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Euro 2012: The Thread

El Pibe

By El Pibe
in Sport

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exwhyzed

exwhyzed

Posted
Posted

Rooney and Cole are the only English players I'd say were world class.

Midfield is the most disappointing, luckily we've got the likes of Wilshere and Cleverley, who can actually use the ball, coming through.

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Stig

Stig

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How the hell can non of you rate Joe Hart? He's fantastic. Yes he has a good defence in front of him but he's kept the most clean sheets in the Premiership for the last 2 years.

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SF-02

SF-02

Posted
Posted

is there likely to be any big screens in london for any matches if we make it to the knock out stages?

Not sure but there weren't any during the last world cup I think for dreary safety reasons and over zealous authorities there being boring fucks. Other English cities that aren't so uptight did though if I recall correctly.

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Ork1927

Ork1927

Posted
Posted

Completely agree. Almost half of all teams entering will qualify. Rubbish!

I guess it means there's more chance of the likes of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland making it but, like you say, the achievement is diminished greatly.

That's why we need to make the most of Euro 2012! :)

It is insane that the move to 24 teams means just 8 less than the World Cup finals.

Must make it a lot more expensive to host as well and I assume the finals themselves are going to have to have some stupid group stage runner up mess or large groups to knock the teams down to 16 to start the knock out.

Or perhaps more group stages,

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Smoothy

Smoothy

Posted
Posted

Yep, the same as World Cup 86, 90 and 94. It'll see another two groups added and the addition of a 2nd Round. To fill the new round, it'll need the four best 3rd-placed team as well as the 1st- and 2nd-placed teams in the groups.

I can only think that UEFA can potentially make more money with an additional round of games.

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Naysonymous

Naysonymous

Posted
Posted

Inane bits of trivia:

Spain's squad for Euro 2012 was born entirely in the 1980s. Everybody else has players who were born in the 70s and/or the 90s.

The English league provides the most players by quite some distance with 79. Germany is next with 47. Spain only provide 33 and Italy 31.

England are the only squad where every player is based at home. Republic of Ireland is the only squad with no home based players (the majority of their players play in the English leagues)

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MrPogo

MrPogo

Posted
Posted

Not sure but there weren't any during the last world cup I think for dreary safety reasons and over zealous authorities there being boring fucks. Other English cities that aren't so uptight did though if I recall correctly.

There does seem to be a direct link between big tournaments and pub-based/town centre violence, so I guess they are kind of justified in not having/restricting mass big screen viewings. I saw a report for the last Euros we were in (I think) that showed when England win there's a spate of violence two or three hours later, spread throughout the town (when the celebratory drinking reaches dangerous levels, and with a lot of pub-viewers having moved on from where they were watching the game), when they lose there's an immediate spike in and around the pubs screening the matches (outlet for the inevitable "we was robbed!" anger) when it's a draw everything stays relatively calm (I guess everyone says "oh well" and quietly goes home).

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neoELITE

neoELITE

Posted
Posted

It's strange; I'm really looking forward to this without actually being particularly excited. I guess the Jubilee, the Olympics, the Euro crisis, the low expectations surrounding the England team, Forest's crappy 11/12 season and being nearly 40 are all playing their part but even though I'm not biting my nails, ironing all my England and Forest shirts and counting down the minutes like I always used to before a big tournament I'm still very much aware it's coming and really relishing some cracking matches (and, as ever, hoping against hope that England pull off some kind of miracle and make it all the way to at least the semis).

I concur. It's probably down to the fact that the Euros haven't been all over the newspaper and on the TV news like they usually are. Those little plastic flags aren't on cars either - they've been replaced by Union Jacks for Queen Grumpy's party.

Holland looked incredible in front of goal yesterday. They played Northern Ireland at home and you would expect them to win comfortably but they still had to score goals and their front three looked very good. They'll no doubt implode like they always do though.

Portugal lost at home to Turkey 1-3, Denmark beat Australia 2-0 at home. Czech Republic lost on Friday and Italy lost spectacularly at home to Russia 0-3.

My money's on Germany, then Holland, then Spain. I don't even expect England to get out of the group stages. The ITV commentary yesterday were basically saying that if we beat France in the first game, the Sweden and Ukraine games will be a formality... I don't think so somehow.

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glb

glb

Posted
Posted

Joined, cheers lad.

Cool beans, hopefully we'll get a decent sized league by Friday's kick-off.

Just drawn Russia in the office sweepstake. Potential dark horses, but semis are probably as far as they can hope to get. Mind you, that's the great thing about the Euros, there's always the chance of a Greece, Denmark or Czech Republic springing a surprise.

Now to look out for a decent wall-chart. Excited!

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Cosmic_Guru

Cosmic_Guru

Posted
Posted

I bought 4-4-2 for the preview but it's not very good with lots of incorrect information and, at the time of writing/printing, England didn't have a manager!

I find World Soccer to be excellent on these occasions - their big tournament SEs are packed with statistical and biographical detail compiled by foreign or foreign based journalists who actually know a bit about the teams they are covering.

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Omizzay

Omizzay

Posted
Posted

What's everyone's predictions for the Group Stage then? Mine are:

Group A: Czech Rep first Russia second

Group B: Netherlands first Germany second

Group C: Spain first Italy second

Group D: France first England second

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Charliemouse

Charliemouse

Posted
Posted

I'm not feeling it at all yet, but that'll probably change when the tournament starts properly. The Dutch team aren't in very good shape at the moment, but I'm looking forward to the Netherlands-Germany match.

Going forward, Holland are awesome and with VDV playing , who I have such a man crush on, they are the team along with Ireland I will be cheering on.

Sadly they are pretty average at the back which could well be their downfall.

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cantonarv

cantonarv

Posted
Posted

How the hell can non of you rate Joe Hart? He's fantastic. Yes he has a good defence in front of him but he's kept the most clean sheets in the Premiership for the last 2 years.

He is great I like having a young keeper is strong and vocal. Of course at City he is helped massively by Kompany being a beast!

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glb

glb

Posted
Posted

What's everyone's predictions for the Group Stage then? Mine are:

Group A: Czech Rep first Russia second

Group B: Netherlands first Germany second

Group C: Spain first Italy second

Group D: France first England second

Mine:

Group A: Russia first, Poland second

Group B: Germany first, Holland second

Group C: Spain first, Republic of Ireland second (ha!)

Group D: France first, Sweden second

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