Hum... my happy-go-lucky Europhilia did suffer a period of melancholic moping post Brexit, but thank you France and Ireland for brining me back on!
This game reminded me why I am pretty fond of France: when they click, it's beautiful. Griezmann was pretty much on fire, but I really appreciated when in overtime rather than try to strike from the middle for a hat-trick, he still unselfishly passed. Also number 19, Sagna, impressed me very well today.
Ireland was immensely likeable in this tournament, IMO. Plucky, attacking, and wonderfully opportunistic! Even one man down, they clearly were vying for a lapse that they could convert into an equalizer.
So today's matches, then.
GER 3 : SLO 0 BEL 2 : HUN 2
I simply cannot bring myself to pick a favorite out of my two strongly supported teams on the final match today! In princple Belgium is the favorite, but if they do not manage to togetherness and team-cohesion, Hungary could well win.
And wow - Poland, what a tournament!! Swiss team is a very strong side, so advancing to the next round was an impressive feat. I always do feel badly for the other team when it happens on penalties, though...
Good day to everyone! I just popped in to say, that we are pretty happy about getting into the 16, we didn't participate the Euro since 44 years. Maybe 4-0 is a little bit much, but Belgium was the better for sure.
Excellent game from Italy! Once can never be very surprised if they win tough matches, but I am a little bit... Spain had been quite brilliant up until now!
I somehow think this has a lot to do with the coach that Italy has: Conte seems to always manage to make the best use of what he has, and make the team-play greater than any individual talent. Supposedly this team had no great star quality. Right.
Top coach that Conte! Congrats Italy!
Now looking fwd to Icelandic feat. Not the most likely result, but entirely plausible I think.
Well, this is just neat as neat can be! Now if they could please refrain from scoring any more goals, then we'll get the penalty shootout I predicted, with Iceland of course winning!
Anyone else think of Skyrim theme-song when hearing Icelandic crowd chant..? That primal quality! Love it.
Icelanders are really sweethearts - my heart sank with Rooney opener, but they did not keep me suffering for long, lol.
I just hope they will have the running strength until the end... And do not let their fighting spirit to go over-board - #10's (G Sigurdsson I think) yellow card was really stupid, and when I saw the referee chatting him up later in the period I almost exasperated.
What impressed me the best in the first half-time is that Iceland has such excellent and immediate tactical grasp of the field. Those well placed passes create movement and space, and also the players are placing themselves well to receive those passes.
It's the worst England game I've ever seen. Sturridge is not a winger! Kane is diabolical... What has Roy done to this team? Can't believe he's still in charge after the last World Cup to be honest. Iceland deserve to win
'coz Iceland had a very noteworthy campaign for Brazil, they almost qualified for the world cup, and England tends to underperform in international tournaments for some reason.
More goals than I thought, but the right goal difference, hahaa!
One could see Iceland was getting run to the ground around an hour of play, but so happy they managed to keep it together until the end.
Davide, gotta love that "prophetic statement" quality of yours! Future (will) combined with such confident past tense (won).
Italy well could - but I'm still going strong for BE & IS, so I cannot admit that I want that to happen.
The tactical- and team-play from Italy has been really superb this far!!! I'd only rank Iceland as consistent, except of course as a much smaller nation their talent pool is somewhat more limited. Both IS & IT have been just consistently at the upper limit of their collective skill.
But let's revisit your wisdom again if they should be eliminated ... hopefully neither next round!!
Island has to run so hard that I fear they might not make it against France, unless they can fully recuperate. It is still quite possible, though, because French play-quality varies so much. FR has superb and horrible matches, and one never knows which is going to come.
Belgium... with team-play they should beat Wales, but if they fool around the field as individuals, I'd not be surprised of a Welsh upset.
@FinneousPJ - same trouble here! Why cannot this be Friday or Saturday???
Was pleased to notice that as they are playing the host, Iceland will get the longest possible recuperation time until the next game so those swift Viking-legs can trot again like there's no tomorrow...
It would still take a bad game from France to lose, but those do happen from time to time.
Seriously, up to yesterday I was mildly hopeful, but as the match was approaching I was having a feeling that we wouldn't make it. The first minutes of the game wiped out that feeling, it was a great match really, and we should have settled it much earlier. The last part was a real suffering for me, I almost could not stay in the sofa.
Looking at the results of 1/16, I think I would have discussed the England defeat. Who would have guessed Iceland to perform so good? Or maybe I would have discussed the Croatia disappointment. Poor @brus . I merely started to believe in Croatia after their group victories... Vida had 3 dead chances. And Ronaldo showed how one should convert the only chance he has... BTW, @booinyoureyes , it looks Messi is not saint. Or maybe I would have discussed Wales, the team nobody believed in before the tournament (just like Iceland). Or maybe I would have discussed Belgium, which nearly all commentators wrote off after their first match as the "team without a team". I congratulate @TStael with the first right exact score. Germany showed they are very, very strong, much stronger than I thought before the tournament started.
But I want to discuss Italy. I thought it would be a boring match, which would go to penalties, with David de Gea saving many. But! I was impressed. Italy showed so much passion, so much pace. They worked their socks off. They created chances, they pushed. They played magnificently. Conte is a genius, as this was basically the same footballers Italy had 2 years ago, without injured stars and Pirlo. If not for de Gea, it could be 0:4. Italy is a revelation for me, and now I'm facing a hard choice between the Germany machine and the Italy beast.
With 44 matches played from 51, @FinneousPJ is a leader, congratulations! Too bad you bet Spain would become a champion...
P.S. @booinyoureyes I've calculated your points per group winners: 11 teams = 44 points.
Davide, gotta love that "prophetic statement" quality of yours! Future (will) combined with such confident past tense (won).
Italy well could - but I'm still going strong for BE & IS, so I cannot admit that I want that to happen.
The tactical- and team-play from Italy has been really superb this far!!! I'd only rank Iceland as consistent, except of course as a much smaller nation their talent pool is somewhat more limited. Both IS & IT have been just consistently at the upper limit of their collective skill.
But let's revisit your wisdom again if they should be eliminated ... hopefully neither next round!!
Island has to run so hard that I fear they might not make it against France, unless they can fully recuperate. It is still quite possible, though, because French play-quality varies so much. FR has superb and horrible matches, and one never knows which is going to come.
Belgium... with team-play they should beat Wales, but if they fool around the field as individuals, I'd not be surprised of a Welsh upset.
Well, I didn't read the question before the match, but still wanted to answer.
Yes, yesterday we had two demonstrations that a group can be stronger than the sum of its components, and both favourites in the respective matches went home. Even though, as I might have written before, Spain didn't always show a great solidity, thus a priori we had more chances than Iceland.
I am a bit worried by the athletic endurance, so far I think that we are the team that is running the most, and our success also depends on how effectively we manage to close the spaces and to press who has the ball.
In any case, people here are really falling in love with this team, despite the initial skepticism. This is mainly because it is evident that they are putting their heart when they play, something that really missed in the last World Cup, when some players didn't even seem to bother.
Comments
This game reminded me why I am pretty fond of France: when they click, it's beautiful. Griezmann was pretty much on fire, but I really appreciated when in overtime rather than try to strike from the middle for a hat-trick, he still unselfishly passed. Also number 19, Sagna, impressed me very well today.
Ireland was immensely likeable in this tournament, IMO. Plucky, attacking, and wonderfully opportunistic! Even one man down, they clearly were vying for a lapse that they could convert into an equalizer.
So today's matches, then.
GER 3 : SLO 0
BEL 2 : HUN 2
I simply cannot bring myself to pick a favorite out of my two strongly supported teams on the final match today! In princple Belgium is the favorite, but if they do not manage to togetherness and team-cohesion, Hungary could well win.
And wow - Poland, what a tournament!! Swiss team is a very strong side, so advancing to the next round was an impressive feat. I always do feel badly for the other team when it happens on penalties, though...
ENG-ISL 1-2 ISL for the win!!
ICL: 1 - ENG 0 - here I vote for a happy Brexit, from my perspective, lol.
And if you still accept at 11th minute: 2 ESP - 1 ITA (but no sweat!
Italy-Germany will be another interesting setup!
I somehow think this has a lot to do with the coach that Italy has: Conte seems to always manage to make the best use of what he has, and make the team-play greater than any individual talent. Supposedly this team had no great star quality. Right.
Top coach that Conte! Congrats Italy!
Now looking fwd to Icelandic feat. Not the most likely result, but entirely plausible I think.
Anyone else think of Skyrim theme-song when hearing Icelandic crowd chant..? That primal quality! Love it.
Icelanders are really sweethearts - my heart sank with Rooney opener, but they did not keep me suffering for long, lol.
I just hope they will have the running strength until the end... And do not let their fighting spirit to go over-board - #10's (G Sigurdsson I think) yellow card was really stupid, and when I saw the referee chatting him up later in the period I almost exasperated.
What impressed me the best in the first half-time is that Iceland has such excellent and immediate tactical grasp of the field. Those well placed passes create movement and space, and also the players are placing themselves well to receive those passes.
Here's hoping...
In fact I called it before the tournament began
'coz Iceland had a very noteworthy campaign for Brazil, they almost qualified for the world cup, and England tends to underperform in international tournaments for some reason.
More goals than I thought, but the right goal difference, hahaa!
One could see Iceland was getting run to the ground around an hour of play, but so happy they managed to keep it together until the end.
Italy well could - but I'm still going strong for BE & IS, so I cannot admit that I want that to happen.
The tactical- and team-play from Italy has been really superb this far!!! I'd only rank Iceland as consistent, except of course as a much smaller nation their talent pool is somewhat more limited. Both IS & IT have been just consistently at the upper limit of their collective skill.
But let's revisit your wisdom again if they should be eliminated ... hopefully neither next round!!
Island has to run so hard that I fear they might not make it against France, unless they can fully recuperate. It is still quite possible, though, because French play-quality varies so much. FR has superb and horrible matches, and one never knows which is going to come.
Belgium... with team-play they should beat Wales, but if they fool around the field as individuals, I'd not be surprised of a Welsh upset.
Was pleased to notice that as they are playing the host, Iceland will get the longest possible recuperation time until the next game so those swift Viking-legs can trot again like there's no tomorrow...
It would still take a bad game from France to lose, but those do happen from time to time.
The first minutes of the game wiped out that feeling, it was a great match really, and we should have settled it much earlier. The last part was a real suffering for me, I almost could not stay in the sofa.
Or maybe I would have discussed Wales, the team nobody believed in before the tournament (just like Iceland).
Or maybe I would have discussed Belgium, which nearly all commentators wrote off after their first match as the "team without a team".
I congratulate @TStael with the first right exact score. Germany showed they are very, very strong, much stronger than I thought before the tournament started.
But I want to discuss Italy. I thought it would be a boring match, which would go to penalties, with David de Gea saving many. But! I was impressed. Italy showed so much passion, so much pace. They worked their socks off. They created chances, they pushed. They played magnificently. Conte is a genius, as this was basically the same footballers Italy had 2 years ago, without injured stars and Pirlo. If not for de Gea, it could be 0:4. Italy is a revelation for me, and now I'm facing a hard choice between the Germany machine and the Italy beast.
With 44 matches played from 51, @FinneousPJ is a leader, congratulations! Too bad you bet Spain would become a champion...
P.S. @booinyoureyes I've calculated your points per group winners: 11 teams = 44 points.
Yes, yesterday we had two demonstrations that a group can be stronger than the sum of its components, and both favourites in the respective matches went home. Even though, as I might have written before, Spain didn't always show a great solidity, thus a priori we had more chances than Iceland.
I am a bit worried by the athletic endurance, so far I think that we are the team that is running the most, and our success also depends on how effectively we manage to close the spaces and to press who has the ball.
In any case, people here are really falling in love with this team, despite the initial skepticism. This is mainly because it is evident that they are putting their heart when they play, something that really missed in the last World Cup, when some players didn't even seem to bother.