[Archived] European Championship France 2016

[joey_big_nose]

Guthrie, Apkan and Lowe?

"When Guthrie was properly fit and they (ie. Guthrie and Evans) had a run of games together (Septemberish I think) they looked a pretty good combo. Apart from that spell however he (Evans) has been playing with Akpan, Lowe and Williamson who are all terrible players technically. He needs someone who can pass the ball alongside, not a clogger, because he's (Evans) is not the best at ball retention himself."

To be honest Germany look pretty vulnerable out wide and straight through the middle. Not that impressed with them. Poland should be winning this.

[T J Hooker]

I think this could be the most open tournament theres been for ages, lots of good teams and most of them have a at least a few player of real quality but no team looks unbeatable or has a squad that's completely full of top quality in every position(i thought belgium might have until i saw them play!)

Also the tournament seems to be missing any word class out-and-out centre forwards apart from maybe Ibrahimović(even he's not the player he was now he's 34)

[joey_big_nose]

I think this could be the most open tournament theres been for ages, lots of good teams and most of them have a at least a few player of real quality but no team has has an squad that's completely full of top quality in every position(i thought belgium might have until i saw them play!)

Also the tournament seems to be missing any word class out-and-out centre forwards apart from maybe Ibrahimović(even he's not the player he was now he's 34)

Yes it is a weird one for centre forwards. Probably the three best teams on paper - France, Germany and Spain - all have pretty average strikers (or in Germany's case none at all apart from a very average Mario Gomez). The best strikers (Ronaldo, Ibrahimovich, Lewandowski) are distributed around teams which are weaker in midfield.

[Audax]

Fabianski, fine save on what would have gone in goal; otherwise, Germany with chances but Poland seems to contain them overall; I don't want to hex anyone... love to see Poland at least get a draw.

Poland started mainly defending these last 7 minutes about, good for Poland, 0-0 draw.

How much they have progressed in the last 10 years since when they played Germany in the World Cup.

Poland contained Germany until about the last 5 minutes, it kind of looked like Germany was going to get their chance.

[roverandout]

Thought Walker looked sharp and Rooney's passing up until the last ten was class other than that can only say England looked anything other than plodding along causing very few problems for the Welsh.

Just hope Wales and England go through together.

There you go again with your inane drivel, England were camped out on Wales penalty area most of the match, Wales throwing bodies in, give your head a wobble

[roverandout]

Am I right in saying the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of six groups qualify? Surely we have qualified now

[Audax]

Am I right in saying the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of six groups qualify? Surely we have qualified now

Yes, the 4 best 3rd placed teams will qualify.

[roverandout]

Thanks

[Neal]

Am I right in saying the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of six groups qualify? Surely we have qualified now

Ukraine are garbage and wont beat Poland, Northern Ireland wont beat Germany so i'd say thats one group down.

[grizfoot]

Am I right in saying the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of six groups qualify? Surely we have qualified now

Correct you are. It's looking like four points may very well be enough to qualify from third, which England are assured of now at the very least. But England really want to go all out and win this group. Finishing top would leave us looking at a round of 16 match against the likes of Romania/Northern Ireland/Czech Rep/Turkey and then should we win a quarter final game likely to be against either Switzerland or Poland, which does look to be a very favourable run to the semi-finals avoiding all the other major contenders.

I've been very impressed with England so far, you probably have to go back to the 90s to remember tournaments games were we dominated so much. Point taken that we've only played Russia and Wales so far. But the signs are good for me, my only concern is defensively we do look vulnerable and we can't afford to concede soft goals against better opposition and get away with it. I must say the midfield three in Dier, Rooney and Alli seems to have the perfect balance to me and I'll be very surprised to see Roy change that at any point. The only question marks remains over the front three, presumably its a straight shoot out between Kane and Vardy for who plays the one up top, Lallana should regain is starting place and I think Sturridge impressed from the bench to displace Sterling from the team. I think it was Hodgson's intention all along to play 4-3-3 and with the attacking full-back we've got it's not out of the question to play three strikers in those three roles upfront, which is what happened when Rashford was brought on. Suddenly the decision to take five strikers seems validated to me, especially considering Rooney seems now to be a fixture in midfield. However the brilliant performances of the subs only further makes you question whether the starting line-up was right in the first place and as odd as it seems Wales taking the lead actually helped England because I doubt whether Sturridge and Vardy would have been introduced at half-time had the score been 0-0. Did love that last minute goal, not celebrated an England goal quite like that one since Beckham's free-kick against Greece.

[joey_big_nose]

I agree that it seems a bit of an obvious choice to swap out Sterling and Kane for Vardy and Sturridge. Ill be suprised if we dont do that against Slovakia. I think chances are they'll sit very deep like Russia and Wales.

[Salgado Is Still A Hero]

First 0-0 of the tournament but that was a good spectacle, basically end to end in the second half.

Tournament wide open as it stands. Really enjoying it so far.

[47er]

There you go again with your inane drivel, England were camped out on Wales penalty area most of the match, Wales throwing bodies in, give your head a wobble

I accept what you are saying about pressure and possession but we didn't create the clear chances like we did against Russia and much of the possession was sideways and backward stuff as we kept the ball because we couldn't find a way through. We laboured.

We are in desperate need of a lock-picker, sweeping,diagonal passes from Rooney are great but it's in and around the box where we need a playmaker.

And,we couldn't shoot for toffee.

No problem, we are through but Barcelona it wasn't.

Vardy should start for me. Biggest disappointment is Kane.

[philipl]

Am I right in saying the 4 best 3rd placed teams out of six groups qualify? Surely we have qualified now

I was mistaken when I first wrote this- England cannot finish 4th and in fact any other combination of placings are possible in our Group except Russia coming 1st. See the grid at the bottom of this article: http://sport.bt.com/football/euro-2016/what-england-and-wales-need-to-do-to-qualify-at-euro-2016-S11364068373650

Group A cannot produce a third place team with 4 points so it will take a pretty odd set of results for the other four groups to all produce 3rd place teams with at east 4 points so England are as good as through to the knock out round.

Wales must be feeling optimistic after the quality of performances they have put in so far and Russia are the weakext country in the group based on their performances to date.

If Woy sticks with the XI on the pitch at the start of the second half, anything is possible including winning the Tournament. There is no standout country from what I have seen and a so-called "minnow" could come through.

I hope Northern Ireland make it through to the knock out stages after their epic win but the Republic of Ireland needed to beat Sweden to have a realistic chance of progression. They will give Italy and Belgium plenty of headaches but actually win against one of those two- I cannot see it unless Belgium are on an implosion of massive proportions.

[Neal]

Have big reservations about Kane in international football, not sure it suits him. Could be one of those that just never performs for England. Watched him last summer for the under 21's and he was dreadful.

[DE.]

Kane just seems to have no energy. Appreciate he's up there on his own, but he has had no impact whatsoever on either game so far. Would Sterling have been ahead of Vardy or Sturridge for the chance he fluffed early in the game yesterday? Unlikely, but Kane had only just got into the penalty box when Sterling scooped it over the bar.

It would be criminal if he started against Slovakia. He might work as an impact sub but as a starter we may as well run out with ten men.

[roverandout]

Kane is made for international football, his scoring record for England is impressive considering how many starts he's had, Kane will get 30 goals for England if he gets the right service

[Neal]

Kane is made for international football, his scoring record for England is impressive considering how many starts he's had, Kane will get 30 goals for England if he gets the right service

Just going off what i've seen from him in 2 tournements so far and it's not been great. Hope he can turn it on.

[perthblue02]

Think it would be great for England, Wales, NI and ROI all to make it through to the last 16, gives us 4 times the chance to shout for somebody in the last 8

Get the home Internationals back and invite ROI in, a proper football tournament

[J*B]

England vs Northern Ireland looks like it may be on in the Round 16.

[Mr. E]

I think it's time football starts giving 0 points for 0-0 draws. If neither team can score the entire game, don't award either any points. Technically it doesn't take something away from them, but just don't award them with a point a piece. Yes, not all 0-0s are boring, sometimes it's bad luck/amazing goalkeeping that is to blame, but regardless. If you want any points whatsoever in a game, you have to score.

I believe that would go a long way toward eliminating this "park the bus" mentality that many teams at the Euro have adapted, or the Italian-designed 0-0 and wait for a penalty/counter at the end to nick it 1-0 system.

[oldjamfan1]

I think it's time football starts giving 0 points for 0-0 draws. If neither team can score the entire game, don't award either any points. Technically it doesn't take something away from them, but just don't award them with a point a piece. Yes, not all 0-0s are boring, sometimes it's bad luck/amazing goalkeeping that is to blame, but regardless. If you want any points whatsoever in a game, you have to score.

I believe that would go a long way toward eliminating this "park the bus" mentality that many teams at the Euro have adapted, or the Italian-designed 0-0 and wait for a penalty/counter at the end to nick it 1-0 system.

Its an interesting idea. In tournaments like the Euros you might get situations where it would still be advantageous to your team to stop the other one from getting a point, particularly in the final group game (e.g. to stop them from overtaking you if you were a point or more clear of them) but your idea might work better over the course of, say, a full 38 or 46 game league season?

[perthblue02]

Its an interesting idea. In tournaments like the Euros you might get situations where it would still be advantageous to your team to stop the other one from getting a point, particularly in the final group game (e.g. to stop them from overtaking you if you were a point or more clear of them) but your idea might work better over the course of, say, a full 38 or 46 game league season?

Trying to remember when it was but there was some talk and I think in this instance it applied to extra time to prevent it going to penalties, where players would be removed from each team at set times (Maybe every 5 minutes) until a goal was scored.

[Gav]

Cheats this lot, Sweden and Italy, diving all over the place, makes you sick.

Anyway 1-0 Italy and Zlatan royally p1ssed off, which is no bad thing, arrogant swine

[DE.]

6 points out of 2 games, and no goals conceded. Not bad for "the worst Italian team in 50 years".