgium for me...
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 9:34:37 GMT
Let me disagree here. As I see it, North Macedonia, Finland, Austria, Scotland, Hungary and the nowadays' versions of Denmark and Turkey are easy games. Take it you agree with me about Italy... I haven't seen this last game from them (only highlights), but in the previous two they certainly looked good, so yes I agree.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 9:56:45 GMT
So far it's either Italy or Belgium for me... Two big candidates for sure, but I still think France are favorites. And I still don't like Germany's chances, but you can't rule those bastards out until they are out.
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Post by Timeblue on Jun 21, 2021 11:01:36 GMT
Germany looked a totally different side against Portugal,you can never rule them out...
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Post by Buttler on Jun 21, 2021 15:17:39 GMT
We won the match despite the massive turnover.
Happy to see Marco Verratti playing the whole match, he's one of the best midfielders around.
I didn't watch the match between Germany and Portugal, but I'm happy that Gosens (Atalanta) is doing very well.
Spain by far the biggest delusion imo. Guess we could call them Spain U21.
Obviously you can't compare this team with the one trained by Mr. Del Bosque: it would be like comparing amateurs and professionals.
My favs atm are Italy and Netherlands.
Germany, France and Belgium the other teams that will compete for victory imo.
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Post by dillwyn on Jun 21, 2021 15:57:36 GMT
Chiesa is some player too, although he was being marked by a current 30+ year old div3 player. The welsh tactic of sitting there and absorbing nearly worked (especially if the Bale hadn't missed his chance), either way a team representing a country of 3 Million did well to keep within touching distance and of course qualify again in runner-up spot, we are so pleased.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 21:09:00 GMT
Germany looked a totally different side against Portugal,you can never rule them out... Exactly, that game made me change my mind a bit. Unlike before, they played with hunger, and attacking with lots of people. They had many attacks finishing with 4 or 5 players in the opponent's box.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 21:34:23 GMT
Chiesa is some player too, although he was being marked by a current 30+ year old div3 player. The welsh tactic of sitting there and absorbing nearly worked (especially if the Bale hadn't missed his chance), either way a team representing a country of 3 Million did well to keep within touching distance and of course qualify again in runner-up spot, we are so pleased. You have to be, Wales made it out of the group stages in second place. It will be hard to equal a run like the one that happened in 2016, but being between the best 16 is already good enough. Bale's miss was disappointing because he's the best player on the team, and the ball falls right for his left foot, unmarked, in front of the goal... you couldn't have chosen a more suitable occasion if you had customized it... Lucky Denmark today, Netherlands perfect (in an easy group), Russia out, Ukraine hoping, Finland looking bad... let's see how England does tomorrow against a team that has been playing decently.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 21:35:10 GMT
On another note, the format the Euros is using now is the one I like most for World Cups. I don't like the 32-team, 8-group format because it gives a fix number of qualifying spots for a each group (two per group), while in the 24-team, 8-group, there's cross-group competition (not in the games but in the stats, of course). This way you can make up for a bad draw in case 3 good teams fall in the same group (the typical "group of death"), because 4 of the 6 groups will get their third team qualified. Under the 8-group format, if 3 good teams fall in one group, fix spots means one of them is guaranteed to get eliminated in group stage, so too much of what will happen is determined by the draw. Also, the fact that only 24 teams are competing tends to draw the quality up and exclude mediocre teams which often make for mediocre games.
Sadly this format was used only in Mexico '86, Italy '90 and USA '94, then they adopted the 8 group format. I'd like to see it back in the World Cup one day and maybe the fact that UEFA is using it again will make FIFA give it another thought.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jun 21, 2021 21:48:19 GMT
Spain by far the biggest delusion imo. Guess we could call them Spain U21. Let's not forget Spain's 2008-2012 era was a complete outlier, Spain's true football history is a history of disappointments and underperforming. Eternal candidates, always eliminated very early, often in group stages. Just think that, other than in 2010, they never even made it to a single World Cup semifinal! (Meanwhile the Netherlands who were never champions have 3 finals and 2 semifinals). Spain reverted back to their normal in 2014 when they lost 5-1 to the Netherlands and were eliminated by Chile 2-0 after the second game in group stages. Then in Euros 2016 they lost to Italy in round of 16, and in WC 2018 they were out against a weak Russia also in round of 16. Again, their historic normal. So if Spain went out early that would be just another disappointing campaign of many. PS: yes I was feeling like talking football today.
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