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Euro 2021/21


daored

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After the last season we’ve had, really looking forward to watching the Euros which start on Friday. 

Be interesting to see how England do, once again we go into a tournament with injuries players (when do we ever learn ?). But really looking to seeing Foden (think he could be the star of this tournament). England v Scotland next Friday looks really tasty and wouldn’t be surprised if the Scots got a result against us and qualify from the group. Wales look weaker than the last euros and be surprised if they qualify from their group.

Whose your tip for the tournament for me, France with Lukaku as top scorer 

 

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With 3 teams qualifying from most groups, I can't get too excited about the group stages and will probably only watch a couple of matches. England will unconvincingly scrape through the group but then get knocked out by the first decent side they encounter (France, Germany, Portugal or Spain) in either the first knock out or QF).

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3 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

With 3 teams qualifying from most groups, I can't get too excited about the group stages and will probably only watch a couple of matches. England will unconvincingly scrape through the group but then get knocked out by the first decent side they encounter (France, Germany, Portugal or Spain) in either the first knock out or QF).

Didn’t realise it was three to qualify from each group

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17 minutes ago, robin_unreliant said:

As usual the media are hyping up England's chances. I'm expecting them to huff and puff, dominate possession but go out after conceding some soft goals. Not even sure they will beat Scotland. 

I’m definitely not optimistic about England chances. I think we’re pretty bland and uninspiring under Southgate. Far too cautious.

The jocks always raise their game against England. They see us as their greatest rivals. A draw I reckon.

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Managed to get 12/1 on Italy to win it which seems crazy odds to me. Most likely winners have to be France or Portugal.  Will obviously be cheering on England but also follow Germany through family connections.

England haven’t beaten a higher ranked team than them in a knockout stage of a major tournament for over 30 years I believe so if that could happen then I’d call that success 

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36 minutes ago, daored said:

Didn’t realise it was three to qualify from each group

From the 6 groups, the 4 best 3rd placed teams qualify. So in 2 groups, only the top two will qualify. That way we get 6 group winners, 6 group runners-up and 4 third placed teams = 16 teams for the round of 16.

I'm buzzing personally. England will never compare to City but the one time I can get really invested in national football is in Euros and World Cup finals. Following all the sub-plots and looking out for surprise packages and big teams finishing bottom of their group. Seeing players we know from the Prem, the Championship, and all the leagues I see less of like La Liga, Serie A. There's some amazing young talents at the tournament, Italy have quietly put together an excellent team. My pick to win is Portugal though. Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Jota and CR7, that's a lot of world class. Can't wait.

And for what it's worth, I think we have a shot...

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46 minutes ago, daored said:

Didn’t realise it was three to qualify from each group

Me neither. Sheesh, what next - everyone through to the knockout stages. 

Thats been clarified above by BCFCGav. 

But still, why this screwing around with it.  Top two through that should be it. 

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7 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

From the 6 groups, the 4 best 3rd placed teams qualify. So in 2 groups, only the top two will qualify. That way we get 6 group winners, 6 group runners-up and 4 third placed teams = 16 teams for the round of 16.

I'm buzzing personally. England will never compare to City but the one time I can get really invested in national football is in Euros and World Cup finals. Following all the sub-plots and looking out for surprise packages and big teams finishing bottom of their group. Seeing players we know from the Prem, the Championship, and all the leagues I see less of like La Liga, Serie A. There's some amazing young talents at the tournament, Italy have quietly put together an excellent team. My pick to win is Portugal though. Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Jota and CR7, that's a lot of world class. Can't wait.

And for what it's worth, I think we have a shot...

Think Portugal would have a better change without ronaldo as crazy as it sounds. The players who mention above would thrive without his presence in my opinion. The sum of the parts is better than the individual

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Despite this being our best team in 15 years I don't think we will get very far. We will easily get out of the group but given we are likely to face France or Portugal in the last 16 they will have too much for us.

If we finish 2nd then we may go a round further but that will be it.

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I think we have a decent chance if other teams could knock out France and Belgium. I reckon both these teams would tear England a new one.
Interestingly, France went pretty much with what is likely to be their starting line-up in yesterday's friendly. 
Surely this is a far better approach than England's. I always get the impression that countries such as France, Germany and now Belgium already know what their best XI is, whereas England doesn't have such a clear idea.  

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8 minutes ago, cityloyal473 said:

Me neither. Sheesh, what next - everyone through to the knockout stages. 

Thats been clarified above by BCFCGav. 

But still, why this screwing around with it.  Top two through that should be it. 

Agreed, it is ridiculous. You play about 50 matches for only 8 of the 24 teams to go home. This is consistent with the last Euros and resulted in Portugal winning the tournament despite not winning a group game!

In terms of overall winners, France look the obvious favourites but Portugal have an exciting squad. Belgium remind me of England in the 2000s in the sense that they have a lot of very talented players but a tournament win could elude their golden generation.

I’m looking forward to seeing how England get on. Our keeper and centre backs will leave us too weak at the back to really threaten at the tournament. However, our attacking talent is as good as any and I’m hoping this could be the moment where Foden and Mount burst onto the international scene. Sancho has had an excellent second half to the season in the bundesliga and a lot of German fans will be surprised if he doesn’t make the squad.

 

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Spoiler alert!!!

I got my TV rewired and by some miracle it now shows me glimpses of future TV. This is what I picked up from the Euros...

"This is unbelievable!! Lowly North Macedonia, in their first ever major tournament, have just beaten England to progress to the semi-finals. Andy, let's reflect on Henderson's decisive penalty miss...first things first, given recent events, should he have even taken one?!"

"In a word, no, Clive. But it wasn't just the penalty miss. The red card for Grealish for that moment of petulance was key. Also the Kane injury early on was a real blow. Then, Pickford's clanger and the disallowed Maguire header. What was VAR looking at? It beggars belief, and here we are again Clive..."

"That's right Andy, the hurt continues. Elsewhere, better news for Wales fans who have seen their side beat the odds to cruise through to the semis..."

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It’s hard to look beyond France. They have the equivalent to our attacking options in quality and depth throughout their entire squad. Ridiculously strong. Doesn’t mean to say they will win it but they have to be the team to beat?

Portugal & Belgium won’t be far away either. Sadly I can’t see us winning it but really hope I am proved wrong. I think we will have a good tournament but we need Maguire fit as defensively vulnerable. I also feel our central midfielders are pretty ordinary but hope they likes of Rice can step up and shine now. I just hope Gareth lets the hand brake off a bit and who knows what can happen.

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15 minutes ago, Red7 said:

I think we have a decent chance if other teams could knock out France and Belgium. I reckon both these teams would tear England a new one.
Interestingly, France went pretty much with what is likely to be their starting line-up in yesterday's friendly. 
Surely this is a far better approach than England's. I always get the impression that countries such as France, Germany and now Belgium already know what their best XI is, whereas England doesn't have such a clear idea.  

France have amazing strength and depth but not sure about Belgium nowadays. I think they reached their collective peak around the 2018 World Cup. 

Obviously De Bruyne and Lukaku are in great form, but the likes of Hazard, Mertens, Alderweireld, Witsel etc have either had injuries or are advancing in age. They also don't have amazing depth in their squad outside of their bigger names and their defence looks weaker than ours. 

As for England, I think we might do well. We've got some really exciting players and our main forward has been in great form. People like to play down our chances, perhaps a bit of self preservation, but I think we might have a good tournament. I am not confident in Southgate at all however and am concerned his caution may be our downfall. 

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Just now, Phileas Fogg said:

France have amazing strength and depth but not sure about Belgium nowadays. I think they reached their collective peak the 2018 W/C.

Obviously De Bruyne and Lukaku are in great form, but the likes of Hazard, Mertens, Alderweireld, Witsel etc have either had injuries or are advancing in age. They also don't have amazing depth in their squad outside of their bigger names and their defence looks weaker than ours. 

They still have a great fluidity and cohesiveness to their play, though, and the players seem to know each other's games inside out. Things which England seem to lack at times.
That said, we have a couple of players who can make the difference on the day. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out, and hoping for a miracle.
 

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1 hour ago, Lrrr said:

Would rather finish 2nd in the group 

It's a stupid format. First of all a handful of clubs get home advantage, including England. Then England have the luxury of playing a runner up whether we finish in 1st or 2nd. 

So it's probably justified that England would be up against the group of death runner up if we win our group.

All this 3rd place team nonsense ruins it n all.

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11 minutes ago, Red7 said:

They still have a great fluidity and cohesiveness to their play, though, and the players seem to know each other's games inside out. Things which England seem to lack at times.

True, I just think they're slightly past their collective peak. By the same token, you could argue that we are a year or two away from our best years as a collective.

11 minutes ago, Red7 said:


That said, we have a couple of players who can make the difference on the day. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out, and hoping for a miracle.
 

Agreed - I don't think it would be a 'miracle' though, we aren't Wales or Macedonia. 

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58 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Managed to get 12/1 on Italy to win it which seems crazy odds to me. Most likely winners have to be France or Portugal.  Will obviously be cheering on England but also follow Germany through family connections.

England haven’t beaten a higher ranked team than them in a knockout stage of a major tournament for over 30 years I believe so if that could happen then I’d call that success 

I know 12/1, they have no chance!

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20 minutes ago, jj77 said:

I know 12/1, they have no chance!

They absolutely do.  

To win a major tournament you need a miserly defence and astute manager and they have that.  Main issue is with scoring, though they managed to win the 2006 world cup without a main striker (took 6 different strikers all of whom scored at some point).

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1 hour ago, daored said:

Think Portugal would have a better change without ronaldo as crazy as it sounds. The players who mention above would thrive without his presence in my opinion. The sum of the parts is better than the individual

It's a tricky one, he could end up blocking off a very impressive generation. For me, he's too good not to use. He loves the Euros too, always plays out of his skin. Haven't seen them in qualifying, but they could use Fernandes at 10 with Jota and B. Silva on wings and CR7 as a 9. The player to suffer from this would be Joao Felix though, who himself could be quite some player in years to come, so it really is a balancing act. 

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