Official EURO2004 Thread

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Yeah, if Portugal doesn't win, chances are that they are pretty much screwed. They practically have to win against Russia and even if they do and Greece lose against Spain, Greece will probably win against Greece and Portugal's chances are gone anyway.

My guess how that group's game will end:

Portugal - Russia: 2-1
Spain - Greece: 1-1
Portugal - Spain: 1-3
Greece - Russia: 2-0

That will make this table:
TEAM: Won, Draw, Lost, Goals, Goals against, Points
Spain: 2-1-0 5-2 7
Greece: 2-1-0 5-2 7
Portugal: 1-0-2 4-6 3
Russia: 0-0-3 1-5 0


Just mu guess, and it is pretty much possible.

 

We suck, as always... Croatia

 

Even though the subjects moved on, I have to rub it in Englands face... BWAHAHAHAHA!!! (Sorry, Scotland didn't get in, so watching England lose is really quite nice. )

 

ZIZOU ZIZOU ZIZOU!!!

Only the worlds greatest player can be complete crap for 91 minutes and still score two goals to win the game.

The game was not a good one, extremely slow paced and with few chances for scoring. France battered and battered ineffectively at a collected and well playing English defence. I must say I am impressed with Ledley King. Otherwise Rooney was easily man of the match. Lizarazu was really the only Frenchman who was really trying to do something offensively.

 

I was impressed with King too, he did everything right except relying on three of his teammates, namely Heshky, Gerrard and Beckham.

I didn't think the game was a bad one, it wasn't extremely slow paced and the France Midfield did it's job, the only problem was the the last pass. There weren't any, and the fact that Zidane scored out of two 'dead' moments is classy but it wasn't deserved when analysing the whole game. England had the wall standing and there weren't any crack in it.

 

Can someone explain the hype around Rooney ? Imo, he's a hardworking, fast young guy, who plays with a lot of heart, but that's about it. He's not an exceptional talent, has an ugly technique, and an attitude that will bring him lots of yellow and red cards in the future.

I recall England had a similar guy like that in the past. His name was Gascoigne. He came fast, only to die like a candle in the wind.

 

That really says it all. Gascoigne was brillant, fantastic. Mad as hell, granted, but still brillant. Rooney is of the same stock. Massive, powerful, and yet with an exceptional feeling for the game and good instinct for dangerous situations. You saw what he did just before he earned that penalty Beckham wasted? You call that an ugly technique? And man, he's still that young...

Personally, I'd trade all of our german strikers for him. I'd even throw in Kahn.

 

Being able to run really fast doesn't mean he has good technique. Compared to players like Henry and Bergkamp he looks like a caveman. And his type of play obviously doesn't allow him to go the full 90 minutes, they had to take him out because he was totally exhausted, which means that tactically he has much to learn as well.

Mind you, i think he IS a talented player, but not worth all the hype around him. A player like that young Spanish striker, Torres, already makes a much better impression than Rooney.

 

joacqin wrote:

I totally agree.

If not for the remarkable end of the game it would have been just another quickly forgotten mediocre game.

 

I cannot agree, I as a neutral viewer found myself on the edge of my seat many times. Sure the quality of the game wasn't that good but even without the last penalty it was one heck of clash between giants.

 

Manchester Guardian hires Boo to pick its Euro 2004 matches!

(or perhaps Boo after being stolen and renamed by Jan...)

 

I'm still fuming.

Still not sunk in I don't think.

To out-play the red hot favourites for 90 mins only to lose to 2 minutes of luck and a missed penalty is unbelievably gutting.

So many positives can be taken out of this game though and it only gives me more confidence that we can win this tournament. Zidanes free-kick was pure quality. Although you just can't give free-kicks away in those kind of positions against a team that counts Zidane amongst it's number. The peno, I ca't blame anyone. It's no good pointing fingers. The team fell asleep at the wrong time. It wouldn'thappen in a knock out stage.

Basically we lost the game through 2 minutes of luck (how the ref counted - was it 4? - extra minutes, I don't though... the game was flowing). I only fear Italy (watching the Denmark - Italy now).

After sifting through so many, ill-informed, stupid, uneducated, poorly thought out posts in this thread a few stick out.

@ Scottish guy: Why do Welsh and Scottish always love to see England lose? It's something I can only account to jealousy. On the other foot, whenever a home nation plays a game, England are united behind them. Ah well, leave you guys with your petty attitudes, no skin off my nose.

@ Caleb (aka, the only guy on these boards with an ounce of football knowledge): I'm glad you have taken the viewpoint you have. England were so unlucky not to win that match it's hardly believable. Think of all the rotten ways to lose a footy match and that ranks amongst the worst.

Gutted at the amazingly unfortunate result. But pleased at the performance and confident we can beat at least whoever we meet in the Quarters. Most likely to be Spain, but I feel we have the game to beat these. I just hope Torres doesn't start.

 

Denmark-Italy

Battle between goal keepers. Really nice match to watch with good oppurtunities for both parties and brilliant goal keeping by buffon and sorensen. I felt that Denmark should have won the match but failed at scoring a goal, Italy didn't play so good and seemed to rely on Totti alone.

Sweden VS Bulgary: 2 - 2 prognosis

[ June 14, 2004, 23:38: Message edited by: Apeman ]

 

Argh that dk ita game bored me to death

 

Italy have an embarrassment of keepers.

Buffon
Toldo
Peruzzi
and a few more...

Just wish they could lend us one! So we don't have to play Calamity James

 

After watching the Italy-Denmark game, I must say that I am terribly dissapointed in the Italian play. Why wasn't Cassano in the starting eleven instead of Del Piero? Why wasn't Di Vaio up front instead of Vieri? Why, oh why, didn't they RUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. You don't win a freaking game by standing around. I hope Italy takes home the gold, but with this kind of play, they should be happy to advance from the group stage.

****.

 

Seeing as Cassono was awful when he got in I think it was a good choice to not let him play from start. Otherwise it was a normal first game for Italy. They are extremely slow started and a bit arrogant.

The first half of our game against Bulgaria looks both good and bad, the good is that Sweden is ahead with 1-0 the bad is that Bulgaria has been the better team and that our defence looks a bit shaky.

 

Offside trap in midfield, good choice. So far away from your keeper, leave him wide open, once a player breaks through the keeper will be half stunned waiting for the linesman and too slow to react for the coming player not to mention a pair of them.

By the way, buffon is french, no?

 

Buffon is Italian, otherwise he wouldn't play in the Italian team.

Now, the Sweden-Bulgaria game, that is one game you should be watching. Best one in Euro 2004 so far.

3-0 now. Will it be a repeat of the 4-0 game 1994?

 

Oh well, after enjoying that France - England thriller (what a great game), we can now look forward to Germany v Netherlands. There are plenty of Dutch and German people floating around these Boards. How do you guys rate your prospects? Holland look good and but the Germans often seem to pull something out of the bag for the big games. And what is Patrick Kluivert raving on about?