Euro 2016 Thread

[fan_of_mulligan]

I thought I would create a thread where we can talk about all things Euro 2016.

How many games is everyone on here planning to watch ??? How do you rate England's Chances and what would you consider to be a good tournament for England ??? How do you rate Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic Of Ireland's chances in Euro 2016 ???

Has anyone done a bet or sweapstake on Euro 2016 ??? and who do you think is going to be the dark horse / under-dog team we need to look out for ???

[gillsfan1066]

All of Englands games until were gone, then after that I don't give to hoots unless say Wales, Nth Ireland or Ireland keep going.
Englands chances of what..........you mean winning the whole thing........... hahahahahahaha, after that performance against a very below average Russian side, all I saw Saturday was A TOTALLY CLUELESS MANAGER in Hodgson, just a waste of space on the side lines, and a very short stay in France for England.
How at the half weren't Sterling, Kane, even Lallana taken off and replaced at least by Vardy and Sturridge,who would have been fresh and chased every ball, we had no ball control in midfield, and I hate to say it but I guess Rooney has a place for life in the England side ??
If we put this side out against Wales they will beat us, Wales will beat England, WALES , NOT GERMANY, NOT FRANCE, NOT SPAIN, BUT WALES would beat us.
I think Wales will get into the next round, Nth. Ireland won't and Ireland maybe ??
Wales could easily be the dark horse, a draw against England will put them in the cat bird seat and I like Belgium and Portugal to be the only real teams " outside the big three or four " that could go deep into the tourney.

[fan_of_mulligan]

I watched both matches in Group B On Saturday......

ENGLAND V RUSSIA

Excellent performance from England against Russia On Saturday, Chris Smalling saw his header routinely saved by Igor Akinfeev, who also done exceptionally well to tip Wayne Rooney's shot on to the post and Adam Lallana and Wayne Rooney also saw attempts on goal saved by The Russia Goalkeeper, Kyle Walker was exceptional going forward and he was one of England's best players, but Raheem Sterling was disappointing, he has the pace and ability to cause defenders problems, but Sterling's awareness and decision making in the final third leaves a lot to be desired, I would have liked to have seen Jamie Vardy come on for Sterling, I had no problem with James Milner coming on as it looked liked England were going to held on to the win, but with Russia scoring late on, Roy Hodgson is having questions being asked on why he substituted Wayne Rooney and why James Milner came on when England should have gone for the important second goal - questions that wouldn't have been asked if England just held out for another minute.

Fantastic free kick from Eric Dier to open the scoring, not a player you expect to see on the score-sheet, but Igor Akinfeev was perhaps not expecting Eric Dier to hit it, and finally we were able to beat The Russia Goalkeeper, who had made several saves to keep Russia in the game, saves that have eventually earned Russia a very important point, and that header from Vasili Berezutski was superb, could Joe Hart had done more to prevent Russia from equalising ??? possibly, but having defended the initial corner, I think if England stopped the cross, then Vasili Berezutski isn't in a position to win the aerial challenge up against Danny Rose.

There are plenty of positives to take from our 1-1 draw against Russia, even though we didn't get the result we wanted, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane give England a lot of running power and athleticism in our starting line up, I thought Adam Lallana showed his technical ability and was unlucky not to get himself on the score-sheet, and Wayne Rooney was knocking cross-field passes for fun, and with Harry Kane and Dele Alli likely to play as the Number Nine and Ten in this England Side, then dropping Wayne Rooney back into midfield isn't a bad idea, Wayne Rooney isn't the first and he won't be the last player to drop further back as he enter's the final stages of his playing career.

I don't know why Harry Kane was taking corner kicks, and our best corner kick was a short corner kick routine, You don't want your strikers to be taking corner kicks, you want to see Harry Kane in the penalty area hoping to get to the first or second ball, had England won last night then we would have been in a fantastic position to qualify.

WALES V SLOVAKIA

This match could have been very different had Marek Hamsik opened the scoring after making a sensational run and it took a remarkable goal-line clearance from Ben Davies to preserve parity, that goal-line clearance set the stage up for Gareth Bale to open the scoring with a accurate free kick, but Slovakia Goalkeeper Matúš Kozáčik dived too early and if he stayed on his feat then he would have saved that effort on target from Gareth Bale.

Wales play with three centre backs, James Chester, Ashley Williams and Ben Davies, with Chris Gunter and Neil Taylor as wing backs, both full backs really do press high up the pitch and the three centre backs really do know how to defend, and James Chester, Ashley Williams and Ben Davies were helped out by David Edwards, Joe Allen and Aaron Ramsey, with three centre backs and three central midfielders, then you can see why Wales only conceded four goals in qualification, Chris Coleman has set Wales up to stay in the game and remain compact and difficult to break down, and you just know that down the other end of the pitch that Gareth Bale will take his chance, because Bale scored seven of Wales eleven goals in qualification, and he delivered for Wales against Slovakia as well.

When Slovakia equalised, it was moments after Gareth Bale saw his header saved by Matúš Kozáčik, Ondrej Duda and Adam Nemec come on for Michal Duris and Patrik Hrosovsky, Slovakia gave Michal Duris no service or support and he was up against three centre back's all game, but Robert Mak goes on a fantastic run forward, cuts the ball inside to Ondrej Duda who opens up space for himself to shoot and there was nothing that Danny Ward can do about that, after that goal, Slovakia were on top and Juraj Kucka saw his effort from distance parried by Danny Ward and James Chester has to header the ball behind for A Corner Kick.

Chris Coleman makes a double substitution that changes the game in Wales favour as Hal Robson-Kanu replaces Jonathan Williams and Joe Ledley comes on for David Edwards, Hal Robson-Kanu manages to get in behind Slovakia's defence, whip in a cross and Aaron Ramsey headers the ball over the crossbar, but the striker eventually becomes Wales's hero as Ashley Williams plays the ball forward to Aaron Ramsey, who threads the ball through to Hal Robson-Kanu, and the substitute gets the faintest of touches to pass the ball past Matúš Kozáčik and Wales re-take the lead and Hal Robson-Kanu had scored that goal right in-front of The Wales Supporters.

But Slovakia came very close to equalising as Adam Nemec's header hits the post and Wales held on for the win and really Wales should have had a penalty in the first half as Martin Škrtel had elbowed Jonny Williams right in-front of the additional official behind the goal, he did nothing and you have to wonder why have the extra officials if there not going to make decisions, Slovakia picked up five yellow cards in yesterday's match, Weiss, Mak, Hrosovsky (he was unlucky to be booked as Hrosovsky won the ball first), Kucka and Skrtel, Slovakia are a combative physical side, but they have players that England need to pay a lot of attention too, like Marek Hamšík and Vladimír Weiss.

Why England can never win the opening group game of a tournament I never know, a win for England yesterday and we almost would have qualified now, the result is disappointing, but the performance was very encouraging, Wales will not be easy, and had England won against Russia, we go into The Wales Game knowing that a win would secure qualification, now a win can still do that, as Wales play Russia in the final fixture, but we have given ourselves some work to do, to secure passage into the knock-out stages.

[fan_of_mulligan]

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1 - 1 SWEDEN

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36457309 - Highlights are here....

I thought Republic Of Ireland were superb - especially in The First Half - and Jeff Hendrick can consider himself very unlucky not to have opened the scoring as his curling effort crashes off the top of the crossbar, much of the talk pre-match was about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and although his cross was diverted into the back of his own net by Ciaran Clark, I thought Zlatan Ibrahimovic was very poor and this is defiantly one of the weaker Sweden Squad's I have seen in recent year's, previous Sweden Squad's had players like Olof Mellberg, Johan Mjällby, Anders Svensson, Fredrik Ljungberg and Henrik Larsson, and the current squad in Euro 2016 mostly focuses on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and for good reason, he was by far Sweden's top goal-scorer in qualification.

The Republic Of Ireland deserved to open the scoring through Wes Hoolahan, but once Sweden equalised, they were the team on top, especially when The Republic Of Ireland's four man diamond midfield was starting to tire, and Martin Olsson whipped in several crosses for Sweden which could and perhaps should have resulted in a winner, but neither team could find the breakthrough, Ireland dominated the first half, Sweden had excellent spells in The Second Half, so a draw is a fair result, but with Belgium and Italy in Group E, then one of these two nations could have done with the three points to give themselves every possible chance of securing qualification into the knockout stages.

Who else has been watching other matches in The European Championships, and how many matches has everyone watched in total so far ???

[gillsfan1066]

How can you possibly say that it was an excellent performance by England against Russia, get real, what #*&%@)(*^%# game were you watching ? Russia would have struggled to avoid the drop from the Championship to the First Division this past season, Hull would have whipped them 3-0, home and away, and our Mighty England side managed a draw because the manager can't think on his feet, or in his case sitting in that nice big fat padded chair on the sidelines, and change things during the game .
Everyone looked good, wow what a game Rooney had, of course he did because the Russians were so poor everyone looked good, the bloody ref and the linesman looked good, the time keeper looked good, and Rooney had so much time to spray the ball around HE LOOKED GOOD , look at that , we had 66% of the possession and our passing accuracy was 85% jjjeezzz how fantastic is that, not difficult to get those figures when your Gillingham playing Needham Market from the Isthmian Leauge, or England playing Russia who would struggle in the *$&@#%$(*@#& Isthmian League.
Excellent performance by England, yeah right and I thought you were this great student of the game,your just a homer, cant see the game for the scarves and hats you wear, lol,lol. Just funing with you.

[fan_of_mulligan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36534281 - Portugal V Iceland Highlights Here.....

Portugal V Iceland is the fourth match I have watched in The European Champions and the first not involving A Home Nation - as I have watched England, Wales and The Republic Of Ireland play against Russia, Slovakia and Sweden respectively, this could have been a very different match had Gylfi Sigurdsson, but after that early chance from The Swansea City Midfielder, Portugal dominated possession and created chances, and Hannes Halldorsson denied Nani from opening the scoring from Ronaldo's cross with a brilliant save, but Nani did open the scoring for Portugal in The Thirty First Minute, and after that goal went in, I thought the flood-gates might have opened, but you have to give Iceland a lot of credit for staying in the game by keeping the score-line at 1-0.

Because keeping the score-line at 1-0 meant that Birkir Bjarnason was able to score Iceland's equaliser from Johann Gudmundsson's cross to the far post and that equaliser has to be one of the starring moments of Euro 2016 as Iceland have a population of just 330,000, and every male between the ages of 16 and 30 has a one in two thousand chance of playing for Iceland's Senior National Team, we also saw the battle of the veterans, as Pepe 33 and Ricardo Carvalho 38 in Portugal's defence are up against Eiður Guðjohnsen 37 in Iceland's attack, surely this is the oldest attack verses defence we have seen in the tournament.

And Iceland could have won this match late on had Alfred Finnbogason hit his shot on target either side of Rui Patrício, but Ronaldo had two free kick's in stoppage time which failed to test Hannes Halldorsson between the sticks, Ronaldo also saw his header saved by The Iceland Number One Goalkeeper and it just wasn't his day, but you also have to say that Ronaldo was poor after the full time whistle, he didn't shake the opposition players hands, he complained about the way Iceland played with a negative formation and Iceland dealt with Ronaldo collectively, both Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović have been disappointing in this tournament, you cannot complain about team's defending, after all, Iceland only conceded six goals in qualification in a group which had The Czech Republic, Turkey and The Netherlands - Iceland have qualified for Euro 2016 on merit, and the expanded format of The Euro's from sixteen teams to twenty four, has given more nations the chance to qualify and experience a major tournament.

I thought Kári Árnason for Iceland was out-standing, well positioned defensively and he made sure that Ronaldo couldn't turn and run at Iceland's defence, it may well have been a backs to the wall defensive performance from Iceland, but that backs to the wall approach earned Iceland there first point, in there first match in the major finals of a tournament, with Hungary also winning against Austria then Group F is wide open.

[gillsfan1066]

Cost me and the guys in the office a bloody fortune in bets, lol,lol, anyone looking for a part time gardener or window washer, lol ?

[Garawa]

Yes but you can pay your own airfare!

[gillsfan1066]

For Gods sake Hodgson resign NOW before the second half starts, pull some drunk English guy out of the crowd to manage in the second half.
Come on England LET''S GO, get old man Rooney off,he looks tired out, bring on Vardy and find a new keeper, any one in the crowd with a stupid white and blue shirt will do.

[lidbid46]

Never in doubt; we were just trying to make it interesting. Bale who? One flukey free kick and then anonymous. We must be odds on favourites now, may as well give us the trophy and finish the tournament today. England!!!!