June: The Euro 2020ish Knockouts!

[Ian]

With a mere 2/3s of the teams remaining, the chaff having been sorted from the slightly worse chaff, it's knockouts time. The first Round of 16 games are on Saturday with Wales/Denmark and Italy/Austria kicking us off and then we've got four days of that culminating in, er, Sweden / Ukraine? I jest, I think that could actually be fun.

Here are the fixtures, and here's the bracket:


Overall poll at the top but let's do some thoughts and predictions now we've all had the benefit of a head start:

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be....
Winner will be...
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot?

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team:
How I thought we'd do:
How I think we'll do (if still in it)
Our player of the tournament so far:
Our worst player so far:
Overall comments:

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format:
My favourite other team so far has been...
My breakout player of the tournament is...

Gives us something to talk about in the two dead days, innit.

[Ian]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Belgium (I'm just hoping not Portugal), France, Germany, Denmark
Winner will be... I guess I'll stick with my pre-tournament prediction of France but they don't look amazing and honest this has the feeling of one where enough teams are flawed that could see Cronaldo pout his way to glory once again.
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? I think it'll be whichever of Cronaldo and Lukaku survives the longest at this point.

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: Ingerlund
How I thought we'd do: Get out of the groups but not so comfortably.
How I think we'll do (if still in it) Germany look the option of Germany/France/Portugal theoretically best suited for England to play and they're the most open I've seen them but I've been conditioned to assume that we lose to Germany in knockout games so I'm just gonna assume it's the end of the road for us. Which is a shame as you have to say you'd have chosen this end of the bracket.
Our player of the tournament so far: Sterling has been the one to actually score the goals but I'm gonna say Phillips, despite my marking down any performance of his by about 40% for that fucking hair. We've had flashes from other players but not much sustained over full games.
Our worst player so far: Okay so I initially wrote this: I don't think anybody's been a Walker-in-2018 level bombscare but Declan Rice seems entirely redundant. Phillips has got it basically covered on the defend 'n' hustle front and certainly in this team Rice offers bugger all else. I'd rather Bellingham or Henderson in there provided the latter under no fucking circumstances decides "This penalty's got my name all over it, lads, step aside." Then I remembered Harry Kane. Not all his fault but he's still been turd. You're not Pirlo you cunt, get in the penalty area.
Overall comments: I still haven't seen much to suggest we've got the goals to beat anybody good or that our defence can stand up against a proper attack but I will say that while it's left me pretty cold it is a little nice to see us sail through the group stage fairly serenely, barely even making the shit teams look like world-beaters as we normally do.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: Either change it back to what it was or just pull the trigger on a full 32 teams. Yeah there'll be more dross in the group stages but weird draws/Groups of Death aside it should broadly sort itself out for the knockouts. There were a couple of fun last round sets of fixtures for the groups but broadly it hasn't really worked for me, Clive.
My favourite other team so far has been... I guess Denmark, not just for NARRATIVE purposes but they have been fun to watch for their last couple of matches too. Germany's matches have been unusually fun to watch as well but I'm sure my opinion of that will change drastically by Tuesday.
My breakout player of the tournament is... I'm gonna say Kieffer Moore purely because I can't not appreciate a proper big lumpy centre forward galloping about.

[Jimmy Floyd]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Italy, France, England, Denmark
Winner will be... England
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? Probably not

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: England
How I thought we'd do: Quarters/semis
How I think we'll do (if still in it) If we beat Germany, we could and perhaps should then go on to reach the final.
Our player of the tournament so far: Jordan Pickford
Our worst player so far: Declan Rice / Harry Kane
Overall comments: We are shit, but other teams are worse, and the ones that are better are almost all in the other half of the draw.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: I would scrap it and if they must have more than 16, go to 32. Basically the same thing as 24 but with more countries given the chance to participate and no brain-busting best 4 third placed sides equation that favours the groups finishing later.
My favourite other team so far has been... Italy and Holland best teams to watch, but Ukraine have been sneaky fun once you get past the fact that they are Ukraine. Enjoyed Hungary and Denmark too with the crowd behind them.
My breakout player of the tournament is... In terms of players I'd never heard of: Isak from Sweden looks class, as does Damsgaard from Denmark.

[Ian]

Yeah I've actually kinda enjoyed Ukraine too. They're not brilliant or anything but they've consistently had a go.

[Manc]

PREDICTIONS

• Semi-finalists - Italy, France, England, Netherlands/Denmark (coin flip)
• Winner - France
• Golden boot - Depay/Benzema

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD

• My team - England
• How I thought we'd do - Semi-finals
• How I think we'll do - Runner-up
• Our player of the tournament - John Stones
• Our worst player - Harry Kane

GENERAL

• Keep/change the 24 team format - Keep
• My favourite team - Italy
• Breakout player - Dumfries

[Shindig]

Semi-finalists will be.... Italy, France, Sweden, Netherlands
Winner will be... Netherlands (!?)
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? Maybe. He's only scoring penalties. Wijnaldum looks the most likely with the way he's involved in counters.

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: England
How I thought we'd do: Quarters
How I think we'll do (if still in it) It rests on a German side that has really hasn't got out the blocks. Win that and anything's possible.
Our player of the tournament so far: Luke Shaw
Our worst player so far: Declan Rice
Overall comments: It's hard to pick favourites. The players have done a job but very little else. Efficient but not exciting to look at. Grealish looks good when he's come on, Foden and Philips have had moments. Bellingham looks a spark but I'd like to see some variety beyond the Shaw and Sterling show down the left.
GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: Keep. It's better than I was expecting, mainly for the last-16 lineup and how it came to pass. Very few teams had nothing to play for in the last game.
My favourite other team so far has been... Italy and Holland have been fantastic as they go forward. Sweden's been surprisingly efficient. Denmark's story has been decent to watch and I'm surprised they pulled it together after the first game. I hope this Hungary side has more tournaments in them.
My breakout player of the tournament is... Isak looks real good and has plenty of years ahead of him. He could make a big move in the summer. Darmsgaard looks impressive but he's got a tripe Danish forward line for comparison. Renato Sanchez has come on leaps and bounds, too.

[Shindig]

Out of interest, I've decided to see what a top 8 would be if they went straight to the Quarters from the groups.

Italy
Belgium
Netherlands
England
Sweden
France
Spain
Austria

Italy v Belgium
Netherlands v England
Sweden v France
Spain v Austria

Pairing up the best-placed second teams felt like the fairest way to do that last quarter. I think the last 16's given us a better set of games.

[Yevrah]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Portugal, France, Germany & Holland
Winner will be... Belgium. I know that makes no sense given the answers above, but neither does the world we're living in now and what better way to cement that than Roberto Martinez, the chancer's chancer, winning an international tournament, so there it is.
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? No

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: England
How I thought we'd do: Reach the knockouts and lose to the first good team/team with historical standing we face.
How I think we'll do (if still in it) Lose to the first good team/team with historical standing we face.
Our player of the tournament so far: Phillips is a proper player and you have to give it to Sterling for being our only player who knows how to score.
Our worst player so far: Harry Kane. Appalling and you could see it from the first game. Now it may not be his fault, our style of play has been disgraceful, but he has been utterly useless.
Overall comments: We're absolutely horrible to watch and unless we go deep into the tournament that's just not on. I think our players are generally overrated and our foreign cousins fill in the gaps when they're playing for their clubs, but even then, two goals from a group of absolute dross is well below the level we should be operating at. Results have obviously been there in terms of dubs and draws, but there genuinely aren't many teams that have made it through while offering less excitement than we have.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: Keep it for now, been surprisingly good.
My favourite other team so far has been... I mean, it's Italy, isn't it.
My breakout player of the tournament is... Isak. FUT for the win!

[Yevrah]

That's a fair point on the format Shinners. If the field hadn't been a sea of largely bang average it would have been horrible, but as there's so little between most sides it's worked wonderfully. Last night was absolutely brilliant, so props too to UEFA for employing the dumbest seeding system known to man.

[Serj]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands
Winner will be... I think France will bore their way to it
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? I've gone conservative with my semi-final predictions, so I'll predict Gini Wijnaldum to take this. Seems to have his scoring boots on.

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: Austria
How I thought we'd do: Stink up the place, maybe luck into third place and crash out in the next round.
How I think we'll do (if still in it) Italy should be far too much for us. We might score one, but that's about as optimistic as I'm allowing myself to be
Our player of the tournament so far: I'm not sure we have one. Our star players Alaba and Arnautovic have shown flashes of brilliance but also made some glaring mistakes. Sabitzer has also disappeared somewhat after a good performance in the first match. I'm going to say Stefan Lainer. Scored a good goal, seems to be everywhere on the right flank and has not contributed to any defensive errors that I remember.
Our worst player so far: No one stands out here either. I'd say Xaver Schlager. He's one of those players that I think Jimmy mentioned whom coaches love because he gives everything. But he's also often imprecise when it comes to basic passing, adding an element of constant nervousness to our build-up
Overall comments: We haven't been as bad as I'd feared. Every match has featured good and bad, the worst being the second half against the Netherlands. But the formation switch for the Ukraine game really improved our build-up and I hope Foda sticks with it.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: As others have said, might as well go for 32. This just seems a bit half-baked
My favourite other team so far has been... Denmark, I always root for them anyway because a good part of my family is Danish. And as usual, they're much more fun to watch than we are, even disregarding the special circumstances of this tournament. Beyond that, probably Hungary. Gave everyone in their group a good game whilst not being completely destructive. Unlucky to not progress, really.
My breakout player of the tournament is... In terms of players previously unknown to me: Attila Fiola looked good whenever I've seen him, as did Damsgaard. I'm also still hoping that Grillitsch puts in a standout performance against Italy, he certainly has the potential.

[CJay]

What does the qualifying look like for a tournament of 32 teams in a continent of 55 countries?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Quarter-finalists from last time get in automatically, as does the host nation(s). That gives you c.44 teams for c.22 places, 11 groups of 4, top two qualify. Nice and quick, too.

[Ian]

Just pick the 32 countries with the most social media engagements and who are worth the most money to UEFA.

[CJay]

Quarter-finalists from last time get in automatically, as does the host nation(s). That gives you c.44 teams for c.22 places, 11 groups of 4, top two qualify. Nice and quick, too.

Eww, think of all the extra opportunities created for pointless friendlies by that format.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The other 10 already qualified teams can play experimental formats to attract the new generation of fan.

- Lose a player every 8 minutes until it's 1v1
- 20 five-minute halves
- Two balls in play
- 4 teams in each match (with the goals in each corner) but only one ball in play

etc.

[Spikey M]

Eww, think of all the extra opportunities created for pointless friendlies by that format.

I think that's the first "eww" I've read on here and I'll tell you the same thing I told my daughter when she called sweets "candy"; No more YouTube for you. You can watch CBeebies but not Mr Tumble because he's a nonce.

[Don]

If they haven't done it yet, UEFA need to combine the qualifying for WC and Euros like AFC have.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Italy, France, Germany and because I picked them as my dark horses Czech Republic (although I think Denmark is more likely)
Winner will be... I picked Germany and I'll stick with them even though I'm a lot less confident
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? Five is usually enough but I don't think he'll score another and I think Schick or Lukaku will manage to take it.

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: Poland
How I thought we'd do: I thought we'd get out of the group. Spain are horseshit now and I didn't know too much about Sweden/Slovakia but I assumed we'd manage to scrape at least a top third place. From there I thought if the draw was kind we might have snuck into the Quarters before going home.
How I think we'll do (if still in it) We're not.
Our player of the tournament so far: You'd have to say Lewandowski after the goals but he never looked great until the last game.
Our worst player so far: It's between Szczesny and Bereszynski but I do think Zielinski needs a mention because he was really expected to step up after a great season in Italy as well as the injuries to Milik and Piatek.
Overall comments: I think the team expected to go through and as such struggled when shit didn't go their way. I think the formation used against Slovakia was poor and didn't provide enough support to Lewandowski. Against Spain we looked slightly better but decided to settle for a draw thinking we'd walk past Sweden where our defence crumbled.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: I would. I think the group stage was really good, especially last night, and I'm going to attribute that to the format.
My favourite other team so far has been... Italy or Denmark.
My breakout player of the tournament is... Damsgaard. He looks like he could be a proper player.

[-james-]

PREDICTIONS
Semi-finalists will be.... Italy, Spain, England, Netherlands
Winner will be... You could make a case for any of the above. I think I said Spain pre-tournament so I'll stick with them.
Will anybody overtake Cristiano Penalto for golden boot? I hope to see him looking despondent at some point.

MID-TOURNAMENT REPORT CARD
My team: Scotland
How I thought we'd do: I was fairly optimistic that they would make it out of the group.
How I think we'll do (if still in it):
Our player of the tournament so far: Grant Hanley
Our worst player so far: Lyndon Dykes is simply not a footballer
Overall comments: I think Steve Clarke has done a good job and anyone calling for him to be sacked is an idiot. It's a promising core of players and I think they were pretty unlucky not to make it through. I thought they would be without a hope if they lost the first game, which they did and came pretty close anyway. Was really daft not starting Che Adams against the Czechs.

GENERAL
Having now seen the groups, I would keep/change the 24 team format: Change. It has been entertaining but it's still bollocks. It's just incredibly un-aesthetic as a concept.
My favourite other team so far has been... Hungary were brilliant. Briefly wondered if they were going to end up doing a Greece yesterday.
My breakout player of the tournament is... Gilmour clearly just has *it*.

[Gray Fox]

Away goals removed from UEFA club competitions from this coming season.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Not a fan of that decision.

[Ian]

I'm not unhappy that it's gone but I thought if anything they'd just cancel it after extra time.

Surprised they've got rid of something that benefits the big boys more though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm trying to work out why they have got rid of it. Did a favourite club get knocked out that way and have a big whinge to the teacher? That's how most competition rules end up getting changed.

[-james-]

The big clubs are going to hate it because it means more chance of thirty minutes more football once every six months.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've thought of it now. TV like close finishes, and presumably they like the extra half hour of Gazprom ads too.

[niko_cee]

It's a massively outdated rule is probably why it has gone. It no longer makes sense, the circumstances that led to its adoption are long since passed.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm trying to work out why they have got rid of it. Did a favourite club get knocked out that way and have a big whinge to the teacher? That's how most competition rules end up getting changed.

Juventus lost to Porto on away goals after extra time but UEFA wont be bending over for them.

Shaktar out to away goals in 2017/18, Man City out in 2016/17, Arsenal & Chelsea in 2014/15.

Doesn't really seem like it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

"Atleti"/Simeone will love not having to attack at all in away games now.

[Don]

Empowering the proper sides and getting rid of the fear of conceding at home sounds positive.

[CJay]

Surely it just means that the 0-0 away from home that the likes of Mourinho always played for is more valuable than ever?

[Don]

Those terrorists now have the UEFA Conference League to play about in. Elite level football has largely cleaned up its act.

[Boydy]

Surely it just means that the 0-0 away from home that the likes of Mourinho always played for is more valuable than ever?

Yeah sounds like it'll just makes teams even more defensive when they play away from home. Sounds bad imo.

[Ian]

Then by extension home advantage is worth more and you won't have teams thinking a dreary 0-0 in front of their own fans is a cracking result to the same extent. And you're still going to have plenty of games where a team is playing catch up going into the away leg and have to attack. The amount of good and bad games will probably barely change.

[Ian]

https://www.nme.com/news/music/ed-sh...s-park-2977482

Oh great, first being booed by your own racist fans and now this.

[Jimmy Floyd]

A propos of nothing, this is an excerpt from the BBC story about complaints to ofcom re the Eriksen incident:

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was among those suggesting the BBC should have cut away from the stadium coverage sooner.

Commentator and former footballer Ian Wright, former heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno, and former Premier League player Jermaine Beckford also criticised the BBC's handing of the situation.

I love this sort of shit. Any news from Ainsley Harriott vis a vis his take on the whole situation?

[Ian]

Well I was on the fence about it but now I know what Frank Bruno thinks...

[Shindig]

Then by extension home advantage is worth more and you won't have teams thinking a dreary 0-0 in front of their own fans is a cracking result to the same extent. And you're still going to have plenty of games where a team is playing catch up going into the away leg and have to attack. The amount of good and bad games will probably barely change.

There's also the practical possibility of neutral venues still possibly being required whilst Covid is still a going concern.

Did the Nations League have some tie-in with the Euros or did it all just tie back into "next year's thrilling instalment of the UEFA Nations League of Nations."?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

View Tweet

ffs he was one of the likeable ones too

[Ian]

It's called "Three Lions", dickheads, not Football's Coming Home.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fuck Wales.

[Spoonsky]

Yep, all behind the cardiac kids for this one.

[Yevrah]

Bang up for tonight’s games.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57618624

The Football Association would "love" Gareth Southgate to continue as England manager beyond the end of his contract "regardless" of the result in Tuesday's Euro 2020 last-16 tie against Germany.

[Ian]

It was clear as day before the tournament that unless we bombed out losing every game 3-0 or something he was definitely staying on. That semi final bought him far too much leeway.

I don't expect much from Italy/Austria but I've been really looking forward to this one all day.

[Mike]

Should hopefully be good this.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Quality goal that.

[Adramelch]

The Danes have scored quite a few bangers so far.

[niko_cee]

Considering they're so much in the ascendancy you'd think the Danes would stop falling over all the time. Such a bitty side.

[Don]

Yeah, sorry but neither of these sides are going to take down a good side so another pointless match.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stick your house on the winner here to win the the whole thing.