BW,
it's no problem to me, this is your absolute right to support whoever you want to.

France or Portugal, I hope the winner will do it with panache !
ok with extra time but no penalties please !!!

the problem with older bikes is that they're heavy, not recommended for the mountain.
Froome is probably gonna win le tour de France again after Contador gave up.

half time
payet+clattenburg - portugal 1-0

So Ronaldo injured.
Somehow Portugal finds a fighting spirit back.
Let's see what second half brings.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

Mick Jagger having fun....

[www.facebook.com]

What a boring final!!! Portugal is bad and has no intention of playing football and do not deserve winning the final. But, that happens quite some time, like Greece in 2004 - teams that do not want to play football win in the end.

Anyway, congrats to Portugal - Euro champions 2016.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-11 00:37 by mtaylor.

well, beautiful goal from Eder so congratulations to Portugal !
It's a pity that Griezmann and Payet were not good tonight.

Congratulations to Portugal

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Keep On Rolling

Romario is a great coach.

Mick was wrong again suporting France pre-Game on faecesbook.

OT... and even more OT:

Tom Dumoulin from The Netherlands won heroic stage in Tour de France today!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-11 00:50 by RipThisBone.

Thank goodness it didn't go to penalties.
A totally unsatisfactory way of winning or losing a game.
Congratulations Portugal.


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Quote
Deltics
Thank goodness it didn't go to penalties.
A totally unsatisfactory way of winning or losing a game.
Congratulations Portugal.

Football 2016............................................

Glad this non-event is over.

And a very big THANK YOU to Silver Dagger for starting this thread and the prediction game. It was fun.

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Keep On Rolling

so portugal win the euros without ronaldo after all.

amazing how the media told us so many times they were a one man team and all the other portugal players were hopeless, and i disagree,ed.

its good to be proven correct. this hopeless team have just been crowned european champions whetherthey deserve it or not is irrelevant.

i always believe football to be a team sport and portugal won these euros cos they defended better than anyone else when they needed to and not because they had one player who inspired them to outscore the opposition.

the media will twist it though and give the absent one all the credit.

at least when andy murray picked his trophy up today he played and won his final

Quote
Rolling Hansie
And a very big THANK YOU to Silver Dagger for starting this thread and the prediction game. It was fun.

Yes! It was fun indeed so thank you for that, Silver Dagger!

Congratulations to DiddleyBo for winning the prediction game and to Portugal for the Euro.

Pity for France but congrats to Portugal.......well deserved...even without Ronaldo........maybe instead of playing all the balls to him......they played their own game............up to the WC....with Holland I hope

__________________________

Seems like France stopped playing after Ronaldo went out. Strange. A beautiful goal by Eder though. Nice substitution. Portugals first gold in a mayor competition (EC,WC).
A missed opportunity for France. Portugal played seven games and won one (on regular time). That was enough to claim gold.

And a moth scandal! Apparently the staff left the lights on last night. Hence the moth infestation.

Congrats to France too; for being a gracious host, for having a heroic brave squad who in the end, lost on the most close of margins.



I've had my France World Cup winners shirt on today with pictures of Zidane, Barthez, DeSailly, Petite, Trezeguet, Vieira, Bjorkaeff, really a who's who of great players.

Though Portugal had Ronaldo, both of these teams today, did not seem to have so many well known names, Pepe is great, most people know Nani but it's not the same.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-11 04:39 by BroomWagon.

¡Enhorabuena Portugal!

Congrats Albert, predicted exactly, 5 pointer.
I picked Portugal too. Not many did.

Congratulations to Portugal.
I am not a fan of the way they play football, but to be fare, they managed to disarrange
every opponent and that is a quality in itself. The big loser is the neutral public.
Not many goals to admire in games when Portugal is playing.

Last night I thought France had a couple of nice attacks, many led by Sisoko, who found
ways into the Portuguese defense no one ventured before. But so much like any other
team before, on one finished such an attack. Simply because Portugal did not give any
room to manoevre.

What worries me the most, is that we're entering an era in which making goals is no
longer an objective of teams, but preventing the other team to make a goal is.
So far this was the least entertaining tournament I've ever seen, but I am worried
this is not the end of it. Next tournament there will be even less goals per match,
more games will end undecided and we, the public will be less satisfied.

Maybe I should get interested in basketball....

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

Quote

Mamadou Sakho Thanks Liverpool Fans on Facebook After Being Cleared of Doping Charges by UEFA
[ghanasoccernet.com]

Can one believe it? This player for France had to sit out because of a drug test but the authorities, UEFA, dropped the charges. So, he was good to play but couldn't.

Then, I would not have picked Benzema, that's a personal call but some point to that too. He was not picked. I'm sorry for whatever problems he is having.

The game might have ended up the same way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-11 10:21 by BroomWagon.

Quote
marcovandereijk
Congratulations to Portugal.
I am not a fan of the way they play football, but to be fare, they managed to disarrange
every opponent and that is a quality in itself. The big loser is the neutral public.
Not many goals to admire in games when Portugal is playing.

Last night I thought France had a couple of nice attacks, many led by Sisoko, who found
ways into the Portuguese defense no one ventured before. But so much like any other
team before, on one finished such an attack. Simply because Portugal did not give any
room to manoevre.

What worries me the most, is that we're entering an era in which making goals is no
longer an objective of teams, but preventing the other team to make a goal is.
So far this was the least entertaining tournament I've ever seen, but I am worried
this is not the end of it. Next tournament there will be even less goals per match,
more games will end undecided and we, the public will be less satisfied.

Maybe I should get interested in basketball....

Good analysis; this also sounds quite a bit how that Greek team that won in '04 was talked about.

Portugal is just odd; I thought they'd crash out of the tournament; drawing Iceland and so on in the group stage, everyone they played.

Then, defeating Croatia, a very good team in a similar manner as they won against France, a goal in Added Extra Time; it almost looks like luck but maybe more.

And that Catenaccio Italian play, that means something like the "closed gate"; that's been around for a very long time, maybe even the 1930s. Defences such as that have been around.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-11 10:21 by BroomWagon.

Congratulations to Portugal, well deserved title in the end, football is also good, smart, intelligent tactics expecially if an adversary break the knee of your best offensive player (yours and the world's) 15 minutes in the game.

eder change was the winning move as he gave the team the opportunity to go forward with long passes and crosses, he gained lots of free kicks and score in the end.

catenaccio chatter is nosense, tactics and defense is the weapon of teams that have less great players, and i like football exactly for that, you can have just good players and with good tactics you can win.

and you win because as portugal did last night: THEY scored, not France.

Quote
Cristiano Radtke

Quote
Rolling Hansie
And a very big THANK YOU to Silver Dagger for starting this thread and the prediction game. It was fun.

Yes! It was fun indeed so thank you for that, Silver Dagger!

Congratulations to DiddleyBo for winning the prediction game and to Portugal for the Euro.

Thanks!

Quote
Cristiano Radtke
Congratulations to DiddleyBo for winning the prediction game

Yes, absolutely splendid

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Keep On Rolling

Quote
maumau
and you win because as portugal did last night: THEY scored, not France.

That's indeed the essence of a footballmatch in all it's simplicity. You can discuss as long as you want about tactics, play well, play bad, deserved or not deserved, beautiful or ugly, who was the better team etc. etc. In the end there is only one thing that counts: The team that scores the most goals is the winner.

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Keep On Rolling

I have nothing against Portugal, or Ronaldo - I just can not stand that type of football. Sure, one can say it is opportunistic, and hey, they are the ones who eventually scored.
But there are the words: opportunistic, eventually - it is a ugly way to play the game IMO. They did not win a single game; they played not to win, but to 'not lose'. I thought France played a good game; they should have scored several times.
So, Portugal may have 'won' this title, but in no way can one say that they are the best playing nation of the continent.

Congratulations to Portugal but there will be a lot of teams thinking - 'we could have done that'. I don't think they are the best team in Europe but they won it so good luck to them.

But they are no where near as good as Spain were between 2008 and 2012 when they beat everybody in sight with their masterful possession football and passing game.

It will be interesting to see if they can build on this success for the World Cup.

Quote
maumau
Congratulations to Portugal, well deserved title in the end, football is also good, smart, intelligent tactics expecially if an adversary break the knee of your best offensive player (yours and the world's) 15 minutes in the game.

ok you don't like the French team but is it necessary to write such a stupid comment about the "broken" knee of Ronaldo ?
Payet didn't have the intention to break anything and he played the ball. The contact was a bit tough but it often happens in modern football.

Quote
jpasc95
The contact was a bit tough but it often happens in modern football.

LOL. I can remember, when I was a kid, it used to be a lot tougher than nowadays.

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