Euro 2012

    POR was by far the better team. It also was a decent match, no foul play. In interviews you can clearly see that there is a lot going on in the team that the media doesn't know. We are by far the weakest team of the group. I don't think it ever happend before that we didn't even manage to get a single point on a tournament. The country is in mourning.

    It's back to the drawing board, because so much is wrong, we basically have to start over.

    I think we can expect the remaining quarter finals will be Spain, Italy, France and England. Perhaps even Croatia instead of Italy. I'm guessing the final will be GER - SPAIN.

    Quote from SpronyvanJohnson

    POR was by far the better team. It also was a decent match, no foul play. In interviews you can clearly see that there is a lot going on in the team that the media doesn't know. We are by far the weakest team of the group. I don't think it ever happend before that we didn't even manage to get a single point on a tournament. The country is in mourning. It's back to the drawing board, because so much is wrong, we basically have to start over.

    I think we can expect the remaining quarter finals will be Spain, Italy, France and England. Perhaps even Croatia instead of Italy. I'm guessing the final will be GER - SPAIN.

    absolutely true.. though we might have more induvidual talent, we have shown zero team spirit. hope this degradation in ''national consience'' won't become a yearly trend

    It actually makes a change to have the focus on a team like the Netherlands rather than England for a change, we're actually not doing too bad but then we didn't have the strongest group. I think because everyone here had high expectations of England for the World Cup they had loads of pressure on them and suffered because of it, whereas this time around no-one expected them to do that well, given the amount of injuries we had recently and the change of management, but it's going ok so far...(I've probably just jinxed it)

    I think quite frankly the Netherlands won't be a great threat internationally for another two world cups (6 years - ish); a fair number of their players are up there in age and evidently they aren't playing well as a team now. They need to bring in fresh blood, similar to how Italy is now; they're mostly young and given the next couple years I think they will be a force in the World Cup.

    I honestly am a little miffed that Spain beat Croatia; Croatia ,while yes they were defending most of the game, created the better offensive chances and more of them. There defense was no joke, Spain struggled to create any opportunities, they might have come out of the game with 4 really good chances at most. Also, I think Iniesta was offside on their goal. I would have to see the pass again but initially I also thought Iniesta's pass to Navas was offside (not sure if Navas was behind the ball or not).

    Anyways, Rooney should be playing tonight, that will be interesting considering his team has played reasonably well without him, I'm curious how the line up will change.

    Quote from DaanO

    Why even ask? It's easy to hate Portugal, especially if you're Dutch. You don't remember the last game between Holland and Portugal?

    Only 2 of the players who played in that match (Ronaldo and Postiga) are still in our team this year, so it's basically a new team, stop hating us!! we're all poor and shit

    Anyway, it was a great match, Ronaldo was phenomenal, lets hope that he keeps playing like that. Pepe was great as well, he is probably the best centre-back in the world atm. Also I'm tankful that Nani was injured for half of the season since he is in great shape now an eager to show what he can do. And finally what an amazing pass from João Pereira to Ronaldo on our first goal!

    I think that the biggest problem with Netherlands is the defense, they did a great job in the offense (a couple of missed shots, but they created lots of opportunities), but that defense... they where really freaking bad.

    Quote from barrakid

    Anyway, it was a great match, Ronaldo was phenomenal, lets hope that he keeps playing like that. Pepe was great as well, he is probably the best centre-back in the world atm.

    Ronaldo was definitely on his game, you could tell he was going to score some goals a couple minutes in to that game; it just felt like he was guarenteed to perform well.

    Pepe is good, but there is definitely competition there: De Rossi (Italy), Dannie Agger (I forget which country...), possibly some others, but those two in particular come to mind.

    Nice to see some new replies. Here we go:

    FrieChamp: It was not only a penalty, it should have been a red card. The fourth or fifth referee was standing there, only a couple of meters away, how could he not have seen that? Croatia deserved at least a draw!

    Marvin.Star: Yes, the average age is about 28/29. I don't want this team to compete for the world cup in Brazil. I don't care about the coach, but if it was up to me, I would start from scratch. Focus should be on defense and midfield. We've always had great offensive players, but if they don't get the ball, they won't score.

    BaRRaKID: No hate anymore. I can take a loss. Portugal was really good and Ronaldo, even though I still think he's an arrogant asshole, played which such flair I even enjoyed his goals

    In general:

    England shouldn't have won last night. Ukraine was not only better, they got cheated out of a goal as well. Again the fourth or fifth referee was only a couple of meters away. Why are these guys even there if they can't see these obvious things?

    Sweden played great. They can go home with a sense of diginity.

    So, what do you guys think? I think Portugal will win from the Chechs. Germany will surely beat Greece. Spain will defeat France and I don't know about England versus Italy. It could go both ways.

    Do those referees by the goal posts at least sell snacks to the fans? After last night's game I'm not sure if they are good for anything else. Seriously I can live with all kinds of bad referee decisions, but when a goal isn't recognized despite a referee watching it in close proximity - it's too unfair. Use video footage!

    We'll see if England will get this lucky again in the quarter final. Italy will be harder to beat. Portugal is picking up momentum and will most likely beat the Czechs. France will have a hard time against Spain when they lose 2:0 to Sweden and Germany will give the Greeks another reason to hate us on Friday

    Thing is people might complain that England got lucky last night and Ukraine were cheated out of a goal, which is fair enough but has everyone forgotten the disallowed Lampard goal in the World Cup against Germany a couple of years ago? It's actually refreshing to see a decision like this go in England's favour for once, what goes around comes around

    Shh I was talking about recent times anyway, but then I suppose it's every football fan's point of view that their team has been handed the shit end of the stick more than once

    Quote from PaulH

    Thing is people might complain that England got lucky last night and Ukraine were cheated out of a goal, which is fair enough but has everyone forgotten the disallowed Lampard goal in the World Cup against Germany a couple of years ago? It's actually refreshing to see a decision like this go in England's favour for once, what goes around comes around

    So that makes it more fair? And what does the Ukraine have to do with it? I'm not even mad at England, it isn't their fault. I just feel with the Ukrainians, because the match could have taken a different turn if that goal had been recognized. Just like Lampard's goal should have been recognized in 2010. The question is whether we want to do something about it moving forward...Well, the actual question is whether the UEFA & FIFA want to do something about it.

    There are dozens of examples in which countries got fucked by bad calls. The blame lies with the UEFA and FIFA and on some part with the referees. But they simply cannot see everything.

    I understand PaulH though. England probably got fucked the most. Remember Maradonna?

    Quote from FrieChamp

    So that makes it more fair? And what does the Ukraine have to do with it? I'm not even mad at England, it isn't their fault. I just feel with the Ukrainians, because the match could have taken a different turn if that goal had been recognized. Just like Lampard's goal should have been recognized in 2010. The question is whether we want to do something about it moving forward...Well, the actual question is whether the UEFA & FIFA want to do something about it.

    Didn't say it made it fair, was just saying sometimes decisions go one way, sometimes they go another, and yeah I agree they really need the goal-line technology now

    I agree, the goal line ref not calling the Ukrainian goal was ridiculous.

    The rest of the tournament:

    Portugal vs Czech - Portugal, but not by much, although so much depends on how well Ronaldo plays; if he doesn`t perform than Czech have a chance I think. Also, I feel the need to point out Postiga is a useless striker, and his substitute Oliveira is hardly any better... Portugal could benefit somewhat from a decent striker.

    Germany vs Greece - Germany, no question about it. Greece has entertained me but they`re in over their heads now.

    Spain vs France - Spain: not because I think Spain is all that much better, but because France probably aren't going to be the most confident team going into the next round, I mean... they got stomped by Sweeden who lost out of the tournament. Sweeden played really well to be fair but, still moral blow right there.

    Italy vs England - Italy: this one is really tough to call, BUT I am saying its in Italy's favor because they probably have the better defense and will produce more offensive chances.

    Assuming I read the schedule right Germany will play Italy (by my guess), and Spain will play Portugal. If Ronaldo plays well I give the Spain vs Portugal game to Portugal; Spain are just too weak on the goal scoring front without David Villa it seems. I think Germany will beat Italy. So my guess at the finals is Germany vs Portugal. Should be entertaining

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    BTW, I think using replays would be a mistake. FIFA has always stated that they don't want to lose the human side of the sport and I agree. Bad decisions are part of the sport. If they allowed video replays it would just lead to interruptions all the time because a team demands video replay for every free kick. I think you could also expect things like results being changed after a game if a team wanted to challenge a referee decision with video evidence. I say keep technology out of football and just deal with the fact that people make mistakes. Sometimes you get unlucky and sometimes others get unlucky....it is what it is.

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