IT. IS. COMING. HOME.
Spain
Germany
France
Portugal
Italy
Actually I think [insert team who won't win] could win it!
I'm a bore and want league football back
I'm even more of a bore and want to discuss TRANSFERS
A glory-supporting turtle wearing the winners' kit
France obviously have some stellar players across the pitch, but their non-Mbappe forward options are a bit meh at best. Never been that convinced by Thuram, Dembele is all piss and wind and I don't really know all that much about Muani or the young PSG kid, but they don't seem to be getting much of a look in. Greaseman is Greaseman, a better Connor Gallagher.
Even Mbappe has been looking pretty meh. None of those wild runs he was pulling off a few years ago.
There's also no movement whatsoever from the midfielders to make late runs into the box.
Yeah, this is dire.
Kounde is another fullback who appears to be of absolutely no use in the attacking third.
They should toss Giroud in there.
This is spot on if you weren't actually watching the game.Originally Posted by Baz
This is some serious tournament football.
Yep. One has to realise (and it took me a while to get there) that while we remember the Croatia and Italy games and the players will too, they'll be offsetting those in their heads with "exceptional" wins over Germany and Denmark as examples of both how the approach works and their resilience to fight back and win. Chuck in both how soft we were on them after the France game (as we're a nation of footballing losers and what happened there was somehow acceptable as a result) and nowhere near enough being made of the favourable draws we've got (which are the luckiest any single manager will get in all of human history) and we've created a monster.
So instead of "we've actually only beaten one team we shouldn't have done" (and even then that was as bang average Germany side as you could hope to see) the narrative becomes we're World Cup Semi-Finalists, European Championship Finalists and now four time in a row major tournament Quarter-Finalists". Through the lens of the latter, it's working, subject it to any scrutiny however and it manifestly isn't - which would have been brutally exposed (and probably seen to Sir Gareth, our second best ever manager no less before he had any chance of attaining that status) had he had the draws you'd expect to see across four tournaments and not the unbelievably lucky routes he's actually got.
That’s some ridiculous griezmann slander. Arguably their best forward the past two tournaments. He’s getting on in age now though
I was more slighting him in his new all action midfield type role, although I don't know if that's how he's meant to be playing today. He was good in 2018.
Billy Dodds in the studio?
From what I've seen of Barcola in the Champions League he's a typical French winger.
Can beat his man for fun, incredibly quick, makes decent runs but seems to forget where the goal is.
Well he is a converted CB.
Most modern attackers don't seem to know what to do in the attacking third, so what chance does a fullback have?
Way too slow from Carrasco there.
This must be what watching a Southgate squad training match would be like.
Also, as an observation, of course the game against England in Qatar was ostensibly the one time in history the Tchouameni was able to get a shot on target.
Harsh but yeah. Although Tchouameni has been the only good player so far.
I'm a twit
I've honestly no idea how Hernandez is allowed to do that. You can hold someone off the ball, but you can't carry on showing them 10 yards away from the ball as if you're trying to get them into touch.
Has anything of note happened yet?
There should be an option for both teams to agree to go straight into pks at the start of the match. Would save us hours of this garbage.
That's another OG isn't it?
One minute left in the game and Belgium are still trying to pass the ball into the net. They deserve what they're getting.
I'm a twit
That was such dog shit. What the fuck is wrong with football these days.
Aren't big tournament knockout games often a bit shit?
Only when negative losers are in charge.
We've just spent the entirety of the group stage being told that it'll get better when the JEOPARDY of the knock outs come around.
Scum.
Too many big teams just haven't played to their potential. They're not growing into the tournament, either.
Belgium
Why are Portugal attacking so early? Don't they know there's 90 more minutes to this game?
Another borefest.
That handball
Ronaldo is a mong.
As are the coaches and other players for letting him do what he wants.
Is Ronaldo checking himself out on the big screen the little puusy'o
That freekick.
This must be up there as one of the most petulant halves of football ever played by a footballer.
We’re witnessing a breakdown in live action form. Ronaldo looks demented out there.
Absolute main character syndrome with big Ronnie tonight. Funny as fuck if his greed knocks em out.
Lest we forget these Slovenians are no mugs. They've been eye-to-eye with the best. Toe-to-toe with the champions elect and walked away with a point. Portugal beware, no time for indulgence.
I noticed Kane constantly fixes his hair.
I'm a twit
France - Portugal is going to be an all time stinkout based on this evening.
You have to feel that Portugal would just be better by sticking Jota up top instead of him at this point. He actively harms the team.
Ronaldo 1 nil incoming.
Lewis touched on this previously, but there has to be a chance that Ronaldo is simply never going to retire. He's deranged, and not being the main man on a football pitch will probably kill him. There will always be sycophants somewhere to massage his ego and if that Japanese no mark managed to plod on into his fifties or whatever it was he could just go forever in some moneyed goat herder league.
Yeah, there's certainly no way he's going to bow out before a thousand goals and he'll never retire from Portugal voluntarily.
This olden days Serie A filter they've put on the cameras is atmospheric.
Based on their footballers the Portuguese must be the most petulant people in Europe and maybe earth. Not just Ronaldo, all of them (I want to exclude dear Diogo but is that just biased?). Can't think of another country that comes close. Except maybe England lol.
Lol at Ronaldo insisting on taking this one too.
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