EURO 2020 (2021 Edition)

It's time

There is a prior thread for complaining about Euro 2020, but this thread is for exulting in Euro 2020, the last hurrah for many of us before the dead migrant labourer World Cup of [squints at notes] next fucking winter

Who you got? France?
Can you tell me anything about what's going on with Italy rn?
Is Gareth Southgate going to make any good decisions about Jack Grealish at any point?
Will Germany continue their run of scoring neverending worldies in qualifying or will it just be more weird sad shit as Jogi bows out?
Are you going 2 double dip on the (definitely happening!!) Copa America?

France to win, Immobile to get the Golden Boot.

Italy have conceded one goal in their last 13 matches, iirc. I think Turkey will give them a decent game tonight, though.

France’ group is absurd though : the 2 latest world champions and the latest euro champion...

france being good is well boring, can they be bad pls

Last chance for this group of Belgium players apparently as there won't be another international tournament in a while

imago with the most imago take possible

Comment il s'appelle? Kanté!
N'Golo N'Golo Kanté!

anyway i feel like the Euros always has more random darkish horse potential than the World Cup

also i shall be cheering for my home nation of Portugal

for the first time ever i might root for england cos so many of the fans clearly hate the players , think there are too many uppity blacks in the team and want them to lose. very france in 98 vibes. also i really believe in bellingham.

it's also pound for pound the most likeable England squad in an eternity but i don't think you win tournaments without a defence

I haven't followed football much but why is there a hatred for english players? Aren't they one of the most successful and yeah likeable players in a while?

England's racist meathead fan contingent are booing them for taking the knee

Oh dear, we don't deserve these athletes

Lol the ball car

Such a shame that no one is READY in the lead up to this thread

Would love to see Turkey win if only because it would piss off so many Europeans.

I haven't followed football much but why is there a hatred for english players? Aren't they one of the most successful and yeah likeable players in a while?

I've got an excuse.

Terrible defending from Turkey there

Aren't Italy playing at home? Not feeling the white kit.

rome, yes.

i’m not feeling the cut of it tbh. weedy t-shirt vibe.

jermaine jenas’ delayed laugh at mowbray’s “joke” about roman roads highlight so far.

Bad kit bad tournament, is how things usually roll.

Ironic that Mowbray referenced "the famous shirt" early on as I was looking at that kit wondering why

It's been alright this tho, Italy pretty but wasteful, Turkey gradually getting more confident in their counter

i’ve enjoyed the passing and tempo but turkey organised in defence and left italy looking a bit toothless. but for reasons not entirely clear i’ve been really looking forward to this tournament and will have bad opinions about all of it.

Donnarumma looks like he's got a fuck up in him

Chiellini enjoying that dive, lighten up Jenas ffs

At some point in this tournament, likely very soon, I'm going to need to get all the FUCK OFF VAR out of my system

italy looking p delish

How was that not a penalty for hand ball !?

cos you can't just kick it into a player's arm and call it handball

cos he was standing right in front of it?

Turkey to score first here, i'm calling it

There have been so many penalties for less than that...

Which shouldn't have been penalties either?

Handball was ruinously over-diagnosed even before VAR imo

That’s why defenders try to defend with their arms behind their back : otherwise why bother ?

Sometimes the limitations of human anatomy and the laws of physics will conspire to make that a tricky operation to pull off.

anyhoo i feel like Spinazzola got to the byline a yard clear so many times that half and they couldn't do anything with it

I'm a long time supporter of Jorginho but I'm developing a fanboy crush on Barella tonight, also Spinazolla looking great, Italy looking more self assured than the last time i watched them. Yeahyeah France but Italy look like winners to me, just sub on the Sassuolo kid for Immobile. I DGAF in the lead up, but have somehow started caring in the last hour

Nothing has really happened but I’m quite enjoying this game. Really feel like it is all about Italy trying too hard, so they will be a bit dumb and let Turkey get a chance to score first

Yeah MOTD lads being a bit generous to Italy

Bit of a snorer. Par for the course for an international tournament. It's been all Italy and they will win 1-0 or it will end 0-0 imo

Failing to get the ball anywhere near the penalty area after fucking around on a short corner is more professionally disgraceful than a foul throw imo

Thanks for reminding me of our season

Feeling a 1-0 to someone from a pen in this one.

Money is on Portugal for me, I like the defence and I think it’ll be a low scoring tournament. Nice to be watching football that feels like it means something for the first time in ages.

Ah well

Told you Turkey would score first

Lol

Id agree with biscuits, in analysing whether or not england were too defensive

Firstly- they came within a kick of winning and gave away little enough through the whole tournament, so youd have to acknowledge that it worked on that scale of things

Secondly, indisputable imo that it did otoh hamper any flow from the midfield to kane, who had a bad tournament because he got no quality possession or support

Thirdly, did england have to play like this or was there better options? as far as retaining possession and closing down with discipline, sure rice and phillips are gonna do a job, but grealish, sancho, foden, rashford are you'd have thought an incredible set of options an hour into a tight final against any team and southgate couldnt see beyond the safe option which saw them safely throw away any chance at seizing initiative

I know sterling does some things well and brings qualities to that attack but i also think he kills as many attacks as he aids, mainly as a spurs fan i just had sinking deja vu watching kane labour to create chance for a conservative team who seemed to dread having taken the lead early

it certainly wasnt a boring game, but a pity that attacking quality wasnt to the fore, admittedly.

If im honest id agree with ken early today that southgate- for all the progress in results- is holding a remarkable squad back rather than bringing anything to the mix himself, and im aware that a semi and a final in succession make that a nonsense statement on the face of it

It's an odd one isn't it, feels churlish to criticise him but...

The extent of the cautiousness in game management in bringing Grealish back off against Denmark so he could switch to a back five against a team that was manifestly utterly dead felt a bit absurd, as if the players on the pitch couldn't have been trusted to close it out or put it further beyond doubt if required

There was obviously an attempt to become more threatening after Italy equalised in bringing on Saka and then later Grealish, but they barely got the ball to them, and on the one odd moment where Saka looked dangerously in behind, Chiellini was just tight enough to do what he had to

Also re: golden/silver goal, as much as teams in extra time often play out an exhausted stalemate as the spectre of penalties looms, IMO the purest spectacle in international football is not penalties but the insanely good match that spills over into an even more insanely good extra time a la Italy 2-0 Germany 2006, you can't be truncating that sort of thing

ahh yes that was a good one, one of the first World Cup matches I had watched since I was a kid, that kinda got me back into the sport

was that the one where there were a crazy number of bookings?

if that's the one, i remember it being intense. italy was full of old players and somehow got this wind of energy out of nowhere to win it. gilardino's shot that hit the post was such a shocker.

i'm trying to remember if del piero scored a goal in that match? at any rate, it's pretty crappy there's always these really horrible commentators now, but i was really surprised to see del piero commentating and thought his observations aligned with mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZV9l0ypA7o

at any rate, chiesa deserved some kind of award for his performance

crazy number of bookings was the Battle of Nuremburg, which hilariously was the first match I watched of the 2006 Cup. I said to myself "is this normal?"

really wish I'd been into football when the World Cup was hosted in the US when I was 14.

england scored 11 goals in the tournament (seven against non-exhausted-and-overmatched ukraine sides, tbf) and yielded two, neither of which was in the run of play and one of which was, dare i say, a fucking screamer

i mean yeah maybe they should have pressed harder in the final -- in the second half italy were basically granted everything up to midfield -- but they actually did extremely well and lost in a crapshoot to a team that needed a crapshoot to win its semifinal as well

i'm sure it's disappointing to england fans but it was actually a great success and certainly no reason to go questioning one's entire life experience

and at least no one put it over the top or had a ponytail like baggio in '94

yep! that was the one, neanderthal. that was a great world cup.

I know sterling does some things well and brings qualities to that attack but i also think he kills as many attacks as he aids

it's crazy how predictable it is. sterling will run straight at the opposition like a maniac, the ball glued to his feet, he looks unstoppable. he IS unstoppable! but he's like a dog chasing a car. once he gets there he has absolutely no idea what to do next.

I was hoping England might lose, but in my mind's eye I kinda pictured Maguire and Kane missing penalties because I can't stand them. How it actually turned out was brutal.

(xp) Dive

"If im honest id agree with ken early today that southgate- for all the progress in results- is holding a remarkable squad back rather than bringing anything to the mix himself, and im aware that a semi and a final in succession make that a nonsense statement on the face of it"

It was v weird. Watching progress and yet be reminded of old failings.

Lol Tom, you would not give a shit if a Scot dived to get a pen that would take you into the final of the Euros.

At least I'd admit it was a dive though.

I'm perfectly prepared to admit that Tierney's a serial diver, who writhes around in agony if anyone so much as breathes on him. For instance.

IMO the purest spectacle in international football is not penalties but the insanely good match that spills over into an even more insanely good extra time a la Italy 2-0 Germany 2006, you can't be truncating that sort of thing

― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Tuesday, 13 July 2021 bookmarkflaglink

And we've had some excellent periods of extra time in Euros too.

Ita Ger was a classic, the way they drove to get those goals, at the time I assumed they went for it because they'd lose on pens to Ger, after a couple of disappointments in shoot outs.

xp = Lee Dixon said he didn't carein the commentary.

Fans with microphones was one of the worst aspects of the TV coverage of the tournament.

why were they forever singing neil diamond songs? the only other thing i've seen using it was a betting advert on the tv and that feels like a reaction rather than a cause.

somehow it migrated from Boston. the Red Sox DJ plays it after a home win

They've been playing it after Oxford games for a few years

Not sure I could single out a particular goal as The Best from this tournament. If you eliminate what feels like 20 serendipitous screamers though (Insigne, Hazard, Pogba, Shaqiri, Modric etc.) for all crowding each other out then Morata's v Italy seems like a worthy one.

Chiesa’s against Austria was quite nice.

There has been a lot of bad coverage of ENG but this one article I find accurate:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/jul/12/englands-deep-lying-issue-resurfaced-as-control-turned-to-survival

Sweet Caroline has been a cricket staple of the last few years. Best goal of the tournament def Schick but Chiesa vs Austria, Shaw, couple of others up there too

it's Chiesa for me - although Schick's was one of the classier halfway line jobs you'll see

Thank you England. You cheered your heart out. Now eat your heart out. Get a free taco today. #iSeeaTaco @tacobelluk pic.twitter.com/9rJQAZGweA

— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) July 13, 2021

didn't American soccer have a system where it would be one player versus the keeper but they'd start from centre circle and dribble it in?

Yeah, it was from a line 35m out, and you had a five-second shot clock. I always thought this looked quite good when NASL popped up on World of Sport...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJEnwi7otu0

dear me, those were some terrible efforts

Serie a floated this also iirc

A couple of my DC pals may well have been at that game - I think they went to see the "Dips" in that last season before they disbanded. They had Cruyff!

I can't accept the Schick goal as goal of the tournament because I'm still furious that I went to get a drink for the 20 seconds it took to happen, and my brain's been cynically briefing me that those halfway line open goal ones don't count as properly brilliant goals ever since

(it was a bit like the ol Petrov vs Derby one though wasn't it, tremendous technique on the hit even allowing for the lax goalkeeping)

The Christensen one v Russia was still the one I went most nuts over tbh; there were also lots of those (comparatively) low-key elegant goals in this tournament that were up there, like the Chiesa Austria one and Spain finally unlocking Italy

Got a lot of time for Switzerland just repeatedly boshing in unsaveable headers against the world champions too

(If anyone wants to fall down a rabbit-hole of NASL videos, there's plenty btw. If only to be reminded of Chinaglia's Welsh-Italian accent.)

Well done England

I’m told that plans to have the England team to Downing Street for a reception this week have been shelved, with attention turning instead to the PM’s levelling up speech in a few days.

— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) July 13, 2021

Re the dribble penalties, what happens if the taker goes past the keeper and gets brought down, do they get an actual penalty then? Any scholars of the art form, please let me know.

that NASL vid, why not just chip the keeper? Especially the yellow one, he just kept steaming out. J/K I'm sure it's harder than it looks.

does look a bit more interesting than pens though.

xp yeah i was wondering that too

thanks mike. 1980!

5 seconds didn't seem like enough time though

> I’m told that plans to have the England team to Downing Street for a reception this week have been shelved

was it the racism, the child poverty or wearing a football shirt over a shirt AND tie that made them cancel?

Apparently, MLS revived the practice for the first few seasons in the late '90s? And, yes, fouls by the keeper in the box = regular penalty. I don't know what happened with fouls outside the box, or if the keeper ran the risk of being sent off for repeated offences.

time to unleash the jedermann sein eigner fußball protocol, two goals, 22 players, 22 balls, at least 22 officials, let the mayhem begin

i admire your constraint at sticking with only 2 goals.

England would still only score once

my favourite goal was locatelli's volleyed pass wide right, sprint into the box and slotted finish from cut back. also schick and insigne's vs belgium. oh and pogba.

pogba’s passing was god-tier

Locatelli and Insigne's goals, even though they unfolded in each about 5-10 seconds, both possessed a building sense of tension that a wonderful goal was going to be scored, and the satisfaction felt when the ball hit the net is amplified when that sensation bears fruit.

With Insigne's goal, I literally shouted every manoeuvre he did just before he did it. And who doesn't love a lung-busting run from deep to collect a pass into the box? I think that if Spinazzola had scored in that early second half blitz against Belgium it may have topped them all.

Other than the most "holy shit!" goal moments had to be Schick against Scotland and the Gavranović equaliser against France.

re: Allegretti's tweet -

https://skwawkbox.org/2021/07/13/breaking-england-teams-downing-st-reception-was-cancelled-because-players-refused-to-meet-johnson/

just in case there was any doubt which way the traffic was going

"The so-called ‘msm’ reported earlier today that..."

opening sentence vmic! I was thinking yesterday that perhaps Boris might have cancelled it before they got a chance to snub him.

which players are the shy Tory voters that nodded along with this for the sake of group unity? Maguire looks like a dodgy fucker!

Idk where to put this but Jorginho had a pretty hilarious PK miss for Italy moments ago.

🚨🚨| Jorginho MISSES the penalty.

pic.twitter.com/SlFwOLYlWz

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) November 17, 2023

That's one of the worst penalties I've ever seen a pro footballer take.

the English language broadcaster (not on this feed) was incredulous. then one of his teammates scored on a daisycutter minutes later so nobody cared but lord I don't think he'll ever be given a PK again after his history with them