Euro 2016 Discussion

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Duty281 wrote:Sterling and Rooney have been woeful thus far and need to be dropped (but 1 of them certainly won't be), but I would favour giving Kane one final chance. He's had an excellent couple of seasons, and England shouldn't jettison him at the first sign of difficulty.

Rooney woeful? I'm not his biggest fan but he's been pretty good so far, working well alongside Dier allowing Alli to push on further

Offside you muppet . Is this game rigged or what

Ronaldo is legitimately about to cry

GSC wrote:****ing negative posts.

They're clearly painted too thick.

Well that was a crap match.

Portugal were the better side.

Portugal will probably win the group if they win their last game.

Big if.

Aye, just mean the groups very tight.

Can see Iceland Smashing that miserable Austrian side and getting the top spot. Portugal could well go out with another draw...

If Wales can improve, they could finish runners-upfrom group b & face the runner's up from that Portugal group, such is the draw.

I still see Portugal narrowly beating Hungary, but don't see Iceland beating Austria, so Hungary might nick second place + they have +2 GD. Could be Wales vs Hungary for a place in the QF.

Wales vs Portugal would actually be intriguing. Two teams built around a couple of players each. Ronaldo vs Bale and not much else.

Another draw would be very risky for Portugal as people are alluding to.

I've got them wrong, they are pretty crap and even ronaldo can't bail them out.

Good result for Iceland, that, and Northern Ireland with the 3rd-placed thing that may or may not mean they qualify.

With one round of matches left in the groups, it looks like the top two will most likely be:

A - France and Switzerland
B - England and Wales
C - Germany and Poland
D - Spain and Croatia
E - Italy (guaranteed 1st) and probably Belgium
F - Tough to call. The last two matches are practically knock-out games.

Amid the third placed teams, Northern Ireland are well set (though they have Germany next), as are Slovakia. And...um...oh wait and see!

If Croatia cause an upset and beat Spain in the final group game, incidentally, then it will be Italy-Spain in the last 16. 

Also, if England win their group, and Portugal don't win their group (a possibility considering events so far), then the English actually have a gentle-ish run to the Semis...

From how I've worked it out, It looks it might be France vs Northern Ireland in the second round, if Czech Republic & Turkey draw or Turkey win. Group A winners play the best third place from C/D/E. Well, Group E looks unlikely to have a best third, so that reduces it to C/D, which would be (currently) Northern Ireland (C) or Czech Republic or Turkey (D). But if those two draw or if Turkey win, given their inferior GD to NI, that means Northern Ireland would be the best third placed side & would play France. That's how I read this ridiculous format

'Tis an incredibly dumb and tedious format. The Telegraph says there are 15 different permutations for who the winners of England's group play in the last 16 - seven for Group A, seven for Group D, and one for Group C...and that's when I zoned out.

Nothing wrong with sixteen teams - so why change it?!

Would 4 groups of 6 with either 2 or 4 progressing be that bad?

Would be far better and every team would get 5 games!

I agree the current system is too complicated, however, four groups of six teams would in my opinion make the first round robin phase too long. Five games would need to be spread over more than two weeks needless dragging out the first phase and increasing the possibility of pointless games between teams that have nothing to play for. The perfect size for a group is four teams as in most cases, obviously with some exceptions, the placings are not decided until the third round of games. The logical expansion would have been to double the number of teams competing thus having 8 groups of four teams with the traditional top two qualification system.

Or maintain the traditional format: four groups of four.

Would 5 games be that bad? A big reason games are tight is because there's so little margin for error.

I'm really enjoying this tournament and have since the first game. I'm going to credit that latter part to a format where teams know one win is huge.

The complications are bonkers but equally not a big deal. I've enjoyed having more teams and seeing some of the lesser lights mixing it up. I'm a fan.

not sure i see all the fuss about rooney so far, he's been our best midfielder but thats not been particularly hard. alli has been very poor and dier gives decent cover but has been awful on the ball. rooney too gives it away too much and doesnt win much ball back, i read thats because he's playing the killer balls? not for me, side wides passes that are very slow and easy to read. if that was how to be a top class centre mid you better tell inestia, modric and the boys there doing it wrong . the whole thing is beside the point to be fair he's deserving of his starting spot over others and we have a lot more to worry about than rooney. i.e dropping sterling for vardy or rashford

not getting too excited about england, we'll lose against the first decent team we play but in this tournament that could be a while yet. just sitting back and enjoying the football. run a pub so could do with england going far

dont think ive enjoyed a goal scored against england quite as much as bales, had 50 quid in play bet on the first goal being a free kick at 16-1. good old joe hart

Very poor yesterday.
Shame thought we would put up a better performance.

The amount of space some of those Belgians had was crazy.

Done with now.

Still in with a chance if we can beat Italy.
Another tough ask.
We have to come out an play like we did against Sweden.

Keep the faith.

Down but certainly not out.

compelling and rich wrote:dont think ive enjoyed a goal scored against england quite as much as bales, had 50 quid in play bet on the first goal being a free kick at 16-1. good old joe hart  

Seems quite a few were taking advantage of BET365's generosity!

Duty281 wrote:

compelling and rich wrote:dont think ive enjoyed a goal scored against england quite as much as bales, had 50 quid in play bet on the first goal being a free kick at 16-1. good old joe hart  

Seems quite a few were taking advantage of BET365's generosity!

yeah i was sat with two lads who also had the same bet, over 2000 there between us and they had the same bet on the russia game also. i was away so couldn't put it on for that game and trying to explain the cover bet to the missus was a pointless task

GSC wrote:Would 4 groups of 6 with either 2 or 4 progressing be that bad?

Would prefer the classic four groups of four format which...worked.

But this is just the beginning. I predict that soon the tournament will be expanded to 32 teams, with invitations sent out to non-European countries, all in the interests of money-making and marketability.

How can you not love the Irish. Brilliant stuff.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3648924/I-love-baby-Watch-hundreds-lovestruck-Irish-football-fans-serenading-blonde-French-girl-Bordeaux.html

Have had a great time alright.

France wont be the same if they all come home thursday.

Agreed Dolph; thoroughly enjoying the expanded format. Obviously we don't want it to go too far in terms of just shoehorning more and more teams in but it has certainly made for a good tournament so far. Even in the qualifiers it made for a more enjoyable campaign, the smaller teams saw an opportunity to make the biggest stage and there were plenty of shocks throughout.

When we get to the last 16 we could see a few of the weaker teams be exposed, yet many wouldn't be shocked to see a surprise or two.

France vs Switzerland tonight...be interesting to see how France fair and whether they can start going through the gears.

Roy doesn't believe changes are necessary ahead of Slovakia....interesting thought process if that's true. I must have missed something with those great performances from Sterling and Kane in the first two games

Agree, i prefer this format

Obviously likes the fact that we have ammunition on the bench.

More matches is good and no ones really been embarrassed at the tournament.

Don't think the quality has been great and a lot of poor games.

My main issue is the draw, it's not fair that 2/6 group winners have a harder draw than the rest.

Kane and Sterling would be ammunition off the bench too....neither look capable of impacting a game for longer than 10 minutes (that's being kind to Kane at the moment) anyway. Think it's galling for the likes of Vardy when a player can be one of the top scorers in Europes top leagues, score 4 goals in 9, yet not get a start when the other guy simply isn't performing.

I did hear (maybe on here) that he may rest Alli and Bring in Wilshere.

I would expect at the very least for Sturridge & Vardy to come in a fresh midfielder wouldn't be a bad thing either (be it Wilshere or Henderson for Dier); that's assuming Roy has any sense at all.

Not sure we can read much into a managers press conference - hardly gonna announce he's making a raft of changes so the other team can prepare

Will wait for the line ups

Whatever Roy does, I hope he doesn't underestimate Slovakia. They are a capable attacking unit, Hamsik in particular, and will do great damage to England's dodgy defence if given the chance to do so.

And none of this 'a draw will do', either. Three points are required for England, to guarantee top spot, and to give themselves a valuable foothold towards going deep into the competition.

Shouldn't underestimate, but Slovakia are an ordinary side. Should be beating them.

Should be beating them, yes, but Slovakia have little to lose and little to fear.

They need the three points, one may not be good enough, so they should be attack-minded against a rather weak and insecure English defence.

Fine to say, they don't really have the players to mount a consistent assault.

They have a lot to lose and a lot to fear. By going gung-ho and opening themselves up they may be sent home rather quickly in a match that has 90 mins to play.

Sommer vs Pogba at the moment.

Said before France had a bit of last world cups Brazil in them. Look a bit paralysed by pressure

They look vulnerable at the back but did lose some first choice defenders.

Thought they'd be a lot better in midfiel.

Pogba hits the bar this time.

Benzema is a big miss. Giroud is pretty average and Gignac just isn't very good.

As good as that strike was, he could do with passing it in this game. Koman looked in there.

The cross was bad that time but Coman is so good.

Not a yellow for me. He's going for a shot even if it is high. Free kick and get on with it.

He's kicked a guy in the head who he can see is trying to head it. Can't complain.

He saw a guy behind him?

He's going for a shot, there's no intent there.