Euro 2016 General Discussion

RealGunner wrote:WTF is this

https://twitter.com/DanielHarris/status/744282624693264384

Dorks

https://www.netbet.com/multicultural-championship

Interesting map.

Always knew David Silva had Asian(Jap) roots.

Candreva Albanian

S wrote:https://www.netbet.com/multicultural-championship

Interesting map.

Always knew David Silva had Asian(Jap) roots.

Candreva Albanian

Now that I know I cant believe I didn't see him before. Barring skin colour he looks completely Japanese.

Congo could have a formidable team.

Kevin De Buyne with Burundi roots. Interesting indeed.

Wales' Neil Taylor with Indian roots

France is basically African all star eleven. Still riding that colonial train

Players to score in all EURO GS matches:
Platini 1984
Stoichkov 1996
Shearer 1996
Milosevic 2000
Baros 2004
Van Nistelrooy 2004
BALE 2016

So I looked at the bracket and the top half looks like a cakewalk.

If Spain win their group (which they will) they will have a stroll in the park to the final.

The likes of Belgium, Wales, and Poland would be their toughest opponents.

Germany, France, Italy, England, Portugal, Croatia, etc all on the bottom half of the bracket.

In goup stages so far.

No player has contributed to more goals than Ramsey (3), only 1 player has made more tackles than Ramsey.

Guy is having a fantastic euros. MOTM again.

Don't call me James wrote:So I looked at the bracket and the top half looks like a cakewalk.

If Spain win their group (which they will) they will have a stroll in the park to the final.

The likes of Belgium, Wales, and Poland would be their toughest opponents.

Germany, France, Italy, England, Portugal, Croatia, etc all on the bottom half of the bracket.

LMAO so even Spain won't be in the top bracket.

Can you imagine one of Poland, Belgium, Wales, Croatia, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia in the final because it's happening

CR can actually make the final if he wills Portugal to finish top of group F.

Switzerland FTW

Whats so laughable about that ? Croatia is a strong team and perhaps looked the most convincing team of the entire EURO. Belgium have the talent but i still have some reservations about them. If they beat (most likely) Portugal, i have to consider them as serious contenders too. Poland are very good as a team too.

I really cant expect the rest to go far. It would take serious chokejobs from the stronger teams to see someone like Wales or Switzerland in the last rounds of the competition.

At the end of Quater-finals:
Goals by club:
Real Madrid 6
Juventus 6
Arsenal 5
Atletico 5

S wrote:I really cant expect the rest to go far. It would take serious chokejobs from the stronger teams to see someone like Wales or Switzerland in the last rounds of the competition.

Wales did pretty well so far, if you ask me.

And Switzerland only went out on pens against Poland (and due to the fact that their conversion rate in the game was woeful).

Belgium choked pretty badly.

I wouldn't say Belgium choked. They just have an inept manager. Wales just performed better. Wales has actually been really impressive.

Wales will probably lose to Portugal which shows how bad they are. The fact they lost to England says it all really. They're not a special team, Belgium just choked massively.

So you're not going to give them any credit for getting as far as they've gotten? Yikes, that's a harsh man.

For me, Belgium didn't choke. Had the game finished 1-0 with the Welsh nicking it, then yeah I'd agree with you. Instead, Wales completely dismantled them. It was a comprehensive victory in which Belgium were found out all over the pitch. That's not choking for me, that's simply getting the floor wiped with you.

This haughty attitude towards smaller sides is very annoying. Why is it so hard to simply give these teams their due when they exceed expectations? It can't always be about the bigger team not meeting the expected expectations. It's a 2-way street and and too many people seem to only want to treat it like it's one-way.

Wales only played 1 bad game in the tournament, and that was against England. I suspect it had more to do with confidence and preparation than actually not being good enough to beat them. The same Wales that played Belgium beats England 9 times out of 10, IMO.

Iceland’s football team arrive home

https://twitter.com/SimonNRicketts/status/750095576625188865

Looks like all of Iceland's population showed up to welcome them

I attended France vs Iceland. Epic experience. Especially when France fans started sinings La Marseillaise on the train during the ride to the stadium.

McLewis wrote:So you're not going to give them any credit for getting as far as they've gotten? Yikes, that's a harsh man.

For me, Belgium didn't choke. Had the game finished 1-0 with the Welsh nicking it, then yeah I'd agree with you. Instead, Wales completely dismantled them. It was a comprehensive victory in which Belgium were found out all over the pitch. That's not choking for me, that's simply getting the floor wiped with you.

This haughty attitude towards smaller sides is very annoying. Why is it so hard to simply give these teams their due when they exceed expectations? It can't always be about the bigger team not meeting the expected expectations. It's a 2-way street and and too many people seem to only want to treat it like it's one-way.

What exactly is their due? This is a team that lost to England and scraped by Northern Ireland and Slovakia, hardly the heavyweights of this competition. In the quarter final they were being dominated until the equalizer when all of a sudden Belgium fell apart.

Now, it's obviously impossible to say for sure how much of the win is to due to Belgium having a poor tournament and very poor game (which I think we all agree on), and how much is due to Wales having a great game. But when I look at their performances thus far I see a team that was only ever very good against Russia and for a half against Belgium. What exactly do you want me to say about them? Congratulations to them of course for their historic achievement, but they would be easily beaten by France/Italy/Germany, and probably also by Spain/Croatia/Portugal. So I would be wary of giving them too much credit.

Cruijf wrote:

McLewis wrote:So you're not going to give them any credit for getting as far as they've gotten? Yikes, that's a harsh man.

For me, Belgium didn't choke. Had the game finished 1-0 with the Welsh nicking it, then yeah I'd agree with you. Instead, Wales completely dismantled them. It was a comprehensive victory in which Belgium were found out all over the pitch. That's not choking for me, that's simply getting the floor wiped with you.

This haughty attitude towards smaller sides is very annoying. Why is it so hard to simply give these teams their due when they exceed expectations? It can't always be about the bigger team not meeting the expected expectations. It's a 2-way street and and too many people seem to only want to treat it like it's one-way.

What exactly is their due? This is a team that lost to England and scraped by Northern Ireland and Slovakia, hardly the heavyweights of this competition. In the quarter final they were being dominated until the equalizer when all of a sudden Belgium fell apart.

Now, it's obviously impossible to say for sure how much of the win is to due to Belgium having a poor tournament and very poor game (which I think we all agree on), and how much is due to Wales having a great game. But when I look at their performances thus far I see a team that was only ever very good against Russia and for a half against Belgium. What exactly do you want me to say about them? Congratulations to them of course for their historic achievement, but they would be easily beaten by France/Italy/Germany, and probably also by Spain/Croatia/Portugal. So I would be wary of giving them too much credit.

Ironic that your wariness of giving them too much credit has basically led you to giving them too little to no credit though. That's my point.

Sure they didn't exactly set the tournament on fire in the group stage. That can be said of many sides, big and small. Unlike Portugal, Wales have actually managed to defeat an opponent in 90 minutes. That's some of the due I'm talking about and all things considered, it must be said that Portugal even had a better group in which to come away with some good wins. They didn't.

What I think you're glossing over here is that Wales have not been in a major competition in decades. The very fact that they qualified for this tournament exceeded expectations and then they actually managed to get out of their group, which also exceeded expectations, and then they defeated one of the more fancied sides in the tournament.....more expectations exceeded. They deserve every bit of the praise that Iceland have been getting and yet strange enough, they aren't and it's because they couldn't beat England yet beat an overrated Belgium team? I'm sorry, but that does not compute. This side has done extraordinary things this tournament and while it has not always been pretty, it's no less remarkable. They deserve far more credit for that then they're being given now, especially given they are not frequent tourney go-ers. That's where I'm coming from.

Not to mention they didn't 'barely scrape by' against Slovakia, and are we talking about the same Ireland that held Germany and Poland to 1 goal each and also beat Ukraine 2-0, yet Wales never really looked troubled against them and were probably unlucky to only get one goal?

Wales are legit. They had a tough time against England, but every top side in the tournament has had some rough games already. Wales has looked class since the Russia game and they're turnt up at just the right time.