Euro 2016 thread

Fretwired

menamestom said:

 

Fretwired said:

Looks like Wales have qualified barring a massive defeat at the hands of the Russians, which I doubt. It puts how poor England were into stark relief. England have to win so the Welsh will no doubt sit deep and counter attack at speed through Bale ...

Why a massive defeat?  If England beat Wales, they will be on 3 points still.  Russia would just then need to beat Wales 1-0.

Russia will need the goal difference so they're going to have to score a few goals. Wales probably need 1 point from two games. I can't see Russia beating a Welsh team that will probably need a draw.

menamestom

I think England will beat Wales, as long as Roy picks a good team that makes the most of England's attacking talents.  I don't want to see Kane taking corners or Vardy on the bench while Sterling runs round like a headless chicken.  Or taking Rooney off while he's playing great.

lloyd

Fretwired;1111624" said:

lloyd said:

Fretwired;1111606" said:Looks like Wales have qualified barring a massive defeat at the hands of the Russians, which I doubt. It puts how poor England were into stark relief. England have to win so the Welsh will no doubt sit deep and counter attack at speed through Bale ...



In fairness Wales sit deep and counter attack through Bale regardless of opposition or results needed!












The thought of Bale v the English defence doesn't fill one with confidence .. it will be hot and humid apparently.

He was pretty average on Saturday, as was Ramsey to be fair. Apart from te goal of course, but that had a slice of luck to it, or perhaps it was his reputation that made the goalie move early.

He'll be better tomorrow I'm sure but he'll be targeted and closed down.

I think England will be too strong, the problem is that none of our players are unknowns, your mob generally play for the likes of Spurs, Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, while our lot play for Crystal Palace, Reading, Hibs, West Brom etc, and a lot of them aren't first choice when at the premier league teams-Allen, Ward, King, J Williams for example.

You need a win too, which makes you dangerous.

UnclePsychosis

Slovakia conceded two goals to Lichenstein

Rocker said:

Football as a game could be better if (1) the keeper could handle the ball only inside the small 'box', the larger 'box' retained for penalty awards. (2) Similar timekeeping system as used in Rugby. Ref to stop clock during goal celebrations or player injuries/incursions etc. (3) Mandatory 60 seconds 'recovery time' off the pitch for any player injured on the field of play who needs assistance from the team medics. This could be justified under Health & Safety guidelines (4) Penalty shootouts be arranged similar to tie break in tennis. Team A takes first penalty, Team B takes two penalties, Team A takes two penalties, continue sequence until the 5 per side has been taken. Sudden death first go on coin toss and so on.....

(3) is nonsense. Player gets genuinely hurt by a bad tackle so the team which has made the bad tackle gets an extra man for a minute? No thanks. I actually quite like the idea of (2), the problem is that it either require the laws to be different at different levels of the game (unlikely to happen) or it would require a massive investment in technology to bring in suitable clocks (ones big enough to be seen by every player at any point during a game) at every stadium on the planet.

Fretwired

menamestom said:

I think England will beat Wales, as long as Roy picks a good team that makes the most of England's attacking talents.  I don't want to see Kane taking corners or Vardy on the bench while Sterling runs round like a headless chicken.  Or taking Rooney off while he's playing great.

Roy didn't pick the right team for the previous match and for some reason our striker, who is a good header of the ball, was taking the corners. I think it will be a draw or a 1 - 0 to Wales. If the Welsh get all their men behind the ball I can't see England scoring.

lloyd

Fretwired;1111795" said:

menamestom said:



I think England will beat Wales, as long as Roy picks a good team that makes the most of England's attacking talents.  I don't want to see Kane taking corners or Vardy on the bench while Sterling runs round like a headless chicken.  Or taking Rooney off while he's playing great.





Roy didn't pick the right team for the previous match and for some reason our striker, who is a good header of the ball, was taking the corners. I think it will be a draw or a 1 - 0 to Wales. If the Welsh get all their men behind the ball I can't see England scoring.

You misfired against Russia but that teams got goals running through it, Kane, Vardy, Sturridge (who I think should play).

You would think you'll click a bit more and take your chances better.

Rocker

@UnclePsychosis, my reason for the 60 seconds off the field of play, it could be 20 seconds or 30, is to cut out the strategic rolling around and staying down (feigning injury). If a player is hurt, he needs that much attention anyway. Feigning injury/cheating kills the game as a spectacle. Rugby players don't do it so why accept it in football?

EricTheWeary

UnclePsychosis;1111790" said:

Slovakia conceded two goals to Lichenstein

Rocker said:

Football as a game could be better if (1) the keeper could handle the ball only inside the small 'box', the larger 'box' retained for penalty awards. (2) Similar timekeeping system as used in Rugby. Ref to stop clock during goal celebrations or player injuries/incursions etc. (3) Mandatory 60 seconds 'recovery time' off the pitch for any player injured on the field of play who needs assistance from the team medics. This could be justified under Health & Safety guidelines (4) Penalty shootouts be arranged similar to tie break in tennis. Team A takes first penalty, Team B takes two penalties, Team A takes two penalties, continue sequence until the 5 per side has been taken. Sudden death first go on coin toss and so on.....





(3) is nonsense. Player gets genuinely hurt by a bad tackle so the team which has made the bad tackle gets an extra man for a minute? No thanks.



I actually quite like the idea of (2), the problem is that it either require the laws to be different at different levels of the game (unlikely to happen) or it would require a massive investment in technology to bring in suitable clocks (ones big enough to be seen by every player at any point during a game) at every stadium on the planet.

I like 2), I've often had that thought. If they can manage it in sports like rugby and water pool I don't see why it should be so hard in football. Not sure you need a giant clock any more than you do now.

UnclePsychosis

Rocker;1111888" said:

@UnclePsychosis, my reason for the 60 seconds off the field of play, it could be 20 seconds or 30, is to cut out the strategic rolling around and staying down (feigning injury). If a player is hurt, he needs that much attention anyway. Feigning injury/cheating kills the game as a spectacle. Rugby players don't do it so why accept it in football?

The reason you don't see it in Rugby is because the rules don't benefit going down. Rugby players cheat just as much as footballers, they just do it differently. Leaving hands in, collapsing scrums, sly punches, etc etc. Cheating at lineouts was so endemic that they actually changed the rules to accommodate it. If pretending to be hurt helped rugby players win you'd see it just as often as in football.

If we want to base football on how rugby players behave then we'll see a rise in sexual assaults and eye gouging on the field of play so I think that should be avoided, thanks very much.

There is no way that a team should actually be penalised for a player being injured. It's ridiculous.

lloyd

There's players that go down in rugby too, it's creeping in and has been for a while.

Rugby has only been professional for 20 years or so, eventually rugby will be similar to football now.

ennspek

England should win. However if Bale really puts it together, he was average barring the free kick last game, he really could tear England apart.
I've seen him do it. On song he's that good.

Nitefly

Well, this (France v Albania) is a turn-up or the books...

The Switzerland match at 5pm rather disappeared up it's own arse after the goals.

EricTheWeary

Just tuned in for the end of France v Albania, nil nil with ten minutes to go then two cracking goals. I think the moral of this competition so far is don't bother tuning in to a match until the last fifteen minutes.

Fretwired

I predict a Wales win. Roy's picked the same team  and the same 4-3-3 formation that didn't work against Russia. Roy should watch Eddie Jones the England  rugby manager. After 20+ minutes of being outplayed he pulled a key player and replaced him and changed the dynamic of the team. England beat Australia. He's sticking with his winning combination for the next game. God only knows what's going through Roy's brain. They might win 4-0 and I'll look stupid but I doubt it.

lloyd

Fretwired;1112275" said:

I predict a Wales win. Roy's picked the same team  and the same 4-3-3 formation that didn't work against Russia. They might win 4-0 and I'll look stupid but I doubt it.

See this is what I fear, England really, should be turning us over pretty easily, if you have your shooting boots on it could be pretty messy for us.

You'll be allowed to have 60% possession and while Bale is awesome, and can do things on his own, running through 5 defenders who are not especially worried about other players is a different ball game to exploiting defences for Real.

We're gonna be under the coach for large parts of the game and relying on set-pieces and Magic from Bale and Ramsey.

We aren't that good a team, the players aren't particularly good. We just do what we do well.

quarky

If Wales beat England today, will that be their biggest victory ever? The crowning pinnacle of Welsh football? The desire to say that they were in the Welsh side that (perhaps) knocked England out of Euro2016 must be immense for those players. It is going to be difficult for England to compete with that..

CHRISB50

Gents. It will all be OK.

I've just covered a Wales win and a draw. 

You can now be fairly confident that neither will happen. Sorry @Lloyd

lloyd

quarky said:

If Wales beat England today, will that be their biggest victory ever? The crowning pinnacle of Welsh football? The desire to say that they were in the Welsh side that (perhaps) knocked England out of Euro2016 must be immense for those players. It is going to be difficult for England to compete with that..

Without doubt it would be.

I'm no ABE and generally want England to do well in competitions-depending on who I'm sat with at the time or the atmosphere in the pub.....

But I'd love to put them in a very difficult position today. Ideally they'd sneak through in second place with a win v Slovakia.

The main issue is that Wales is a team of average players who are over performing in relation to their talent base.

I can't really see past a comfortable English win in all honesty, but we could sneak a draw out of it.

I think the first goal (if we get one) will be huge today, Wales do well scoring first but could see us crumbling if England score first.

No goals by 70odd minutes and we'll be camped in our own third with England desperate to score.

Should be a cracking nervous game. Luckily we're in a good position in that even a loss, we're still in with a decent shout as Russia have been pretty underwhelming.

lloyd

CHRISB50 said:

Gents. It will all be OK.

I've just covered a Wales win and a draw. 

You can now be fairly confident that neither will happen. Sorry @Lloyd

Ha, I could counter it by throwing a few quid on England!

UnclePsychosis

I think @lloyd is the first Welshman I've come across with a rational, balanced view of a Welsh sports team :-D

I suspect that England will win fairly comfortably later but a Wales win or even a draw (neither of which is all that inconceivable) would certainly make the last round of fixtures interesting. Not sure I'd fancy being Welsh and near the Russian fans for that last game though.