EURO 2012

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.

all this talk around of how great gerrard was, he hasn't actually been good though has he? do you all agree? he hasn't looked good to me.

france was awful yesterday. they didn't seem to care or bother. it was so boring to watch.
I guess the fact they were already qualified didn't help... and maybe they preferred to play spain instead of italy (which wouldn't be THAT crazy since that's what I think !).

I also think the absence of cabaye and menez was key (the best chance they had was once menez came in).

the game against spain will be fun, anyway (even if they destroy us) !

gerrard got them crosses in that got them goals i suppose

but that would make rooney the best player last night for having scored a skillful goal

think it was the shittest goal of all time

so you don't think rooney was the best player last night?

just because he has a shit haircut

no it was just a comically shit goal, separate to my opinion on wayne.

it took skill and heart to score a goal like that i don't think even probably man united's most creative player and definitely best striker danny welbeck could have scored a goal like that

an on-form pre-jagerbomb carroll, could, perhaps, have bundled it over the line somehow

*goes misty eyed, rubs chin*

Gerrard's not been great but by his own poor level of achievement at tournaments he's been a disciplined team player and i think people are greatful for these small mercies

Gerrard's deliver of dead balls has probably been his saving grace this tournament, it's been great, and he's created chances. Otherwise he's been poor, England can't hope to control a game from midfield anyway so I'll take him being there for a decent free kick or three.

yeah that too, he's devolving into the Poundland Beckham basically

with better music taste

david bentley has a skip for all youse heretics

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?

― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, June 20, 2012 1:07 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You'd think so right? But in an interview in october he couldn't remember gomis' first name and used a wrong one. But ok i'll give him the benefit of doubt and say that maybe bafetimbi was too complicated a name for him to remember... And then he said he'd consider putting him in the side if he got playing time, right when gomis was starting for lyon all the time and being very good. when your only job is to scout players, not knowing that one of your 4-5 best strikers is starting all the games and is not a sub just reeks of incompetence.

He's notoriously lazy I heard (probably from Philippe Auclair), rarely attends games, etc.

yeah, auclair called him a master delegator in the racing post euro betting guide iirc.

STATS

• The Czech Republic have reached the quarter-finals of the Euros for the third time in the past five tournaments.

• Milan Baros spent 217 minutes on the pitch before getting a shot on target at Euro 2012.

• Poland have played more games at European Championships without winning than any other side (six).

• Romania and Switzerland are the only other teams that failed to win any of their first six matches at European Championships.

• Poland are only the second host nation to fail to win a group stage match at the Euros (after Austria in 2008).

• Giorgos Karagounis picked up his eighth yellow card in only 10 appearances at the European Championships.

• The two matches where teams had the most shots (Holland 32 v Denmark, Russia 31 v Greece), saw them both lose 1–0.

• There have already been 17 headed goals at Euro 2012, the joint-most at any single European Championship finals (with 2004).

• Alexander Kerzhakov had 14 shots at Euro 2012, but not a single one was on target.

• Germany won all three of their group games at the Euros for the first time.

• Germany have won their last 14 competitive games – an all-time record in German football history.

• Portugal and Germany equalled Holland as the only sides to have made it through the group stages six times at the Euros.

• Only two of the eight teams to previously win all of their Euro group games have gone on to win the tournament (France 1984 and Spain 2008).

• There has not been a single 0-0 draw at Euro 2012 so far, the longest a competition has gone without one.

• Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Helder Postiga joined Nuno Gomes, Thierry Henry, Vladimir Smicer and Jürgen Klinsmann as players to have scored at three different European Championship finals.

• Portugal have hit the woodwork four times in the 2012 finals, a tournament-high.

• Cristiano Ronaldo attempted a total of 12 shots against Holland, the most by a single player in a single game in Euro finals.

• Holland failed to win a group stage game at the Euros for the first time.

• Portugal have now made it to the knockout stages of the European Championship finals every time they have been present (six times).

• Spain have made the most passes at Euro 2012 so far – 2,289, 662 more than any other side (France).

• Spain have had more possession than their opponents in their last 58 matches — since the 2008 final v Germany (46.2%).

• The only previous time Spain picked up at least seven points in the group stages of the Euros saw them crowned champions (nine points at Euro 2008).

• Ireland ended their group having conceded nine goals, only Yugoslavia in 1984 let in more (10).

• Ireland were the 10th team to end the Euro group stage with zero points (second in 2012 after Holland).

• Ireland's goal difference of minus 8 is the joint-worst in Euro group history.

• Four of the last six winners of the Euros have finished second in their group.

• Wayne Rooney ended a run of 673 minutes without a goal at major tournaments when he scored against Ukraine.

• Euro 96 was the only previous occasion that England topped their group at a European Championship.

• The last four host nations have exited the Euros at the group stage (Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Ukraine).

• England have won six games 1-0 in 2011-12. They had never previously won more than four by this scoreline in a single season.

• Four of England's five goals at Euro 2012 have come from crosses.

• Only Michel Platini (nine) and Alan Shearer (seven) have ever scored more goals than Ibrahimovic (six) at the Euro finals.

• Karim Benzema has now had 17 shots without scoring at Euro 2012 – the most of all players.