Talk Elections

We are officially one week away from the biggest Football/Soccer/Calcio/Futbol/Fußball tournament of the year and we've exhausted the "Euro 2012 Qualifiers" thread so I think it's appropriate that we open the official discussion thread.

Please use this thread as a reference (see below for official links and the groups) and a place to discuss any news related to the tournament.






Group A

Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Republic

Group B

The Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Portugal

Group C

Spain
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Croatia

Group D

Ukraine
Sweden
France
England


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012)

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/index.html (http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/index.html)


Also, for fun, feel free to check out ESPN's Bracket Predictor! It would be cool to have a little Forum competition going. - http://games.espn.go.com/euro-bracket-predictor/en/ (http://games.espn.go.com/euro-bracket-predictor/en/)



Let's have a great tournament!  :)

I'll bring in my prediction

Group A
1. Russia
2. Poland
3. Greece
4. Czech Republic

Group B
1. Portugal
2. Germany
3. Netherlands
4. Denmark

Group C (this one took me time to think about
1. Italy
2. Spain
3. Ireland
4. Croatia

Group D
1. France
2. England
3. Ukraine
4. Sweden

QUARTERS
Germany def. Russia
England def. Italy (sorry Phil)
Portugal def. Russia
France def. Spain

SEMIS
Germany def. England
France def. Portugal

FINAL
Germany def. France

I might do a game-by-game prediction (because I'm sick like that) but, for now, here's a basic group breakdown (by points) and the knockout rounds.

Group A

Russia - 7
Czech Republic - 6
Greece - 2
Poland - 1

Group B

Germany - 7
The Netherlands - 7
Portugal - 3
Denmark - 0

Group C

Spain - 7
Italy - 7
Croatia - 1
Republic of Ireland - 1

Group D

France - 9
England - 4
Sweden - 3
Ukraine - 1



Quarter finals

Russia vs. The Netherlands
Germany vs. Czech Republic
Spain vs. England
France vs. Italy


Semi finals

The Netherlands vs. Spain
Germany vs. Italy



Final

Spain vs. Italy


:)

Looking forward to it!

Not the first bit of news I wanted to share but Prandelli claims he'd have no problem with Italy withdrawing from Euro 2012 over the betting scandal - http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/europe/story/euro-2012-prandelli-would-accept-italy-withdrawal-060112?m_n=true (http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/europe/story/euro-2012-prandelli-would-accept-italy-withdrawal-060112?m_n=true)

What the hell is with this guy? He really irritates me at times.

Spain gonna win it all.  That's all I gotta say.

Uh, this doesn't sound good...


http://english.gazzetta.it/Football/31-05-2012/here-are-buffon-s-bets-cheques-for-15-million-euro-911399567851.shtml

Napoli's De Sanctis might get to see some action after all...

Then again, this really could be the perfect set up for a 2006 repeat.

God damn it, it's time for Germany to go all the way this time. No more 3rd and 2nd placements.

 

Hm, might make a more thought through prediction later, but right now:

Russia
Poland

Germany
Netherlands

Spain
Italy

France
England

----------------------

Russia v Netherlands

Germany v Poland

Spain v England

France v Italy

-------------------------------

Germany v France

Spain v Netherlands

-----------------------------------

Germany v Spain

-------------------------------

I think Germany will take it this time. I feel they've been getting stronger, while Spain and Holland have been getting weaker. Those 3 are imo the best teams in Europe by some distance right now. I have a feeling France might exceed expectations while England will disappoint, again.

I think Sweden will tie England lose against France and fail to beat the Ukraine. Poland might get 2nd in their group on sheer enthusiasm.

Buffon apparently injured during today's Friendly. What a total disaster this is shaping up to be...

I would agree if it weren't for injury problems. Villa and Puyol are out and after Villa unless Torres becomes his old self again (which is possible but we shall see if it keeps going) Spain doesn't really have the best forwards to supply their great midfield

BUMP

We need more predictions to laugh at later!

Okay.

Russia 9
Poland 4
Czech 2
Greece 1

Germany 7
Netherlands 5
Portugal 2
Denmark 1

Spain 7
Italy 5
Croatia 3
Ireland 1

France 5
England 4
Sweden 4
Ukraine 3

Russia < Netherlands
Germany > Poland
Spain > England
France < Italy

Netherlands < Spain
Germany < Italy

Spain ? Italy

I like the way Lewis thinks (on one issue). ;)

Prediction:

Group A

Russia
Poland
Czech Republic
Greece

Group B

Netherlands
Germany
Denmark
Portugal

Group C

Spain
Croatia
Italy
Ireland

Group D

France
Sweden
England
Ukraine

Quarter-Finals

Russia vs. Germany
Spain vs. Sweden
Netherlands vs. Poland
France vs. Croatia

Semi-Finals

Germany vs. Spain
Netherlands vs. France

Final

Netherlands vs. Spain

Croatia's Ivica Olic ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

Now Balotelli might be injured.

Poland
Russia
Czech
Greece

Germany
Netherlands
Portugal
Denmark

Spain
Croatia
Italy
Ireland

France
Ukraine
England
Sweden

Poland vs. Netherlands
Germany vs. Russia
Spain vs. Ukraine
France vs. Croatia

Poland vs. Spain
Germany vs. Croatia

Poland vs. Germany

Poland beating the Dutch and the Spanish? Really?

Okay, this is an very optimistic prediction for Poland, but they play at home and everything is possible.

And you never know what can happen. Greece, after all, won this tournament the time before last.

Barzagli out for at least the group stage. Oh boy, when it rains, it pours...

Prediction:

Group A

Russia
Poland
Czech Republic
Greece

Group B

Netherlands
Germany
Portugal
Denmark

Group C

Spain
Italy
Croatia
Ireland

Group D

France
England
Sweden
Ukraine

Quarter-Finals

Russia vs. Germany
Spain vs. England
Netherlands vs. Poland
France vs. Italy

Semi-Finals

Russia vs. Spain
Netherlands vs. France

Final

Netherlands vs. Russia

Boring prediction, I know, and I don't really follow all of it, but:

a)I do feel some sort of strange loyalty towards the Dutch if they stand a chance at winning this.
b)I believe in Russia

and c)I'm too conservative not to have England or Italy into the 2nd round.

I've decided to be very objective.

As we all know - you're only as good as your last game. So, I've taken the last result between each of the teams to be indicative of their upcoming fixtures. Which would result in...

Group A
1. Greece
2. Czechia
3. Russia
4. Poland

A lot of draws here. Greece beat the Czechs, the Czechs beat the Poles - the Russians draw everything.

Group B
1. Germany
2. Denmark
3. Portugal
4. Netherlands

Germany beat the Dutch and Portuguese, but only draw with the Danes, which is just enough to see them through as they and the other two each beat each other in the remaining games.

Group C
1. Ireland
2. Spain
3. Croatia
4. Italy

Ireland undefeated, 1 win (Italy) and 2 draws. Spain go through despite being tied on points with Croatia, by having beaten Croatia itself.

Group D
1. France
2. Sweden
3. England
4. Ukraine

France are the only team to win all 3 group games. The other teams all beat one another 1-0 and are only eventually seperated by the goals scored against the French - which advantages Sweden.


QFs
Denmark 1-0 Greece (had to go back two games here, as the previous game was a draw)
Ireland 3-0 Sweden
Czechia 3-0 Germany
Spain 2-0 France

SFs
Ireland 4-0 Denmark
Spain 2-0 Czechia

Final
Spain 1-1 Ireland, Spain win on penalties

I have a really hard time seeing Germany/Netherlands losing against any group A teams. Russia seems a lot weaker compared to the last Euros.

Nobody really fancied Russia before the last euros, when they beat the Netherlands it was a massive surprise.

Anyway, I think Germany will finally do it this time.

I`m not a great supporter but I`m going with the red shirts. Try to guess if I am talking about Garibaldians, Chavistas or the defenders of the title. I´m terrible making predictions but I don´t feel very optimistic. Anyway we´ll reach the Semifinal.

Jas claims he's going to be objective...then gives the most ridiculous prediction. The Netherlands will be last? Italy, too? Ireland blows out all competition in the knockout rounds except in the Final, where they fail on penalties? Ok, you were clearly being sarcastic when you said "very objective."


Garibaldians? We wear blue or white, not red.

GROUP A
Poland
Russia

GROUP B
Germany
Netherlands

GROUP C
Spain
Ireland

GROUP D
France
Sweden

POLAND v Netherlands
SPAIN v Sweden
GERMANY v Russia
FRANCE v Ireland

Poland v SPAIN
GERMANY v France

GERMANY v Spain

Stop it, Lief.

The mention to Garibaldians was because Garibaldi`s supporters wore red shirts in the XIX Century. It was only a joke.

I figured but it would be a better joke if the Italians wore red on the pitch. :P

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Italy's not making it out of the group stages, sorry Phil.

And Poland is not only winning their group but beating The Netherlands?

Right.

Czech Republic and Greece are both awful at the moment, and with a bit of luck Poland can definitely beat Russia. Poland has some terrific players (Lewandowski, Piszczek, Kuba, Szczesny) and with home field advantage I think they'll do well.

In 2008, Russia and Turkey got to the semifinals. In 2004, Greece won. Funny things can happen.

I wouldn't say the Czechs are horrible. Even still, Russia isn't losing the top spot to Poland.

What follows are my predictions based on science. As of today, Estonia will have played every UEFA team at least once. (http://www.footandball.net/estonia-make-european-football-history/) By comparing each team's last performance against Estonia (ties are broken by looking at the second to last game against Estonia), we can deduce who will the European Championship.

GROUP A
Poland
Czechia

GROUP B
Holland
Germany

GROUP C
Spain
Italy

GROUP D
France
England

POLAND (p) v Germany
HOLLAND v Czechia
SPAIN (p) v England (tie on the second game as well, but England never wins penalties so...)
FRANCE v Italy

Poland v SPAIN
NETHERLANDS v France

NETHERLANDS v Spain

He used a system. A ridiculous one, granted, but still. It is objective in that sense.

Maybe my post was unclear. It's not really a prediction at all (I'm pretty terrible at predicting this sort of thing anyway), it was just a diverting exercise - taking the last result between each of the teams and seeing what that would translate into if they were replicated.

My apologies for any offense caused.

The Onion has some fun at our expense - http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-people-talking-about-soccer-but-theres-no-w,28400 (http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-people-talking-about-soccer-but-theres-no-w,28400)

Now Prandelli says he doesn't know if Italy is good enough to win the tournament. Slight improvement from his idiotic "We won't win" comment a week or two ago.

He also added that he has "no objectives whatsoever. Qualifying was our objective."

Heck, with all those Dortmunders there and the Bayern in the German team, I think I need to revise my quarterfinal prediction. :D

I've been trying to think of a ranking of the teams, taking everything into account (although not the draw or anything like that).

I have:

Germany
Spain (could easily be flipped)
Netherlands

France
Italy
England
Portugal
Russia

The weaker teams I'm less sure of, but I will give them some thought.

Get those final predictions in, guys. Fourteen hours until kickoff!

Only a couple of hours now. Here are my predictions for tomorrow:

Poland 3 - 1 Greece
Russia 2 - 0 Czech Republic

Poland 1-1 Greece
Russia 1-0 Czech Republic

Group A

Czech Republic
Greece
Poland
Russia

Group B

Germany
Portugal
The Netherlands
Denmark

Group C

Spain
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Croatia

Group D

France
England
Sweden
Ukraine

Czech Republic vs. Portugal
Greece vs. Germany
(Sorry to get political, but this might be an *interesting* game if it happens....)
Spain vs. England
France vs. Italy

Czech Republic vs. England
Germany vs. Italy

Czech Republic vs. Germany

So yeah. I think England cause a national sensation by knocking out the current World and European champions, but then it soon comes crashing down. Hodgson could actually be forced out of the job in this scenario.

I don't think England will make it past the first round. It will either be France and Sweden or possibly the Ukraine.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=154657.0 (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=154657.0)

Place your Euro tips here!

Today's action:

Poland and Greece draw. Russia beats Czech Republic.

I have van Persie winning Top Goal Scorer, for the record.

First racial controversy: Black Dutch players are the target of monkey noises while the team was training in Krakow. UEFA claims it wasn't racially motivated; it was a "protest" over Krakow not being picked as a host city...which makes absolutely no sense to me.

This.

(But that would be a strange form of "protest" indeed.)

Just to clarify, I think it's strange that Krakow wasn't selected but what doesn't make sense is the idea of making monkey sounds to protest that decision.

Poland is already looking dangerous.

Poland-Greece seems likely to be a 0-0, 1-0 or 0-1.

Russia-Czech Republic, I could easily see a 2-0 or even a 3-0. I'll be generous and predict a 2-1.

Nice goal for Poland.

And in the good old traditions of these tournaments, the host is already receiving help from the referee...

That red card was really something.

Oh god Poland is sexy.

Clearly the ref is biased, but I can't feel much sympathy for Greece because they are a horrible footballing side.

This ref apparently gave out sixteen red cards in nineteen La Liga games. Also, this could be some payback for 2004: the ref is a Spaniard and we know how Greece got out of their group in 2004...

Let the bribery speculations begin!

I live pretty close to the stadium. It's unbearable, my friends. And the night will be even worse.

Ops, it's 1-1 now.

Oh my God! Great opening game! Love this drama!

Why did he do that?

And to think people thought this would be one of the dullest games.

And the 1st game is over.

Excellent way to open the tournament.

Indeed, hard to believe Poland and Greece made it that entertaining.

Szcz can sometimes be a loveable idiot, yes.

Czech Republic vs. Russia starts.

Russky 1 - Czech 0

()

Lief, you gotta add a new one ... ;)

2:0 for the Russkies.

Christ, this Czech defense is just sad.

Told you the Czechs were awful.

Not really sure why that wasn't a penalty just now??

oh and:

()

ORANJE !!!

When will they have their first game ?

Now the Czechs score.

2-1 Russia

Well, there goes my perfect score predictions.

And another good one for Lief's animated gifs ... ;)

3-1 Russia

WOW

:o

This Russian team is awesome. The runner-up in Group B might actually be in trouble.

Told you so.

Yech, mutual result outranks goal difference. Makes for more moot games.

Beautiful sight to sum up a beautiful day of action. This tournament really might be something special.

()

Yeah, orange for Holland ... ;)

Disappointed in Poland - Greece seems to scrape by without playing well a lot ever since they won in 2004.

Russia looking strong, but then again, we expected the Czechs to suck, so...

Yes. I hate that dumbinks rule too.

The Bavarian"Oracle Cow" Yvonne have a bad prediction for the German team. Yvonne says that Portugal will win today.

http://videos.t-online.de/kuh-yvonne-portugal-siegt/id_57055994/index (In German)

()

Probably biased though, because they let another cow in too. Maybe Yvonne would have gone to the other feeding trough if she were alone ...

Good that Paul the Octopus is no longer there to take the suspense away.

Oh my...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

this tournament is rad.

F[inks] them Danish b*???###s ... :P

Nice.

Guys, you know the Dutch will simply pop in four goals by the end of this one. :P

The Dutch are screwing this up hilariously.

()

Never change Robben.

Let's hope the Dutch play better in the 2nd half, because in the 1st they suxxed.

Van Persie is cursed. I think my top scorer prediction is going to be wrong now. Huntelaar is definitely starting the next match.

Probably will take my sig out soon if they don't score in the next minutes ... :P

I can't believe this is going to happen...

This is the greatest tournament.

Hahahaha!

^^^^^^

lol

This means that Germany can knock out the Dutch by beating them in the next game! ;D ;D ;D

Wait to see how we play tonight... I'm expecting a clear win, but I'm nervous as always...

Yeah, I'm actually very nervous.

I was feeling generous towards the Dutch, but if that's what they want, I'm perfectly comfortable just laughing at them instead.

Holy mother of [Inks]. That was unexpected. Go Denmark! What the hell happened to Holland. *Shakes head*

Now Germany just needs to beat the Portugese out of their socks and its going to have been quite a wonderful football day.

Well... About to start.

Ballack predicted the same score line as I did! :)  He's the only non-dumbass on the ESPN set.

Not looking great yet. Not at all.

Tom Daley eat your heart out.

First time it's been scoreless at half time in this tournament. We've been spoiled. :P

Portugal is better. We better get our f**king act together.

How about almost having another goal controversy in a Germany game? ;)

Thankfully it wasn't a goal...

How much fun would it be if Portugal won, thus virtually assuring that either Germany or the Netherlands (and at that point very conceivably both) would be knocked out of the tournament straight away?

Not fun at all. :(

1-0

It's about time. :P

Jaaaaaaaaaaaa!

oh god yes

Miroslav Klose still plays? God, I really didn't follow this at all.

Think we've made it...

Well to be fair, Portugal was, IMO, the better team. Got lucky here. But a win's a win.

Deutschland!

I have absolutely no problem 1-0ing the entire tournament like the Spanish did two years ago.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The Germans are lucky bastards

Und sowas nennt sich deutsch? ;)

Ich gebe am Montag meinen Pass ab ;)

Jetzt dauerhaft in Portugal oder was? Oder war das nur ein Scherz? (In Portugal permanently now? Or was it a joke?)

No, I will stay in Germany. It was only a joke :D

That's good. We need someone to be the minirity in Bayern ;)

At any rate, Portugal was the better team. They really should've at least equalized.

Right back at ya, Orange wankers :P

I can just see it.

Denmark - Netherlands 1-0
Germany - Portugal 1-0

Germany - Netherlands 1-0
Portugal - Denmark 2-1

Portugal - Netherlands 2-1
Denmark - Germany 2-0

Denmark 6 4-2
Portugal 6 4-3
Germany 6 2-2
Netherlands 0 1-4

1992 Redux

(Yes, it works out in that order with the direct comparison rule as well.)

I am scared to think what kind of utter dumbinkses you must be comparing him with.

Euro fun fact: Every team that ever got a penalty or a red card (only one of those, though) against it in a Euro final has ended up winning.

My tip:

Denmark - Netherlands 1-0
Germany - Portugal 1-0

Germany - Netherlands 1-0
Portugal - Denmark 0-1

Portugal - Netherlands 1-2
Denmark - Germany 0-1

Portugal is an inefficient team withut a proper striker and relies far too much on Ronaldo.

You have no idea...

How is Ballack's English?

Not bad. During the first few broadcasts, he kept looking down at his notes though. That might just be because he isn't used to being a commentator.

Here we go, first Italian match ! :)

I guess it's a good thing we face Spain, Italy tends to do better when faced with strong opponents than when facing Slovakia. :P I'm not too deluded regarding the likelihoods, but I'm still crossing fingers.

Forza azzurri ! :D

¡Arriba España!

HP >:(

Of course, Hash shows up just to troll. Such a hateful person but we know his background. Lots of jealousy there, too.

Antonio is right: I'm glad we're facing a giant instead of a mediocre or even a poor team. Italy is best as the underdog. I expect a draw (which I'll happily take) but a win certainly isn't out of the question.

Come on Spain....

Big day coming. First of all, let´s honour the beautiful Gdansk, the city of Lech Walesa and Oskar Matzerath.



Last but not least, let´s take the hooligan everyone keeps inside out: C´mon my reds, go and win this tournament again!!! Said this all my respects for Azzurri although I admire other things in this country rather than catenaccio. I´ll keep my fingers crossed.  

¡Arriba España! Italy is a boring team.

Thanks for the support but don`t say ¡Arriba España! please. This was what Falangistas said when Franco was alive.

Yeah, Hash (and the other guy): please stop being such a Francoist! I won't tolerate fascism in this thread.

Don't know which team I should support here, Spain or Italy ?

But I guess Spain will win it.

Spain is playing a strikerless 4-6-0 formation and Italy is playing a very Italian 3-5-2 formation. This is going to be fun.

Well, I think I pretty much have to be against Italy (although I dunno..Spain losing would be refreshing), but I'm looking forward to a good game and expect a draw.

Just like I had to do something terrible and root for Chelsea to prevent Barcelona from winning again, today I will do something perhaps even worse and root for Italy to prevent Spain from winning again.

Yeah that is actually reasonable.

This is going to be a good game.

What a first half! Both sides are impressive

Solid first half.

Italy is playing better. Until Del Bosque stops being an idiot and brings on an actual striker, Spain's not going to have any chance at winning this.

Despite some good play, Balotelli and Cassano summed up why I dislike them in the first half. Cassano blatantly trips Casillas and plays dumb. Good one, Antonio.

Talk about wasting a chance.

And now he's out.

Come on Spain. We'll let you top the group.

And Italy score.

Excellent pass.

Gooooooooooooooool ! :D

Well done , truly.

CIAO CIAO MARIO! Di NATALE!!!

FORZA AZZURRI!

We already missed a golden occasion a few minutes ago with Ballottelli. Spain had its good occasions too. So, it's a fun and quite balanced match, which is pretty good for us considering that we are playing agains the former champion.

Ouch. Tied again. :P

Three points is dead, but I can still win two.

Can Spain please score 2 more times ?

Thx.

An Italy that can't defend a 1-0 lead for more than three goddamn minutes is an Italy I want no part in supporting. >:(

Oooh, Well done!!! Silva is an artist!!! He was born in the same island where I live.

Ooh, a second North African poster! >:D

Great footwork from Buffon there.

Torres moron.

Italy should have won that.

This tournament has been great! Best game so far. I want more.

Gladly take it.

Meh, such a short-lived joy. :P

But in fairness, it was a decent performance. We managed to give serious problem to the incumbent champion (even though the end of the match was clearly in Spain's favor) and if we play this way in the next two matches we can have an easy way to qualification. Promising. :)

I live in front of the Sahara coastline so Western Sahara is an appropiate country for me.

Now for the game we've all been waiting for. Never underestimate Ireland. We have a history of upsets in football, rugby (Australia last year) and even cricket (England last year, Pakistan a few years ago).

And, of course, you should have qualified for the World Cup.

Ireland's gonna make it out of the group.

Real possibility we won't concede more than one goal in the pool, but then again we mightn't score a goal.

Personally, if I could make sure one team would get into the second round, it'd be Ireland. (This on the centuries old basis that the underdog is always the one you want to support.)

Fastest goal of the tournament!

Sorry Ireland, I think I might have jinxed you there.

And the Academy Award goes to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n468msD5Oec

Disgraceful.


And excellent goal by St Ledger.

What a tournament so far. If it stays like this the remainder, I owe Poland and Ukraine a big apology.

Words cannot be found to describe this... thing... of a post.

Not going 100% with tipping today. :(

If it ends in a tie now, Croatia and Ireland will be tied with Italy and Spain but will technically be ahead due to goals scored (not that it matters at this point).

This sucks. Looks like we'll have to at the very least beat Italy.

Diving is the absolute worst thing about the sport, IMHO. Certain nations, cough, have seemed to refine that aspect of the game and turned it into an art form.  You would have thought there was a sniper in the stands.

I wouldn't 1-2 be Irish right now. :(

An Irish commentator seems to think a foul was committed for the second Croatian goal. Mandzukic hooked Ward's (the guy who inexplicably cleared it backwards) leg.

I hate diving just as much as anyone else, guys, but the studs hit him on the arm (if barely) and that can really hurt.

That nation, in this tournament so far, being Ireland. On three or four occasions in the first half alone. Including the free kick that led to the St Ledger goal.

Meanwhile, that guy got a sole on the shoulder*. That happens to hurt. But not to cause injury (unless you fall stupidly and into the other guy, obviously). He also cost his own team a chance by not getting up as fast as he perhaps might have, and then had to be "treated" off the pitch due to silly regulations as a result.

Lol, nice goal there, Shay.

I've broken an arm and not made a display of that kind.  In the words of the great philosopher Ron Swanson, Be a Man.

Jeez, our football team is not what it used to be. You'd think out of 4 million people we would be able to find one quality player.

So he waited for the pain to subside before getting onto his feet and dusting himself off. Big effing deal. (He then got landed with bitch karma when his side won the ball back much faster than he must have expected.)
Anyways it's not the same thing as diving. He clearly didn't tumble over nothing to win a free kick, unlike certain other people, and he clearly didn't stay down and fake injury in order to gain time which is of course the other common complaint subsumed under diving.
(Though, obviously, I also doubt the literal truth of your claim. :P)

Should've been a penalty there for the tackle on Keane.

It is an absurd display of acting.  It was a foul but he played it up like he was shot.  That is, or at least it should be, embarrassing. Of course, every nation/club etc does there acting.  Italy has, so Im told, been quite adept at it.  

The acting makes the game un-enjoyable for me and many others. It is not confined to football either because the NBA has players flopping all over the place too.

Not really. Hits the ball as well as the man (and nothing whatsoever with the other foot.) Couldn't have complained too much if it had been given, though, either, and these things do get given often enough. Filed under "incompetent defending / attacker's cleverness" in that case. (Which of course is just pc for "understandable dive".)

Hopefully we make a good spoiler for the rest of the tournament.

Already sort of doing that - could have fallen apart, but are instead fighting back fairly well in the last quarter of the game. And would deserve to get a 2-3 by now, actually.
"Intakte Moral" - is there an English equivalent to that phrase?

Well, our football team's not getting through, our rugby team is sucking too, this is typically when the cricket team comes out of nowhere to make a big upset but unfortunately I don't think there's a tournament coming up soon.

Already mentioned a couple refereeing decisions I felt went against us but we deserved to lose that one. No plan against an opposition that can score. Usually it's just park the bus but that went out the window when they scored.

Moral victory?

Ireland should have had 1-2 penalties though.

Meh. I think referees see us going down very easily all over the field and while they'll give the free kicks, they won't give the penalties, nor cards.

Spain, a team of whiners finally realizing amongst themselves that they won't retain their title, blame a "shameful" pitch for their draw - http://www.football-italia.net/19826/spaniards-blame-shameful-turf (http://www.football-italia.net/19826/spaniards-blame-shameful-turf)

The grass was dry, what`s the matter here? Did they blame it as the cause of the draw? No. To the contrary, they recognized that Italy played well. Do you notice tabloid press?

Just insist they make hurling an Olympic sport, that should do it...

Oh no. Don't remind me. It's gaelic and hurling season. I'm depressed now. We're really quite awesome at the rugby at club level, but the national team stinks. As for the football, it's all bad and we have no new talent coming down the line. IIRC, Duff, Given and Keane started the world cup 2002 and they're still 3 of our best players. We're beginning to resemble a league 1 (england) side.

I don't know how dry the grass could be when they were slipping around... Quite the theatrics. I know we weren't playing on it but did that field look "disastrous" to you? And of course they're saying they would have won if the turf was somehow better. Read between the lines, my friend. They're supposedly the world's greatest passers. They're complaining that dry grass slowed their passes. If it had been "properly watered," the game would have been "more entertaining." That's code for "we would have won."

They have a history of whining. Casillas bitched after we beat them in a Friendly, for Christ's sake even though they were awarded (and converted) a gift penalty.

In hilarious slightly related news, Tahiti (or French Polynesia) has defeated New Caledonia (who defeated New Zealand) to win the 2012 OFC Nations Cup, and will now be playing such teams as Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and whoever wins the Euro (France) at the 2013 Confederations Cup as a result. ;D

Naah...There`s nothing to read between lines. If the grass is OK, see, "properly watered", the ball runs faster and everybody enjoy. Spanish players have always complained that FIFA doesn`t care about these things because they run against the spectacle. People pay for seeing good performances and yesterday`s they didn`t waste their money despite the deplorable dry and uncut grass.

A long history of whining??? See USA World Championship and how Luis Enrique ended after the caresses of Italian defenders. Thanks God that you have a good coach now; Prandelli has done a great job with Italy. Bye bye, Catenaccio. So long dirty playing (despite Ballotelli). Now let´s face Trapatoni´s Irish Praetor Guards (glups).

Ah, now it was also uncut. Interesting.

Hoping that France continue their unbeaten run again today. Should be a good match to watch; a confident France at the start of the game will put England off their stride. England don't create opportunities, they have to wait for their opponents to miss them.

I was in Scotland shortly before England-Germany in the 2010 World Cup. I think everyone I talked to wished us luck.

Do Scots hate anyone more than England in football? Seems like real hatred :)

It’s less of a hatred more of a dislike :)  It’s not a ‘nationalistic’ thing; the home nations are independent football bodies. The idea that Scots should support England makes no sense. For the record I also dislike some Scots backing Ireland (or bizarrely, the Netherlands) over some sectarian nonsense. I’m Scottish; I won’t be supporting England.

There are several issues. Although Scotland hasn’t qualified for a tournament since 1998, then as now England coverage is saturated by the media. From news to entertainment shows they always took precedent (the same is true in the Commonwealth Games). The ‘We Are Going To Win’ attitude (which has died down this year actually given how sh-t England were in 2010) is also nauseating. Secondly we have the fans. The ‘Eng-er-lund’ fan on a foreign jolly smashing plastic furniture over opposing fans is as far removed from the behaviour of the ‘Tartan Army’ as you can get and doesn’t enamour the team to the nation. I’ll support Scotland or a good team. I enjoy international football without being invested in it.

It’s English fans, not the English team or the nation that put Scots off from supporting England. We may be ‘Anyone but England’, but why should that be considered suspect in comparison to the ‘No-one but England’ attitude of English fans?

Poor crowd for such a big game. Come on England.

That's what having the game in Ukraine gets you...

$hit

Woohoo

FRANCE !!!

please 1 more goal for each of them, so I can collect the full points ... ;)

Yes!

Let's hope someone repeats that performance for the World Cup. I really want to see Vanuatu or the Solomon Islands there. ;D

The Spanish-Italian rivalry is always interesting to hear about since it's taken quite seriously by those concerned and very little known or cared about in more northerly parts of Europe.

Boring game really.

Not as boring as I thought, though. Well the first half wasn't apparently - which I haven't seen.

"Parking three buses in front of the goal is not football." - Michael Ballack on ESPN after the game

Same old Dutch story? Van Marwijk apparently "facing a revolt" within his camp.

Very good :)

Lets hope so. I am a Big Vanuatu fan. Lived there for 6 months a couple of years ago. There should be a chance next time.

Ukraine is playing well.

Slightly better than Sweden, I guess. But it's really another boring match. Unfortunately. I'd be happy for Sweden if they got their act together...

Does Ukraine really have 67% of the possession?

Well, few of us saw this one coming.

Decent first round of soccer, only way I can possibly see us getting through now is beating the Italians and every other game in the pool being a draw. But we really are a toothless team.

I think it's safe to say that Sweden and Ireland are out of it. I'd also be very surprised to see the Czechs go anywhere, to be honest.

I stand by my prediction.  Viva Espana.

England fans living up to their repuation again I see...

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Inflatable Spitfires?

Oh, I see what this is...

:P

So did that goal beat Croatia's for the quickest of the tournament?

The Czechs are cruising in under six minutes! Feeling great about my predictions today!

LOL

Meanwhile, scenes outside the stadium for the Russia-Poland game:

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from something awful:

I have read somewhere that some Russian "fans" plan to shoot paper planes down on the field ahead of the game ... ::)

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Good, nothing happened so far regarding the Russian fans, other than protraying a HUGE "This is Russia !" flag.

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Lief, in the stadium I mean ... :P

Goal by the Poles, but referee Stark from Germany says offside (which was correct).

Now a regular goal for the Russkies.

awwwwwww

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the magic of sport

Cracking first half tbf

Poland need someone to support Lewandowski, imo.

Proof  that any waas needed that Wenger can't always man manage - Arshavin has been superb once more.

Great goal from Poland, 1-1 now.

Błaszczykowski, what a strike!

Yepp.

Hard to say who wins this ...

Tomorrow will be hilarious if Portugal and The Netherlands win and each team in the group has three points. I do have the former winning but I think the Dutch only muster a draw.

Well...I'm very nervous, as always. The Dutch are desperate. Not sure if that makes them more or less dangerous.

Germany v Netherlands feels extremely unpredictable. Could go a number of different ways.

Portugal v Denmark is a bit similar actually.

http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/angela-merkel/merkel-traegt-oranje-24638892.bild.html

Time for Merkel to resign in disgrace.

the first time I saw those RESPECT signs I thought George Galloway had made a massive ad buy.

Excellent first contribution here, Tweed.

Denmark is awful.

But efficient.

Is it just me or has there been an insane amount of headed goals relative to total goals?

Not just you, it must be at least 50%.

Denmark would be lucky to get a draw.

I can't remember a tournament with so many early goals. I love it!

Hahaha Ronaldo

OMG I love this tournament!

Damn

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Bendtner is the best

Pity

LOL awesome

Happy with Portugal winning (traditional powers, baby. I generally dislike them though) but the score screws me up! :(

Yeah, if they were gonna win, why the hell couldn't they just keep it at 2-1 :P

But then again, most times I heavily root against them, this is only a special occasion ;D

Denmark is as much if not more of a traditional power than Portugal. Portugal's never won an international tournament.

So I'm having a beer now to calm down my nerves... :)

Ich habe Angst. :(

Portugal has always been more of a force, dude. Come on.

Portugal's never won anything, Denmark's won a Euro Cup.

Nicht nur du :(

Let's hope Holland wins, because then everyone has 3 points.

Now why would this be a good thing? :)

My mortal heart cannot withstand a final game day of all four teams tied on 3 points.

Germany vs. Holland competitve record
-7 tournament meetings
-3 wins for the Germans
-2 wins for the Dutch
-2 draws
-No match outcome has ever been directly repeated.
-Each team has scored 12 goals against each other
-No match between Germany and Holland has ended in a scoreless draw
-Neither team has failed to score in a game
-No team has scored more than three goals in a single game; both teams each achieved this once.
-Germany has scored the first goal of the match, 5 out of 7 times.
-Holland has scored the last goal of the match, 6 out of 7 times.

And if the Netherlands win 3-2 (unlikely, but then so was today's result) they'll all have the same goals for and against as well. That would be fun.

I understand why people with heart problems aren't supposed to watch this stuff...

I feel like I'm going to vomit, this tension is awful.

Before 2002, Portugal had only ever qualified for a world cup twice.

I can't see the Netherlands winning now.

Toooooooooor!!

I may just end this predicting football results stuff ... :P

YES YES YES YES YES

Beating the Dutch with beautiful football is the greatest thing in the world.

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The Germans are actually great (they remind me of Hibs), also this game is over.

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL GOAL

this is wonderful

Bayern certainly helps.

^^^^^^ !!!!!

I'm so glad that we're not just winning but playing really, really fun to watch football to go along with it.

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LOL, Jogi Löw is the best

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That's nice. My point still stands. They've been a force. Is Greece a traditional power because they won something once? No.



Same with Denmark so Portugal is still more of a power than the Danes. ;)

Finally found this thread!

In what respect are they a force? To be a force you need to actually win things. They're gotten to the semi-finals of the World Cup like twice. Big deal. They're not a force.

So Denmark is more of a force because they won something twenty years ago but Portugal - a team that made the Euro Semi finals in 2000, the Euro Final in 2004 and the World Cup Semi finals in 2006 - are not just because they haven't won? That makes no sense. To say that you can't be a force until you win it all is silly.

I don't think either team are a "force", but to act like Portugal is any more of a historical force than Denmark because they've been successful a few times in the last decade but have otherwise not won anything is silly.

Also I think the Dutch might be the worst team in the tournament.

Even if they didn't go deep into other tournaments (Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup), they were still highly regarded. And their performances in the other three tournaments certainly made them a force.

And the Dutch just might rescue their campaign...

That'd be Ireland. Well, we'll see tomorrow.

Jaaaa!

Not pretty towards the end, but good game, performance and result!

Let's remember one thing, folks. If Germany beats Denmark in the last game (which is obviously very likely) Holland only has to beat Portugal by 2 goals to go through. So they're not totally done  yet.

Shouldn't have let that goal in, but once it was 2-1 the concentration was back up again and the Dutch went back to being completely shut down. Good performance overall, hopefully we continue to improve.

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Imagine if Germany was leading by 1 against Denmark, and Holland was beating Portugal, and they let Denmark score just to keep Holland or Portugal out.

Which is what will happen.

Well, our good statistic against Portugal was broken. Now its 3-3 since 2006. Beat the bastards only 8 months ago, but defence sucked in crucial situations. The team hasn't played well and two key players are injured now.

Its actually the poorest Danish performance against the Portuguese in six years and yet they almost got a tie. Too bad they missed. It was the one match everybody here thought we actually had good odds at winning.  
 
One statistic that still stands is that Bendtner scores every time he plays against Portugal. Its the fourth time he does it. A fine tradition ;)

What do you guys say. Will it be a quarter final without Scandinavians this time?

Who has the best (least horrible..) odds now - Denmark or Sweden?

Talking about unlikly results. If Denmark loses with one goal against Germany, while Portugal loses with exactly 1 goal to the Netherlands and Denmark scores at least one goal more than Portugal we are through.

Fx.

Netherlands-Portugal 1-0
Germany-Denmark 2-1

Weird. But not out of the question. I think the Germans will take it easy if they have a 2-1 lead and not push too hard for a third goal.
At the same time Dutch defenders will not make the same mistakes we did and their strikers and offensive midfielders have not been impressive.

I was in Winterswijk, Netherlands last Thursday (only a 30 minute drive from my grandma), and took this picture with my phone. Thought now would be a good time to share this and mock them!

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This is awesome: Mario Gomez has been in possession for twenty-two seconds so far the entire tournament, and has scored three goals in that time. Unbelievable.

Tomorrow's do or die for Ireland, and there's a 90% chance it's die. Hopefully Italy can beat Croatia, 50/50 imo, which means a draw keeps us in it. We'll probably lose 3-0 though.

If Netherlands beat Portugal and Germany beats Denmark, everyone but Germany ends up on equal points.

First tie-breaker is then goal difference from the games between everyone but Germany. Current standing:

Denmark: 0
Netherlands: -1
Portugal: +1

Denmark obviously won't change here. Since this assumes Netherlands beating Portugal, they either do it by more than 1 goal and go through or by 1 goal and then everyone is tied on this measure.

Second tie-breaker is highest number of goals scored in games excluding Germany.

Denmark: 3
Portugal: 3
Netherlands: 0

If this is to be relevant Netherlands has to beat Portugal by no more than 1 goal. Which leaves 2 possibilities -
           Netherlands wins 1-0 --> Denmark and Portugal tied
           Netherlands win by 1 with Portugal scoring --> Portugal goes through

Third tie-breaker is superior goal difference in all matches. Again, for this to be relevant Netherlands has to win by 1 against Portugal so we know that

Netherlands: -1
Portugal: -1

Denmark is currently at 0 but since this assumes them losing against Germany they would have -1 (at least). So they can at best tie on this statistic.

4th tie-breaker is most goals scored in all matches. Here, again, it assumes that Netherlands beat Portugal 1-0. So we know that

Netherlands: 2
Portugal: 3

Which means that Denmark (currently at 3) would need to score 1 goal to go through on this.

The 5th tie-breaker is UEFA coefficient. This is obviously Holland's.

Note: I'm not sure what the rules are if 1 of the 3 teams is not tied on one of this. I've been assuming they're still counted in the next step.

Yeah, the entire Danish sports press got that wrong.. Rule change in March. so we need points.

But we will just have to uphold that time honoured Danish tradition: Getting the necessary points when we absolutely have to... We have won a lot of matches we werent supposed to stand a chance in.

How do you rate the Swedish chances?

I think Sweden is totally done. I actually expected us to fail at going through even with a win against the Ukraine. My expectation was that we would tie them.

I think they will be stronger this game than the last one and I don't think a tie against England is totally out of the question. If that happens the media will hype the possibility of beating France in the last game but I fully expect France to crush us.

Prandelli is starting Balotelli again. My blood pressure is through the roof...

I think that in such a case, after one of the tied teams in eliminated (Netherlands after step 2), the tie-breaking criteria are reapplied to the other two teams - eliminating Denmark due to their having lost their game to Portugal.

Despite having not one, but two satellite packages (one for France, another for Italy) I found no channel broadcasting the mathc. :(

How is it going ?

1-0 to Italy, Croatia having a strong second half.

awesome goal

Damn it! :(

Italy really should be able to hold onto leads like that...

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Eliminating Italy from the tournament is all in Ireland's hands now, and as we all know, Trapattoni has some experience when it comes to knocking Italy out of tournaments.

We never make things easy. Never.

Well, this means we need to win twice to stay in, but it gives us a great chance at being spoilers.

Where actually is Puyol ? Didn't see him anywhere yet.

Puyol is injured, he's not at the tournament.

GOLOLOLOL.

Looks like Ireland is in for a trashing ...

Yeah, Spain is toying with Ireland right now.

LOL.

Referee fouls an Irish player.

Refuses to give himself a yellow card ... :P

And they didn't stop to play to cry for a hand?? ;D (lol at the foul of the referee on an Irish player though, what if a goal had been marked here? ^^...poor Irish...)

Well, I'd like to have Spain finishing 2nd of the group, so that France can play them in quarters. ^^. Then Croatia in semis (and our right defender putting 2 goals, would be a kind of revenge for Blanc), and then France-Germany in final. Revenge of 1982!

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..........

I demand the introduction of yellow and red cards for referees ... ;)

Wow it's only 1-0.

Yeah, we need to score more; Croatia won't be easy to beat. Torres isn't still at his best but his goal was beautiful. Silva and Iniesta genial as usual.

This must be the worst Irish team since we nearly drew with San Marino (in a competitive match).

Silva is a genius, just like I said.

lol, the French commentator trying to find excuses to the Irish 'performance':

'They have excuses, they are only 5 millions in their country, they are good at rugby, won the European cup at it...'

This is so much better to watch when Ireland aren't playing.

And that's that.

1 more Spanish goal plz, so I can collect my 6 points.

1 spanish guy against 7 Irish guys and he still scores. Terrible.

This game must end ... naaauuuggghhh !

The Irish fans were still apparently in a good mood at the end, lol

As expected, cynicism has swept across Italy: it seems like an overwhelming majority believe Italy will be knocked out, regardless of what they do against Ireland, because Spain and Croatia will agree to draw 2-2. It would be 2004 all over again.  :(

I'm not sure what to think. At first, I'm inclined to agree but then I think Croatia will want to play for the win in order to claim top spot in the group (a draw means Spain remain in first). That will force Spain to play, too, and likely win. It would be hilarious if Croatia fought for the win at the very end, got it and we see Spain eliminated assuming Italy beats Ireland. That's why Spain can't just let Croatia do whatever they want. They should be almost as concerned as the Italians.

Of course, none of this matters if we lose or draw with the Irish which is also a worry of mine. This could be the exact same ending as 2010: two opening matches ending 1-1 and then a surprise defeat. The Irish are playing for pride and they have Trap. He'd love to make a statement against us. Plus, we tend to screw up games we should win...

Bottom line: Monday is going to be a real headache.

Well I've seen nothing in our last 2 matches to suggest we can get a result against Italy. The bottom has completely fallen out of this Irish side. No defensive concentration, and Shay Given is all of a sudden a below average keeper. Of course the attack is gone too. I still think we could pull it off against the Italians though. In 2004 Italy screwed up their last game because they were useless in attack when they needed a ton of goals (I remember I just happened to be in Portugal for that tournament) against Bulgaria. It's hard to see anyone not scoring at least 3 against Ireland.

Uuuh, poor Irish. That was a massacre.

Really shocked that Italy has allowed this to happen. After the fight they put up against Spain, I was reasonably sure they were in good shape.

Our worst defeat since 1971 means we go into the final group game with no hope of progression (a first for us).

Such a pity.

On the plus side, the fans were great.

You shouldn't be. We have a history of making our group play way more difficult than it really is.

Italians have come to expect matches already being made up on beforehand. :P

Ah I remember 2004, I think it's the only time I've rooted for Sweden only to draw one of their matches rather than winning. 

Sweden tend to be a bogey team for England....I'd be happy with a draw to be honest.

There is a strong correlation between Italian soccer successes and global tragedies. For example, in 2006 the Azzurri won the World Cup, and in 2006 the Italians won the World Cup.

One thing we, as Azzurri fans, have to accept is that jealousy of haters. Great people must carry great burdens.

People aren't jealous of annoying graddies, that are just things we have to bear with, they can make a lot of noise and tricky things but in the end it doesn't have much consequences most of the time, it's like something which is part of the landscape...

If we lose today it's over. I think we might tie this game and then lose to France though.

Typical jealous French ;)

Spain's and Croatia's. But I guess they will no more miss the situation than Denmark and Sweden did eight(?) years ago. 2-2 draw and Italy are out.

Oh, and by my count a 4-3 (or 5-4 etc) for Denmark would see Denmark and Germany progress no matter what the Portuguese do. Can't they just abolish the damn stupid direct comparison rule already? It's not working.

MATCH SUSPENDED due to weather, the COWARDS.

I'm watching on the ESPN app as I'm en route to NYC. I noticed that the picture was very fuzzy then saw "SHAKHTAR" spelled out in the seats. I'm thinking, "Wow, Ukraine really couldn't get anyone to buy tickets?" Immediately after that, it was suspended. :(

Nice rain.

I don't think that not wanting to get hit by lightning is cowardly.

Let's enjoy these adorable Ribery/Tymoschuk gifs while we wait:

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Game to be reopened "not before 8pm" (local time; 7 here, 6 in England, 1 in NY.)

But it makes for such bizarre scenarios ;)
And in fact only 3-2 is needed

Here it starts.

In case of 3-2, the German and Portuguese result against the Netherlands would be compared as the de facto tiebreaker. There's no further direct comparison of just Germany and Portugal. (Not according to a literal reading of the official rule text, anyways.)

Ok, bottom line: the current tiebreaker rules suck.

Yes. What's wrong with just looking at goal difference?

A pretty balanced first half. Hard to see how it will end up, as both teams had their moments.

2-0, it's over. Good job from France.

That's not how the rules are interpreted. Otherwise there would not be the danger of Italy being eliminated regardless of their result against Ireland in a case of a 2-2 draw between Spain and Croatia.

Until the Swedish find a way to play Zlatan at every position they're never going to win anything.

Beautiful header.

Lief, do you already have a gif from the scene in which the referee got the ball kicked into his balls ?

Hahahahahahahahaha

An Irish TV pundit said at halftime that we can turn off the tv because there won't be any more goals in this game. Lol.

This is beautiful.

Well, this makes things very interesting...

France-4
Ukraine/Sweden-3
England-1

That would be one hell of a last day.

A bullet!

Game of the tournament.

DANM IT!!!

:)

Nice to see England actually scoring a few goals too.

Balotelli loses starting spot! :D

I actually think Ireland is the one team he would shine against.

Even for Italian football standards (;)), he's quite an unlikeable person.

I feel sorry for Sweden. :( I was rooting for you guys.

Ask and you shall receive:

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Ibrahimović can't possibly be as lazy as he was last night when playing at Milan, can he?

Well, I had low hopes before the tournament and it turned out to go even worse than I anticipated.

At least they gave a strong performance against England and with a little more luck things could have gone our way. I guess I should be happy about that.

Jas: Ibrahimovic has always been a bit of a lazy player in his style but it was unusually bad towards the end yesterday. He is hampered by being too far above the rest of the team in skill though. :P

This is a myth. The 2004 2-2 game between Denmark and Sweden was fought very hard and both teams did their best to win. Noone who saw the game with unbiased eyes could say otherwise.
There is a lot of prestige in beating the neighbours in a DK/Sweden game and neither team would play for a tie in such a match.

I think Lewis is saying that a 3-2 win for Denmark would see both teams through (well, he said 4-3, but still).

And I remember watching that Sweden-Denmark game and it never felt particularly rigged.

To be precise: My recollection is that the game was played seriously, and was in fact a very good game, until the needed score happened to happen anyways, at which point all the players visibly ceased to care. (There was a single scoring opportunity after that and the player who wasted it pretty much tripped over laughing.) That, however, was in I think the 88th minute. This is what happens when a game is not rigged in advance but there exists an outcome that everybody likes. In the notorious case of Germany vs Austria, Gijón 1982, the needed score (Austrian win by one goal) came to be after 8 minutes...
Anyways, Italy played very badly against Bulgaria at the same time and only won 2-1, and actually would have been eliminated under normal rules as well. Though whether they would have played like that if they knew they needed to win by three - the normal rules - is a matter of conjecture, and is somewhat unlikely.

---

Denmark-Germany 3-2
Portugal-Netherlands 2-0

Denmark 6
Germany 6
Portugal 6
Netherlands 0

Spain-Croatia 2-2
Italy-Ireland ∞-0

Spain 5
Italy 5
Croatia 5
Ireland 0

3 all, no decision; 2 all, no decision
0 all, no decision; 0 all, no decision
Denmark 5 and group winner, Germany 3, Portugal 3 - no decision between those two; Spain 3, Croatia 3 - no decision between those two, Italy 2 and eliminated
Portugal +2, Germany +1. Germany eliminated. Spain +4, Croatia +2, Spain group winner.

Haha, I just found it. There's some kind of circular by the UEFA, dated may 21st, on how it will interprete the rule, and that indeed states that the earlier steps are to be repeated if there's a partially-broken tie after step three. So 3-2 for Denmark would indeed see Germany through.

Portugal +2, Germany +1. Germany eliminated. Spain +4, Croatia +2, Spain group winner.
[/quote]
Since at this point only Portugal and Germany are being compared, "a" would have to be applied first, eliminating Portugal. It makes no sense to apply different criteria to them, even if they were previously tied.

Greece score right before half time!

LOL

If results hold then Russia and Greece will qualify for the quarterfinals. And if that happens and Germany wins Group B (which is likely), then the second quarterfinal will be between... Germany and Greece. ;D Things will be lit on fire.

Yeah, I'm hoping my prediction is wrong this time and the Greeks make it out of the group instead of the Czechs. :D

Everything has been turned on its head now!

SUDDENLY, the Czechs and Greece are the two teams advancing hahahah

Greece advancing from the group should be a pretty big boost to SYRIZA don't you folks think?

Shocking stuff.

If there is a 2-2 tie on Monday along with Italy winning, this really is 2004 all over again.

Right now all I can think to say is lol.

Germany vs. Greece is now extremely likely :)

I've decided to drop my allegiance to Espana.

GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE GREECE

Shouldn't Russia be advancing with a better goal difference?

They lost in a head to head.

No.

UEFA has silly/different rules than FIFA.

Ah I see. I did hear that they are now using the head-to-head match ups now then the goal difference. I was confused at first but I guess it helps add a thrill to the game

Head to head makes more sense than goal difference.

Greece is going to 1-0 the entire tournament again aren't they :(

Oh btw I know I already have this as my new sig but...


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If there are two teams involved, yes, but not three. As the Spain-Croatia-Italy example demonstrates.

VIVA GREECE

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LOL

This Group was very entertaining. I'm very happy that the Czechs (I don't expect it) are in the quarterfinal and the Russian team are all loosers ;D

:(

Gonna make appropriate polandball comic, btw do you guys think that more of the Greek players will vote SYRIZA or ND?

Yeah, I remember a few people around here saying they were a joke team. I always thought they were being underestimated.

Beating Greece would be quite amusing :)

Greece beating Germany would be even more amusing.

Yes. And all of non-German Europe would be cheering for the Greeks.

Since when is Greek popular in Northern Europe?

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Well, you did ask.

In the twelve years Morten Olsen has been coaching the Danish national team, Denmark has never lost to Germany.
Is that record going to be broken tomorrow?

edit: oops

Let's be honest, both Group A teams will be annihilated by the Group B teams.

Germany vs. Greece would be fun --- :)

No they wouldn't...

Yeah, I think most people here in the North would support Germany both politically and in the football sense.

lolrussia.

Attempts 31-8
On Goal 2-2
Attempts from outside the box 19-2

Possession 69%
won duels 46% (whatever is the term used in English here?)

Sympathy for the underdogs + historical animosity towards Germany = pro Greece, even if you don't like the way they play football or their politics.

Sweden is probably not typical in this matter because you have never been occupied by/at war with  the Germans like most other European nations.

Always back the underdog.

To be honest, I doubt the war has much to do with modern football sympathies, lol.

Think it has more to do with wanting a primary competitor to be gone.

Apart from drunken Ingerland fans.

Do they come any other way? ;)

And French TV trailers makers, La Guerre de 100 ans!! On va bouter les Anglais!! is back every 6 nations tournament here, ah well, that's overall the case for rugby though, because it's France2 who has most of the broadcasting rights for rugby, and France2 rugby journalists are a bit...hmm...let's just say 'in their own world'. TF1 who has most of the most popular football matches is more in a 'gladiatorian style' or something like that.

Speaking about broadcasting rights, 'Bein sport', the new Qatari French sport TV created a few months ago (Al Jazeera group, but I guess you can't really open a TV in France with an Arab name if you care about not being lynched), already became the 3rd buyer of football matches. Wanna watch? 11€ per month! Damn it, yesterday all matches were there. IT'S TRUE THE ARAB INVASION IS HERE! Seriously, Qatar is buying France like a bulimic is eating some of those empty cream cakes nowadays (they should beware, the second phase of a bulimia is...).


C'mon, France is such an impressive country and all that, but we're not all the non-German Europe. Ah well, I'd have the feeling French don't really give a penny about that, the non-German Europe has only major teams, so they mainly care about themselves, Northern Europe mainly has Germany, so they do with what they have. I'd even have the feeling French could prefer playing Germany, which I want! (Ok, seeing Greece defeating them would be fun too). And since we would obviously finish 1st of our group, and same for Germany, bloody damn it, we couldn't have Germany in final like I thought before, we will have to put up with the fact to beat them only in semis, ah well, that's life...(which would make a 1982 revenge still more accurate!).

Anyways, nowadays, anybody in the non-German Europe hates Germany! ;D

GO LATIN!

Were you drunk when you made this post? Much of it doesnt make sense.

Thats a bit naive. WW2 is a root cause of a strong underlying (but rarely openly expressed) anti-German feeling in many European countries, and that sentiment obviously influneces the way you preceive football matches. The "anybody but Germany" sentiment is quite strong and is not just about sports rivalry.

Only very few of his posts make any sense.

Nah, that's the French style.

Yes. My (Italian) Grandfather is normally a neutral, (as in he'll always support the better team and even when he does support someone is quite mild about it) was really anti Bayern in the champions league despite Chelsea being one of the worst footballing (in both senses) teams in the competition, and justified it by making a few choice comments about the Nazis. It's worth also noting that he was by far the oldest of the group watching and combining that with the recent euro crisis, which has done a lot to raise people's opinions of Germany, it's possible that that attitude is slowly going away.

You'll notice that Germany's popularity in other countries is quite high, equal to other European nations at least. See various opinion polls, at least ones not conducted in Greece.

I'm sure there are still some bigots out there, but I seriously doubt, based on statistics and my own experiences, that this is a major problem or occurance.

I have no clue how it is, but a French journalist covering the Germany-Netherlands match for France Info (French public news radio) said that Nazi occupation during WW2 remained a significant enough explanation to the kind of traditional 'hatred' there could be between the 2 countries on football matches.

Which kinda surprised me in regard of France (which, in case people ignored it, had also been occupied by the Nazi regime), given that polls show, and even recently, that French have a pretty good opinion of Germans (well, seems people here have always been fascinated by the 'efficient and serious strength' of Germans/Germany, but indeed people would by no means be German, they don't want to be 'that dull and unstyley!'), and effectively there is no problem with football matches and Germany here, and the country succeeded to keep a rather good image, so far.

(hmm, in fact this is not totally true, the 1982 World Cup semi-final in Sevilla has been felt like an act of war here ^^, actually, with the allegedly drugged Schumacher goal keeper as the big bad nasty Prussian, in which we were the nice despoiled guys - as always in any conflict with Germany indeed...

...but still, time and successes of France in between might have helped, never been a big hatred and big supporter fights after that)

Ah and also, France might not be the best example to compare, since, after all our 'historical encounters', there is a kind of injonction in the collective unconscious that says 'we have to be friends!'.

The political discussion ends. Now.

There is a historic hatred in football between us and Holland, but it seems to have seriously died down over the years.

A good deal of people I know...and I...were for the Dutch against the Spanish 2 years ago, actually.

Helps, of course, that the Dutch players don't seem to be spitting on peopke anymore, of course.

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pretty simple

The Dutch will win this by two goals.

They're up already.

So're Germany.

Something told me to switch over to the German match. Literally five seconds after I did, a bullet into the back of the net!


That's why I posted what I posted. ;)

1-1.

And he finally scores.

How can you not like this system :P
(And it confirms my thinking on the subject ;))

I like how Podolski's goal apparently ended all hope for Portugal to win the group.

Also how, if Poland had equalized in the 94th minute, they wouldn't have helped themselves at all but the Czechs would have tumbled from 1st to 3rd and Russia would have gone from 3rd to 1st.

Germany just can't get its act together.

Really? From the little I saw from their match, it was mostly played in front of the Danish goal.

I have high standards.. ;)

Should Germany be eliminated, we really need a gif of Özil slipping and falling over the ball just right now.

This one is over folks..

Denmark don't even lead yet!

Germany are now only one goal from being knocked out.

What a disaster for the Dutch!

GERMANY GOAL

New hope for Netherlands!

That's the end of the Group of Death. It's been fun.

No, no. We'll see either one more German goal or two more Danish ones.

...they need three goals in ten minutes. :P

In hindsight, it was more likely for Portugal to score three goals...

I'm glad that today, unlike yesterday, the two teams in the group that have played the best football went through.

Yeahhhhh


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The netherlands are only a joke team ;D

They use to be all but a team.

Freaky, although one can't say that it wasn't deserved at the end of the day.

One wonders if things would have gone any different if the Dutch had won or at least drawn their first match against Denmark. Quite possibly not.

The Dutch were the worst non-Irish team in the tournament, so they still would have come in 4th IMO. It's just too bad that the Danes let in that 87th minute goal against Portugal.

Yes, the Danes can at least walk out with their heads held high. Unlike some other teams...

Happy with the end result, still say it was a poor German performance, though.

Yeah, I keep thinking none of these German performances are that great, but on the other hand they have beaten three teams that are either very strong on paper (Holland) or have been among the best performers in the tournament (Portugal, Denmark).

That's the old German way. Smuggle your way through somehow without playing very well. Think we got too used to 2010 style German football. :)

Today just isn't meant to be. You know what today is the tenth anniversary of?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2waODO-kvc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2waODO-kvc)

There's also the fact that Ireland have played Italy on 18 June before (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_Av65L4R0).

It is, unfortunately, nearly impossible to see how we could produce anything similar again tonight.

Yeah, I knew that. :P

An interesting coincidence:
Yesterday, a Spanish referee greatly helped the German team by not giving a deserved penalty which if converted would have left Germany a goal down with 15 minutes to go.
Today, the decisive Spanish match is being refereed by a German referee...

Prophetic post, Mantis!

That ought to have been an obvious penalty just now.

It's over the line!

We are such a stupid football team.

As of right now, Italy are on top of the group, right?

I'm not answering this. Nope. Not touching it.

I think it's time to admit that this game won't end 2-2.

There is still a chance of a 1-1. Which would also eliminate Italy (under the current score) ;)
Incidentally, I don't the Croatians are still playing defense. Even if they concede a goal, they could still advance if they score just once.

Right. True.

The referee has been a disaster for the Ireland-Italy game. Fall down and you receive a free kick, every time. Not to mention the wall antics.

That is a spectacular goal.

Finally from Balotelli.

That's it, pool over. What was the second yellow for Andrews for?

Though offside.

Ah well, you can't have everything.

So if Spain had not been awarded this off-side goal, they would have finished second and if they had reached the semifinal, they would have likely faced Germany. Again, "interesting" decision by the referee...

I can finally breath again.  :)

Ah, I was just wondering "Balotelli was offside? I've really seen it from just one angle, so it's possible, but it's different to imagine how." But he meant Spain. That "passive offside" stuff contains certain gray areas that won't ever go away, and this was slap bang in the middle of it really. (It was also on the very borders of handgame by Iniesta. Not to mention the clear-as-day penalty and a mild-but-constant pro-Spanish bias in the refereeing throughout. But that's what you get with the DFB's best-rated refs, to a man.)

What do you mean by this? Shouldn't a good rating indicate fair refereeing?

Looks like, for once, Italy didn't suffer from its legendary bad luck. ;)

Balotelli's goal was truly impressive, and even though we didn't score many goals this proves we can do a good job. Let's surprise everybody again, like in 2006 ! :)

I feel a bit sad for Croats though. They were clearly better than Spain this time, and the referee wasn't exactly fair toward them (don't know if it's bias or a genuine mistake, let's assume the later).

Now, let's hope we get France to beat once again. ;D

I didn't see off-side but there was a possible penalty in Spanish area (it was a bit strange that Croatian players didn't protest) and, of course, Casillas saved at least one clear goal. Horrible match from Spanish side.

I feel better about what I called a poor German performance after seeing Spain tonight. They sure got lucky.

Tomorrow should be fun to watch. Part of me wants France to win their group (and have Italy meet them in the Quarter finals) because of the rivalry. The other part wants England since our chances of progressing are better. Also, while I'm always livid whenever we're eliminated regardless of who beats us, I'd be slightly less pissed if the English won. I wouldn't be thrilled with having to face Ukraine in Kiev.

Love the trolling from UEFA earlier in the day...


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Obvious penalty. :(

LOL:

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and (in for Lief)

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That was brilliant.

Just for context, Craig Thomson is the SPL's top ref.

This was also good:

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And:

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Casillas, my hero!!! Fábregas was also great at the very end of the match.

These last 2 days have really featured rather poor football, even if the England game is somewhat entertaining.

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England.

France-Sweden has been pretty boring so far. Both teams seem quite inactive.

Oh, this is looking interesting! :)

The ref is probably Russian or something.

People are whining that the goal line referees are useless/haven't gotten any calls right this tournament? Uh...they must have missed yesterday's Cassano goal. They certainly got that right. To be fair, there haven't been many close calls this tournament anyway.

Ibrahimovic goal for Sweden:

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:o

If they get one right and one wrong then that is no better than a monkey, better just to put in cameras and be done with it.

Rooney goal:

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Bring on England!

God I hate England.

The problem is they don't make any calls and are therefore useless. Sweden really should've won this pool. In the end very strong pool on paper, but the games looked more like coca-cola championship games than Euro 2012 games.

The 2:0 for Sweden goal by Larsson I guess:

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Good job from the Swedes, they definitely dominated the second part of the match and got the victory they deserved. It's almost a shame they got eliminated. But to be fair, it's mostly France that pathetically sucked.

Still, too bad we don't get a good France-Italy. :P

I would have liked it, too, but this is better for us and we could still see that match up in the Final. ;)

Revised predictions for the knockout rounds...

Quarter finals

Czech Republic vs. Portugal
Germany vs. Greece
Spain vs. France
England vs. Italy


Semi finals

Portugal vs. Spain
Germany vs. Italy



Final

Spain vs. Italy

Czech Republic v. Portugal
Germany v. Greece
Spain v. France
England v. Italy

Spain v. Portugal
England v. Greece

Spain v. England

Basically I've lost all faith in this tournament.

Czech Republic vs. Portugal
Germany vs. Greece
Spain vs. France
England vs. Italy

France vs. Portugal
Greece vs. England

Greece vs. Portugal

2004 may yet be repeated!

Italy beats England yet England advances to the Semis? :P

I don't really believe we can lose to Greece. (Although I could be proven wrong...)

So I believe the semis will likely be:

Germany - Italy
Spain - Portugal

What happens then?

I imagine Italy beats us. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. But who knows. Germany is a Turniermannschaft.

Think Portugal would actually beat Spain and has a chance of beating both Germany and Italy in the final.

How painful would an Italy-England penalty shoot out be? I think they might just flip a coin if it's tied after over time. :P

Quarter finals

Czech Republic vs. Portugal
Germany vs. Greece
Spain vs. France
England vs. Italy

Semi finals

Portugal vs. Spain
Germany vs. England

Final

Spain vs. Germany

I predict

Portugal
Germany
Spain
Italy

Semis are always pretty tricky. But I do think Spain beats Portugal. Germany v Italy...I know Italy has a strong record against Germany, but even so, I would predict Germany to take it. They just seem too much better for me to predict otherwise. Then I have to go with my heart and predict Germany for the win.

Today will be an especially long and boring day. Our first day without Euro action since June 7th. :(

How bad are things going to be on July 2?

And a very hot one. My car thermometer just showed 32.5°C ... :)

And because I have a day off, I went to the swimming lake.

We don't need football every day ... ;)

Czech Republic 1:3 Portugal
Germany 2:1 Greece
Spain 2:1 France
England 1:1 Italy (Italy wins on penalty kicks)

Portugal 1:2 Germany
Spain 2:1 Italy

Germany 1:1 Spain (Germany wins on penalty kicks)

Stop it!


It's going to be 97° here today!


You got the bracket wrong, dude. Italy and Spain and Portugal and Germany can't meet in the Semis. :P

Yeah, some towns in Lower Austria are already at 36°C too @ 4pm now, which is about 97°F.

It's always a bit "colder" in the mountains.

http://teletext.orf.at/600/601_0002.htm

Even though the June record for Austria will not be broken today.

It was 37.8°C (100°F) in the year 2000.

Who cares as long as the Greeks win? ;)

Czech Republic vs. Portugal
Germany vs. Greece
Spain vs. France
England vs. Italy

Spain vs. Portugal (In the World cup it was a close game, but Spain is a little bit worse and Portugal is a little bit better than in the WC)
Germany vs. Italy (Germany never won a match against Italy in a Euro or world cup)

Italy vs. Portugal (This would be a 50/50 game)

The instrumental word being "should".