2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship Thread

[Duty281]

First topic message reminder :

Starts on the 5th June in Israel. Only 8 teams are in it, so it will all be over in a fortnight. Very simple format, 2 groups of 4, with the top 2 from each group going through to the Semi-Finals. The groups are:

Spoiler:

The schedule (all times BST):

Spoiler:

Squad Lists
BBC's Preview

From an England perspective, it does look like a good squad. Butland, Caulker, Henderson, Rose, Zaha, Shelvey, and Wickham are all names that jump out at you. England are once more led by the experienced Stuart Pearce, who has led England in this tournament in 2007 (lost on penalties in the semis), 2009 (tonked in the final by Germany), and 2011 (knocked out in the groups). Hopes are high, but England haven't triumphed in this tournament since 1984.

All games for UK viewers are live on Sky Sports with commentary of England games on Radio Five Live.

[The Special Juan]

A good idea for an article unless it's already been done is to answer the question of who is the greatest sporting nation in the world?  You have to think it's Spain these days because:

They're undoubtedly the greatest team in the world's biggest sport (and possibly ever)
They have one of the best tennis players ever (and a few other good players too)
They are dominant in Moto GP
They have a great F1 driver
They have a great cyclist

Any more to add?

Easily England.

Have a decent chance of winning the Football, Cricket, Rugby Union, and Rugby League World cups. Who else can say that?
Only country to win the Football and Rugby Union World cups - the 1st and 3rd biggest sporting events in the World.
Have a few World champion boxers.
Best cyclists in the World.
Best rowers in the World.
Have some of the greatest golfers in the World - Rose, Donald, Westwood, Poulter.
England alone, excluding the rest of the UK, got more golds at the Olympics than the likes of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.
Darts is a sport isn't it? England dominate there. Same goes for snooker.
I think we do OK for Horse Racing as well.

And I've might missed a few, but there we go. Greatest sporting nation in the World? England.

I admire your patriotism.

Everything we have, trumps Spain. And trumps any other foreign land.

Tennis?  Motor racing? Both massive global sports.

[GSC]

Spain have Alonso.

We have 3 drivers and like 6 teams.

[Duty281]

A good idea for an article unless it's already been done is to answer the question of who is the greatest sporting nation in the world?  You have to think it's Spain these days because:

They're undoubtedly the greatest team in the world's biggest sport (and possibly ever)
They have one of the best tennis players ever (and a few other good players too)
They are dominant in Moto GP
They have a great F1 driver
They have a great cyclist

Any more to add?

Easily England.

Have a decent chance of winning the Football, Cricket, Rugby Union, and Rugby League World cups. Who else can say that?
Only country to win the Football and Rugby Union World cups - the 1st and 3rd biggest sporting events in the World.
Have a few World champion boxers.
Best cyclists in the World.
Best rowers in the World.
Have some of the greatest golfers in the World - Rose, Donald, Westwood, Poulter.
England alone, excluding the rest of the UK, got more golds at the Olympics than the likes of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.
Darts is a sport isn't it? England dominate there. Same goes for snooker.
I think we do OK for Horse Racing as well.

And I've might missed a few, but there we go. Greatest sporting nation in the World? England.

I admire your patriotism.

Everything we have, trumps Spain. And trumps any other foreign land.

Tennis?  Motor racing?  Both massive global sports.

They can have tennis. I might have to take your word for motor racing. But is that all Spain can claim to be better at us than?

[The Special Juan]

Spain have Alonso.

We have 3 drivers and like 6 teams.

But Alonso is a mile better than any of those drivers, isn't he? I didn't take them teams into account because, for the purposes of my argument, it's more about the people doing the actual racing than who owns teams and such.

[GSC]

A bit better than Hamilton in recent years. but Hamilton also beat him in the same car as a rookie.

We're ahead on F1 confortably all things considered.

[The Special Juan]

Probably. I could think of more English F1 winners the Spanish, put it that way.

As I said though, it's an interesting idea for an article *hint hint*

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