Euro 2012 - Official Discussion Thread

[Silent Hunter]

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.

[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.)

[Velasco]

Felicidades a todos los españoles del "Atlas forum".

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

Gracias, Gully Foyle. El Barça y España son equipos un poco holandeses. Ya sabes, el legado de Johann Cruyff y todo eso.

[Јas]

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.

Taking just competitive games, as adjudged by englandstats.com, England's competitive record against those teams is:
0-3-7 v Brazil
3-2-5 v Italy
3-2-1 v Spain
3-2-2 v Argentina
3-3-2 v France
4-4-5 v Germany
1-2-2 v Netherlands

Giving overall: 17-18-24 (29%-31%-41%)
Which implies the equivalent friendlies figures to be: 47-27-30 (45%-26%-29%)

On which basis is would seem that England are roughly as good at friendlies, as they are bad at competitive games (though England's poor record in competitive games against Brazil skews matters somewhat).