Euro 2012

[Marvin.Star]

Or at least go out with a good match, with some spirit. this game, WE change ronaldo's haircut

LOL, that surely would be a great feat!

I'm curious, the games are played here at 2:45 pm and I think you guys are at least 8 hours ahead? Are the games seriously being played at 10:45 pm ish? It just seems so crazy late to start a football match.

[e-freak]

well it's 21:45 in ukraine, in germany it's 20:45 and in uk it's 19:45 (or 9, 8 and 7 pm). there's another slot at 7pm (ukrainian time, 5pm uk time) which is why they play so late. if you'd show any matches before that, all of europe would still be in their offices working.

[FrieChamp]

I don't watch football one evening and now Greece and the Czech Republic made it to the quarter finals What the hell happened?

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?

best football match ever~

Ohh the memories...makes me think that GER vs DEN isn't going to be the most entertaining match of the night hmm...

[Marvin.Star]

well it's 21:45 in ukraine, in germany it's 20:45 and in uk it's 19:45 (or 9, 8 and 7 pm). there's another slot at 7pm (ukrainian time, 5pm uk time) which is why they play so late. if you'd show any matches before that, all of europe would still be in their offices working.

Yea 7pm makes a lot of sense to me, I suppose I just don't tend to get out to live sporting events often enough to have thought about it (not nearly as many around here worth attending, and they're at least 2 hours drive from where I live t.t).

[DaanO]

okay, we lost everything. holland does not deserve to go to the next round.

[Sprony]

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.

[FrieChamp]

Croatia defended well and were cheated out of a penalty tonight. Still good to see some concerned looking Spaniards for a change!

[⌐■_■]

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

[PaulH]

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)

[Marvin.Star]

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.

[BaRRaKID]

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.

[Marvin.Star]

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.

[Sprony]

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.

[-HP-]

So guys, realistically, who's your favourite team to win this thing?

[FrieChamp]

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