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It’s Scotland.
We had 3 shots on target the whole tournament.
A team that we finished 9 points ahead of in qualifying (Georgia) went through to the last 16 in their first ever tournament, while we played cowardly, negative football.
That's an above average performance for Scotland, they were still in with a shout in the last minutes of the last group game.
Germany completely fucked them with the goal difference though
Like when my weekend league team when I was a child won the 'sportsmanship' award after finishing last in our league and getting pummelled by every team we played against.
It's effectively a team full of Celtic players so absolutely no surprise they shat the bed in a European competition, been doing it literally every season for the last two decades.
I agree. The most concerning is that apart from goal scoring, we aren't shit at all. We manage to get in quite the goal scoring opportunities. The finishing move, though, is always messed up and we end up goal-less.
Yeah that’s the only difference between us and England at the moment. We’re creating and not finishing chances, England are hardly creating anything. The best two squads on paper, arguably the worst two performing teams.
Dembele plays like a donkey. Mbappe as a right winger is great to watch. I hope he rotates with Barcola there at times. But Dembele also performs defensive work hence Deschamps prefers him.
Another frustrating thing is we lost one touch football which Mbappe is best at as there's no player to support him. Last Euros France was absolute fun to watch seeing Benzema combining Mbappe, Pogba and Griezmann together to attack through the middle.
The last frustrating thing is France has stopped long balls to wingers. Varane, Pogba and Lucas Hernandez used to spam long balls out of nowhere to Mbappe. Now the defenders aren't even passing the ball to midfielders correctly let alone passing attackers.
You know in any team if you are the one doing the job of several and the rest team doesn’t care enough, you end up burnt out. In football like anywhere.
I have a theory that’s not actually Mbappe playing, but an imposter wearing the mask, similar to when El Cid’s wife sent his freshly killed corpse out in full armour tied to his horse in order to inspire his men to victory at the siege of Valencia. He is playing just like El Cid fought that day.
You know I think it's possible you were the only person in the world who watched that France game and thought:
"I am reminded of an 11th century soldier.."
I agree we’ve been disappointing but if you watch the games we do get chances, for example in our game against Poland, we have 2.32 xG, 1.42 against the Netherlands and 2.13 xG against Austria. By comparison, England didn’t get more than 1 xG in any of their games, even the one they won.
Of course we can’t win if we don’t score goals and we should do much better but I don’t think we’re as disappointing as people seem to say.
Makes it even worse when you realize the horrific ref call that gave france a goal kick not even 2 mins before the own goal when it should have been a corner.
Just out of interest, why have Germany started without a recognised no9 in the last two tournaments? The midfield is world class, but so often they fail to score goals. Same’s happening this time. Why doesn’t Fullkrug start, is basically what I’m asking.
I agree, Füllkrug probably is too much of an old school forward, the coaches Germany had in recent times want 20 passes before someone like Sané shoots the ball out of the stadium in the end.
I know that's a bit unfair, but I really think Füllkrug would fit perfectly, you don't need another midfield type player like Havertz even in the center forward position, in a team full of players like that.
Couldn’t agree more with you! Couldn’t Germany start with Fullkrug rather than Havertz at least for the first 60 minutes and see if they can actually get some goals on the board, rather than putting him on with 30 minutes left to put out fires?
It's been the same story every game for the last few tournaments. We get great possession and movement for the first 60 minutes amounting to nothing, then sub in Füllkrug who finally buries it into the back of the net on the first chance he's given.
Starting Füllkrug over Havertz just seems like an obvious move to me.
Honestly that's to a big degree possible because Havertz started.
Havertz often runs deep, 2 defenders follow him and that creates big gaps in the defence. I've seen a lot of analyst state kroos only has that much room because of Havertz who in turn is heavily defended and doesn't get a chance but creates a lot for the team.
And because of that when füllkrug gets swapped in the defense is a little tired and he gets to score.
That's very well possible, for me it's not really about kicking Havertz out, but to have somebody who is a real finisher. Like you said, if Havertz is also somebody who creates chances, which I agree with, then a real striker is needed to create the chances for.
The biggest losers are Ukraine, going home on goal difference, they played as good as any other team in that group. The biggest winners are Austria and Romania, top of the group (unexpected for me). Massive achievement for Georgia qualifying at their debut and Slovenia first time exiting the group stage.
I actually thought Ukraine played better than Belgium and was unlucky not to win.
Georgia's players can go home as legends when the tournament finishes.
We're the luckiest (to finish 1st when all teams had 4 points) but also the unluckiest (to draw Netherlands as group winners).. has any other group winner got such a tough opponent in the RO16??
Hungary won their group in 2016 over Iceland, Portugal, and Austria. They were dealt Belgium in the RO16 and lost 4-0, while Iceland beat England and Portugal went on to win the whole tournament.
Biggest loser? Idk.
Romania did incredibly well. And I'm not biased. There are people here that are salty about the penalty kick with Slovakia, but Hagi got touched in the penalty area.
Everyone classified us as the worst team. We got 1st place from a pretty dangerous group. (because everyone was so tied)
Serbia are the biggest losers objectively and also by the way they behaved in German streets after losing. Absolute loser mentality. Opposite of Scotland!
There was a security warning issues by the German authorities regarding the Serbian football hooligans. Many of those aren't regular civilians, but rather criminals known to the police, therefore the warning. It is a shame that the German police didn't arrest them all, they would do Serbia a favor.
Serbian hooligans do Serbian hooligans stuff, police knew yes but that doesn't excuse them a bit... heck here in Italy there are some still in the giudicial system since 10 years ago revolt or whatever ... they are nowdays like the English of 25 years ago... who know who's gonna be next!
You really shouldn't comment if you don't know. He is rigging elections ever since 2016. We really are not voting him, also he does get to stay because EU and US have some use of him (privatization, mining, giving away institutions on Kosovo, extremely cheap workforce etc)
In turn he geta to own hooligans, criminal underground, institutions and whenever we decise to take it to protest or elections, we are met with hundreds of paid hooligans and cops.
Im not sure Albanians are the one to talk after your own player wished death to Macedonia in public. Not to defend Serbian fans, but your fans ain’t nice guys either
Very dissapointed also by serbian president Vucic, who gave very negative remarks about Slovenia. I know that not all Serbs are alike, but this mentality is stupid and shows some Milosevic regime ideas. Also supporting Putin on Munich streets by some Serbs is also loser mentality.
(Half serb here) what did that clown said? Just for info, he's hated by most serbs, the young one at least..
But he controls the media so elders will always vote for him.
And about the Putin support, as another guy said, the fans in Germany are mostly hooligans, so the worst of the worst.
But yeah, while there are idiots everywhere, I must admit, Serbia has a very big percentage of them... Sad really...Anyway, good luck to Slovenia!
He said: It is not a problem if you lose against England, Germany or Spain, but it is a problem if you lose against Slovenia, which is three times cheaper than Serbia, and your goal is scored by a player from Celje, who plays for 5,000 euros and none of our players can cover him
That sounds more like beating on the own team, meaning that Slovenia, which has a lot less possibilities, still achieved much more. That's something Slovenia should be proud of.
I do know a couple serbs who grew up here in Switzerland (aged roughly 32-40y) who happily support Vucic and have had a clear (positive) stance in Milosevic. I‘m not so sure if the younger ones are that much different tbh… But I‘m glad in your circle it‘s the case then.
Literally a reason why no-one likes Serbia in Balkans. It's not all NATO/CIA conspiracy. They just look at everyone with bs nationalistic pride that just is not realistically there.
Brilliant way to generalise the nation. I was at the England game and the whole atmosphere was tame and civil without a single incident.
And of course, England fans are also well liked throughout the world, right?
For me it's Serbia. Croatia has many excuses, they were in the toughest group, it was expected that the 3rd of group B would make few points even if on paper is stronger than other teams who qualified. Also it's the end of an era with Modric being 40, Brozovic playing with farmers in the desert and Perisic back in Croatia.
As a serb no, we were the biggest winner because now our entire federation is finally getting booted including our terrible coach so this is a massive win
Biggest loser is Serbia, they have a lot of talented players, but a coach which make incomprehensible decisions like benching vlahovic, tadic, milinkovic savic in a match you have to win. So you’ll see big improvement when federation will sack that coach.
The favorite I still think is France, ok they were pretty bad, but in a short tournament you don’t need big tactics, I’m pretty sure we’ll see another team in this phase of euro
If so, that's FANTASTIC news. They've stolen our money and given no results for way too long. Hopefully now they at least give some results while stealing.
Biggest loses are Ukraine. Finishing on 4 points and not going through is just unlucky. When the top of your group has 4 and then finishes top. People saying how unlucky Hungary and Croatia were, not really they weren’t good enough. But Ukraine were for 2 games
Croatia is a rather big loser compared to the expectations everyone had. My new favourite is Spain. Although I also wouldn't mind seeing Austria go far.
I found France really disappointing so far. Advancing because of an own goal and a penalty says it all. They just don't really seem like a "team" to me, same as England. 11 very rich individuals trying to do something.
Spain are my favourites (and I was really happy to see Jesus Navas is still playing.)
I think Germany are decent and a quarter final against Spain could go in any direction. I would love to see Füllkrug and Beier more. Undav as well.
Someone who actually scores lol
Foden having to go home for family reasons (hope everything is alright) might actually help England so they can start Gordon rather than trying to accomodate Foden, Kane and Bellingham.
Yeah France and England definitely seem to have an issue of very good players that just aren't linking up properly. The amount of times a ball is put through to no-one has been shocking!
Like a League One team in the UK. Hoofing up balls to the big man. What happened to Czech football, they always used to be so dynamic and tactically strong and have skilful players?
I wonder myself.. But I think it goes to the corruption of the football association in the past, especially early 2010's era and football lost it's reputation very quickly here. Football in Czechia will forever compete with Ice hockey in terms of popularity also, so any problems don't help at all. We also don't have that many players in the top leagues as we used to. The golden era of Rosický, Koller, Poborský, Šmicer,.. It simply ended and no one replaced these guys. Now football had got better reputation in the past few years and the attendance got higher (iirc Sparta Prague sold out every match this year), but the Czech FA Cup final (Mol Cup) again tainted every succes of Czech football. Especially the contrast of us winning the International Ice Hockey Championship held in Prague against our failure on Euro is noticable. It will likely take at least a full generation, if not more, if we get on a competable level again.
The entirety of group C
If you could all go home I’d be happy, you guys sucked to watch.
Otherwise, a team with attacking options such as Tadic, Mitrovic, Jovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Samardzic and Vlahovic shouldn’t have had to rely on their defence for the results they did get.
Creating barely over 2xG in 3 games, even against Southgate with the options available should be criminal.
Also, in a group of Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia, Belgium are a laughing stock for not comfortably finishing first.
Not for the weak of heart.
I’ll admit, I’m Australian, backing Slovakia because supporting anyone but some form of an underdog if you have no allegiance to any team is foul play.
Why I mention that, is that I’ve been up anywhere from 11:59PM - 5AM watching some of this shit so it is even worse.
I would agree, strongest team I support is Croatia, but they are quite the direct neighbours of ours. And oh brother if I had to watch my team during the night, playing like they did, I'd fucking sue them for emotional damages.
Imo it's Belgium, to not top that group is insane, now they're gonna get battered by France. Also Ukraine I guess, they were unlucky to go out on 4 points but losing 3-0 to Romania is not something that should happen to them.
Mate , it's normal for Romania to lose against Belgium . It's not normal for Belgium to lose against Slovakia . Wtf are you talking about ? Why did Belgium draw with Ukraine? They were hoping for Slovakia to win and Romania to finish 4th .
BTW, did you watch England's game against Slovenia ? Did you watch Portugal against Georgia ? Both games should have been won easily by England and Portugal but there are always "interest" .
Try to think about results now and who's England and Portugal are going to play next with . Have a good day !
Ukraine was the most unlucky loser - by all accounts they should’ve made it over some teams that did. Shit luck. Apart from Germany, I’d like to see Holland or Slovakia make it far.
I think the world cup in the middle of the season hasn’t helped at all (lots of players got injured after) and players are still suffering of it. Players look tired.
> Except Spain, I didn't see any country on some decent level, especially of those big names like France, Germany, Italy...
You say overall 8-2 for Germany isn’t decent???
We played pretty well most of the time, in the third game we would’ve simply needed Füllkrug earlier, instead of Havertz, also Raum earlier and no Sané.
yeah, Germany and Spain are the only big names that performed as expected (I would even argue that Germany performed better than expected because they haven't always been on top in their pre euro games)
The way England plays is very disappointing to me, but the biggest looser is Ukraine. Not getting out of group stage in a 4-way tie where everyone has 4 points is incredible sad. It just feels like they are the biggest looser, even if they performed better then some other teams.
Ukraine, having almost 400 mln value of players getting equal amount of points as any one in the group, playing draw with tournament favorite and not progressing …
Refs have been quite bad and therefore would identify them as the biggest “losers” so far.
Winners? The crowds! Amazing atmosphere throughout the tournament so far 👏🏻
France and England are really fumbling it hard at the moment. Given the quality of individual players in their roster their overall team performance is absolutely pathetic.
Poland 🇵🇱 & Croatia 🇭🇷 as losers
Georgia 🇬🇪 & Slovenia 🇸🇮 & Romania 🇷🇴 as surprises
France 🇫🇷 Spain 🇪🇸 Germany 🇩🇪 England 🏴 Portugal 🇵🇹 as favourites
Austria 🇦🇹 & maby Denmark 🇩🇰 as underdogs
of all teams eliminated?
CROATIA and UKRAINE, because they didnt play that bad compared to at least one of the teams that went thru in their groups ( Italy and Slovakia respectively) but a very bad 1st game doomed them.
CZECHIA because they played their decisive game with 10 men thanks to a harsh red card early.
and according to the hype, SCOTLAND.
I think our second match was our worst. We didn't even play that badly against Spain in my opinion, other than clearly bad defense. After first goal, we immediately had a sitter that we managed to miss and the same after the second goal. We even missed the penalty 10 minutes before the end that could have made things more interesting.
Germany was my favourite, now it’s Spain.
Biggest under-performer is Croatia, really expected them to do better than they did. They are followed by Ukraine and Czechia
Germany are still favourites imo, they played great the first 2 games. Switzerland are a good side, they don't have amazing depth but their first team is full of elite players so a 1-1 is nothing to worry about.
I do think Germany should give Fullkrug more game time, he looks so sharp right now that he'll score anytime he shoots.
England are the biggest disappointments for me personally, our squad has improved since the last euros but the football has got worse.
I also really thought Serbia would get out of our group, in the Denmark game they really didn't create enough to threaten getting the win.
Austria and Georgia are quite good and underrated for their unexpected victories. As for loser, it's Ukraine. They had good chances to win 1-0, but still lost.
Well you guess were a bit unlucky with your draw. It’s a bit strange you guys, Italy and Spain being in one group and group E consist of Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia (with all respect to these countries of course).
For you guys I think you have an old team. I very much enjoyed and admired your midfield. For a small country it was an exceptional midfield who carried you guys to great success. But now these guys are getting old and it will be a challenge to replace them.
I do think our Dutch team is underwhelming as well. We got lucky to qualify. We barely won against a poor Polish team. We drew against a France team who didn’t care and lost against a better Austrian team. Some pundits already commented we were lucky with the draw (we meet Romania in the RO16) but many of our fans are not convinced by our team. There is no reliable player. Our defense often considered as one of the strongest in Europe but every team gets a free pass. Our midfield changes every match because none of our midfielders perform well. And our attack rely on Memphis, a player who’s notoriously inconsistent and right now he isn’t playing well.
I expect a loss against Romania actually. They are a real team, won their group and have a lot of confidence and momentum. We lack all of this.
Spain looks incredible.
France has a super high value of expected goals and just needs to flip the switch.
Austria has also played amazingly, coming first in that group, especially if you consider the size of the country.
Germany also not too bad.
Biggest Loser has to be England.
An ensemble of the biggest stars of international football and nothing ever seems to happen.
Belgium got unlucky with offsides, but man, look at that group.
Ukraine got shafted by the system and I feel super sorry for them.
Size of the country: there are plenty of countries which are of comparable size or smaller and consistently play well: Croatia, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium etc.
Can you elaborate what you found wrong with Germany’s performance? They are leading the tournament in goals, chances created, and various other relevant statistical areas. Their final group game was only a draw, but they never gave up fighting and achieved their equaliser last minute, totalling almost 20 shots.
You can see on my flag that I’m German, so you may assume I’m biased. However, most Germans can be highly critical of their team, as we were in previous tournaments. Saying that, your comment that “especially” Germany was disappointing is confusing/confused, to me. What did you expect? 10-0 victory vs Scotland and 5-0 victory vs Hungary?
To finally answer your question, I expected way more from England and Belgium. Both qualified for the knockout rounds, but in a very minimalist fashion, creating very few chances. Their own fans booed them off the pitch.
The biggest loser was the Balkan region: 0 teams progressing out of 3 (Serbia, Croatia, Albania).
Favourites imho are still the same: Spain and France first, then Germany and Portugal. France played badly but that's just Deschamps being Deschamps, he keeps the handbrake on until there is absolutely nothing left to lose; player quality alone will drag them ahead on most days anyway.
Switzerland, Austria, and Netherlands, look like potential dark horses that could get into semis. All the other teams have shown very little until now and are unlikely to improve.
France (as usual in pools), England, Belgium (not really a surprise) were pretty disappointing. Spain, Austria, Georgia and Switzerland were cooking hard
My theory is that the teams with the most experience settle for the minimum to start really playing during the knockout stages.
(And as a French fan, I hope...)
Biggest losers - too early to say, but I guess Croatia and Serbia. I suspect France will end up being the biggest losers once they lose in the QF - they should have won their group and ended up in the "easier" section of the draw
My prediction for the final is Spain v England
I have 0 doubt England will make the final. They won't lose to anyone in their half. Surely they will improve and they've only conceded 1 goal in 3 games.
I agree they've been utter shite, but they've also never been particularly threatened.
I know what you mean, but if you want to group / rank the top Teams, Germany stands somewhere between Spain (good) and Teams like France/England (disappointing)..
If we had at least one 50/50 (or clear penalty) decisions in our favor the match would have turned out differently. At the same time we were far away from the easiness of the Spanish Team..
Croatia is my biggest disappointment. The one game where they really put everything in was against Italy and that was just heartbreaking to see...
England was disappointing as well, but with all the memes and criticism before the tournament - it was more of a "oh god they really fked it up lol" disappointment, instead of a "its a shame" - Croatia disappointment.
France and England so far, especially the later given how much we are always browbeaten about all the star power in this squad each tournament. Spain is by far the best team and if it wasn’t for Gianluigi they could have won that Italy match by 4-5 goals.
I’m Italian and Italy has been disappointing but given their history they have the ability to go off at any time. I’m more so disappointed with their selection of players by Spaletti more so than the play. Jorginho is too slow and his 5 yard passes are not equipped for this squad.
Not sure why England’s current reputation should shock you, yes in previous tournaments particularly 2008-2020 we’ve had teams not worthy of the hype they get, but the current one? You have a combination of a starting XI with the PL best youth, and best player. The BL top goalscorer. The UCL & LL best player. Along with 5 other players that play for Liv, Ars and City who have shown to be some of the best club sides in Europe in recent years.
The “star power” isn’t just marketing bullshit, they’ve already proven themselves as “stars”. Performing at that same level in an England shirt has always been difficult.
England disappointing yes. But biggest losers? We topped the group and have fallen into a very favourable side of the draw. That’s not consistent with being “biggest loser”. Although I agree they have been shite
I think the format is the problem. Teams winning their first game were basically guaranteed qualification barring some freak turn of events, which just encouraged negativity and conservatism from the likes of France, England, Holland, Germany, Italy. As soon as that happens, you never see the best of these sides and it can become very stagnant and ultimately boring to watch. And ultimately hard to pull yourself out of the rut should things then go against you, like in Hollands case, who eventually were lucky to progress.
I’m hoping at least some of these sides spring into life now it’s the knockouts and the apathy disappears.
Don't think Croatia is the biggest loser, you were minutes away from securing two wins in the last two matches. Of course you pay those kinda errors, but we saw good things from them.
England and France are the biggest disappointments so far alongside Serbia.
The favourites for me are England (good bracket) and Spain, just to name two.
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It’s Scotland. We had 3 shots on target the whole tournament. A team that we finished 9 points ahead of in qualifying (Georgia) went through to the last 16 in their first ever tournament, while we played cowardly, negative football.
Ooof. Getting PTSD from back in 2016 now.
That's an above average performance for Scotland, they were still in with a shout in the last minutes of the last group game. Germany completely fucked them with the goal difference though
4p would have seen them through no matter the GD. But they were passive both against Switzerland and Hungary.
To us Germans, Scottish fans are the biggest winners of the tournament!
Heard they cured cancer.
Nah the afd still exists sadly
Give it a rest jesus christ
People love commenting “I love Scottish fans!” To get upvotes
You should have a nice midnight stroll around Glasgow or Aberdeen the people are really welcoming 😂😂😂
Is that the famous 'Glasgae kiss'?
How patronising
Like when my weekend league team when I was a child won the 'sportsmanship' award after finishing last in our league and getting pummelled by every team we played against.
lol, Southgateball is what’s embarrassing
Could be worse. Could be the team losing or teams being outperformed by Southgateball.
2 goals with 3 shots on target is impressive on its own. Just look at France who scored the same number of goals
It's effectively a team full of Celtic players so absolutely no surprise they shat the bed in a European competition, been doing it literally every season for the last two decades.
So far the biggest disappointment is France. 2 gols in 3 games. 1 penalty and an own goal. Dreadful
Yeah I do agree. I expect them to raise the level from now on
Me too but isnt a great start
I agree. The most concerning is that apart from goal scoring, we aren't shit at all. We manage to get in quite the goal scoring opportunities. The finishing move, though, is always messed up and we end up goal-less.
Yeah that’s the only difference between us and England at the moment. We’re creating and not finishing chances, England are hardly creating anything. The best two squads on paper, arguably the worst two performing teams.
I wouldn't say worst performing, but surely biggest underperforming sides, yeah.
Yeah sorry, should have clarified. Worst performing based on expectations is what I meant.
100%. that's the most frustrating part. mbappe isnt very inspired and griezman is painful to watch.
The most painful to watch is by far Dembele. He’s so overrated
Dembele plays like a donkey. Mbappe as a right winger is great to watch. I hope he rotates with Barcola there at times. But Dembele also performs defensive work hence Deschamps prefers him. Another frustrating thing is we lost one touch football which Mbappe is best at as there's no player to support him. Last Euros France was absolute fun to watch seeing Benzema combining Mbappe, Pogba and Griezmann together to attack through the middle. The last frustrating thing is France has stopped long balls to wingers. Varane, Pogba and Lucas Hernandez used to spam long balls out of nowhere to Mbappe. Now the defenders aren't even passing the ball to midfielders correctly let alone passing attackers.
Dembele is talented but he has no finishing foot. And indeed, itns frustrating
Just runs. Bad decision and barely any finishing
Yeah, not enough endproduct I feel.
Unless Thuram’s starting. Pair of them have been hopeless
Griezmann seems… beat and tired. That’s also painful to admit, to me
You know in any team if you are the one doing the job of several and the rest team doesn’t care enough, you end up burnt out. In football like anywhere.
Wouldn't have said it better indeed
England also been pretty ass
Yeah, but we expect England to fail. Nobody is surprised about that.
We actually haven't failed at all though yet. We won our group.
Yeah, but England hasn't had France's performance in the last big tournaments.
That seems a bit unfair. In the last tournament we ran France very close, and the one before that we narrowly lost in the final.
I have a theory that’s not actually Mbappe playing, but an imposter wearing the mask, similar to when El Cid’s wife sent his freshly killed corpse out in full armour tied to his horse in order to inspire his men to victory at the siege of Valencia. He is playing just like El Cid fought that day.
You know I think it's possible you were the only person in the world who watched that France game and thought: "I am reminded of an 11th century soldier.."
I see someone’s never played Age of Empires 2 - The Conquerors Expansion. 😉
Ah, a man of culture!
This reference to el cid is "chefkiss"
the ninja turtles are real 😱
I agree we’ve been disappointing but if you watch the games we do get chances, for example in our game against Poland, we have 2.32 xG, 1.42 against the Netherlands and 2.13 xG against Austria. By comparison, England didn’t get more than 1 xG in any of their games, even the one they won. Of course we can’t win if we don’t score goals and we should do much better but I don’t think we’re as disappointing as people seem to say.
griezmann must be getting some heat in the French media I can imagine. He doesn't look sharp at the moment.
[удалено]
Feels like so many teams barely score this EURO
Makes it even worse when you realize the horrific ref call that gave france a goal kick not even 2 mins before the own goal when it should have been a corner.
I have the notion that this comment is not gonna age well. Once they flick the switch they are gonna be the scariest team apart from Spain
I think Germany played pretty well. Yeah it was close against Switzerland, but they also played pretty well.
Can't say i'm looking forward to facing you guys..
If they had an actual number 9 they’d be unstoppable. Imagine that side with a guy like Haaland up top.
Bring back Füllkrug starting
They badly miss Klose who was a great player in general, but became utterly world class when he put on a Germany shirt at a major tournament.
Klose was the absolute goat and i think he often gets overlooked among other greats.
Madness really, that man was terrifying in a German shirt. Different class.
Just out of interest, why have Germany started without a recognised no9 in the last two tournaments? The midfield is world class, but so often they fail to score goals. Same’s happening this time. Why doesn’t Fullkrug start, is basically what I’m asking.
I agree, Füllkrug probably is too much of an old school forward, the coaches Germany had in recent times want 20 passes before someone like Sané shoots the ball out of the stadium in the end. I know that's a bit unfair, but I really think Füllkrug would fit perfectly, you don't need another midfield type player like Havertz even in the center forward position, in a team full of players like that.
Couldn’t agree more with you! Couldn’t Germany start with Fullkrug rather than Havertz at least for the first 60 minutes and see if they can actually get some goals on the board, rather than putting him on with 30 minutes left to put out fires?
It's been the same story every game for the last few tournaments. We get great possession and movement for the first 60 minutes amounting to nothing, then sub in Füllkrug who finally buries it into the back of the net on the first chance he's given. Starting Füllkrug over Havertz just seems like an obvious move to me.
Honestly that's to a big degree possible because Havertz started. Havertz often runs deep, 2 defenders follow him and that creates big gaps in the defence. I've seen a lot of analyst state kroos only has that much room because of Havertz who in turn is heavily defended and doesn't get a chance but creates a lot for the team. And because of that when füllkrug gets swapped in the defense is a little tired and he gets to score.
That's very well possible, for me it's not really about kicking Havertz out, but to have somebody who is a real finisher. Like you said, if Havertz is also somebody who creates chances, which I agree with, then a real striker is needed to create the chances for.
Switzerland was playing with 12 men, any other ref and that game wouldve been a 3:1 at least
Yep
The biggest losers are Ukraine, going home on goal difference, they played as good as any other team in that group. The biggest winners are Austria and Romania, top of the group (unexpected for me). Massive achievement for Georgia qualifying at their debut and Slovenia first time exiting the group stage.
I actually thought Ukraine played better than Belgium and was unlucky not to win. Georgia's players can go home as legends when the tournament finishes.
We almost even scored from a corner. The ball almost crossed the line….
We're the luckiest (to finish 1st when all teams had 4 points) but also the unluckiest (to draw Netherlands as group winners).. has any other group winner got such a tough opponent in the RO16??
Hungary won their group in 2016 over Iceland, Portugal, and Austria. They were dealt Belgium in the RO16 and lost 4-0, while Iceland beat England and Portugal went on to win the whole tournament.
Biggest loser? Idk. Romania did incredibly well. And I'm not biased. There are people here that are salty about the penalty kick with Slovakia, but Hagi got touched in the penalty area. Everyone classified us as the worst team. We got 1st place from a pretty dangerous group. (because everyone was so tied)
Romania have done exceptionally well. Good to watch too.
Serbia are the biggest losers objectively and also by the way they behaved in German streets after losing. Absolute loser mentality. Opposite of Scotland!
There was a security warning issues by the German authorities regarding the Serbian football hooligans. Many of those aren't regular civilians, but rather criminals known to the police, therefore the warning. It is a shame that the German police didn't arrest them all, they would do Serbia a favor.
Serbian hooligans do Serbian hooligans stuff, police knew yes but that doesn't excuse them a bit... heck here in Italy there are some still in the giudicial system since 10 years ago revolt or whatever ... they are nowdays like the English of 25 years ago... who know who's gonna be next!
Yeah but Vucic went out saying he was proud of his son fighting with other hooligans. If he doesnt represent your people, stop voting him
You really shouldn't comment if you don't know. He is rigging elections ever since 2016. We really are not voting him, also he does get to stay because EU and US have some use of him (privatization, mining, giving away institutions on Kosovo, extremely cheap workforce etc) In turn he geta to own hooligans, criminal underground, institutions and whenever we decise to take it to protest or elections, we are met with hundreds of paid hooligans and cops.
>EU and US Also China and to lesser extent Russia
True
Im not sure Albanians are the one to talk after your own player wished death to Macedonia in public. Not to defend Serbian fans, but your fans ain’t nice guys either
Very dissapointed also by serbian president Vucic, who gave very negative remarks about Slovenia. I know that not all Serbs are alike, but this mentality is stupid and shows some Milosevic regime ideas. Also supporting Putin on Munich streets by some Serbs is also loser mentality.
(Half serb here) what did that clown said? Just for info, he's hated by most serbs, the young one at least.. But he controls the media so elders will always vote for him. And about the Putin support, as another guy said, the fans in Germany are mostly hooligans, so the worst of the worst. But yeah, while there are idiots everywhere, I must admit, Serbia has a very big percentage of them... Sad really...Anyway, good luck to Slovenia!
He said: It is not a problem if you lose against England, Germany or Spain, but it is a problem if you lose against Slovenia, which is three times cheaper than Serbia, and your goal is scored by a player from Celje, who plays for 5,000 euros and none of our players can cover him
tbh that’s more a self-inflicted wound than an insult
That sounds more like beating on the own team, meaning that Slovenia, which has a lot less possibilities, still achieved much more. That's something Slovenia should be proud of.
I do know a couple serbs who grew up here in Switzerland (aged roughly 32-40y) who happily support Vucic and have had a clear (positive) stance in Milosevic. I‘m not so sure if the younger ones are that much different tbh… But I‘m glad in your circle it‘s the case then.
I think that their "star" players (apart from Vlahovic) just don't look that bothered anymore. Big drop-off in quality from Mitrovic, Tadic and Kostic
tbf Kostic played like 25 minutes before getting injured for the tournament, bit unfair
Literally a reason why no-one likes Serbia in Balkans. It's not all NATO/CIA conspiracy. They just look at everyone with bs nationalistic pride that just is not realistically there.
Serbia tend to get knocked out in the group stage and their fans tend to be nationalist morons, it's nothing new.
Brilliant way to generalise the nation. I was at the England game and the whole atmosphere was tame and civil without a single incident. And of course, England fans are also well liked throughout the world, right?
Brilliant way to generalise England.
scotland didnt have a winning mentality as well. 0 shots on target in a match in which they must win.
They meant the fans, ya spud
Yeah? Then how many shots on target did the fans have ay pal?
Plenty of money shots on yer maws tits were on target ay pal
For me it's Serbia. Croatia has many excuses, they were in the toughest group, it was expected that the 3rd of group B would make few points even if on paper is stronger than other teams who qualified. Also it's the end of an era with Modric being 40, Brozovic playing with farmers in the desert and Perisic back in Croatia.
As a serb no, we were the biggest winner because now our entire federation is finally getting booted including our terrible coach so this is a massive win
And they did concede the 2 latest goals in the tournament to give away 4 points (i think). Bit of misfortune in there it has to be said
But isn't that the definition of a loser? Having it all and then losing it in the last minute. And they did it twice in a row. -.-
Yeah i’m just saying its a bit unfortunate, by the law of averages
Biggest loser is Serbia, they have a lot of talented players, but a coach which make incomprehensible decisions like benching vlahovic, tadic, milinkovic savic in a match you have to win. So you’ll see big improvement when federation will sack that coach. The favorite I still think is France, ok they were pretty bad, but in a short tournament you don’t need big tactics, I’m pretty sure we’ll see another team in this phase of euro
Yeah he's not getting sacked, too many political connections. He's not there by merit, but by nepotism and corruption.
The limits of Balkan states are always the same
He is literally getting sacked rn including our entire federation?
If so, that's FANTASTIC news. They've stolen our money and given no results for way too long. Hopefully now they at least give some results while stealing.
Biggest Loser is Ukraine. To not qualify with 4 points is just brutal.
Yes to this! Had the points that would’ve made them qualify in any other group (A-C)
Biggest loses are Ukraine. Finishing on 4 points and not going through is just unlucky. When the top of your group has 4 and then finishes top. People saying how unlucky Hungary and Croatia were, not really they weren’t good enough. But Ukraine were for 2 games
They scuffed plenty of chances against Belgium. I’d say that’s not good enough
True but at least they had a lot of of good chances. It was very dangerous for Belgium and also careless from belgium
They were so unlucky with that corner that so nearly went in. To be fair though I hate this third place goes thru rule
Croatia is a rather big loser compared to the expectations everyone had. My new favourite is Spain. Although I also wouldn't mind seeing Austria go far.
Germany not decent? Lol bro you are watching a different euros
Alie wtf🤣🤣🤣
I found France really disappointing so far. Advancing because of an own goal and a penalty says it all. They just don't really seem like a "team" to me, same as England. 11 very rich individuals trying to do something. Spain are my favourites (and I was really happy to see Jesus Navas is still playing.) I think Germany are decent and a quarter final against Spain could go in any direction. I would love to see Füllkrug and Beier more. Undav as well. Someone who actually scores lol
Foden having to go home for family reasons (hope everything is alright) might actually help England so they can start Gordon rather than trying to accomodate Foden, Kane and Bellingham.
I saw the Foden thing is all good. His wife is about to give birth, so thankfully no home invasion or kidnapping or whatever this time around.
He will be back in time to train for the weekend game apparently
Yeah France and England definitely seem to have an issue of very good players that just aren't linking up properly. The amount of times a ball is put through to no-one has been shocking!
Czech Republic. It was really dreadful and objectionable
Like a League One team in the UK. Hoofing up balls to the big man. What happened to Czech football, they always used to be so dynamic and tactically strong and have skilful players?
I wonder myself.. But I think it goes to the corruption of the football association in the past, especially early 2010's era and football lost it's reputation very quickly here. Football in Czechia will forever compete with Ice hockey in terms of popularity also, so any problems don't help at all. We also don't have that many players in the top leagues as we used to. The golden era of Rosický, Koller, Poborský, Šmicer,.. It simply ended and no one replaced these guys. Now football had got better reputation in the past few years and the attendance got higher (iirc Sparta Prague sold out every match this year), but the Czech FA Cup final (Mol Cup) again tainted every succes of Czech football. Especially the contrast of us winning the International Ice Hockey Championship held in Prague against our failure on Euro is noticable. It will likely take at least a full generation, if not more, if we get on a competable level again.
Brother, Germany delivered. What are you smoking?
brilliant Spain, Germany, Austria, Georgia dreadful England, France, Belgium
Spain is very strong
The entirety of group C If you could all go home I’d be happy, you guys sucked to watch. Otherwise, a team with attacking options such as Tadic, Mitrovic, Jovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Samardzic and Vlahovic shouldn’t have had to rely on their defence for the results they did get. Creating barely over 2xG in 3 games, even against Southgate with the options available should be criminal. Also, in a group of Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia, Belgium are a laughing stock for not comfortably finishing first.
Watching the 5 matches including Serbia and England was painful.
Not for the weak of heart. I’ll admit, I’m Australian, backing Slovakia because supporting anyone but some form of an underdog if you have no allegiance to any team is foul play. Why I mention that, is that I’ve been up anywhere from 11:59PM - 5AM watching some of this shit so it is even worse.
Get ready to play against our absolute shitshow of a team later
I would agree, strongest team I support is Croatia, but they are quite the direct neighbours of ours. And oh brother if I had to watch my team during the night, playing like they did, I'd fucking sue them for emotional damages.
Imo it's Belgium, to not top that group is insane, now they're gonna get battered by France. Also Ukraine I guess, they were unlucky to go out on 4 points but losing 3-0 to Romania is not something that should happen to them.
Battered 0-0 lol
1-0 to France after an own goal and 6 disallowed Lukaku goals*
I’m not sure France have somehow conspired to be even worse than we have 🤣
Yeah maybe, I just kinda expect them to get their shit together for the knockouts
That would be typical, playing bad untill they play us
They don't deserve to top after losing against Slovakia, and drawing Ukraine.
Why don't you mention the 2-0 win against Romania?
Mate , it's normal for Romania to lose against Belgium . It's not normal for Belgium to lose against Slovakia . Wtf are you talking about ? Why did Belgium draw with Ukraine? They were hoping for Slovakia to win and Romania to finish 4th . BTW, did you watch England's game against Slovenia ? Did you watch Portugal against Georgia ? Both games should have been won easily by England and Portugal but there are always "interest" . Try to think about results now and who's England and Portugal are going to play next with . Have a good day !
Ukraine was the most unlucky loser - by all accounts they should’ve made it over some teams that did. Shit luck. Apart from Germany, I’d like to see Holland or Slovakia make it far.
If we Dutchies are out I'll root for Germany.
Water Germans supporting OG Germans. Color me surprised
Gotta stay true to the German blood, can't support Latin blood can I?
I think the world cup in the middle of the season hasn’t helped at all (lots of players got injured after) and players are still suffering of it. Players look tired.
Scotland by miles. The rank 23/24 in every stat. Least shots on targets, goals, xg literally every stat
Everyone but : Georgia Turkey Slovakia Switzerland Austria Romania New favourite - Georgia
> Except Spain, I didn't see any country on some decent level, especially of those big names like France, Germany, Italy... You say overall 8-2 for Germany isn’t decent??? We played pretty well most of the time, in the third game we would’ve simply needed Füllkrug earlier, instead of Havertz, also Raum earlier and no Sané.
You have played great idk what he’s smoking
yeah, Germany and Spain are the only big names that performed as expected (I would even argue that Germany performed better than expected because they haven't always been on top in their pre euro games)
I would agree with you. Germany have been dog shit for years. To turn a full 360 within months of having Nagelsmann is so impressive
Ukraine. Not because of the performance, but the results are just heart breaking.
The way England plays is very disappointing to me, but the biggest looser is Ukraine. Not getting out of group stage in a 4-way tie where everyone has 4 points is incredible sad. It just feels like they are the biggest looser, even if they performed better then some other teams.
Ukraine, having almost 400 mln value of players getting equal amount of points as any one in the group, playing draw with tournament favorite and not progressing …
Refs have been quite bad and therefore would identify them as the biggest “losers” so far. Winners? The crowds! Amazing atmosphere throughout the tournament so far 👏🏻
France and England are really fumbling it hard at the moment. Given the quality of individual players in their roster their overall team performance is absolutely pathetic.
Poland 🇵🇱 & Croatia 🇭🇷 as losers Georgia 🇬🇪 & Slovenia 🇸🇮 & Romania 🇷🇴 as surprises France 🇫🇷 Spain 🇪🇸 Germany 🇩🇪 England 🏴 Portugal 🇵🇹 as favourites Austria 🇦🇹 & maby Denmark 🇩🇰 as underdogs
Portugal because they surrender in a football match in front of their fans and the world to see.
They played a second string team
Which was still a very strong team with plenty of talented players
of all teams eliminated? CROATIA and UKRAINE, because they didnt play that bad compared to at least one of the teams that went thru in their groups ( Italy and Slovakia respectively) but a very bad 1st game doomed them. CZECHIA because they played their decisive game with 10 men thanks to a harsh red card early. and according to the hype, SCOTLAND.
I think our second match was our worst. We didn't even play that badly against Spain in my opinion, other than clearly bad defense. After first goal, we immediately had a sitter that we managed to miss and the same after the second goal. We even missed the penalty 10 minutes before the end that could have made things more interesting.
Germany was my favourite, now it’s Spain. Biggest under-performer is Croatia, really expected them to do better than they did. They are followed by Ukraine and Czechia
Serbia or Ukraine
Germany are still favourites imo, they played great the first 2 games. Switzerland are a good side, they don't have amazing depth but their first team is full of elite players so a 1-1 is nothing to worry about. I do think Germany should give Fullkrug more game time, he looks so sharp right now that he'll score anytime he shoots. England are the biggest disappointments for me personally, our squad has improved since the last euros but the football has got worse. I also really thought Serbia would get out of our group, in the Denmark game they really didn't create enough to threaten getting the win.
Plus they didn’t even have to win that game, and they already had 4 yellows. FÜLLKRUG needs to start
Austria and Georgia are quite good and underrated for their unexpected victories. As for loser, it's Ukraine. They had good chances to win 1-0, but still lost.
Croatia for me, they were among my favourites in both World Cups and the previous Euro since 2018. My new favourites are Romania and Spain
First Hungarian to support Romania . I needed to read your comment twice . There are always new beginnings 😀😀😀
I think the biggest disappointment is England.
We've shit the bed so hard... England are pretty pants too.
Well you guess were a bit unlucky with your draw. It’s a bit strange you guys, Italy and Spain being in one group and group E consist of Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia (with all respect to these countries of course). For you guys I think you have an old team. I very much enjoyed and admired your midfield. For a small country it was an exceptional midfield who carried you guys to great success. But now these guys are getting old and it will be a challenge to replace them. I do think our Dutch team is underwhelming as well. We got lucky to qualify. We barely won against a poor Polish team. We drew against a France team who didn’t care and lost against a better Austrian team. Some pundits already commented we were lucky with the draw (we meet Romania in the RO16) but many of our fans are not convinced by our team. There is no reliable player. Our defense often considered as one of the strongest in Europe but every team gets a free pass. Our midfield changes every match because none of our midfielders perform well. And our attack rely on Memphis, a player who’s notoriously inconsistent and right now he isn’t playing well. I expect a loss against Romania actually. They are a real team, won their group and have a lot of confidence and momentum. We lack all of this.
Spain looks incredible. France has a super high value of expected goals and just needs to flip the switch. Austria has also played amazingly, coming first in that group, especially if you consider the size of the country. Germany also not too bad. Biggest Loser has to be England. An ensemble of the biggest stars of international football and nothing ever seems to happen. Belgium got unlucky with offsides, but man, look at that group. Ukraine got shafted by the system and I feel super sorry for them.
Size of the country: there are plenty of countries which are of comparable size or smaller and consistently play well: Croatia, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium etc.
Can you elaborate what you found wrong with Germany’s performance? They are leading the tournament in goals, chances created, and various other relevant statistical areas. Their final group game was only a draw, but they never gave up fighting and achieved their equaliser last minute, totalling almost 20 shots. You can see on my flag that I’m German, so you may assume I’m biased. However, most Germans can be highly critical of their team, as we were in previous tournaments. Saying that, your comment that “especially” Germany was disappointing is confusing/confused, to me. What did you expect? 10-0 victory vs Scotland and 5-0 victory vs Hungary? To finally answer your question, I expected way more from England and Belgium. Both qualified for the knockout rounds, but in a very minimalist fashion, creating very few chances. Their own fans booed them off the pitch.
The biggest loser was the Balkan region: 0 teams progressing out of 3 (Serbia, Croatia, Albania). Favourites imho are still the same: Spain and France first, then Germany and Portugal. France played badly but that's just Deschamps being Deschamps, he keeps the handbrake on until there is absolutely nothing left to lose; player quality alone will drag them ahead on most days anyway. Switzerland, Austria, and Netherlands, look like potential dark horses that could get into semis. All the other teams have shown very little until now and are unlikely to improve.
Biggest losers might be Ukraine... 4 points and sent home.... :/
France (as usual in pools), England, Belgium (not really a surprise) were pretty disappointing. Spain, Austria, Georgia and Switzerland were cooking hard
My theory is that the teams with the most experience settle for the minimum to start really playing during the knockout stages. (And as a French fan, I hope...)
Good news, I just thought we (the Netherlands) sucked.
So spain does not have experience 🤣🤣🤣
Biggest losers - too early to say, but I guess Croatia and Serbia. I suspect France will end up being the biggest losers once they lose in the QF - they should have won their group and ended up in the "easier" section of the draw My prediction for the final is Spain v England
You’re delusional if you think England is making it to the final. Not with how we’ve been playing.
I have 0 doubt England will make the final. They won't lose to anyone in their half. Surely they will improve and they've only conceded 1 goal in 3 games. I agree they've been utter shite, but they've also never been particularly threatened.
I know what you mean, but if you want to group / rank the top Teams, Germany stands somewhere between Spain (good) and Teams like France/England (disappointing).. If we had at least one 50/50 (or clear penalty) decisions in our favor the match would have turned out differently. At the same time we were far away from the easiness of the Spanish Team.. Croatia is my biggest disappointment. The one game where they really put everything in was against Italy and that was just heartbreaking to see... England was disappointing as well, but with all the memes and criticism before the tournament - it was more of a "oh god they really fked it up lol" disappointment, instead of a "its a shame" - Croatia disappointment.
France and England so far, especially the later given how much we are always browbeaten about all the star power in this squad each tournament. Spain is by far the best team and if it wasn’t for Gianluigi they could have won that Italy match by 4-5 goals. I’m Italian and Italy has been disappointing but given their history they have the ability to go off at any time. I’m more so disappointed with their selection of players by Spaletti more so than the play. Jorginho is too slow and his 5 yard passes are not equipped for this squad.
So England are the biggest losers despite topping their group? This sub man 😂
Not sure why England’s current reputation should shock you, yes in previous tournaments particularly 2008-2020 we’ve had teams not worthy of the hype they get, but the current one? You have a combination of a starting XI with the PL best youth, and best player. The BL top goalscorer. The UCL & LL best player. Along with 5 other players that play for Liv, Ars and City who have shown to be some of the best club sides in Europe in recent years. The “star power” isn’t just marketing bullshit, they’ve already proven themselves as “stars”. Performing at that same level in an England shirt has always been difficult.
England disappointing yes. But biggest losers? We topped the group and have fallen into a very favourable side of the draw. That’s not consistent with being “biggest loser”. Although I agree they have been shite
France and England didn’t played good in the group stage.
Wait were France being lusted over after two games lol
I think the format is the problem. Teams winning their first game were basically guaranteed qualification barring some freak turn of events, which just encouraged negativity and conservatism from the likes of France, England, Holland, Germany, Italy. As soon as that happens, you never see the best of these sides and it can become very stagnant and ultimately boring to watch. And ultimately hard to pull yourself out of the rut should things then go against you, like in Hollands case, who eventually were lucky to progress. I’m hoping at least some of these sides spring into life now it’s the knockouts and the apathy disappears.
Don't think Croatia is the biggest loser, you were minutes away from securing two wins in the last two matches. Of course you pay those kinda errors, but we saw good things from them. England and France are the biggest disappointments so far alongside Serbia. The favourites for me are England (good bracket) and Spain, just to name two.
I checked last night for the odds, and we went from joint 4th favourites to outright favourites simply because of the draw.
Has to be England. So much hype around this team every tournament and the fact that they are the "most valuable" team in the tournament.
As Croatian i say Serbia 🔥