Robert Page's Welsh Euro 2021 Team

I don't understand the OTT "excitement" about holding onto a 1-0 defeat against a team with literally no reason to bother trying to score a second in order to qualify in a group where very possibly 3 of the 4 will qualify anyway.
I'm not bitter I just find the whole competition as dull as dishwater until we get to the knockout stage. Only possible "exciting group" is the group where France/Germany or Portugal might be knocked out but very possibly they will all make it through.

 

All playing into the armchair/plastic fans arms no doubt. Most normal football fans like to see upsets and the big teams knocked out, but I guess UEFA have crunched the numbers and they want to give the big teams the best possible chance of A) being in the tournament on the first place and B) advancing to the knockout stages. Much like the latest revision of the CL.

 

Yeah! It's a bit like the Scots getting over excited because they BEAT THE ENGLISH 0-0..... Oh! hang on that's a DRAW, even more confusing

 

I think A is about trying to expand the tournament so the middle ranking nations have more chance of getting in. They often lobby for it and the UEFA president was voting in on a promise to do just that. And then yes, B is about giving extra 'lives' to the bigger teams in return so they still have ample chance to get through.

 

Isn’t the problem here simply one of numbers? If you start with 24 countries you can only have 8 knocked out in the groups to achieve a power of two (i.e. 16) for the knockout stage. The only alternatives would be to have 8 groups of 3 (see how unsatisfactory that was in the 1982 World Cup), or go for 32 countries in the Finals which will inevitably include more uncompetitive teams.

 

Wait until WC 2026 when there's going to be 16 groups of 3 teams!

 

When you consider Wales as a very small population base of 3.5m and only 260k men between the ages of 20-35, most of whom probably follow/play rugby union as a number 1 sport, I can fully understand the excitement of qualifying for the knockout stages of the world’s second biggest football competition.

Getting to the 2016 semi final after knocking out top seed Belgium after outplaying them was remarkable.
All of Wales is behind the team.
They are as one.

As opposed to the privileged position England have wrt football, and yet it appears half the nation are totally ambivalent, and couldn’t give a t0ss if England do well or not, including forum members.

It’s really good to see Wales qualify, it’s good to see the genuine backing and support and it’s good to see all the excitement. And we need some of that in our lives with all that’s going on in the world.
I really hope Wales punch above their weight and do well. It’s what a Watford supporter is used to.
As opposed to a perennially underperforming England team that should be doing so much better.

Ymlaen Cymru!

Sermon over.

 

I agree 2016 was remarkable.
I'm very happy for the Welsh but I don't agree that qualification for the next stage is due to some Herculean effort in losing 1-0 yesterday to a disinterested/uninterested team rather than luck of the draw and luck on the pitch.

 

I thought Wales had bad luck on the pitch with the sending off and the Italians didn’t look disinterested - talented players with a very good coach and playing for their place in the team.

Yesterday was all about qualification, they didn’t lose 3/4/5-0 and they got through.

All that matters and better than Scotland who will probably go out - although I hope they don’t and I’ll be supporting the kilt wearing heathens

 

It was a clear sending off despite the biased commentary ! Stamped on his foot. Italy knew that scoring a second/third would be nice but meant nothing. Not a chance Wales would have got away with a 1-0 defeat with 10 men had it been the first game. As I say , they were lucky with the order that the fixtures fell.

 

I can virtually guarantee we will see similar mistimed tackles that look like stamping in this tournament where players are not given a straight red card.

You may be right about the 1-0, the point is the Italians were playing for their place and weren’t just knocking the ball around the back without trying to score.
Italy look like tournament winners if they keep this up and are a joy to watch.

Wales did well.
You seem to like belittling Wales achievement of getting past the first hurdle - fair enough, each to his own.

 

I don’t like belittling Wales. I just think they had it easy. Don’t you understand?

 

Good grief.. you can only play what’s in front of you ...

They qualified for the competition and have just qualified for the knock outs.
Some people are happy by that.. do you understand?

They could have had a more difficult group - but they didn’t.
They could have lost to Switzerland, a good team, but they didn’t.
They could have lost to Turkey, many pundits tip as the dark horse team - they didn’t.
They could have lost by more than a single goal to Italy playing with 10 men - they didn’t.
And they could have played Italy earlier in the competition - guess what, they didn’t.

However, I can confidently predict that one day Wales will be knocked out of Euro 2020.
I hope that will cheer you up...

 

Germany v Austria was the first round in a group of 4 teams to stitch up Algeria. That said I don’t like the 3 team group format.

 

I always liked Rob Brydon's joke:
Q: What is a sheep tied to a lamppost in Cardiff?
A: A Leisure Centre

 

Well, for a small country who were being written off, holding onto a 1-0 defeat with 10 men against the best team in the tournament playing at home meant finishing 2nd, definitely qualifying for the next phase, and not being drawn against better opponents, stands as excitement.

 

Luckily, the Lions are playing Rugby on C4. A welcome distraction to the impending build up of the match.

 

Today's match v Denmark SHOULD be close. They are the favourites, but we have a decent chance. Our weekest link is our Luton player Andy Morrell in midfield.

 

Superb goal by Denmark.

 

Time for the big players to step up. Huge 2nd half coming up.

 

Not at the races.
No shot on target.
20 minutes to save it.

 

Totally and utterly bossed

 

Wales just fallen apart

 

We were pathetic. So clumsy, Moore by himself upfront, fannying about with it at the back too much. Denmark were much ther better team, which wasn't hard to do. Page should've made his changes at half time. I feel a little embarrassed being Welsh. I'm gonna change my avatar to some form of kak

 

Wales looked knackered today, considering they travelled to Baku then Rome then Amsterdam, whereas Denmark played all of their group matches at home and then a relatively short hop to Amsterdam. As the tournament moves on it would be interesting to see whether those who travelled the least will have an advantage.

 

The good news is that noone will be talking about this result this evening or tomorrow. It'll just disappear.

Thanks Matt! Love, The Welsh.

 

Hope England do better on Tuesday.

 

Well done Denmark you were really good today.. Thoroughly deserved win. Defensively sound and their midfield dominated from 10 mins onwards. Should have been a foul in the lead up to the second goal but a brainf@rt defending moment from Nico Williams. Joke red card too. Not the best referee of the tournament.

Wales had no spark and were so laboured. Ramsey anonymous. Probably a tournament too far for Joe Allen too. All the travelling they have had to do over the last 2 weeks won't have helped, whereas Denmark played all their group games at home and then had a short trip to Amsterdam, where their supporters were given the green light to flood into Amsterdam from yesterday. All these things add up.

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhh, so frustrating.

 

And the winners of the International Straw Clutching championship ....... Scotland.

Their over optimism is as sure as night following day. As far back as Ally's Tartan Army for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. I remember TV Times doing a crude photoshop-style picture of Kenny Dalglish holding the World Cup aloft. Then losing to darkest Peru and drawing with the mighty Iran. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

 

I agree...a very good way to describe such a fartfook of a performance