What a goal by Shaqiri probably goal of the tournament. Shame the goal wasn't enough, the Swiss missed some great chances. The penalty by Xhaka was atrocious.
The current Wales - N.Ireland game has been shit so far. Hope it gets better.
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What a goal by Shaqiri probably goal of the tournament. Shame the goal wasn't enough, the Swiss missed some great chances. The penalty by Xhaka was atrocious.
The current Wales - N.Ireland game has been shit so far. Hope it gets better.
Jesus Croatia Portugal is atrocious. One of the worst of the worst I've seen so far
No shots on goal until the 115th minute. All the games today were kinda crap.
I feel really sorry for Croatia, such a cruel way to go out when they played so well until now. They had such a great chance to make the final but blew it in my mind. The game was boring yes but you gotta give credit to both teams they defended really well.
So it sounds like 3 shit games lol this might just be the worst tournament for a long time. Poland should have scored after 25 seconds that was a woeful miss with an open goal.
Lol Ireland 1-0 up after a 2nd minute penalty wow
I just turned it on and it was already 1-0, what was the penalty given for?
I'm not watching I'm just reading the live score on Eurosport before sleeping but they said Pogba knocked over Long and that it was a definite penalty
I thought the penalty was given a bit too easily
Ireland did really well in the first half! so much energy, had the French team locked down in that they forced the French to play a physical game, which is not the French's strength. the French should have been combining, playing over the ground (Irish backs are too tall for the French's long passes in the air)
France did very little in the first half. but then with the tactical change after the break the French did so much better while Ireland seemed to have spent most of their energy on their superb first half
I thought the second half was a good watch
Boateng just scored for Germany, gonna go watch the game now
Slovakia was ehhh ... not up to the challenge lol
Belgium were 1-0 up and Hungary has a few half chances then I go have my morning poo and Belgium are 3-0 now haha
if that was the case make sure to have that morning poo come Belgium-Wales as well haha
Hazard finally showed out. I can honestly say I have never seen him play such a good game for the national team. in the Premier League sure, but never on the national team. Nainggolan was on point too, so was De Bruyne
too bad back Thomas Vermaelen (Barcelona) cannot participate in the next round due to being penaltied. he was very good so far in this tournament and he would have been instrumental in locking down Gareth Bale
I tend to complain a lot about the Belgian team but apart from about a quarter of an hour in the second half today's game truly exceeded my highest expectations. can't even say Hungary was playing badly at all
cuz of work I can't watch tomorrow's games live, too bad cuz I really wanted to see Spain-Italy
Best I have seen Hazard play for Belgium, he was unstoppable and it just shows how much of a difference he can make if he decides to show up. 4-0 didn't reflect the game at all, I thought Hungary played well they had some great chances so respect to them for actually trying. It wasn't like the Germany - Slovakia game which was totally one sided and the Slovaks pretty much gave up after half time.
On that game the Germany are so much better with Draxler on the wing and when they actually got a striker in the middle. The last 2 games they played they played against 2 teams who parked the bus and they carved them up with relative ease. Gonna be tough against Italy or Spain though.
^^Germany played well again. that young Kimmich dude has a bright future ahead of him
now that we're in the knock out rounds I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions on the new 24 teams formula that we've witnessed.
obviously the whole thing was just organized cuz of political pull within UEFA and FIFA, and money in general, but did you think enough teams that made the cut deserved to be there?
personally I don't mind there being more teams this time around but I could see how some people would mind the lack of excitement & skills in some games
Having more teams means you get more bad teams in the tournament. I mean the Wales - N.Ireland game was pretty bad, it was basically a second division game. Having 16 teams made things more competitive especially in the group stage. With 24 teams a lot of teams are content with 1 point which killed a lot of the games in the group stage. Reason why many think this has been one of the worst Euros, as the quality is down but also theres no excitement as teams aren't going for it. We might get it at the quarter final stages when the good teams begin to go head to head but things should have been competitive from the start. All the big teams got through there have been no upsets.
The Copa America final has one of the most odd referees i have seen. He is so trigger happy with his cards, half time we already got 2 red cards and a host of yellows. Even the way he shows a card is peculiar. He has basically destroyed the game. I missed the second yellow for the Chilean player but no way was Rojo's tackle a straight red, wasn't even a yellow. Ridiculous game so far.
CHILE WINS COPA AMERICA VIA PENs
Messi completely missing his kick
pulled a Roberto Baggio
its like hes cursed to not win at the international level
Lol @ Messi retiring because he can't get it done at the highest level
RIP Argentina.
Good to see Belgium finally playing to their potential, Hazard was magnificient. That burst of pace before his assist to Batshuayi was probably the most beautiful part of that whole match.
Lol @ Mascherano, Messi & Aguero all retiring from international football. If they stick with their decisions, Argentina just became a non-factor overnight.
edit- so the rumours are that Lavezzi, Biglia and Higuain are also considering retiring from the NT... wtf
Yeah they all seem to be retiring, they probably just had enough of losing and can't be fucked anymore. What a waste of such a great team, they played so well in this copa America until the final.
Hahahahhahah fuck off England!!! Go Iceland! God it's so hilarious seeing these bein sports commentators tear the English players to shreds.
Speaking of curses, Germany v Italy. Fuck. Italy are looking very good too, Conte is a great manager.
Lol @those Argentina cry babies retiring because they couldn't get it done. It would be great if they win the World Cup in 2018 without these players.
HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA first real upset of the tournament. Ian Wright just said on TV 'its like the movie space jam, aliens came down and took their talent in the second half'.
England just lacked creativity they didn't have a decent attempt on goal, Iceland had the best chances. Iceland just have a simple game plan and they apply that plan well, amazing stuff.
I don't know what to say about England, simply played shit. I don't think they are a team thats good with the ball, they need the opposing team to play a bit while they press grab the ball in midfield and counter. They lack the creativity to penetrate defensive teams. The performance in the second half though was shambolic, theres really no excuse.
Italy for example no real world class talent on that team but they just outplayed Spain today. They did everything right and got the victory. They look incredibly dangerous, the Germany game will be interesting. I don't fault Spain for losing because they came up against a seriously well drilled side in Italy who tactically outsmarted them.
The guy on bein sports was ripping the players to shreds. He was "genuinely angry" and he was going on about how the players are spoiled millionaires who are out of touch with society and don't get any ramifications for their behaviour etc but how is that any different to the Germans, Italians, Spanish, to a lesser extent the French and possibly Dutch? English people really need to accept that their players aren't as good as they think they are and that the EPL is not as good as they think it is. There is this sense of entitlement that England should be making the semi finals of tournaments with ease every year, what's it based on? They don't do anything about making it happening like all those other nations I named did.
I really can't believe that Wayne Rooney survived at the national team for so long.
England actually has a good core of young players, they need to find a good manager from somewhere and build around their youth. They were utterly clueless in the second half.
wow the UK manages to exit the Euro twice in a week
http://files.sharenator.com/ba_dum_t...104078-535.jpg
The football pundits in England were pissed to, Gary Lineker, Shearer, Ian Wright all of them. Shearer said this was the worst England performance he had ever seen. Don't know about that but England in the second half were appalling.Quote:
Originally Posted by #StonerSloth
I don't buy the whole they are millionaires and they don't care. I think all players do care, I don't know but I don't think English players got bonuses for playing in the tournament unlike a certain other country. We just saw a team with a system going up against one who didn't. This wasn't like England played a physically inferior side, one bonus to Iceland is that they have a team of strong and fit players which is a huge bonus. It doesn't matter if they don't play in the top leagues and aren't stars they are stronger and as fast the players from the top teams. They basically ticked the box which most African teams have ticked. Big, strong and fast. They just have the system and tactical abilities the African teams don't have. so well played to Iceland coaching staff, i also read that before the game the coach goes to the fans and gives the fans the starting 11 and has a discussion with the fans. Thats just fantastic to hear in a world of big egos.
England are just not a good team, i can't believe they were 4th favourites before the tournament, they have the same tournament win count as Greece, same semi-final count as Turkey. The perfect run in qualifying fooled everyone, people forgot qualifying was bollocks and England were in a piss easy group. Austria were the second best team in qualifying and look at them.
I dont think I could have received a better birthday present than England losing to little Iceland. Utterly fucking incredible. And it wasnt a case of Iceland scoring then sitting back. They still went for it and could have gotten another. It was a great game but England really created nothing. Kane and Ali were very disappointing.
I see they are all blaming Roy now, your grown men take some of the blame yourselves. I think they are good enough players but for whatever reason England always under perform. Its brilliant.
So disappointing that Rep Of Ireland got knocked out. I thought we were excellent against France and just went to sleep for 5 mins and were punished. The future is looking bright though. Apart from the Belgium game we were excellent all tournament. So proud. I think confidence in the national team is back after the drab years under Giovani Trapatoni. Despite our national sports like Gaelic Football and Hurling been the most popular sports and even rugby overtaking football, the love for our national soccer team is unparalleled Our qualifying group for next world cup doesnt look too bad so hopefully we can make it there.
Lol at Italy easily beating France and us beating Italy. Had we beaten Sweden and ended up on the easier side of the fixtures who knows how far we could have gotten.
I don't know why people are always surprised when England get eliminated, they really aren't very good, they don't have anything special in their team, their coach is shit, their football IQ is probably one of the lowest in the world. Just go listen to a English pundit talk football, its always very simple.
the way Iceland is doing big things now reminds me of unexpected EC winners like Denmark and Greece
Too bad Poland, I thought they should have given it a proper go they kind of turned off. Portugal just seem to be a team thats hard to beat, they ain't playing good football at all.
first half of Poland-Portugal was a good watch. indeed, Poland showed less aggression during the latter part of the game, mostly counting on the confidence they'd built up on the penalty shoot out against Switzerland. they thought they could take out Portugal in the shoot out so they seemed less motivated to go all out in the overtime
Portugal switched to a 4-4-2 in the second half when not in possession (coach kinda had to since Ronaldo wasn't doing his defensive duties in the first half, unlike Nani, to help out the midfield rhombus). this way Portugal gave away fewer chances, but also created fewer chances itself since their attacks became more predictable (bigger focus on just Ronaldo & Nani). in the first half it seemed Portugal played more on intuition when in possession of the ball, which made it more difficult for the Polish backs to anticipate the Portuguese attacks
Poland played in a very disciplined way in the first half. I saw less of that in the second half
at least Lewandowski got to score his (only) goal of the EC
Belgium-Wales tomorrow ...
^ So you guys better get ready for Ronaldo. ;)
haha thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rame
Ronaldo has been a non-factor so far
I agree. Renato Sanchez has shown great potential for his young age so far during this tournament. also Pepe's been good in most games (was especially efficient today against Poland). Quaresma as well, for the minutes he got to play
on the whole I haven't been blown away by Portugal so far
Portugal haven't won a game in 90 minutes but they have reached the semi-finals. Must be a first.
They are a weird team, you would expect them with the players they got to play fast attacking football but they are more of a defensive team. They have been a very boring team to watch as well.
for Lee, the last time wales beat, Belgium :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/30028935
lol i remember watching that,
i think belgium should win tonight, i expect a fast paced technical master piece.
Wales beat Belgium in qualifying
It's just criminal that a team as talented as Belgium have played as poorly at Brazil and France as they have done. Wilmots is a dud Belgium need a better manager.
Full credit to Wales they're a brilliant team I hope they beat Portugal who have been poor this whole tournament and wouldn't deserve a final spot.
Euro 2016 has been pretty poor for football standard but with Wales and Iceland there's been some great underdog stories to cheer for.
Yeah this Belgium sides performance must be the greatest waste of talent I have seen in a long time, its on the same level as Maradona ruining the 2006 Argentina team. It was an awful performance by Belgium, but the defence was atrocious. I know there are injuries but that was shocking defending. Gotta say though the ref didn't call the foul on Lukaku outside the box which would have left Wales with 10 men and also after that there was a legit penalty shout by Belgium.
Credit to Wales though they just made good of their chances and today Bale didn't play that well. I don't know about their chances against Portugal, they won't have Ramsey and Portugal is a team that won't defend as bad as Belgium.