EURO 2012

his 82nd of the season

do argentina have any other games before the season is officially over? let's have a game against st kitts and nevis or someone so he can reach the magic 100.

Scotland might still be in the US

:(.

(when registering for the uefa fantasy football, having to set my location as 'england' really brought some things home. i'm not in england i'm in london ffs, maybe 1/3 of the people i know are english.)

You should've just lied and picked Kerguelen or somewhere. You'd massively increase your chances in the national league that way to boot.

Anyway England's great and London's in England, and England are gonna be on dis ting, no need to get all weepy about it.

GolTV is showing a replay of Arg/Brazil at 3:30 Eastern time tomorrow fwiw

http://www.gsoranje.nl/archives/images/neddenklungel.gif

we could have had a 100 strikers and for some reason none of them would have finished off that brilliant pass.

Also lol Szczesny.

And now LOL Van Persie too

i fully expected poldolski to finish a couple of his chances, too. maybe not quite to lol category.

The England v France game will be about 75 minutes of Koscielny and Walcott falling over one another.

re: gif mizzell posted - goalie deserves yellow for that overacting rolling around + grabbing his head job, imo.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/09/article-2156976-13878A91000005DC-372_634x400.jpg

A picture says more etc.

How do the Dutch media react to such things?

Not good :)

It was just sub-par, a huge disappointment. What irks the press (and myself) even more is that Van Marwijk refuses to say it was bad. They are all holding up the "we played really good, but if you don't score..." story. Which is sticking your head in the sand imo.

Van Bommel was invisible. Heitinga and Vlaar seemed scared to build up properly which lead to Nigel de Jong constantly having to be a mailman (pick up the ball and bring it forward). Robben was shite, made the wrong decisions.
Van Persie getting the most flack though. The whole Huntelaar vs. Van Persie debate loomed over the tournament already before it started and only intensifies now. Playing with both of them has never really worked.

The only plusses were for Sneijder, who played a great second half, and Willems, who did a great job for an 18 year old and youngest Euro player ever.

I think Van Marwijk will stick to his guns though and will play Van Persie again. Not that it really matters who's our striker now, the whole team just is too weak.

Ouch. I take it nobody's got much hope of a win over Germany? Because they looked beatable last night I thought.

¡ Casillas; Arbeloa, Ramos, Pique, Alba; Alonso, Busquets; Silva, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas !

If we have so much trouble with a poor Denmark already, I don't think there's much to be optimistic about against a Germany with Ozil, Schweini, Muller, Podolski and Gomez. Germany weren't all that good though, so many errors. But they seem to actually *win* even when bad. That's a big difference with Holland.

But one never knows, maybe they'll surprise us (in 1988 Holland lost the first game against Russia and won the tournament). But somehow I can't see that happening this time.

There is a theoretic chance Holland can still progress even if they lose to Germany btw. Then Portugal has to win from Denmark, and in the last round Germany should beat Denmark and Holland should win from Portugal. Then Holland/Portugal/Denmark all have 3 points and it will come down to goal diff.

Buffon; Bonucci, De Rossi, Chiellini; Maggio, Motta, Giaccherini, Pirlo, Marchisio; Cassano, Balotelli

I'm looking forward to this so much. Italy are going to do them.

Fabregas False Nine!

I was wondering how they'd get him in the side. He's no Messi but interesting how the Italy CBs cope with having no reference point.

with de rossi at cb i'd guess not very well

Are Italy playing 3 at the back or trying to make Motta play LB? Or Chiellini at LB and De Rossi CB?

I predict Llorente'll be on before halftime

levein's tactical innovations make their way onto the big stage.

pretty sure it's 3 at the back for italy, bonucci,chiellini and de rossi playing as a cb regista like he's done for roma this season.

Well I've repped for them playing a 3 since the Russia friendly. Maggio is twice the player as a wing-back then he is as a RB.

they don't really have another wingback in that xi though. are they playing giaccherini on the other wing?

i think so

Giaccherini is a very skilful player as well, really interesting to see him in the XI. When I still thought they'd play a diamond I was hoping he might get to feature ahead of Montolivo at some point.

Don't think Italy will lose. Poor old Torres.

De Rossi's one-sleeve look is a bit odd

The pitch looks poor to me.

craig burley should shut his gub.

hate burley

de rossi been p good so far

De Rossi a lucky boy if he didn't get booked there

i like these italy kits

giacherrini's been really good too so far.

Balotelli looks very accomplished in this side

and cassano has made the best runs

ooh gutsy by de rossi

thought fabregas? could have turned and shot there

poor from fabregas. couple of turnovers high up the pitch in spain's favour last couple of mins.

they called a foul on balotelli there?

oof

if italy were playing 2 CBs one of those balls would have got thru by now i reckon.

I'm finding those tunnels in the corners very distracting. I keep thinking the cameraman's put his finger into the frame.

craig burley calling someone ugly? glass houses etc

i swear the spain corners are designed for the clearing header to fall to iniesta on the left corner of the box.

alonso has benn average, at best.