[Archived] euro12 thread

[DE.]

Croatia quite clearly a level above Ireland - the Irish were sort of like an answer to the question "what if a Championship team came to the Euros?" ... very poor. Think that's it for them, I'm more interested to see how Croatia do against Spain and Italy.

[bazza]

Only Ireland, Poland and, maybe, Greece look as bad as or worse than England so far.

All the rest are streets better.

[Ossydave]

No team has looked good to me. Think the youngsters will do England proud, the old timers can do one

[Tom]

I actually think England have a chance

Expectation will never be lower and I think it will work in our favour

Oh and at least we know the reason Given was off his game

[Dunnfc]

Russia has to be the team of the tournement so far, very good outside bet if they could be a bit more physical on the pitch.

[BuckyRover]

Only Ireland, Poland and, maybe, Greece look as bad as or worse than England so far.

All the rest are streets better.

England hammered Croatia not too long ago

[pick32]

haven't been overly impressed with anyone apart from russia, holland did well apart from losing. Spain without villa look like a blunt sword.

[jim mk2]

Only Ireland, Poland and, maybe, Greece look as bad as or worse than England so far.

All the rest are streets better.

Seeing as England haven't kicked a ball yet I'd be interested to know how you arrived at this conclusion.

[Roverall]

Utter rubbish from us tonight I'm afraid. I find it very surprising because although Ireland lack much real quality, we usually compensate for that with grit and spirit. That was really lacking tonight in front of 20,000 travelling Irish fans and I'm not quite sure why.

[bazza]

Seeing as England haven't kicked a ball yet I'd be interested to know how you arrived at this conclusion.

I'm judging them on the two warm-up games where, IMO, Norway and Belgium had players who were more comfortable on the ball.

I know you are going to say we won both games but we'll see when England play tomorrow.

Don't expect anything better than ROI's performance.

I hope I will be proved wrong.

[Audax]

Remember, last World I mean EURO Cup, Croatia defeated Germany, you hardly ever see that...in the group stage. Croatia has some good tournaments from time to time, yeah, England walloped 'em AFTER Croatia defeated England in both qualifiers, the 2nd crucial in keeping England out of the last Euro... so there was a big revenge factor there, and I'm a big 3 Lions fan, I think England will get a draw at least tomorrow. but I'm pretty supportive.

Too, I see they busted some German fans, that stupid throwing of paper balls at the Portuguese players, Portugal can't blame their loss on that of course there is also the alleged disturbance of the Czech player Selassie from Russian fans as well. That tossing of the paper balls is disgraceful as would this other behavior.

http://www.soccerway.com/news/2012/June/10/german-fans-come-under-investigation/

UEFA has charged the German Football Association for the throwing of missiles by the German supporters, while the Portuguese Football Federation has also been cited, following Portugal's delayed return for the second-half kick-off.

Sure it's a nice tournament but if you read the stories, it's clear it's kicked off a few times, Friday we hear about the Russian fans, Saturday we hear about the German fans, Sunday, stories out there some Croats, Irish and Poles did get arrested, Monday we will hear about the ?? er , fans, hope not....

[Salgado Is A Hero]

I don't think it's fair to judge England on their warm up matches. The point of them is so they have time to gel, the manager can see what tactics work and how the players perform. Spain just scraped past China I think it was, same as with France and Iceland and Italy lost 3-0 to Russia and even Kerzhakov scored.

I think/hope France will win fairly comfortably with Benzema on form and Ribery tearing apart Glen Johnson but England still have a good chance of progressing regardless. However, Sweden will still be a tough test and Johnson will have Olsson on the overlap to contend with before they play one of the host nations which will be a very hard game, especially because the host nations generally get decisions going for them, like in the Poland - Greece game but you see it all the time in international tournaments.... 1966 being another example haha

[Audax]

I don't think it's fair to judge England on their warm up matches. The point of them is so they have time to gel, the manager can see what tactics work and how the players perform. Spain just scraped past China I think it was, same as with France and Iceland and Italy lost 3-0 to Russia and even Kerzhakov scored.

I think/hope France will win fairly comfortably with Benzema on form and Ribery tearing apart Glen Johnson but England still have a good chance of progressing regardless. However, Sweden will still be a tough test and Johnson will have Olsson on the overlap to contend with before they play one of the host nations which will be a very hard game, especially because the host nations generally get decisions going for them, like in the Poland - Greece game but you see it all the time in international tournaments.... 1966 being another example haha

Haha, you forget how France cheated Ireland 2 years ago from going to the World Cup and then, were a big embrarassment at the World Cup.

Not that England's squad are profiles in virtue but I think they'll get at least a draw.

I think too, Ukraine might be a hard nut to crack and Shevchenko is still playing for them? It sounds like. So, Ukraine at home is potentially another tough match, Sweden will be tough, group D is not called a group of Death but it is relatively tough,. The real way to rate the groups is add up the FIFA rankings of the teams and divide by 4, lower numbers indicate stronger groups.

[Mattyblue]

It's a superbly structured tournament, will be ruined of course when Platini makes it a sprawling mess like the World Cup next time round.

[JAL]

Thought the Irish were the poorest performers so far in this tournament. Duffer and Robbie Kean looked like their legs are starting to go and with there being no apparent young Irishmen ready to step up and fill this void its sad to see when there are so many fans out there to cheer them on.

Onto England, who plays with Gerrard tonight, and will Gerrard put in a performance for Roy Hodgson, I have my doubts.

If Terry is struggling young Phil Jones should be in, our full backs look OK. Lets see some young live wires in there like Walcott, OX-Chamberlain, Wellbeck, along with Ashley Young, and lets see what we can do.

[Sparky Marky]

Thought the Irish were the poorest performers so far in this tournament. Duffer and Robbie Kean looked like their legs are starting to go and with there being no apparent young Irishmen ready to step up and fill this void its sad to see when there are so many fans out there to cheer them on.

I think Maclean is the nearest thing to a young duff that they have...can't see why trapatoni didn't give him a go last night.

[thenodrog]

Croatia quite clearly a level above Ireland - the Irish were sort of like an answer to the question "what if a Championship team came to the Euros?" ... very poor. Think that's it for them, I'm more interested to see how Croatia do against Spain and Italy.

Thanks DE4 your comparison of the ROI to a Championship team saved me a post. I was thinking that all of the game.

No team has looked good to me. Think the youngsters will do England proud, the old timers can do one

I agree with you dave .....but Roy Hodgson doesn't appear to unfortunately.

Russia has to be the team of the tournement so far, very good outside bet if they could be a bit more physical on the pitch.

They appear quite physical off it.

[thenodrog]

Spain v Italy was best for me. I've been struggling to sleep of late and I don't know about the second half but that first half definitely did the trick.

Technically superb I suppose but with an entertainment value of zilch.

[jim mk2]

Because of events at Rovers last season I'm heartily sick of football and am taking only a passing interest in the Euros.

I'll watch England give another lame performance tonight and then switch it off and concentrate on the cricket. It might have escaped people's notice but England are the No 1 Ttest team in the world and there is the mouth-watering prospect of a fantastic series against South Africa coming up.

With Wimbledon and the Olympics also to come, who needs football ?

[davulsukur]

Onto England, who plays with Gerrard tonight, and will Gerrard put in a performance for Roy Hodgson, I have my doubts.

If Terry is struggling young Phil Jones should be in, our full backs look OK. Lets see some young live wires in there like Walcott, OX-Chamberlain, Wellbeck, along with Ashley Young, and lets see what we can do.

Parker will be in the middle with Gerrard.

There is a hell of a lot of pressure riding on Ashley Youngs shoulders for our hopes of success.

I think we will go with:

---------------Hart

Johnson---Terry---Lescott---Cole

Milner---Parker----Gerrard---Downing (Sad to say)

--------------Young

-------------Welbeck

[davulsukur]

Because of events at Rovers last season I'm heartily sick of football and am taking only a passing interest in the Euros.

To be honest, due to the Rovers Circus last season (and beyond) i have a greater interest in the Euros. It feels good to sit down and watch a game of footy, watching the group stages unfold while having no emotional investment in either side (until tonight)

I am enjoying watching regular football games where i don't have to see Steve Kean being a useless Tw@ on the sidelines.

[bradeagle]

Does anyone else think this has a similar feel to 1990 wc? We were crap in all the friendlies before that, so if we can scrape through the group we and keep things tight maybe a semi final......

[Mattyblue]

Indeed jim, outrageous that it's only a three Test series against SA. Pure profiterring shoehorning in those ridiculous One Dayers against Australia.

[Silencio]

Spain v Italy was best for me. I've been struggling to sleep of late and I don't know about the second half but that first half definitely did the trick.

Technically superb I suppose but with an entertainment value of zilch.

Thought Italy did well in the first half and the whole of the second half was good. Two good goals too. Spain looked much better which Torres running off the shoulder but he can't finish these days...

[eire3382]

Best of luck to the old enemy tonight, I think england sholud be worth at least a draw.

No Irish eyes are smiling today, depressing last night and more to come I fear. But I was proud of the fans out there.