EURO 2012

I've switched from thinking Germany would win this a month ago to thinking that they won't even get out of their group now. Possibly crystallised by so many of the BBC pundits tipping them.

Their predictions are incredibly safe. Going for an england semi makes Shearer the Stockhausen of punditry.

His reasoning? "I'm a proud Englishman".

Group winners: Russia, Germany, Spain, France
Runners-up: Poland, Netherlands, Croatia, England
QF: RUS def NED, ESP def ENG, POL def GER, FRA def CRO
SF: Russia over Spain, France over Poland
France 2-1 Russia final (Ribery, Giroud; Pavlyuchenko)

Russia haven't a hope in hell of beating Spain!

I rather hope you're right, would like to see Spain beat lesser like they ought to, just suspect they're going to struggle.

beat lesser sides*

Now I have them in the work sweep, I expect Russia to win everything.

The ZM piece on Spain was v good I thought. I wonder if Spain do try to get both Silva and Iniesta in the starting 11 on the wings. It kinda worked for City with Nasri and Silva sometimes, but then sometimes it didn't and they needed YaYa to step forward to save them. Also I haven't watched much of Spain post South Africa so interested to see what kind of role Cesc plays presuming he's even starting.

Poland beating Germany is the crazy prediction there.

I'm in two minds on Spain. On one hand I feel they're knackered and bound to hit a wall at some point. On the other they're clearly better than everyone else except maybe Germany, and they have forwards too, so might mop up at a canter.

Spain-Italy's a belter of a first game, really looking forward to that.

Russia have impressed me most in the warm up games, maybe France too fwiw, which is probably not much.

I think Pirlo might have to do too much defending vs Spain for Italy to be effective. Then again it least it won't be counter attack defending where his lack of pace would really be exposed. But seriously in their last game the positioning of the Italian full backs in a back four was woeful and was easy pickings for clever passes inside them which should suit Spain to a tee.

I haven't watched any warmups, I needed a break to try to come to this fresh. I could've done with a couple more weeks tbh, the calendar's so draining these days.

Man, I've almost been reduced to actually doing jobs around the house and gardening and crap now that there haven't been multiple games on my DVR waiting for me when I get home from work. Thank G_d for the NBA play-offs.

I hear you - I pointed myself towards the Sopranos box set instead. Kind of aggrieved the footy's going to get in the way of that now, it's effing great.

just when you thought you were out...they pull you back in

I'm for Italy all the way now anyway

set up a league. code is 336437-76498

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Wednesday, 6 June 2012 22:46 (Yesterday)

i'm in. also i picked paul mcshane. cower.

i'm in two minds about all of the big hitters, france starting to look attractive purely out of unpredictability

fwiw poland gave germany a damn good game they were unlucky not to win in a recent friendly

i don't want to know what savage and cruel god of efficiency germany are worshipping if mertesacker is a better fit than hummels (per zm)

yeah i read that with disbelief too! Surely there's no way.

so many of the teams have major questions at the back, no?
bruno alves and pepe & terry and lescott might be among the best center back pairings in the tournament.
and whoever plays for italy i guess.

I'm betting on a red card for either bruno alves or pepe.

QF: NED def POL, ENG def SPA, GER def ???, FRA ?omg? IRE

SF: NED def ENG, GER ??? ???

F: NED def GER or FRA def NED

feel the fuckin vibe

alternatively and quite possibly, SPA def SWE in the QF and sail through to win it

inglund av it in um ta goo all tha way.

bloody hell could it be that mizzel's right about cb pairings??

errr cos that would then also mean that jagielka-lescott would undisputably be the best

kjaer - agger? heitinga - mathijsen? maybe it's the greeks. has shakira really ruined pique that badly?

didn't see much serie a this season but italy's two juventus guys are presumably no bad.

kjaer seems to blow hot and cold. certainly not the dutch.
pique ramos certainly has the potential to be the best, but it's not certain.

true Bonucci- Chiellini both from Juve should be the best pair.

i looked them up

Chiellini was awesome at the last Euros, especially in the knock-out game vs Spain. He's a terrible one for faking tho.

an italian faking?????????!!!!!?

ha, i know, but even by those standards he's the king.

ZM guy pointed out today that bad CBs = DMs camping deep = goalless tournament ahoy.

yeah he can be frustrating to watch. he's no pepe though. xp

joined the league too btw.

starting to think france will do well this year, they'll definitely walk the group stage and should manage italy in the qf.

who's this Polanski who's been selected in 36.3% of the fantasy teams?

mm barzagli-chiellini as a duo would probably be the tournament best, bonucci is the iffy one of the juve 3

eugen polanski, german dmc playing for poland who before the reality of his career sank in once said he'd support germany over poland

Euro 2012 was plunged into its first racism controversy after the black players in the Holland squad were subjected to monkey chants during an open practice session in the same city where England will also invite the public to watch them train on Friday.

Several hundred people targeted players such as Nigel de Jong and Gregory van der Wiel when 25,000 spectators attended the Dutch practice session at the Stadion Miejski, the home of Wisla Krakow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/07/euro-2012-holland-racist-abuse

Wisla hooligans are amongst the worst. I'd hope that the practice matches had a higher percentage of ultras who'd turn up for anything and the proper matches have a more balanced, normal crowd.

I have a feeling this might be a bigger issue in Poland than Ukraine.

Man oh man I can't wait for this to start. Even though I won't be able to see games since the first ones start at midnight for me. Also, all of you picking France to do well in this tournament, i'll repeat what i said on the other thread iirc: you're all crazy. As much as I want to believe I still fully expect them to do something stupid, like maybe fight with each other on the pitch while the opposing team scores goals like there's no tomorrow. Or ben arfa menez and ribéry having an on-pitch contest to see who can keep the ball for longest without losing it/who will play the longest while refusing to pass the ball, ever.

who's this Polanski who's been selected in 36.3% of the fantasy teams?

― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 7 June 2012 23:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this will be thrown off by some players being rlly cheap sub options so ppl can try and fit in ronny, rvi and ozil or whatever

i only managed to fit two of those three :'(. paul mcshane, you're seemingly no polanski.

i am in this league. jelkino breus

http://i49.tinypic.com/35iugdx.jpg

Beautiful. I don't know why I always spend time designing the kit, I get nothing out of it. At least you can see it, unlike my carefully-selected avatar.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2012/06/08/3157385/xavi-mourinho-will-not-go-down-in-footballing-history

do you ever get the feeling this truce might not be 100% for realsies