[pokkeherrie]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

the italy/ireland game was a bit shit-- except for balotelli's amazing goal. okay, the first goal was cool too but balotelli's was a thing of beauty. cassano had a great 1st half. and there was some hilarity in the foul department.

should i watch the spain game later, or am i better off napping? i started watching that one first, but it was dull, so i changed it.

The best thing about Boletelli's goal was the "go on, substitute me again" taunt he made towards Prandelli immediately afterwards.

Spain game was mostly boring, but still fascinating and tense because they were just one goal away from elimination for most of the game.....huuuuuuuge chance for Rakitic and I spotted at least one unawarded penalty for Croatia.


Also, how to play Iniesta? With 5 or with 6?

 

 

[!@#$%!]

fucking balls, sweden 2 france 0!

total fucking defensive collapse and many times france was just lucky. but look at this gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-CdyLzc8Z8

----

@pokeherrie - hilarious photos!

[pokkeherrie]

^Great goal! Still, Zlatan's best goal at the Euros remains this one from 2004:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nc2HxLeM74

Anyway, so it's Spain v France and England v Italy. Should be good!

[h8kurdt]

Ibram's goal was just brilliant. Now the question is WHY THE HELL DIDN'T DO THAT EARLIER?!

As for the England game...needed more Heskey. Can never have enough Heskey.

[the ikara cult]

We're concentrating on doing what we do well - stodging the play up and then getting a header/tap in. We would get eaten alive against Spain, so hats off to the Swedes for turning up and beating France.

Italy... I think we have a decent chance as long as we dont get ideas above our station and suddenly think we can play expansive, attractive football or anything ludicrous like that.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by pokkeherrie

^Great goal! Still, Zlatan's best goal at the Euros remains this one from 2004:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nc2HxLeM74

Anyway, so it's Spain v France and England v Italy. Should be good!

i think spain is lacking this year, but with such shit defense france has little chances for survival.

england italy should be more interesting, but i didn't see england play today, so i don't dare make predictions.

[Bertrand]

Mexes will not play the quarters, so in comes Koscielny, who's been quite calm and good in his last friendly. He hasn't played much for France, but that could be a good thing.

And Cabaye should be back. He's been the best French footballer of the tournament so far.

After what I wrote about Holland...

I haven't seen Rooney's goal, but those tonight quite matched the other ones.

England was supposed to have one of its worst teams ever, and they've got 7 points. Not bad (I'm forgetting the Sweden game saying that).

I think France and England should be glad to face their next oponents.
I don't see how the French could have done against Italy, and I doubt Terry would have looked brilliant against the first Spanish sub coming at him.
Spain hasn't impressed, Iniesta's been quite sterile, this could be good for France (unless Del Bosque puts new blood in the team) (and if Nasri passes the ball) (and if the midfield supports Ribéry unlike tonight).
Looking forward to another Iniesta picture in a different blue surrounding.

Portugal-Czech Republic is intriguing me.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by the ikara cult

We're concentrating on doing what we do well - stodging the play up and then getting a header/tap in. We would get eaten alive against Spain, so hats off to the Swedes for turning up and beating France.

Italy... I think we have a decent chance as long as we dont get ideas above our station and suddenly think we can play expansive, attractive football or anything ludicrous like that.

Completely agree. We're riding our luck a bit, too, but compared with the times we've had no luck at all, I'll take it.

Italy is winnable but, as you say, we'll have to play the way we did against Spain in the pre-tournament friendly, and France last week if we're to have any chance. I trust Hodgson not to lose his head and try for a Hollywood display (thank God we got him instead of Redknapp.)

France's result is a real shock, though.

[jon boy]

thought we were really bad today not a good performance but one that still got a result. roony's goal was pure luck and he didnt look like scoring all night exept for a lucky bounce.

[demonrail666]

I think that's a bit harsh. Steven Gerrard was excellent, as I thought was Lescott. Rooney's goal wasn't a classic but he's a goal scorer who changes games even when he doesn't seem to play well (compare with the some of the 'brilliant' forwards we've seen elsewhere who've dazzled on occasions but ultimately done nothing - what Robben wouldn't have given for a lucky bounce like that). We rode our luck a bit, but so to some degree have all the teams that made it through - Spain were very close to going out last night. We may lose to Italy, we may not. It's too close to call for me. Although the one thing we have in our favour that I think a lot of 'better' teams will rightly be wary of is that, as average as we obviously are, we're proving hard to beat and we're always capable of nicking a goal. Even if we do get beaten by Italy, this is the most positive I've felt about an England team for years.

Hodgson seems to have a proper footballing 'idea'. It's still obviously very rough around the edges and definitely not one I'd want to follow week in week out in a league but for an international side I think it's perfectly fine and a vast improvement on the kind of directionless leadership we've had to endure for so long. Under Redknapp we'd have likely seen him go on about letting the team "express itself", then appear clueless when it went wrong. We've seen against Sweden that Hodgson can adapt has strategy when things don't go according to plan.

[!@#$%!]

quarterfinals predictions?

here are my guesses:

portugal 2 czech rep 1
germany 1 greece 0
spain 2 france 0
italy-england go to penalties & who knows

[Bertrand]

^
This probably means the reverse will occur...

I'd say :
Germany-Greece: 0-0, with the Manshaft going through, in spite of my misspelling

The other games I can't think of any kind of result; I'd say there will be goals tomorrow, apart from that...
And if there are Spanish goals, I don't want them...

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

^
This probably means the reverse will occur...

ha ha, yes!

[demonrail666]

Czech R 1 - 2 Portugal
Germany 2 - 0 Greece
Spain 2 - 0 France
England 1 - 1 Italy (England through on pens)

But for all of them, God knows, really

[demonrail666]

I'm sure this is already in the French newspapers but an interesting development within the People's Republic of France pre the QF's. I'm half expecting Bernard Henri-Levi to come in - on the Left wing, obviously.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Czech R 1 - 2 Portugal
Germany 2 - 0 Greece
Spain 2 - 0 France
England 1 - 1 Italy (England through on pens)

But for all of them, God knows, really

we have almost the exact same predictions, except i thought that the greek phalanx might just crimp germany's goalscoring power (everyone in the box and germany insisting on scoring from within the area).

with england i thought 1-1 at first but 2-2 in overtime, then penalties

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I'm sure this is already in the French newspapers but an interesting development within the People's Republic of France pre the QF's. I'm half expecting Bernard Henri-Levi to come in - on the Left wing, obviously.

uh??

[demonrail666]

Sorry, forgot the link ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...france-dispute

It's nothing, to be honest.

Re the scores. I think if Germany score early it could be ridiculous but 2-0 seems realistic. All the others seem v cagey to me. Spain will likely get around 70% possession but forget they're meant to try and score too, so I don't think France are as much the underdogs as they might appear (slthough realistically I can't see anything other than a Spain win). Portugal Czech is gonna depend on Ronaldo, i think. If he performs it's game over, otherwise it's anyone's. Italy and England is impossible to call, for me. But guaranteed if Italy start with Balotelli, he'll be sent off. Every England player will know exactly the right buttons to press to get him in trouble. And as we know, Balotelli hates being benched, so it'll be interesting to see what Prandelli does.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Sorry, forgot the link ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...france-dispute

It's nothing, to be honest.

ah! ribéry looked PISSED during the game and i don't blame him. maybe he punched somebody in the face ha ha

 

(i just read it was nasri vs. ben arfa vs. blanc)

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Re the scores. I think if Germany score early it could be ridiculous but 2-0 seems realistic. All the others seem v cagey to me. Spain will likely get around 70% possession but forget they're meant to try and score too, so I don't think France are as much the underdogs as they might appear (slthough realistically I can't see anything other than a Spain win). Portugal Czech is gonna depend on Ronaldo, i think. If he performs it's game over, otherwise it's anyone's. Italy and England is impossible to call, for me. But guaranteed if Italy start with Balotelli, he'll be sent off. Every England player will know exactly the right buttons to press to get him in trouble. And as we know, Balotelli hates being benched, so it'll be interesting to see what Prandelli does.

yeah i want a 2-0 but since i've been disappointed a lot in this tournament i'm lowering my expectations haaa haaa.

now the funny thing would be that bertrand is right, greece wins 4-0, the czechs beat portugal in penalties, the italian defense flounders, england adopts tiki-taka and france beats spain with a goal by the hapless ben arfa.

[pokkeherrie]

Czech Republic 0 - 2 Portugal
Of course, the big question: Ronaldo. Is he really loose now after his disappointing first two games, or was it just a one time game of brilliance, helped by an orange open house? The Czech defence will be better organised, I should hope. I'm gonna go for the first option either way, 2-0 for Portugal with at least 1 goal by Ronaldette.


Germany 1 - 0 Greece
Germany are deadly on the takeover, but there won't be any takeovers since Greece won't go forward, staying well organised around their own box. Pretty much their only creative player Karagounis is suspended, so who is going to score the odd goal for Greece now? 1-0 for Germany.


Spain 1 - 0 France
Scoring is difficult for Spain. Scoring against Spain is difficult as well. But I think France are better at going forward than they are at defending and one small mistake just might cost them the game. They've already given up their impressive unbeaten run against Sweden.


England 1 - 2 Italy
To be honest I think this one could go either way. Funny, tradionally I'd predict an Italian team to keep waiting and waiting and England to keep on trying to break through and end up running into a swift Italian counter-attack. But Prandelli has been playing more forward, while England have done a few succesful "Chelsea"'s. In earlier tournaments it was always defending a lead which seemed to get England eliminated. The score is a bit of a guess, but I do think Italy have more chance of going through.

[pokkeherrie]

Ugh, looks like I won't be able to watch any of the quarter-finals. I was going to watch at least tonight's game but now I'm still stuck at work for some really annoying reason. Probably will miss the semi-finals too. Booh!