Euro 2012 - Official Discussion Thread

[minionofmidas]

A close, highclass game, no major refereeing errors, and no penalty shootout.

On that note, I'm glad and happy they sent Stark home after his performance vs Croatia.

[minionofmidas]

3.5 does sound good odds... but a hundred euros is a bit too much money to waste.

[minionofmidas]

3.5 does sound good odds... but a hundred euros is a bit too much money to waste.

Actually, I thought about investing 200€ in it, for a 500€ yield in the event of a win.

But 100€ is fine too.

Isn't that 2.5 to 1 then? 

Nyes. Or 5 to 2 if you're in the UK. It's just a question of phrasing. The way such odds are expressed in Germany, that's 3.5.

[minionofmidas]

Uh... England? The first Spain one? Silly Lief.

First ever defense of the European title. First time a team reached three Euro/WC finals in a row, IIRC.
Number of players to have two Euro titles under their belt before today: One - Rainer Bonhof, 1972 and 1980. Number of players to have two Euro titles under their belt after today: 13.

[minionofmidas]

And now Motta is injured and Italy are down to ten men. Whoever said "hast du Scheiße am Schuh, hast du Scheiße am Schuh"?
EDIT: Andy Brehme apparently.

[minionofmidas]

3-0.

[minionofmidas]

Can someone tell me who out of - how many is it now, six? - players with three goals each is the official Golden Shoe recipient?

[minionofmidas]

Which is the first knockout match without German involvement that I can actively remember.

[minionofmidas]

Yeeeeeees, I knew we would win
 I'd have liked to see Llorente today, but it doesn't matter now (winners have to be happy, Del Bosque is our new God, if he thought we'd play better without Llorente, he may be right).
 BTW, Viva Sergio Ramos! Viva Casillas! And Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi, Silva, Alba, Cesc.... they were all great. I'm sooo glad we won again the Eurocope!!!
 I've just come back from the "cybernetic" fountain, in my town, which was full of people. Drunk people, of course. Spain is a great country full of great people. It's a pity a majority of them vote PP ¬¬

I know one of those drunk people... who's the pretty woman?

[minionofmidas]

Oh come on, who can tell all the different Spanish offensive midfielders apart. j/k

[minionofmidas]

Felicidades a todos los españoles del "Atlas forum".

Can't remember a more convincing win in a major final.

France vs Brazil, 1998. Though I suppose Spain were more convincing winners, Brazil just were more convincing losers than Italy yesterday. Special circumstances, only revealed later and still not in full, of course.

[minionofmidas]

Interesting stat I just found. All-time comparison of (somebody else's definition of) the Big Eight.

1. BRA 189 Matches 81W 51T 57L 1,62 pps average.
2. ITA 164 70 52 42 1,58 pps.
3.ENG 163 64 45 54 1,44 pps.
4.SPA 136 49 32 55 1,30 pps.
5. ARG 177 61 48 67 1,26 pps.
6. FRA 169 54 39 76 1,19 pps.
7. GER 187 58 51 78 1,18 pps.
8. HOL 151 59 42 45 1,01 pps.

The point of the comparison being, of course, that titles cannot be expected from Germany. (I wonder why England is placed that well? Do they do that well in friendlies? Or were so many of these games before the Second World War?)

Also, another fun stat: Brazil have never, ever, ever managed to beat Norway. Four games, two draws, two defeats.

[minionofmidas]

England do well in friendlies and have also walked through most of their qualifying groups.

Their qualifying group games would be against different opponents, and not be counted in this table. This is just the matches ever played between these eight teams.

[minionofmidas]

England do well in friendlies and have also walked through most of their qualifying groups.

Their qualifying group games would be against different opponents, and not be counted in this table. This is just the matches ever played between these eight teams.

They have played Germany in qualifiers before - including a famous 5-1 victory in 2001.

I know, I watched that on the Hull-Rotterdam ferry. Then again, Germany won the other game against England in that group (scrappily, 1-0. Both away wins as a matter of fact.)

[minionofmidas]

Interesting stat I just found. All-time comparison of (somebody else's definition of) the Big Eight.

1. BRA 189 Matches 81W 51T 57L 1,62 pps average.
2. ITA 164 70 52 42 1,58 pps.
3.ENG 163 64 45 54 1,44 pps.
4.SPA 136 49 32 55 1,30 pps.
5. ARG 177 61 48 67 1,26 pps.
6. FRA 169 54 39 76 1,19 pps.
7. GER 187 58 51 78 1,18 pps.
8. HOL 151 59 42 45 1,01 pps.

The point of the comparison being, of course, that titles cannot be expected from Germany. (I wonder why England is placed that well? Do they do that well in friendlies? Or were so many of these games before the Second World War?)

Also, another fun stat: Brazil have never, ever, ever managed to beat Norway. Four games, two draws, two defeats.

Germany's key strength is that they pretty much never lose against lesser teams. When they get knocked out it's pretty much always by one of the big teams. Italy for example often goes out against teams like Slovakia or South Korea (but usually does well against other big teams).

Yeah, that was part of the guy who drew the chart's point. (Of course, there's always the occasional counterexample. Albania 68 is a bit far away, but the 0-0 draw against Latvia caused their fall in '04. Though they needed to lose the third game against the Czechs - not really a lesser team - to confirm it.)