The Official Euro 2020 thread....

[GloverMart]

MiniMan64 said:

aeropilot said:

Bound to loose to Germany on pens.
Its at Wembley again after all, and Southgate is involved.......

No guess what all the build up will be focus on....

Think you're being a little harsh here. It's not as if England 4 Scotland 1 was mentioned at all in the build up to the recent match.....

Eh? What was that?

[GloverMart]

Wales need Ward, Mepham & Rodon to start talking at the back, stop conceding silly free kicks in midfield and their "big" players to step up otherwise they're getting a hiding here.

Never a yellow card for Moore in a million years.

[GloverMart]

tighnamara said:

julian987R said:

TCEvo said:

julian987R said:

TCEvo said:

Quality goal.

It was a complete mess, just a series of knee jerks. no quality to that whatsoever

Really? Took it on his head, touch & volley in. Pretty good IMO.

Perhaps by the low standards of this tournament it was good, but in reality it was a bit of a scrappy finish.

I must be missing something, I thought he controlled it very well followed by a clinical finish.
What was scrappy about the finish ?

It was a decent finish, Tighnamara. Keeper had no chance.

[GloverMart]

BadBull said:

Adam. said:

Flip Martian said:

Even at 38?

At least that's the last time I'll see his sthousery in a tournament.

You’d want to properly tt him on the last minute of your final game

I'd love that. Last minute of his last game, someone smashing the fk out of him.

Boom! fk off back to Portugal you whining bald bh.

This x 1000.

[GloverMart]

Driver101 said:

Challo said:

Radec said:

l354uge said:

United fans constantly go on about how great Fernandes is, but haven't seen anything impressive tonight

Yeah seen why he doesn't start, greedy and taking daft shots.

Hard fought win this for Belgium

18 Goals and 12 assists in the prem last year, not bad for someone so overrated. Bruno is a very good player, but just not played as well for Portugal.

Plus coming on with 30mins to go your going to want to take shots and drive the team on. They werent really creating much prior where they??

Yes Pepe can be a tw*t some of the time, but there is something I like about him. He is like Ramos in the fact you want him playing for your team and not against you. Fair play to him still playing at the highest level at 38 years old.

Edited by Challo on Monday 28th June 09:33

He's been poor at the Euros. He doesn't look the same player that he does for Utd.

To be fair, United have over-used Bruno this season, it's almost like they've been scared not to in case they lose. Towards the end of the season, he was looking shattered and wasn't nearly as effective; he played 58 games in all competitions, a total of 4,584 minutes which is actually 51 games worth.

First third of the Prem season - 7 goals, 4 assists
Second third - 8 goals, 6 assists
Final third - 3 goals, 1 assist

Bloke needs a good rest although he seems to be the sort that doesn't WANT to have one, for the betterment of the team, he should.

[GloverMart]

Blackpuddin said:

nicanary said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Every team needs a player like Pepe. When your own fans love you, and everyone else loathes you, that's a pretty good place to be for a footballer.

My club had Diego Costa. What a legend. Now we have Tony Rudiger, another nasty piece of work. But he's our nasty piece of work.

Interesting that you mention Rudiger. I was watching a recent Germany game and kept an eye on our mutual friend whilst he was off the ball. Some of the stuff he gets up to is a bit "unsportsmanlike" to put it mildly. Some would say dirty b*stard. Yet oddly enough the ref doesn't spot it and the opposition don't whine. Maybe they just expect and accept it.

Wasn't he the one who accidentally smashed de Bruyne's nose and eye socket?

"Accidentally".

Yes, it was him. He looked where de Bruyne was before clattering into him. I'm glad he's someone else's player, wouldn't want a like him playing for my team.

[GloverMart]

Radec said:

Wow I don't even think they thought that was the last pen.

Think they were waiting for the lino to give the okay that Sommer hadn't gone off his line.

[GloverMart]

Adam. said:

g4ry13 said:

With the French out it's blown it pretty wide open. Germany to win? Denmark?

Germany will be looking at their route and fancying their chances, I still make them favourites against England

if we do lose I hope someone like Denmark, Sweden or Switzerland win

Would almost feel like a waste if a big country won it now. Would love Denmark to win it given the awful start they had.

[GloverMart]

zygalski said:

Sterling massively underperformed for most of his international career, now he's performing ok. No more.
All the lavish praise heaped upon him by everyone in the media over the last couple of seasons seems a bit OTT, but I understand why it's done. A case of over-compensation.

Reminds me a bit of Fred at Man United. Awful player that for a few games improved to mediocre but some MU fans thought they'd suddenly signed Zidane.

Re Sterling, I'm not a fan at all and I think part of the reason we aren't clicking up front is down to him and the way he plays. Yes, he's scored two but one was laid on a plate for him by Grealish and the other was down to Kane's unselfish running. I'd much sooner have Foden, Mount, Grealish and Kane as our attacking four to be honest.

[GloverMart]

zygalski said:

We've got bigger problems than Sterling. We don't have a CF.

And we don't have a back up CF either now, Calvert-Lewin's been left out of the squad according to some ITK journos on Twitter.....

[GloverMart]

Emil Forsberg is such a good player, very clever. He'd be in my team of the tournament so far.

[GloverMart]

Antony Moxey said:

Don’t they have those GPS trackers sewn into them in between the shoulder blades? Regardless, what a way to win a game.

[GloverMart]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Zen_Master said:

He has essentially been punished for being first to the ball, with absolutely no intent to do anything but kick the football. It’s unfortunate the other player ran into him

No. He's been punished for going for the ball in such a way as to endanger another player who was nearby. That's a red card offence according to the laws of the game. Whether he gets the ball first, or means to hurt the other player are irrelevant. In theory, if the other player had managed to take evasive action and there was no collision, the ref could still have sent him off for endangering an opponent. You occasionally see happen that when a player goes in 2 footed, and the opposing player takes evasive action to avoid contact. The ref can send him off even though there was no contact.

Spot on, Twig. Intent isn't part of the laws anymore but the potential result of a dangerous action is!

[GloverMart]

In so many ways, Mancini's Italians are a refreshing change from the old, boring ultra defensive teams of the past. Attacking when they want, a flying wing back, plenty of movement up front.... they really have it all.

But then you watch that last five minutes and realise that leopards don't change their spots.

[GloverMart]

castex said:

Digger said:

You do know how to read through a thread after 20 years here?

You want me to trawl through 234 pages in order to find evidence for the italian football team's historic failings as perceived by xenophobic pistonheaders?

Not going to happen, chum.

Mate, stop being a and accusing folk of being xenophobes and read the thread.

Plenty of praise for the Italians but in the interests of balance and fairness, we're pointing out their failings too.

Now be a good chap and run along unless you can up your posting game.

[GloverMart]

Digger said:

Radec said:

Digger said:

I don’t mean to be cynical but . . . real injury? Just asking the question. Face exhibiting no grimace!

Hamstring, stretcher and tears convince you yet?

. . . what tears . . . He was covering his face?

He's ruptured his achilles tendon, will be out for several months.

I feel desperately sorry for him (as I would any player that had suffered this injury (apart from Pepe)) as he was having a brilliant tournament. Would certainly be in my team of the tournament so far.

[GloverMart]

castex said:

GloverMart said:

Mate, stop being a and accusing folk of being xenophobes and read the thread.

Plenty of praise for the Italians but in the interests of balance and fairness, we're pointing out their failings too.

Now be a good chap and run along unless you can up your posting game.

Why are you insulting me?

You just appear out of nowhere and start calling people xenophobes just because they criticise Italian timewasting antics.

I've only called you a , hardly an insult. If I'd wanted to insult you, I'd have called you a

[GloverMart]

SCEtoAUX said:

Cheats, pure and simple.

VAR should be all over that.

Same old Italy.

It's long been a standing joke that goalkeepers are a protected species anyway. The only players on the field that can use their hands, they jump up to catch the ball with a knee or leg stuck out in the hope they catch someone, they plough through people in the name of claiming a cross..... think Donnarumma was "allegedly" caught by his own player tonight. The time has come where keepers will jump for the ball then collapse in a heap knowing full well the referee will blow just in the one-in-a-thousand chance he's actually injured.

[GloverMart]

Blackpuddin said:

Blue62 said:

It’s a shame that their antics detract from the football, their first half performance was fantastic but gamesmanship is in their DNA. I do feel for Spinnazola though, what a player and now set to miss out, they will miss him against Spain who be are just as capable of ‘playing the game.’

Strong reffing will be needed for their next games. If he's on the panel I nominate the guy who did the CL semi with PSG, the one who told two of their key play-actors/moaners to fk off.

That was Bjorn Kuipers, decent ref. Hopefully he'll get the game.

[GloverMart]

Maehle has been really impressive right throughout this tournament, in fact all the Danes have.

If Eriksen hadn't had his incident, they may have had a shout. Might still have to be honest.