The Euro 2024 Thread

[AlexLaw76]

And we thought VAR over here was shite.

 

[skintsaint]

Well theres a shock! 😅

wonder if Georgia will turn up soon.

Edited 26 June, 2024 by skintsaint

[Saint Gifford]

Man Utd probably won’t want him anymore after the display so far. 

Oh dear me if RM goes south in the first few weeks of the season, Ramus will be consulting his books and adding 2 and 2 together.

Please no, don’t do it please..,,,,,,,,,,

(Bookmark this as a hopeless comment when we win the Euros) 
 

 

[Colinjb]

Soft penalty.

But it's against Ronaldo, so I approve.

[AlexLaw76]

3 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Man Utd probably won’t want him anymore after the display so far. 

Oh dear me if RM goes south in the first few weeks of the season, Ramus will be consulting his books and adding 2 and 2 together.

Please no, don’t do it please..,,,,,,,,,,

(Bookmark this as a hopeless comment when we win the Euros) 
 

 

What?

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

What?

I'm guessing that's somehow about Southgate 😅

[Midfield_General]

10 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Man Utd probably won’t want him anymore after the display so far. 

Oh dear me if RM goes south in the first few weeks of the season, Ramus will be consulting his books and adding 2 and 2 together.

Please no, don’t do it please..,,,,,,,,,,

(Bookmark this as a hopeless comment when we win the Euros) 
 

 

Man Utd don't want him anyway. They confirmed weeks ago that Ten Hag is their manager for next season. 

[Saint Billy]

Georgia’s number 7 Kvaratskhelia, off the field now but what a player, scored a goal and just didn’t stop running and a constant threat, well impressed with him. 23 years old and plays for Napoli. Would have him in the saints squad in a heartbeat.

[LeBizzier69]

Thank God Georgia weren’t in our group, that’s all I can say. 
they’ve been everything we’ve not.

[iansums]

Imagine how good England would be if they put in half the effort of this Georgia team 

[iansums]

Good commentator Clive Tyldesley.

[suewhistle]

Mikautadze, CHDAJFU? €15m on transfermarkt..

[Colinjb]

What a performance. Loved watching that.

[Saint Billy]

Fully deserved, put England to shame in many ways.

[kevdoh]

9 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

Georgia’s number 7 Kvaratskhelia, off the field now but what a player, scored a goal and just didn’t stop running and a constant threat, well impressed with him. 23 years old and plays for Napoli. Would have him in the saints squad in a heartbeat.

🤣 He's been one of the best players in serie a for the last 2/3 years. Probably an 80m player before the euros so you can add on another 20/30% now. Of course you would have him in saints squad but it's the equivalent of saying you'd have Phil foden in a heartbeat 

[saintant]

13 minutes ago, iansums said:

Imagine how good England would be if they put in half the effort of this Georgia team 

They have more skill and tactical awareness too - they aren't just about hard work. Far better than we've seen from pedestrian England led by Mr Negative.

[saintant]

Slovakia it is - they are ranked lower than Scotland but we all know Southgate will make hard work of it.

[AlexLaw76]

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/26/england-under-gareth-southgate-rampant-individualism-saviour-complex-euro-2024

[Dark Munster]

2 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Yeah I get that, but overall favourites? We'd still have to potentially beat the Netherlands, Italy, Austria and then one of those big boys from the other half. The way we're playing? Factor in a short price and it seems like an extremely unattractive betting proposition to me. But then I don't bet, so what do I know.

If England was in the upper half of the draw there's no way they'd be favourites, Spain and France alone would be way ahead of them, and Germany and Portugal probably too. But on paper the strongest teams on their side of the draw are Italy and Netherlands, who you could perhaps argue should be favoured over England, but they also have hardly been pulling up trees themselves so far. 

[whelk]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Man Utd don't want him anyway. They confirmed weeks ago that Ten Hag is their manager for next season. 

They’d do a lot worse than look at the Austrian manager. Great attacking football

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Saint Billy said:

Georgia’s number 7 Kvaratskhelia, off the field now but what a player, scored a goal and just didn’t stop running and a constant threat, well impressed with him. 23 years old and plays for Napoli. Would have him in the saints squad in a heartbeat.

Saints were meant to be watching him at one stage before he joined Napoli. Suggested fee was £10m. No idea whether any truth in the link or if just randomly made up by one of the sites. 

[Give it to Ron]

 In bar next to fanzone and Turks very loud and happy after that game tonight but thought 10 man Czechs fought well. 
Noisy car horn night in Cologne . 

[S-Clarke]

10 hours ago, Saint Billy said:

Georgia’s number 7 Kvaratskhelia, off the field now but what a player, scored a goal and just didn’t stop running and a constant threat, well impressed with him. 23 years old and plays for Napoli. Would have him in the saints squad in a heartbeat.

He's a bit of a superstar to be fair, I think last year he was linked to Bayern and Real for in excess of 100m euro. He will be one of the most expensive players when he leaves Napoli.

Georgia do have quite a few good technical players though (and their GK), so they've hit a bit of a sweet spot with their generation right now.

Probably more obtainable for us is the Watford player they have, Chakvetadze - who has been pretty tidy too. (never seemed to be that good whenever I've seen Watford)

[andypen]

That Turkish lad Yildiz looked a bit special as well...

[Turkish]

11 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/26/england-under-gareth-southgate-rampant-individualism-saviour-complex-euro-2024

that wet lettuce is proper snivelling little drip. It writes some proper bullshit, a few weeks ago it was trying to claim right wingers were turning Parkrun into a transphobic battleground. 🤣no wonder he works for the Guardian, seems to attract those types.

Edited 27 June, 2024 by Turkish

[saintant]

One change would improve England's performances without doubt. Increase the tempo from the first whistle. In every match they come out with zero urgency and proceed to attempt to play keep ball in their own half and what is even worse they think they are good enough to do it at walking pace. This sets the trend for how we play and sends a message to the opposition that we are not going after them. Southgate needs to stop this pathetic walking football and get the whole team looking busy, aggressive and front footed from the start. If he doesn't we'll be exiting the tournament with a whimper and miss a massive chance having had the huge slice of luck in finding ourselves in the far easier half of the draw. Unless we improve he will get even more pelters from the press and fans.

Edited 27 June, 2024 by saintant

[notnowcato]

This group format of only losing 8 from the 24 nations after 3 games is bollox. The big nations can turn up at 60% and qualify at a stroll. Many games have been turgid, essentially don’t lose and you’ll more than likely qualify. There’s been few high quality games and many games had pre-season feel to them. 
 

The competition starts for real on Saturday. 

Edited 27 June, 2024 by notnowcato

[S-Clarke]

8 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

This group format of only losing 8 from the 24 nations after 3 games is bollox. The big nations can turn up at 60% and qualify at a stroll. Many games have been turgid, essentially don’t lose and you’ll more than likely qualify. There’s been few high quality games and many games had pre-season feel to them. 
 

The competition starts for real on Saturday. 

I thought the competition started off pretty well, the first round of games at least - but you're right in that it became more turgid as teams saw how others had done, and realised they didn't need to exert themselves a great deal due to that third place best of rubbish. I was surprised when I read that only one player has 3 goals so far, and that's a Georgia one.

The final rounds of games in all groups, bar the Austria one which was great, have been bore fests.

[Baird of the land]

8 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

This group format of only losing 8 from the 24 nations after 3 games is bollox. The big nations can turn up at 60% and qualify at a stroll. Many games have been turgid, essentially don’t lose and you’ll more than likely qualify. There’s been few high quality games and many games had pre-season feel to them. 
 

The competition starts for real on Saturday. 

Personally i prefer it. Virtually all the teams have something to play for till the end which means competitive games. Some of the smaller teams have been much more fun to watch too.

 

[John B]

18 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Ladbrokes still have England as 4/1 outright favourites to win the Euros, and the shortest price you can get on any top scorer/ winner combo is still Kane and England at 11/1. 

https://sports.ladbrokes.com/big-competition/uefa-euro/outrights

What are they seeing that we're not? 

We are unbeaten and have a realistic chance of getting to the final

[Saint Billy]

12 hours ago, kevdoh said:

🤣 He's been one of the best players in serie a for the last 2/3 years. Probably an 80m player before the euros so you can add on another 20/30% now. Of course you would have him in saints squad but it's the equivalent of saying you'd have Phil foden in a heartbeat 

I don't have much knowledge of players outside of the prem. Not surprised he has high value.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, John B said:

We are unbeaten and have a realistic chance of getting to the final

Yeah, they're basing the odds on the side of the draw we're on. Very fortunate to be fair.

We even lucked out by missing Holland, Slovakia haven't been great tbf - one of the worst third place teams. Italy, potentially, in the quarters will probably be our undoing though.

[John B]

15 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

This group format of only losing 8 from the 24 nations after 3 games is bollox. The big nations can turn up at 60% and qualify at a stroll. Many games have been turgid, essentially don’t lose and you’ll more than likely qualify. There’s been few high quality games and many games had pre-season feel to them. 
 

The competition starts for real on Saturday. 

I doubt you would say that if you were from Slovenia Turkey or some of the other smaller nations

[Baird of the land]

23 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Yeah, they're basing the odds on the side of the draw we're on. Very fortunate to be fair.

We even lucked out by missing Holland, Slovakia haven't been great tbf - one of the worst third place teams. Italy, potentially, in the quarters will probably be our undoing though.

I get that odds are lower based on the side of the draw but weird how much more favoured than likes of Italy/Holland(who are on that side of the draw).

 

[notnowcato]

27 minutes ago, John B said:

I doubt you would say that if you were from Slovenia Turkey or some of the other smaller nations

Why not? I’m talking about the competition as a whole, I think the format has led to many turgid games. 

[Lighthouse]

Odds change based on betting patterns and bookmakers profit algorithms, they’re not a literal number of how likely something is.

[Toadhall Saint]

1 hour ago, notnowcato said:

Why not? I’m talking about the competition as a whole, I think the format has led to many turgid games. 

Most of them involving England 

[notnowcato]

12 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Most of them involving England 

Agreed, good for 35 minutes - get the goal, drop deep to defend the lead, secure the win, now only need a point from 2 games.  You could argue that England played the format well.  Did what was needed, which wasn't particularly difficult to achieve.

[Jack]

52 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Agreed, good for 35 minutes - get the goal, drop deep to defend the lead, secure the win, now only need a point from 2 games.  You could argue that England played the format well.  Did what was needed, which wasn't particularly difficult to achieve.

Nah, tactically absolute garbage and lucky to scrape through past what should be vastly inferior opposition 

[Doctoroncall]

1 hour ago, notnowcato said:

Agreed, good for 35 minutes - get the goal, drop deep to defend the lead, secure the win, now only need a point from 2 games.  You could argue that England played the format well.  Did what was needed, which wasn't particularly difficult to achieve.

That’s fair to a point but it would be hard to switch over to expansive football for the knockout stage. We’ll likely play trying to emulate the Greece success at euro 04 by playing a disciplined, safe way. 

[notnowcato]

1 hour ago, Jack said:

Nah, tactically absolute garbage and lucky to scrape through past what should be vastly inferior opposition 

My point is the format of the group stages lends itself to boring football.

[Midfield_General]

Portugal also ground their way through largely pretty average opposition to win it in 2016: 

Drew 1-1 with Iceland

Drew 0-0 with Austria

Drew 3-3 with Hungary

Beat Croatia 1-0

Drew 1-1 with Poland, won on penalties

Beat Wales 2-0

Beat France 1-0 AET

 

[skintsaint]

Bit rubbish to have no football on TV tonight.

[Lighthouse]

12 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Bit rubbish to have no football on TV tonight.

We’ve got a cricket semi final against India.

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

We’ve got a cricket semi final against India.

Not on my TV 😅

[skintsaint]

31 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

We’ve got a cricket semi final against India.

Good to miss this by looks of it.

[Lighthouse]

2 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Good to miss this by looks of it.

I don’t know, that boundary takes us past Afghanistan’s total from last night.

[East Kent Saint]

2 dodgy wickets in one day , England's mistake was to bat last on the grounds they chased the last game well.

The SA win was on a positively dangerous pitch 😳

[East Kent Saint]

Remember Roy's England bored their way to the USA world cup then Roy changed to full on attack mode , that went well😄

[SNSUN]

2 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Bit rubbish to have no football on TV tonight.

Preferable to an England performance. I've finally started watching Stranger Things tonight  because all the cool kids have been talking about it and I want to be "with it".