EURO 2016 Thread

[Tender Branson]

The 2016 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 or simply Euro 2016, will be the 15th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organized by UEFA. It is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain are two-time defending champions.



For the first time, the European Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. 19 teams (the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team) joined France who qualified automatically as hosts; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four spots at the final tournament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016

...

[Tender Branson]

Test games this weekend for Group F members:

2-1 Denmark-Iceland
0-1 Portugal-Bulgaria
1-1 Hungary-Croatia
2-1 Austria-Albania

[Leinad]

Yay!

I like the 24-team format mostly, although I would've gone with 4 groups of 6 instead of 6 of 4 (yes, I know that adds more games, but it puts a higher premium on doing good in the group stage, instead of letting second-to-lasts go through). Anyone who thinks it makes qualifying too easy should take one look at the Netherlands.

Germany, France, and Spain are obviously favorites, I'd say. My money's on Deutchland--I never should've doubted them in Brazil. Iceland's a nice story, and an interesting one is Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Friends (i.e. Sweden) trying to do something good in Zlatan's last major tournament in the nation Zlatan plays in.

[DavidB.]

Have fun with this, guys!

[Tender Branson]

Some interesting friendly games tonight:

Austria vs. Turkey
Greece vs. Iceland
Sweden vs. Czech Rep.
Switzerland vs. Bosnia
Germany vs. Italy
Portugal vs. Belgium
England vs. Netherlands
France vs. Russia
Scotland vs. Denmark

[Gunnar Larsson]

Yay!

I like the 24-team format mostly, although I would've gone with 4 groups of 6 instead of 6 of 4 (yes, I know that adds more games, but it puts a higher premium on doing good in the group stage, instead of letting second-to-lasts go through). Anyone who thinks it makes qualifying too easy should take one look at the Netherlands.

Germany, France, and Spain are obviously favorites, I'd say. My money's on Deutchland--I never should've doubted them in Brazil. Iceland's a nice story, and an interesting one is Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Friends (i.e. Sweden) trying to do something good in Zlatan's last major tournament in the nation Zlatan plays in.

The thing is that apart from Zlatan the team is not that good. In a few years that will hopefully change (we won the UEFA under-21 last year, so the Olympics is looking more promising, might be with Zlatan as three overage players are allowed). Currently Belgium has a very good team (http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/), so they might have a chance as well. Had a beer with a Belgian guy this weekend and he was quite sure that they would beat us, so a victory in that game would be nice. Though, under the right conditions 2-2 would be quite alright as well.. (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/jun/18/euro-2012-sweden-denmark-2-2)

[Leinad]

Yay!

I like the 24-team format mostly, although I would've gone with 4 groups of 6 instead of 6 of 4 (yes, I know that adds more games, but it puts a higher premium on doing good in the group stage, instead of letting second-to-lasts go through). Anyone who thinks it makes qualifying too easy should take one look at the Netherlands.

Germany, France, and Spain are obviously favorites, I'd say. My money's on Deutchland--I never should've doubted them in Brazil. Iceland's a nice story, and an interesting one is Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Friends (i.e. Sweden) trying to do something good in Zlatan's last major tournament in the nation Zlatan plays in.

The thing is that apart from Zlatan the team is not that good. In a few years that will hopefully change (we won the UEFA under-21 last year, so the Olympics is looking more promising, might be with Zlatan as three overage players are allowed). Currently Belgium has a very good team (http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/), so they might have a chance as well. Had a beer with a Belgian guy this weekend and he was quite sure that they would beat us, so a victory in that game would be nice. Though, under the right conditions 2-2 would be quite alright as well.. (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/jun/18/euro-2012-sweden-denmark-2-2)

Oh yeah, Sweden isn't that good outside of Zlatan. That's why lots of people were saying Denmark would beat you guys in the playoffs despite Zlatan--of course, we saw what happened with that. I was meaning more of a "storyline" aspect, as Zlatan plays in France and this is his probably his last major international tournament, although I could see how it could've been interpreted as a prediction.

Belgium has a lot of very good players, but I'm not sure if they have what it takes to go at the title. For example, at their best Eden Hazard and Christian Benteke are very good players (perhaps "world class" depending on your definition of that finicky term), but they've been bad this past year. Lukaku has also been streaky, although has generally been good for Everton this season. But they have a clear top-5 goalkeeper in Courtois, and a defender in Kompany who literally is the difference between Manchester City having a PL-winning defense or the equivalent of 4 droopy potato sacks in front of Joe Hart. I could see Belgium making a serious run at this, but I have doubts they could win.


Leinad's Tentative Predictions

Because where else do you expect to find quality European soccer analysis but north Georgia?

Group Stage:

Group A: 1) France - 2) Switzerland - 3) Rumania

Group B: 1) England - 2) Russia - 3) Wales

Group C: 1) Germany - 2) Poland - 3) Ukraine

Group D: 1) Spain - 2) Croatia - 3) Turkey

Group E: 1) Italy - 2) Belgium - 3) Sweden

Group F: 1) Portugal - 2) Austria - 3) Hungary

Top 3rds: Sweden, Wales, Turkey, and...um...what the hell, Hungary!

(I'll be honest, most of those 3rd-place predictions were merely educated guesses. I am an expert on neither the national team of Romania or of Albania, believe it or not. I don't know enough to write a book about European soccer, but I know enough to credibly review a book on European soccer. Either way, it would not be successful due to be alienating the target audience by calling it "soccer," despite the fact that the term originated in Britain.)

Round of 16:

Poland > Switzerland

Spain > Wales/Hungary (this is the only part I couldn't figure out based on who plays who--but the winners are the same either way)

England > Turkey

Belgium > Portugal (Courtois denies CR7 on multiple occasions)

Germany > Wales/Hungary

Italy > Croatia

Sweden > France (I know France is much better, but to the journalist in me the idea of Zlatan crushing France is too enticing a story)

Austria > Russia ()

Quarterfinals:

Poland > Spain (Lewandowski is quite good, Spain is beatable, and there have to be some upsets, right?)

Belgium > England (on penalties)

Germany > Italy

Austria > Sweden (mental hangover--maybe a real one, too--after knocking out the hosts)

Semifinals:

Poland > Belgium

Austria > Germany (it's obvious I'm just making it Poland vs. Austria at this point, right? )

Finals:

Austria > Poland (it is revealed that Matthias Sindelar didn't actually die of mysterious circumstances in 1939, but elaborately faked his death so he could come back and become the oldest player, at the age of 113, to score a goal in international competition since Samuel Eto'o.)

[Tender Branson]

Semifinals:

Poland > Belgium

Austria > Germany (it's obvious I'm just making it Poland vs. Austria at this point, right? )

Finals:

Austria > Poland (it is revealed that Matthias Sindelar didn't actually die of mysterious circumstances in 1939, but elaborately faked his death so he could come back and become the oldest player, at the age of 113, to score a goal in international competition since Samuel Eto'o.)

Not meant to be offensive or anything, but Leinad: Are you nuts ?



(I don't see how the Austrian team does that well. They are not likely to get much further than the 1/8th finals. They had a good qualification season, but are probably not ready for "primetime" yet against countries other than Hungary or Iceland. Or as Q said in Star Trek TNG: "The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if they can dance.")

[Tender Branson]

Bump.

This starts in roughly over a week. Today, Austria will play Malta in a test game and the Netherlands (who are not in the EURO) on Saturday.

I guess we should beat Malta easily and get a 1-1 or something against the Netherlands.

[Illiniwek]

I have to cheer for the country of my fiancée and the country I will be a citizen of in a few years... Forza Azzurri! Chi non salta un Belga è! (I think/hope I got that right!)

[Gustaf]

The new format is pretty awful. Ugh.

Sweden has a decent shot at 3rd place but in all honesty I think we're the weakest team in our group so my expectations are low.

I'd consider Germany the favourites to win, with Spain, Belgium, England and France as main contenders. And I guess one can never truly discount Italy either.

[dax00]

I feel so sad for Reus not being able to play... again
Besides Deutschland, also rooting for Team Zlatan (aka Sverige) to make it far.

[Tender Branson]

Today is the final test game for Austria ahead of the EURO and they will play the Netherlands in Vienna.

My guess:

1-1

[Tender Branson]

Today is the final test game for Austria ahead of the EURO and they will play the Netherlands in Vienna.

My guess:

1-1

Netherlands wins 2-0.

Just a week ago everyone talked how "awesome" the mood was in the Austrian team at their training camp in Switzerland and they got hyped, hyped, hyped.

And now a very lame test match against Malta and a terrible performance against the Dutch.

Unless they perform strongly in the actual EURO games, Austria does not deserve the TOP-10 world ranking.

[Gustaf]

I'm skeptical of Austria. Upstart teams with great qualification campaigns tend to burn out at the main event.

[dax00]

UPDATED prediction (version 2)

Group A: France - Switzerland - Albania
Group B: Russia - England
Group C: Germany - Poland
Group D: Spain - Croatia - Czech Republic
Group E: Belgium - Italy - Sweden
Group F: Portugal - Austria - Iceland

Poland def. Switzerland
Russia def. Czech Republic
Spain def. Albania
France def. Sweden
Germany def. Iceland
Portugal def Italy
Croatia def. Belgium
England def. Austria

Poland def. Spain
Russia def. Portugal
Germany def. Croatia
England def. France

Russia def. Poland
Germany def. England

Germany def. Russia

[Tender Branson]

I think either Portugal or England will win.

[Tender Branson]

My prediction for today:

1-0 France/Romania

[dax00]

My prediction for today:
3
0

[GMantis]

I would say France-Romania 3:1.

[dax00]

My predictions for today's matches:
Albania 1 - 1 Switzerland
Wales 0 - 4 Slovakia
England 1 - 2 Russia

[Tender Branson]

My predictions for today:

Switzerland 2-0 Albania
Slovakia 3-1 Wales
England 2-1 Russia

[parochial boy]

Decent performance by Albania today, but Switzerland were poor; defence was patchy and Seferovic blew a load of chances up front.

Both group B games will be draws I think.

[GMantis]

My prediction for the remaining games today:
Slovakia - Wales 0-1
England - Russia 2-1

[Tender Branson]

Hopefully Slovakia get their act together in the 2nd half ...