UEFA Euro 2024 - Official Thread!

[YayNJ]

Kicks off tonight! 20:00 GMT.

Germany Vs. Scotland

[tupacgr13]

Scotland was a very very nice team in qualifiers. Hope they can keep it up!

[Gin&Juice]

Predictions?

Semis: Portugal over Germany; England over France
Final: England over Portugal

[YayNJ]

I've had a niggling feeling that Portugal will win it for a long time.

[mikee1186]

Predicting Netherlands to exceed expectations and make the semis or better. They are 7-8 in terms of betting favorite.

[LittleJimmies]

I'm going with Germany! Finally time for a healthy Wirtz and Musiala to shine.

[wawazat]

I would love to see the Dutch win it all, but my gut says France.

[fadster]

I threw in a couple of upsets into the bracket and got Spain beating the Netherlands in one semi, Belgium beating England in the other and Belgium winning the whole thing.

I really like Portugal on paper but I just can't see past Roberto Martinez and the familiar pattern of his team blitzing qualifying before disappointing at the main event.

[Sijavy]

My heart says England, finally.

My head also says England.

Therefore, probably France or Germany, with England losing on penalties to one or the other.

[DCUnited96]

The obligatory middle finger to the US broadcast conglomerate for having 5 games exclusive to their streaming platforms (starting with the Swiss match tomorrow morning. Grrrrr.)

[chiefs]

Ukraine to the end

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[YayNJ]

Scotland never, ever fail to leave their better players on the bench, or heck, just leave them out of the squad completely.

They have been doing it for years. I guess this is what happens when you're given Buckfast in your bottle from 2 months.

[fadster]

Football's coming home / Southgate has to go!
Will delete one in a couple of hours time

[YayNJ]

Southgate is so sh!t.

All that talent, and turns them into pub players.

[mfw13]

The 24-team format really makes the group stage uninteresting, since makes the likelihood of any of the favorites getting knocked out really small.

May watch a few group stage matches if I have nothing better to do, but otherwise going to wait until the R16 to get really interested.

[mikee1186]

Mbappe still no euro goal, plus embarrassing shenanigans and a yellow near the end. Not a great performance from France.

I agree with mfw that the format makes the group stages less interesting as there is less to play for. No backs against the wall for the best teams. I think the standard is suffering right now due to this.

Belgium really should’ve won with the chances they had. Couldn’t believe the hand ball call, either. It’s impossible to understand how the rule is applied these days. Seemed very harsh for a graze of a hand.

Thought Italy was impressive the other day, but not against a good opponent either. We’ll see how they do vs Spain.

[tupacgr13]

Originally Posted by mikee1186

Mbappe still no euro goal, plus embarrassing shenanigans and a yellow near the end. Not a great performance from France.

I agree with mfw that the format makes the group stages less interesting as there is less to play for. No backs against the wall for the best teams. I think the standard is suffering right now due to this.

Belgium really should’ve won with the chances they had. Couldn’t believe the hand ball call, either. It’s impossible to understand how the rule is applied these days. Seemed very harsh for a graze of a hand.

Thought Italy was impressive the other day, but not against a good opponent either. We’ll see how they do vs Spain.

I think it was a pretty good call. He got advantage because of handball :- )

[kingb22]

Not to pick on Alexander-Arnold, but England needs to play to their strengths and start a central midfield of Rice-Bellingham-Foden, with Saka on one wing and someone with pace like Anthony Gordon on the other. Depending on how deep Belingham drops it might leave the back exposed a bit but then again TAA isn't exactly the world's best defender regardless.

[YayNJ]

'TAA' is one of the most overrated players in the world.

[mikee1186]

Originally Posted by YayNJ

'TAA' is one of the most overrated players in the world.

Is this Roy Keane’s burner account?

[YayNJ]

Originally Posted by mikee1186

Is this Roy Keane’s burner account?

haha it's true though.

He's an awful defender, he's not a central midfielder. He's a very talented passer and crosser of the ball, but he's not a defender, central midfielder or a winger.

I guess the very definition of a 'luxury player' - great to have when you're dominating, a total liability under the cosh.

[fadster]

I agree, he has some outstanding passing qualities but not the full package to be great at either RB or midfield. I'd probably play him against weak/average opposition at RB and drop him for Walker against better teams.

[ThatGuyPal]

England and France looked pretty weak, at least England's barely clean sheet was the result of a goal from a player on their team

[mikee1186]

You see a luxury player or a liability, I see a rare gem of a game changer. No he’s not the best defender, although it’s much tougher to defend going backward from a high line and in isolation the way Liverpool play. I think he’d look like a stronger defender in other systems. I also think CM is a tough adjustment for him, but that is to be expected as he hasn’t played there since the academy.

His getting subbed out was the right call the other night as the game flow changed, England were not on the ball as much as were playing on the counter, so it didn’t make sense to keep him in. But he’s one of those few guys capable of a moment of magic and I bet we’ll see something along those lines from him this tournament. Maybe that will be off the bench at some points, but he offers quality of distribution that no one else on the roster can match, and his other qualities aren’t bad either. England will need his skill for a breakthrough if they continue to play like that.

Odd that we are talking about Trent when he was probably a 6 the other night while several others were much worse. Haven’t seen Foden’s disappearing act mentioned. Trippier didn’t do anything either. Kane barely had a touch.

Jude was excellent and I thought stones, rice and guehi were also strong.

[YayNJ]

Kane isn't supposed to get many touches. His job is to get the ball on target. He's an out and out striker in this current system, and if he gets one touch all game all that is important is that it's sending a ball towards the net.

I guess this is easy to forget in the age of the sprinter/winger/forward mish mash.