Football 2015/16

[lost]

That French midfield is fantastic, sadly for them the defense isn't.

[Gucci Piggy]

6 hours ago, eFestivals said:

So anyway... predictions...?

Winners: Germany
Runners up: Spain
glorious semi-final losers: France.
glorious round of 16 losers: England

I can see definitely-satisfactory for all of Wales, NI & Ire, with at least one of them doing well. Which one? Depends how the luck rolls.

 

Agree on all of those except England. If we win our group (which we should), we play some lame 3rd placed team. I have us winning the group and then losing to Italy on pens in the quarters following a 0-0 draw.

3 hours ago, GlastoSimon said:

France to win, Germany runners up. England to go out in 1/4 finals, Northern Ireland and Iceland to shock a few and do well.

We'll see how wrong I am in a few weeks

That final would require either France or Germany to finish second in their group. If they both do as expected they'll meet in the semis and then I think the winner will face Spain in the final and win the whole thing.

[Gucci Piggy]

Also what a fucking strike from Payet.

[GlastoSimon]

15 hours ago, Will-2609 said:

That final would require either France or Germany to finish second in their group. If they both do as expected they'll meet in the semis and then I think the winner will face Spain in the final and win the whole thing.

Fair dos, didn't realise that. Agree with you then!

[pink_triangle]

Typical Welsh luck. First tournament game for years and we lose our first choice keeper with injury!

[pink_triangle]

Fantastic, that game could have gone either way, but I'm glad it went for us . Bale quieter than normal after goal, but others rose to the occasion particular Ben Davies and Gunter. To add to it all I won 100 pounds from a bet I had for any player to score with their first touch in the euros. Time to spend it on beer!

[SwedgeAntilles]

36 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Fantastic, that game could have gone either way, but I'm glad it went for us . Bale quieter than normal after goal, but others rose to the occasion particular Ben Davies and Gunter. To add to it all I won 100 pounds from a bet I had for any player to score with their first touch in the euros. Time to spend it on beer!

That was tremendous fun. Mentioned on Twitter during the game that it felt like myself and quite a few other Scots were living vicariously through the Welsh! Great chance of qualifying for the knockouts now.

[kaosmark2]

2 bits of sketchy keeping at set pieces, 2 goals. 

Rooney, alli and dier all impressive though. Thought the lineup worked well although I wouldn't start sterling vs Wales just to have someone who can track bale a bit more. 

[Spindles]

I was in 2 minds about Sterling the whole match, lots of creativity, lots of pace, no finish.

Danny Rose, Adam Lallana and Kyle Walker worked their arses off, very happy with their performance.

Obviously a disappointment to lose the lead so late, but this was the expected result and we have 2 matches to drag some points back.  Made up for Wales though, great result and that second goal was really well deserved.

[TheGayTent]

The 'positives' in England's performance are being over exaggerated. Which is unsurprising but nevertheless annoying. 

[thetime]

I bet Tony Daly looking at Sterling with envy.

[SwedgeAntilles]

Clive Tyldesley's 'Justice for the England 11' comment was absolutely idiotic. His commentary is dreadful at the best of times but that was a horrible thing to come away with. 

[TheGayTent]

11 minutes ago, thetime said:

I bet Tony Daly looking at Sterling with envy.

Don't get me started...

[LondonTom]

On 6/10/2016 at 10:44 AM, ThomThomDrum said:

ISIS chanting and violence in Marseille already..............classy! 

 

 

 

On 6/10/2016 at 4:24 PM, eFestivals said:

So anyway... predictions...?

Winners: Germany
Runners up: Spain
glorious semi-final losers: France.
glorious round of 16 losers: England

I can see definitely-satisfactory for all of Wales, NI & Ire, with at least one of them doing well. Which one? Depends how the luck rolls.

 

Same apart from Spain winners and Wales in place of england

On 6/10/2016 at 10:30 PM, Will-2609 said:

Also what a fucking strike from Payet.

Just supporting Payet for the rest of the touranment

5 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

2 bits of sketchy keeping at set pieces, 2 goals. 

Rooney, alli and dier all impressive though. Thought the lineup worked well although I wouldn't start sterling vs Wales just to have someone who can track bale a bit more. 

5 hours ago, Spindles said:

I was in 2 minds about Sterling the whole match, lots of creativity, lots of pace, no finish.

Danny Rose, Adam Lallana and Kyle Walker worked their arses off, very happy with their performance.

Obviously a disappointment to lose the lead so late, but this was the expected result and we have 2 matches to drag some points back.  Made up for Wales though, great result and that second goal was really well deserved.

Again , needs at least some sort of end product from his position.

 

Atrocious defending for the Russia goal and result/performance reflects the every shortcoming in Woy's squad selection. 

 

The media seem almost gutted the Russians started on England fans and not the other way around

[eFestivals]

9 hours ago, SwedgeAntilles said:

Clive Tyldesley's 'Justice for the England 11' comment was absolutely idiotic. His commentary is dreadful at the best of times but that was a horrible thing to come away with. 

I particularly liked Hoodle's "it's the right thing to do, to shore things up" when Milner came on ... only for it to be Milner falling on his arse which led to the goal.

Hoodle's punditry could be outdone by plenty of 10 year olds. How the fuck did he ever get to be a manager?

[lost]

I thought despite all the chances England were pretty poor last night but any enjoyment from the game and tournament had already been drained by the trouble. Who in their right mind is going to travel to the world cup in Russia in 2 years time? 

[thetime]

Surprised how little criticism Kane is getting in the media, he was woeful.

[pink_triangle]

On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 7:40 PM, SwedgeAntilles said:

That was tremendous fun. Mentioned on Twitter during the game that it felt like myself and quite a few other Scots were living vicariously through the Welsh! Great chance of qualifying for the knockouts now.

I always support Scotland and Republic of Ireland as well, Northern Ireland I have always been a bit on the fence about since I witnessed their fans giving Hartson abuse because he played for Celtic.  I'm not thinking about qualification yet, as I know whenever I get positive things take a turn for the worse.  We always lose to England, but that's almost become a free hit now, anything we get will be a bonus.  Apart from 2 or 3 players we are lacking quality, but the team spirit seems great. Bale is a great leader on the pitch, something Giggs never was

23 hours ago, TheGayTent said:

The 'positives' in England's performance are being over exaggerated. Which is unsurprising but nevertheless annoying. 

I haven't seen an England game since Italy in the last world cup, will probably make an effort to watch the next one!.  I feel reporting of England is funny this tournament. While in the past they were overhyped, the reporting seems to have gone to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Expectation seems so low, that they always seem to come across great.  They are on occasions being discussed as plucky underdogs.  They are a (borderline) top 10 side in the world, with money and resources that other countries can only dream of.

[pink_triangle]

Before the tournament a lot of people were concerned about the dilution of quality with the additional teams.  Halfway through the first round of group games and I feel the smaller teams have more than held their own and its been good to see some new teams.

I think Northern Ireland have looked the weakest team so far, but looking at their squad its not surprising.  I thought Germany looked very typical Germany warming themselves up in a tournament.

[mjsell]

2 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I think Northern Ireland have looked the weakest team so far, but looking at their squad its not surprising.  I thought Germany looked very typical Germany warming themselves up in a tournament.

Agreed, the standard has been pretty much as high as most euros. N Ireland definitely the weakest I've seen so far, but still had a small chance of nicking a point so were in no way out of place. 

I was pleasantly surprised with Albania's showing against the Swiss, I thought they were going to be one of the weakest teams in the comp, but they gave a great account of themselves and had chances even with 10. 

 

Germany by far the most convincing however - that midfield looks unplayable at times. 

[The Nal]

Shouldve won that. Sweden are fairly shite. 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, The Nal said:

Shouldve won that. Sweden are fairly shite. 

I thought Sweden v Ireland was one of the most obvious draws in the tournament, why didn't I bet on it!

[pink_triangle]

Unfortunately missed the first 2 games, narrow Spain win and Sweden v Ireland draw is what I expected, if only I had put my money on it.

Enjoyed the Italy V Belgium game, but unsure why people seem so surprised by the results.  Watching Belgium V Wales it was clear that they were nothing special. Italy on the other hand have the best defence in the tournament and are coming into it very underrated.  As the tournament started their odds were significantly greater than both England and Belgium which didn't reflect reality in my view.

[Comfy Bean]

Really enjoying the tournament so far :-)

With no player yet banging in a hatrick, is it time for this forums favourite poseur to grab the headlines tomorrow night.

Ronaldo for top scorer? 

I'm assuming he's on all the pens, and free kicks. 

[Gucci Piggy]

Lol finishing 2nd in Belgium's group means you face either our group winner or a 3rd placed team in the QF.

Winning their group means you'd (probably) play Germany in the QF.

Good result for Belgium, then