Euro 2016 thread

lloyd

England will put 4 past this lot tonight, easy win for me.

EricTheWeary

lloyd;1128079" said:

England will put 4 past this lot tonight, easy win for me.

Should be really It was 6 something last time they met.

quarky

According to the banana test on ITV's This Morning, England are not going to win. Guess that settles it.

UnclePsychosis

Beginning to suspect that someone is going to navigate the tough half of the draw only to lose to Portugal on penalties in the final after another shitfest.  

Good to see Welshman @Lloyd doing his best to curse England with his score prediction. I see what you did there

lloyd

UnclePsychosis said:

Beginning to suspect that someone is going to navigate the tough half of the draw only to lose to Portugal on penalties in the final after another shitfest.  

Good to see Welshman @Lloyd doing his best to curse England with his score prediction. I see what you did there

Haha no, I call the games as I see them-got 3-0 on my predictor thing so am expecting a big result.

England for me have possibly the best strike force in the competition.

Iceland will offer virtually nothing, similar to Wales, so if I was in charge I'd play Kane, Vardy and Sturridge up front and just let them do the damage. You should be playing a 2-3-5 for most of the game and they'll be playing a 9-0-1, I'd expect to see 70%+ possession and territory tonight and if you move the ball quickly like you can, it'll be painful for Iceland, if you score first and early, the floodgates will open.

English negativity for this game makes me laugh, it's like you want to fail in many ways, just to prove yourselves right that Hodgson is shit, England are bottlers, you overvalue your players etc-at least that's the vibe I get from here in Manchester, perhaps it's just a habit you've become accustomed to like the Germans are with winning?

You'll beat them comfortably and their main attacking weapon-set pieces should be nullified as the English team is big, strong and defend set pieces well.

UnclePsychosis

Well the problem for England is that the best strike force in the competition have thus far scored fewer goals than defensively minded Iceland

England *should* win comfortably. But better teams than England have failed to beat worse teams than Iceland so whilst I expect England to win to nil I also wouldn't be all that surprised if we see guys dressed up like Crusading Knights and WW2 era RAF pilots in tears on tonight's TV.

lloyd

This England team have played 3 limited teams that have parked the bus and prayed to get through as either 2nd place or one of the best 3rd placed, Wales got lucky due to the fact that Slovakia thought a point would be enough to progress (it was).

Luck hasn't gone with them with the fixture list and the finishing, you could put it down to poor finishing too, but you've hit the woodwork had one scrambled off the line and goalies have made some good saves, you've got a good game in Iceland to make it click and you'll be dangerous.

When it does click the floodgates will open because it's knockout footy and opponents will have to search for a goal-we saw it with Belgium and Hungary yesterday-everyone's been knocking Belgium saying they've been shit and not playing as a team then they sweep aside Hungary fairly comfortably after an early goal. Yeah Hungary had a few chances but you won't dominate 90 minutes of football no matter your opposition, they'll always get a chance through a break or set-piece.

menamestom

lloyd said:

UnclePsychosis said:

Beginning to suspect that someone is going to navigate the tough half of the draw only to lose to Portugal on penalties in the final after another shitfest.  

Good to see Welshman @Lloyd doing his best to curse England with his score prediction. I see what you did there

English negativity for this game makes me laugh, it's like you want to fail in many ways, just to prove yourselves right that Hodgson is shit, England are bottlers, you overvalue your players etc-at least that's the vibe I get from here in Manchester, perhaps it's just a habit you've become accustomed to like the Germans are with winning?

No I'm quite positive.  England look OK, we just need to start scoring.  I'd take 1-0 tonight mind, anything that gets us through.

I don't get the negativity either. I know they have not been amazing over recent history but I think everybody being so negative certainly doesn't help.  It's like that slime in Ghostbusters 2, the more negative everybody is, the more pressure is on them and the shitter they play.

It's one thing being a realist but some people just have a serious bitterness and negativity towards the team.  I say watch it and see what happens.

lloyd

I've mentioned it before but Englands fan's and media's attitude towards the team is terrible sometimes, people may think that the players these days don't give a shit and they all say they have the best fans, want to do it for the fans etc but Rooney's words after getting booed at Wembley a few years ago are telling. 

The just giving page or whatever set up to send Sterling home was awful too, the kid's 20 or 21 FFS.

It must affect the camp, think about how how different the atmosphere is in the Welsh camp compared to the English one when talking about fans and media?

The shit the papers give them for not being Brazil and winning every game 10-0 is stupid too.

I get it's not all fans but that's the general feeling that if I see it, must seep through to the players and it will affect them IMO.

Corvus

So a few days back NIR are playing, wearing the green. The g/f looks up from her book and says "that's odd, Nigeria don't look very Nigerian do they..."

Henceforth Norn Iron are Nigeria in our house.

Rocker

I'm with @lloyd, England to win comfortably 4 to zero or maybe 1. Sterling fell again so not a good idea playing him.

BigBearKris

UnclePsychosis;1128128" said:

Beginning to suspect that someone is going to navigate the tough half of the draw only to lose to Portugal on penalties in the final after another shitfest.  Good to see Welshman @Lloyd doing his best to curse England with his score prediction. I see what you did there

Sorry bud, but Poland is still in the tournament and we do not plan on getting eliminated by CR7 and co.

Also - i think England team is good and so far they have played below their abilities but I wouldn't get overly optimistic either. They need to start scoring goals instead of looking at ball possession and good chances.
Iceland is an average team from a tiny little country but they will fight and defend well - they will give the ball possession away and hope for quick counter attacks. England can win 4 up, sure. But if they'll miss few good shots it may get nervous
Iceland also advanced to E2016 and Netherlands didn't.

scrumhalf

Sapin knocked out by "the worst Italian team ever" (according to some Italian journalists).

Didn't see that coming.

UnclePsychosis

I have a tenuous family link to Italy so like to see them do well. That said, if I didn't have the tenuous link I think I'd support them just because of Buffon. What a dude. Good team too, by the look of it.  

Rocker

Great win by Italy.

strumjoughlamps

a game pretty much dominated by 2 outstanding goalkeepers... really enjoyed it..

Sauron

I'm italian, and today i'm quiet happy! :-)

NotNowJohn

Excellent Italy performance. They made Spain look very ordinary. Some great goalkeeping.

I want to know why other teams aren't playing a back 3? Very compact defence, wide players, packed midfield. Works well for Italy.

octatonic

Apparently none of the English players voted in the referendum because they've not managed put a cross in the box since the Euros started.

UnclePsychosis

NotNowJohn said:

Excellent Italy performance. They made Spain look very ordinary. Some great goalkeeping.

I want to know why other teams aren't playing a back 3? Very compact defence, wide players, packed midfield. Works well for Italy.

Italy are just better at defending than everyone else.

I could watch this video all day, its hypnotic.