worst day ever.
3 points.
just terrible
what the hell were portugal doing?
ah well...

In Euro 2000 both Holland and France had already qualified with 6 points out of two games when they met each other; France fielded their subs in that game, but not Holland (except for Westerveld being the goal keeper). Holland being one of the host nations had some moral obligations towards the home crowd though, which they won't have this time.

I reckon Ooijer and De Jong won't play (because of yellow cards) and maybe some players who did a lot of running vs Italy and France will get rested too. I think Van Basten has hinted that the players can decide that for themselves. I reckon Kuyt will play, surely Van Persie too because he needs more match fitness. Maybe Robben too, but on the other hand he's made out of glass so may get spared. Heitinga will play I'm sure and probably Huntelaar will get his first minutes of the tournament too.


It's sometimes being said about Argentina-Peru from the 1978 world cup too.
Holland-Ireland during the 1990 world cup was a bit of a joke too during the last 10 minutes, both teams playing the bal around on their own half after realising England were 1-0 up against Egypt.

hmmmmmm denmark-sweden 4 years ago :D?

oh yeah, that 2-2.:D

denmark and sweden have a history of highscoring draws though... during euro 2008 qualification they played 3-3, but then sweden got a 3-0 victory awarded by UEFA because a danish hooligan came on the pitch and attacked the referee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XT0WI1-Xqc
the incident costed denmark a place in this tournament.

had a Turk; didn't even put him in the line-up/.//oops

watched most of it today...

This Euro 2008 is really quite good so far... even though I do not get all the results I hope for.


Ha... When I was in Algeria, this topic came up quite a few times... at least when I was identified as a German. When I was identified as a French, we would discuss Zidane or Benzema.

We also discussed Rabah Madjer, of course, although I do not know that much about him and I was mostly listening to what the people I was speaking to had to say about him.

he he!
I'm not one of those blind supporters who say "aaaagh! It's a setup! They want to put us out of he tournament!". I'm one of those who say : "Well, if italy had done better we wouldn't need other teams' help/compassion to get to the next round..shame on us!" :D:D:D

still 3 measly points

so bad

im beginning to question whether i know anything about football

haha

Oh shit, that Klose really isn't going to score this tournament, is he?

I didn't see the first game where he had two assists, but during the second game he was just invisible. Because Germany seemed to have a collective off day vs Croatia I decided to keep him still, but being invisible against Austria!!???

That's it, you're out. And Germany will be too if they don't raise their game a lot for the next match against Portugal... At the game we're doing at work I predicted them to become champions before the tournament started, but I don't see it happening after watching their last two games. At least Metzelder kept me a clean sheet today. Compliments to o o o for having Ballack as a captain.

Sneijder saved my round last week (13 points), but I seriously wonder whether's he's playing tomorrow.

I dumped Gomez for Podolski. I'm 1 point happier.
Before the tournament started, I believed Spain would win, but I now doubt it.
Spain will have a tough quarter before facing Netherlands, and the winner will be exhausted.
So it's up to Portugal or Croatia, I don't see Germany producing more than they did. No mention of Turkey, but I'm quite happy they made it. And I think I'll silently, respectfuly support either Croats of Turks against Portugal.
To see the goals, there's something rather sweet the BBC did on its page.
You can have a look at a virtual replay of any single goal, the way TV showed it, and from many players' point of view.
For Germany-Poland : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...?goalid=501993

ive given in and transfered in david villa. all spanish attack for the quarters.
i hope the next couple of days are kinder to me

as usual.. its the 2nd half of the week that i depend on success..... 6 points.... and down to third!

Argh... I just realised I can't replace Di Natale by Huntelaar with my wild card as I had planned since Sunday, because Huntelaar is actually more expensive by 0,5m (i thought they had the same price), and this even though I have enough budget...

I hope this sign will not bring bad luck (for France). Hmm, I could pick Mutu but this could bring even more bad luck. I am quite superstitious at the moment.

Regardless, I hope Huntelaar will score tonight!

So, I figured out why I always mess up my team, I'm doing another "fantasy tournament" on an italian magazine's site and I mix the changes I want to make there with the ones I have in mind for this thing and vice versa and mixxxx and everything goes wrong. I'll sink , I'll sink, I can feel it.

p.s. I was SURE I tranferred klasnic. No sign of him in both teams. I might play a parallel "fantasy football when you're dreaming" league without even knowing.

I'm a bit stressed by the match (France-Italy), I don't know why....

coz you're french?

it must be the reason...

And you nic ? How are you ?

ha ha I'm hysteric but not for the game, the fever went down and it left me a super-excited mood like I was on a super coffeine rush (and I don't even drink coffe regularly), I'm hyperactive and I'm posting stupid things on the board at super-speed.
Talking about the match, I'm pretty sure italy will do another bad game and if holland with its turnover will play well orange people and le bleus could be the ones going on to the next stage...

Oh, well, I think it will be a draw.... And concerning the other match, I don't know, Holland should win, but who knows...

Whoa, 9(!) Dutch players rested compared to the first 2 games... still, the Czech Republic beat Germany with 8-9 subs at Euro 2004 which prevented elimination for Holland. I'm hoping for a Holland win; it would be a shame to risk losing the momentum/winning mood.

With this team it will be more difficult, but Huntelaar's got a pretty great goalscoring record:

Appearances (goals)
2004-2005 Heerenveen: 46 (34)
2005-2008 Ajax: 82 (70)

international
2004-2006 Netherlands under-21: 22 (18)
2006-2008 Netherlands: 12 (7)

Ah, I almost forgot this picture; it's just too great to not post it. :D



I'm off to the pub... good luck everyone.

Ribery injured after 7 mins, Penalty-red card for Abidal....
Nothing to say, I'm too fucked...


I wonder why italian players are always falling over, they should have poise problems, they're falling before the tackles...

ha ha better to fall and then get up again than to fall and be took out of the field on a golf car :D
no, seriously, I'm really sorry for ribery, beside having him in my team I really like him.
romania will score at 76'.

Well, we'll see...
I don't have any hope for the qualif'.

ha ha ha , go orange people!
allez le blues, a la maison!
:p

ops, from a fantasy pov I probably sucked (again).

its all gone wrong for me.... at least i kept a clean sheet!!

roll on wholesale changes for the quarters and cmon spain to score some badly needed points...... ive gone 15 down on leader!!!!

Well, I wish you good luck, Italians !!!
I dont think they played that good, but it doesn't matter...
Fucking crapy match. The referee was very very very bad. Or blind, I don't know.

Ah ah ah !!!

We are gonna make it !!!

Every single French coach has now cut the navel string with his national team and can clearly see who to get and who to dump !!!

I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT !!!

You Dutch, Italian, Portugese don't have that luck !!!

You short-sighted people !!!

This horrid Italian victory opened my eyes and I'm gonna WIN this tournament !!!

By a 100 points margin !!!

It takes more than a penalty and a crappy free kick to bring my fun down !!!

I love your optimism, Bertrand.
100 points ? Possibly.

Doubts ???
Scepticism ???
I'll make it 150.

Hey, relax, I'm pretty sure you'll win the league.
One more on your prize list.

shame about that italy-france game. with ribery off and that red card + penalty shortly after it was never really going to be the game it should've been. oh well, i watched the holland-romania game instead anyway.

wouldn't surprise me if italy gets very far into the tournament now, because they're cheeky buggers like that. plus they can grow into a tournament like only they, germany and france can.

in terms of fantasy football, it's a bit annoying that all the euro 2008 group leaders were already sure of their place after just two games. after portugal, croatia and holland playing 8-9 bench players the last few days we can be pretty sure spain is going to do the same...

spain really shouldnt rest players, though i suspect they will - theyre a team that really needs to keep their momentum up, otherwise i fear italy will sneak past them in the quarters... theyre capable of winning with a weakened team though.

Great play by Russia last night.
So it's down to eight teams then:

Portugal v Germany
Croatia v Turkey
Netherlands v Russia
Spain v Italy

Tonight's game (Por-Ger) should be an interesting one, as well as Sunday's (Spa-Ita). The other two games may seem less evenly matched, but Turkey and Russia will be sure to give Croatia and Netherlands a hard time if not more.

against all odds, I did a predictions-driven formation. Either I'll get lots of points or near to none.

same here haha

if results dont go my way, im screwed

and im already somewhere near the bottom after that last round