Euro 2016 Thread

theforceuk

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France might as well have stayed at home, oh they did.

Only thing I can take from this is Portugal probably deserve one title in their history, just not this one.
 

lejackal

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I might naturally dislike Ronaldo (inbuilt envy or something) but he genuinely had a passion to do everything in his power to drag his team over the finish line and whilst they weren't the most entertaining, nor technically best team at the tournament they found a way to win. Congratulations.
 

Ian_C

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Oh, the game was today? I lost all interest and never checked for updates or anything. Now I have just seen who won, and have no idea what the final score was, and don't care. UGH. I have no sympathy for Ronaldo either. His arrogance all tournament trumps any chance at me feeling bad for him.

Ian
 

weasel

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mumbo said:
Weasel must be doing cartwheels right now :lol:

Not far wrong. Hand on heart, bar seeing Norn Iron in a tournament for the first time (that I can remember) watching that wee scrote crying as he went off with a wee sore dead leg was the highlight of that tournament for me. Needless to say I turned the TV off the second Clattenburg blew for FT.

I think that final summed the tournament as a whole up. Horribly devoid of entertainment and a complete and utter anti climax. Unless you're Portuguese, obviously. The number of dreadful games was a factor of 5 or 6 times bigger than the number of good games. I'm struggling to think of many good games beyond Portugal Hungary, England Iceland (sorry England fans, even it was only good for the shock value, the game itself was pretty dull after the 25th minute) and France Iceland. The rest consisted of one team defending, the other having 70+% possession and doing less with it than Arsenal on a bad day. That Portugal Poland game is genuinely the dullest game of football I have ever seen. I've said it before and I'll say it again, for games like that UEFA should plant landmines in the pitch and activate them mid way through the second half. If the teams won't provide entertainment then the landmines will!

On the actual structure of the tournament I don't know anyone who thinks it worked. Yes, it was great to see smaller countries getting a chance. My own lot included, although we won our qualifying group so would have been there under the old system. Wales and Iceland were a definite plus for the tournament. BUT, and it's a massive but, three team qualifying from some four team groups DID NOT WORK. Far too often sides settled for a low scoring defeat when previously they would have had to push on to look for an equaliser. They knew one result would probably put them through and level of entertainment suffered. It didn't get better in the knock-out stages either.
Will UEFA do anything? Of course not. If they reverted to 16 teams that would be admitting they made a mistake and we all know UEFA are infallible and never make mistakes. :roll:
I can't see anyway to change a 24 team tournament to remove the safety first approach. If you go to 8 groups of three with the top team going through (or even 2 teams) the problem of defensive safety first football remains. Plus the side that plays second and third will have the advantage of knowing the result between the other two. You can't really go to a group of 6 with 2 or 4 going through because there will be too many games and far too many dead rubbers.
The only realistic option for UEFA, assuming they refuse to go back to 16, is to increase it even further to 32 teams. That way you can have 8 groups of four and the top one or two side progressing. Probably two knowing UEFA. Although that has the further problem of lowering the standard even further. Would those sides that missed out via the play offs (Slovenia, Denmark, Bosnia and Norway) plus four others really have improved the standard or the tournament? I doubt it.

The European Championships used to be the best international football tournament because it was so competitive and the standard of football was so high. That tournament just finished is the worst tournament I can remember, I remember the non stop excitement that was Italia 90!
I suspect UEFA have killed it, but as long as TV keeps paying they won't care.

Rant over.
 

theforceuk

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I agree the format does not work but the finals needed expanding to 24 teams, this should have happened 10 years ago. It's funny a lot of people remember Italia 90, it's the first World Cup I remember and it was exactly the same format as Euro 16, still my favourite.
 

edd_jedi

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Not a brilliant final, but they rarely are with so much at stake. I think the biggest scandal is that a team who came second bottom in their group and only won one game outright went on to win, surely that goes against everything a knock out competition should be?

Agreed with most that as much as I dislike Ronaldo, it was a shitty thing to happen both for him and the game. But France really have no excuse for not going on to win after that.
 

weasel

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The entire Portuguese team could have ****ed off to the pub when Ronaldo went off injured and France still wouldn't have scored. They were pathetic in front of goal.
 

edd_jedi

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Slightly OT but this makes me very sad:

http://www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/news/paul-gascoigne-hits-new-low-exposes-hunt-booze/

He seems hell bent on destroying himself, surely not long left.
 

theforceuk

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This is awful, thought he was doing well.

Think something happened at a questions and answers thing he was doing, someone pressing charges against him or something. When it happened I thought give the guy a break, not sure if this is what sent him off the rails again?
 

yoda

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That's terrible for the poor guy alcohol as they say is the devils piss! You can lose alot from it once it gets a grip on you.
 

mumbo

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Knowing how much Weasel loves CR7 this is for him

[youtube]c0CPp87z3WI[/youtube]
 

yoda

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I personally don't hate or love the guy but I admire what he has achieved in football and the great wealth he has also achieved. I am glad I got to see one of the greatest footballers in the world at the min in a few big tournaments.
A similar video was up on Facebook last night showing all the fans he meets and the sick children he helps.
He is cocky on the field and if you wer playing against him you would try to double him up, but if he lost that he probably would never be the player he turned out to be.
 

weasel

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edd_jedi said:
Slightly OT but this makes me very sad:

http://www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/news/paul-gascoigne-hits-new-low-exposes-hunt-booze/

He seems hell bent on destroying himself, surely not long left.


Yeah. Really sad to see. It's one of those situations where no one can help him until he decides he really wants help, and as he is his own worst enemy....
Horrible to see, but i suspect you're right. He'll not be with us for long.

mumbo said:
Knowing how much Weasel loves CR7 this is for him

[youtube]c0CPp87z3WI[/youtube]

And.......mumbo's banned! Lol
 
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