I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Overall I've found the football pretty boring in this tournament.
iamofwfc - I thought rugby fans were all very respectful of each other and the opposition? That is what we are always told! (For example whilst the England fans were clashing in France with the Russians there was comparison with the England fans in Australia*) Maybe its a small minority after a few drinks... I do suspect in Wales where rugby is the main sport they probably show a football type rivalry... *Probably a vast difference in numbers!
i misread the initial post. My fault. there is a contrast between banter and ugly bitterness. Sometimes they are hard to tell apart, but I have to concede that there are many that love to see England losing. I suspect that the English tabloid press fall into that category, on occasion.
Wayne Hennessey looked quite shaky at times tonight, makes me all the more annoyed that we didn't test him more at Wembley. Mark Bowen was getting on my **** quite a bit during the second half, just moaning on about how poor Wales were playing (yes, we all know you're a fan but couldn't you try to make it just a little more impartial?), showing virtually no respect to Portugal and complaining that they'd done nothing except score two goals. Er, your team were lucky not to be 4-0 down by that point, but don't let facts get in the way of your obvious bias.
It's been a pretty poor tournament, but even so, there's nothing that beats having 2 or 3 games of footy to watch each day for a month. I'll be sad when it's over.
Unlucky Wales beaten by the better team on the day, just does. It seem right, Wales won their group, Portugal creeped in third place and had to rely on other scores, Wales your country should be so proud of you, you along with Iceland have been the tourenment highlights, the games have been pretty average apart from the hungry v Portugal game, the teams that played the best football have been Croatia, Hungary and Italy and not one of them made the semis. Whatever you think of ronaldo he does turn it on at the tournaments when required, his header last night was out if this world, he has to be one of the best header of a ball ever, the power he got on it was un real, that's what beat the keeper. Also it did not like Portugal had sold out of all their seats last night which is not right for a semi final of a major tourenment. A bit of me wants France to win it after what happens in Paris last year, it would be nice for them to lift the trophy there.
Goals scored should have been the primary criteria for the progression of third place teams, if they had to run that format.
Cant see how a team that finished 3rd in their group and then couldnt win a game in normal time until the semi final, can in anyway make this new look euro be a success. For me its been a dreadful dire tournament. Initially fuelled by matters that were nothing to do with football, to one where no one wanted to play attacking KO football. Credits to Wales and France though, they have both been enjoyable to watch.
Definite penalty. Schweinsteiger is an experienced professional and should know better than to have his arms flailing above his head in a situation like that.
Not sure why people are grumbling about Portugal. Everyone seems to hold England 1990 as heroes and we beat Eygpt in 90 minutes. That's it. Why are Portugal lucky/rubbish and England 1990 are brave legends?
I don't think Portugal have benefited from this new third place-based format as much as people like to make out, because under the old system they would have beaten Austria who would have played to win knowing a draw would be unlikely to see them through even if they beat Iceland. Austria playing ultra-defensive in a game Portugal were actually unlucky not to win was a major part of them getting third place. The only way the new format could be seen as advantageous to Portugal is if they've been handed an easier route to the final than they would had the format been the same as old and Portugal had finished 2nd, but we'll never know the answer to that one. I agree with you though it's been a very poor tournament on the whole, I can recall just six really good games, with several I struggled to stay awake for.
Well i really think Portugal have. For 60 mins of their last match they were heading out and you would've put Portugal clear favourite to win that group before the tournament. I suppose then you can also say they were unlucky not to go through as 2nd bar a 94th minute Iceland goal. But thats the result. Your right though about playing for draws and this is what this tournament excelled at. Its boring. Are we really surprised there were so many late goals, especially earlier in the tournament? Most were playing not to lose and only really went for it with minutes to go. Perhaps they need to revise what they award points for in the group stages to open it up. Maybe something like a point bonus for a HT win, you could still lose but end up with a point. Dunno just an idea to try and provoke more attacking play and unpredictable outcomes.
The 3rd place thing is a terrible rule. Why not just have 24 teams in 6 groups? More teams will be able to enter the euros, it won't increase the amount of fixtures per nation and it'll stop this silly strategy of playing for safety. Sorted!
I didn't mind the format and really enjoyed watching a lot of games in this tournament. Usually I'd watch the start then not bother somewhere in the middle and watch again at the business end.
I agree with you this third place thing is silly, I think you mean 32 teams in 8 groups? I think that would be too many teams, but that is where this will go next, it was only 24 years ago when only 8 teams made the finals, then it went to 16, I think 16 is correct, 24 is too many and devalues the tournament and 32 would be silly, I think that extended to 24 as the next euros are going to be all over Europe, think that was platinni idea. 32 teams will make the qualifiers even less attractive and there is a chance even scotland may make it. As for the point about England in 1990, we actually won our group, if my memory serves me correct, which was a pretty tough group in my opinion, that contained the current euro champs at the time, the team we never beat and the famous footballing nation Egypt.
Yes we did win our group but we only won one match inside 90 minutes in the whole tournament which seems to be the charge being levelled against Portugal. After the group stages everyone was talking of Croatia as if they were one of the best teams seen in recent years. Well Portugal snuffed them out. They also beat a Poland team that had played really well and beat a Wales team that dismantled Belgium. They as worthy as finalists as England were as semi finalists in 1990.
If you are not happy about Portugal how would you feel if a team made the final after losing all their group games 1-3 after winning at halftime!? I like the 3rd place aspect of the groups - opens up the group to more possibilities, means there are less dead rubbers (if any) and it is rare for a team to be eliminated after 2 games. Unfortunately it makes draws good results, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
That's my main sticking point, rather than teams setting up to win, they instead set-up not to lose. Which doesn't make for a good spectacle most of the time.
To be honest with you, i've watched many many of these tournaments and the group games are often cagey regardless of what format is used.
At last one person who gives them credit, I'd actually like them to win the tournament because it would be a new country winning, as the BBC pundits said last night what they've achieved in the last 20 years especially compared to us is quite remarkable for a country their size, and they play good football if not as dynamic as France (who've only sprung into life in the last two games and were still fortunate to beat Germany anyway) and know how to dig in when needed, a quality they haven't been given much recognition for. Most people on the Guardian CIF are imploring France to not only win and but resoundingly (including bizarrely, a few United fans - have they really got such short memories?) which I just can't understand.