Summer UEFA Euro 2012

[FrostyMouse]

England's defense was more than a bit suspect at times, but all power to them for fighting back. Walcott's assist to Welbeck's backheel/whatever that was was truly beautiful.

 

[Pat]

It's the first time England has ever defeated Sweden in official matches but a deserved one. It was one of the best matches of the tournament, perhaps the football quality was not top-notch but both teams came back from behind to take the lead in an exciting game with five goals.

 

[Imperium]

I was wondering why no one was posting about the Euro's in the football thread. So the Euro's has its own thread, sweet. So far this has been an amazing tournament.

My little moments of the tournament so far:

Favourite goal: Gomez first against Holland
Favourite miss: Ronaldo against Denmark (both haha)
Favourite Match: England vs Sweden
Favourite moment: This without a doubt.

I'll speak about England and the rest of the tournament so far tomorrow.

 

[Bugzee]

England's best game so far. No question about it. Loved the second half. I always thought Walcott played better when he comes on as a sub than in the starting line up. Some players are just generally like that. Far from being labelled as a "super sub" at present. I hope he continues to create chances like that in the coming games. Wasn't impressed with Ashley Young's performance yesterday. Wasted too many chances and ran about like a headless chicken most of the game.

Wouldn't mind seeing Walcott, Welbeck and Oxlade in attack for the last group game against Ukraine. Let the youngins show them how it's done.

Scotty Parker is without a doubt my favourite England player. Dude is a fricking tank in midfield and never gives up. Definitely deserves more praise and credit for his efforts on the pitch.

I'm going to watch the Czech x Poland game over the Russian one. I think it'll be more entertaining with some good end to end play. As for my favourite goal so far...I just loved Pirlo's free kick against Croatia. Pirlo is still world class and he's probably my favourite all time midfielder. If I had to choose one anyway.

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

England's showdown against Sweden was great, even though at some point, when Sweden took the lead I thought that Sweden could get some chance in this group, but Walcott's entrance was a desisive factor in England's victory over Sweden. I really enjoyed the game and I hope England will play like this in the last game. Even though I would route for Ukraine I wouldn't mind England winning if they play like this.
Speaking of Sweden... well they had a great chance to change their position and become one of the leaders of the group, but when they had a lead Ibra missed his big chance and then England has got an equaliser and then England was just great.
So now we can already say goodbye to at least one team after the second day.

And today we are going to have some interesting desisive performance in group A. I will be routing for Russia in their game against Greece. Hope they can win this one.
And it would be interesting to see Czech Republic against Poland. Don't even know whose team among these two I like more, but czechs showed a great performance against Greece in their second game, but Poland also had a great performance in both of their games, especially on part of Levandowski and Blashakovski, so it would be great to see a good performance and to finally see what will be the final ranking in this group.

 

[Googlez_kun]

Poland sucks. I wanted them to get to the quarter finals at least,but they won't make it this way. Won't deny that I'm dissapointed, as I thought Poland could be better with a team like that, but no, they decided to suck anyway...

 

[FrostyMouse]

All credit to Greece, well played by them. They defended well and took advantage of the one moment of slack defending by the Russians.

The Czech Republic won as expected and I ended up being right about them finishing first in the group. :P

It was unfortunate for Russia, but they played worse every game after the 4-1 thumping that they gave to the Czechs.

 

[Kurohitsugi]

Well done Greece and Czech Republic!

 

[BBB Banana]

Wow man I still can't believe Russia is out. And I was rooting for Poland too. My two picks got out... but man it feels so surreal.

 

[Doraku]

Greece once again surprised me. It's kinda acceptable if Poland doesn't pass the group stage, but if Russia doesn't pass too, they are just unlucky, I guess.

 

[goldb]

Complete shocker for Russia to be eliminated, they had one of the easiest groups on paper but Greece pulled a miracle out and quite deserved their spot.

Hoping for Netherlands to pull a miracle, which is not unlikely but I don't think they'll be able to do it. If they are eliminated from the group stages, it'll be first time it has happened since 1980

 

[BBB Banana]

I will pray and try dark magic to make sure they don't advance

Portugal all the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy~~~~~~

 

[FrostyMouse]

It's not like my predictions for Group B are right. I went Holland and Germany as 1-2, and even if Holland does manage to qualify, they'll be second in the group, so I'll have been wrong about the order, which is all that matters.

 

[Pat]

This is a very tough day for Netherlands, even a win isn't enough, they need two goals score difference against a team which they beat only once in ten matches. They'll also wait for Germany's win against Denmark which isn't a given considering that Germany has already qualified and has no reason to put much effort into today's game. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had a very successful performance in Euro 2012 qualifiers and Bundesliga being the top goalscorer in both, if he finds a place in the starting line-up and Ronaldo continues his disappointing performance, a surprise may ensue though, Netherlands has the necessary talent to pull off a win.

 

[BBB Banana]

Germany isn't exactly in the next phase already. They could potentially lose their place if they take like 6 goals (lol yeah sounds ridiculous but I'm just stating it XD) and portugal also wins. So they should at least play for the draw.

---------- Post added at 05:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

Woooo Portugal a deserved win. Sorry Netherlands fans but this was the most over rated team I've ever seen. Their attack was good but that's it their deffense sucked balls plus they had weak spirit cuse they would only play greatly when they had the advantage. We could also see the group falling apart from the coach and even from each other.
And this sum what I said about them right at the beginning they are good but don't play like champions. Being a champion means facing hard times head on just like Chelsea did this year Netherlands was unable to recover whenever they were losing, they couldn't even handle themselves when they started winning the game.
Ok such a long post.

 

[FrostyMouse]

I felt bad for Denmark in the end, but that's life.

Way to fail, Holland!

 

[Pat]

It was almost impossible for Netherlands to win with such poor defending, Portugal totally deserved to win and advance to the next round. Netherlands lost all three matches which IMHO is the biggest surprise of the tournament. They were considered to be favorites by many fans.

 

[Bugzee]

I hope Italy and Croatia win tonight! That would make my day! Seeing Spain crash out during the group stages would be awesome!




FU Barcelona! FU Madrid!


Forza Italiano~~~

 

[Googlez_kun]

Man,every team I'm rooting for sucks lately.I'm afraid Spain might not even make it past this round...

Yeaaaaah!Spain did it. I didn't expect the end to be this exciting. Croatia really had some good chances at the end and I thought they'd score for sure. But in the end, Spain managed to score and get out of the group as the first team. Wonder what team they'll play against in the Quarter Finals.

 

[goldb]

Finally a group that ends exactly how I expected it. Too many disappointments in this tournament. Spain were so below their level it was unreal at times but credits to Croatia for keeping their defence so solid for such a long time.

I have to say I really don't like Del Bosque's system of no strikers though...