EURO 2012

Nobody's as flaky as Russia, except their little brothers Serbia

nigeria has a claim

Portugal are flaky, but not against the Netherlands ;_; (10 matches, 1 loss)

nah they aren't flaky, assuming they are judged by their record over the last decade or so rather than looking at preening eejit ronaldo shanking forty shots a game into the stands

2k4 you could make an argument but they did reach the final and greece were just on dis ting, 2k6 semifinal, 2k8 quarterfinal, narrow loss to spain two years ago

and throughout all of that (since the demise of figo and especially ruí costa) they have largely been a solid, aggressive, defensively minded team....they tend to wobble in qualification but they get there in the end so

2k6 was an awful perf against France (terrible SF all round), 2k8 Spain were doing the 1-0s but it should have been 4-0 morelike (only the Dutch figured out a tactic). Can see them doing nothing again come crunch time if they get through tonight.

Greece were magnificent Greece, but they were at home. Even Eng managed to win at home, once.

that neglects how 'crunch time' for portugal is usually at a stage beyond their actual talents

they lost 1-0 to france playing defensively vs the best side in that world cup, they forced spain to alter their natural playing style more than anyone else has managed in the last four years

i haven't seen this strootman goon at all but if he is half as good as he is espoused to be, they should play him because otherwise the team is broken between two dmids and sneijder or if vdv plays, two amids and whichever of de jong and van bommel is retained

― dis civilization and its contents (nakhchivan), Sunday, June 17, 2012 12:19 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I too would put Strootman in the starting eleven, but our manager is just too chicken and stubborn to do it. He brings all these wonderful bright hot prospects to the tournament only to start with the same old players and in a system that hasn't worked for a year now.

Holland: Stekelenburg; vdWiel, Vlaar, Mathijsen, Willems; De Jong, VdVaart; Robben, vPersie, Sneijder; Huntelaar

So Heitinga, Afellay and Van Bommel (his son in law) are sacrificed. Could have been worse. I don't think Van der Vaart will last 60 minutes though, he's not in good shape. Fat and slow tbh.

That's the Spurs way afaict.

True dat. He's been extremely vocal and eager about wanting to start though. So tonight's the night to show he deserves it.

Good stuff, might as well go for it. What are the chances of a Battle of Nuremberg repeat?

Vlaar for Heitinga (player of the year of Everton!) seems surprising, but Heitinga has been dire in building up this tournament I think.

Van Bommel kicked it all off last time iirc, he could be sorely missed.

IK, with Portugal versus Holland, there's always the chance of that. Portugal is the single team Holland has won the least against. 10 losses, only 1 win in 11 matches. Yikes.

Van Bommel kicked it all off last time iirc, he could be sorely missed.

@Ismael Klata, Sunday, June 17, 2012 7:45 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I saw the footage again last night. The images of Van Bronckhorst, Bouhlarouz and Deco, all sitting next to each other having been sent off, is so beautiful.

Heartwarming stuff. I just had a look again there, van Bommel was indeed booked first, but Boulahrouz's foul on Ronaldo a few minutes later is the real beauty.

Heh, I remember being outraged at the refereeing at the time. I think I'd be happier tonight if we do get a repeat.

Not sure how VdVaart and De Jong are going to stop the three midfielders of Portugal though. Robben and Sneijder are notoriously lazy when it comes to their defending tasks.

100th cap for Podolski today

some kind of landmark in my life to see someone younger than me get 100 caps.

There's still time. And it'd be easier for you.

nothing like seeing a middle aged man in an orange animal costume singing the national anthem to fill a team with patriotic fervour

not this ref again

which game should i watch

portugal

muller just missed a sitter

muller with a shock miss there

A SITTER!

it was quite horrible actually xp

fat that

RAFA!

Absolutely beautiful hit.

Stellar.

fuckin ell itv, my stream just neatly hopped from nothing much happening to holland fans celebrating.

Ronaldalmost!

Postigalmost!

van der weezy wtf

POLDI

postiga is pathetic

Postiga close again, but forgot to shoot

gomez touch to lay in poldi was sweet

Strange how de Jong got so much space there despite (a) being in the six-yard box and (b) not moving

clean sheet looking highly unlikely for holland

denmark score

great corner from denmark, well done bendtner

craig burley 'zonal marking blah blah blah'

Was it Bendtner? Itv said Krohn-Dehli

Should I switch to Germany-Denmark?

How many teams here *aren't* marking zonally?

krohn-deli scored but bendtner set him up nicely with a header from the edge of the box. Xp