EURO 2012

I reckon Spain will beat France and then lose to Portugal. Portugal look very disciplined and solid and Spain look vulnerable to being run at on the break. Germany will probably beat them in the final though.

"work something out" = clog Pirlo out of the match iirc

wtf how the hell can you pick france after yesterday's appalling display. a team of arrogant dicks who watched spain at their peak and all they got from it was "we should try for 1 million consecutive pointless passes in front of the box" , a coach who seemingly picks players randomly (after the game against ukraine, you pull menez? you leave nasri on? you bring malouda on when we're trailing sweden... ).

france didn't need to win last night's game amirite

nope they didn't. could have been out of the tournament only if ukraine had won by more than 2 goals or something like that.

You can't judge France based on form though. They are the most erratic team in football.

Usually France would be shit for ages and then get their act together because they'd have at least one world class player that a game would turn over. There aren't any world class players in the current French squad, certainly not to Zidane or Henry level.

i'm judging this one more on the fact that blanc has absolutely no idea what he's doing. but ya, you never know, maybe since every one says they'll get trounced by spain the players will get their shit together and do something.

matt otm also

reckon:
england 0 - 0 italy (eng win on pen 4-3)
czech rep 0 - 3 portugal
germany 1 - 1 greece (greece win on pen 5-4 FU merkel)
spain 4 - 0 france

The other thing with Spain is that although it's really really hard to beat them, you don't actually have to be super-talented to do so.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter: 'After last night’s match #GLT is no longer an alternative but a necessity.'

Gammon Lettuce and Tomato?

i'm judging this one more on the fact that blanc has absolutely no idea what he's doing.

Should be a perfect fit at Spurs then

some people want him to be the next Utd manager

France just don't have enough good players, that's not his fault... picking Malouda is though

not sure the lack of good players is the issue for FR - on paper this could be quite a squad but as NL has shown yet again it takes more than a bunch of talented individuals to make something.

OK, they are a lot of good players but I don't think any of them are particularly outstanding

ya france don't have great players... but holding on to evra for as long as he did was a mistake, removing menez and cabaye after they were 2 of the best players against ukraine was a mistake, keeping samir nasri on and putting him on the right side, then in the center of the field, with nasri doing fuck all was a mistake, subbing malouda in was a mistake (but taking ben arfa out was not a mistake, so yay, good job, good effort laurent), bringing only 2 cf to the euros meaning that you can never play giroud & benzema at the same time except at the end of games where you're trailing was a mistake (especially since benzema really doesn't seem to want to set foot in the box, which may be due to the fact that he'd then never even get a whiff of the ball). declaring that you want france to play like barcelona and then stocking up on players like ribéry, nasri, menez, ben arfa who like nothing more than to dribble rather than pass also shows a distinct lack of awareness. if domenech was coaching instead of blanc, he'd have been torn apart, totally destroyed by every journalist with a pulse.

declaring that you want france to play like barcelona

Beginning to think Barcelona are having a pernicious influence on world football!

Unless Lionel Messi is actually in your team

xxp
Hah! - well to be honest this FR team was alwas going to be a transitional team - most of these players will reach maturity for the next WC - I'm curious to see how many of them will still be playing in the national team by then.

pffft france have enough good players. they could most probably put together the third best squad of the comp. benzema may be the best striker there. ok they are a bit light at the back but that is just because blanc is stubborn enough to keep picking mexes and sagna is injured.

they sure do love inconstistency tho.

going

czech 0 - portugal 2
germany 1 - greece 1 (germans in et)
france 0 - spain 2
england 1 - italy 1 (italy on pens)

benzema may be the best striker there

Bit of a dearth of good strikers in this tournanment?

blanc is clueless, he saw barcelona was playing well, so he thought france should play like them. totally clueless i say. remember we're talking about a coach who apparently doesn't know a whole lot about french players - he totally mangled bafétimbi gomis' first name and declared that he might pick him if he got more playing time at lyon, at a time when gomis was the only striker on the field for lyon and carrying the team; told nasri he should maybe try to score more goals if he wanted to be taken into consideration etc.

i'm really starting to dislike him a lot (which i guess is kinda obvious).

a hoy otm

plenty of good strikers and benzema one the best

Not really, he is a legit great striker. As for at *least* good strikers: RVI, Huntelaar (lols), Gomez, *whisper it* Torres, Llorente, Klose, Zlatan, Cassano, Mario, Di Natale, Giroud, Welbeck, Sheva, CRonny if he wants to play there, maybe even through in Jelavic...

Fair enough, I haven't seen enough of him obviously

Welbeck? You are kidding me, right?

Jibe sorry for ignorance but what do you mean he doesn't know, he is France coach and previous coached in the French league... you'd think players from outside would be his hindrance, if only because he'd see the homegrown all the time?

Welbeck? You are kidding me, right?

― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 12:06 (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When you are Man Utd's best striker, most creative player (albeit post-Berba and pre-Kagawa) and also scorer of the most creative non-Ibra goal at the tournament, I think you can be classed as a good striker.

[Sorry, maybe that is being unkind to Cleverly for the four games he played and Valencia, I didn't see a lot of Utd at the end of the season.]

He's not bad, that's true

Nani is Utd's most creative player

there is a youtube but its is russian so why post

---

Reporter: Our fans came up to you and the team after the game but all they got from you was “you’re all bastards”. And there were 100 millions of “bastards” supporting you. Do you understand it? If you just said “Sorry, guys” there would’ve been no problem. No questions to any of you. Cause everything can happen. But instead every player who was approached by fans said only “get out, bastard”. None of the lads said “Sorry, we couldn’t do it”.

Arshavin: Well, if the fans were in normal condition maybe we would have said that.

Reporter – Well, my friend who doesn’t drink at all said that but in reply heard only insults from the players. I Don’t even want repeat what he heard. But NONE of the players simply said ‘sorry’.

Arshavin – Why should we say ‘sorry’?

Reporter – Well, you failed, didn’t you?

Arshavin – Why?

Reporter – You failed.

Arshavin – Why?

Reporter – Look, I’m not an expert, but you failed.

Arshavin – Just answer my question: Why should we say sorry?

Reporter/Fan – You didn’t meet expectations.

Arshavin – Whose expecations? Yours or ours?

Reporter – Of 100 million Russians

Arshavin – Well, if we didn’t meet your expecations it’s your problem. And we were all trying…

Fan – You really mean it? That if you didn’t meet our expecations it’s OUR problem?

Arshavin – Yeah.

Reporter – Well, I don’t have anything else to say. I’m shocked. I’m just shocked.

Fan – We’re supporting you, we’re going everywhere with you.

Fan – There was full stadium of us coming here to support you and it’s all OUR problem?

When you are Man Utd's best striker, most creative player (albeit post-Berba and pre-Kagawa)

Love this kind of fronting. Actually no, bored shitless by it by now.

yeah, it's idiotic but i really don't want another Rooney debate

Arshavin OTM

i never said a thing about rooney. ffs. and tbf i didn't include him in my initial list of strikers because he didn't play for two games and then obv wasn't fit to play after that.

welbeck will be great

I love Welbeck. He scored 12 goals to Rooney's 35 last year though. The Berbatov bit is just typical ilf fantasy-land stuff

ibra scored a cracker last night once sweden were eliminated,eh

he had a pretty good tournament

yeah

i'd like to see him in the epl humiliating vermin like terry every week

rooney was shit last night tho, give us that.

wellbeck played the same number of minutes as the same focal point for the attack as rooney last year huh

greetings from alexanderplatz btw

deems does deutschland huh

Welbeck probably played more minutes as the focal point of the attack. He also missed a lot of sitters. Rooney was shit last night yeah

deems dropss his campervan back to bad duben

creativity != goalscoring fyi

You said most creative player and best striker. Welbeck is neither.