Mick with Lizzie, Lucas and James at the July 10 final.







[www.dailymail.co.uk]

I love my football, and congratulations to Portugal. However, the game at international level is very, very dull!

I can't wait to get back to the real thing.... The Premier League!

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strat72
I love my football, and congratulations to Portugal. However, the game at international level is very, very dull!

I can't wait to get back to the real thing.... The Premier League!

Nothing but an overrated junk-food-league, pushed by a bunch of senselessly spent Euros. Even Iceland has a better national team than England ... Usually the English Players are earlier at home than their postcards, if international Championships take place. And both Championsleague and Euroleague are dominated by the Spanish teams for years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-12 14:34 by RobertJohnson.

Iceland drew the Euro Champs.

France pounded Iceland but lost that final.

It's a funny game as they say.

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RobertJohnson

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strat72
I love my football, and congratulations to Portugal. However, the game at international level is very, very dull!

I can't wait to get back to the real thing.... The Premier League!

Nothing but an overrated junk-food-league, pushed by a bunch of senselessly spent Euros. Even Iceland has a better national team than England ... Usually the English Players are earlier at home than their postcards, if international Championships take place. And both Championsleague and Euroleague are dominated by the Spanish teams for years.

The Premier League is more interesting than La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A.

In Premier League you have lots of strong teams and basically all top 10 teams can win against each other. In La Liga, for example, Barcelona, Atletico M. and Real Madrid are sure winners and it has been like this for the last many years.

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Cristiano Radtke

Portugal flight was properly identified as CHAMP16.

Yes .... it's also to see in the Flightradar24-Playback -- they used the special CHAMP16-Callsign within Portugal and started 11-Jul-2016 9:17am UTC in Paris-Orly as GNJ74:





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-12 21:20 by Irix.

the english premiership is overrated, it is NOT the best league in the world, i hate it when people constantly tell the same lie, when it is so obvious that it is not the truth.

english media are an embarrasment anyway, they are agenda driven and do not report what is exactly happening.

spanish league is best in world, please admit it english media, the truth hurts yes, but its your job to tell it.

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buttons67
the english premiership is overrated, it is NOT the best league in the world, i hate it when people constantly tell the same lie, when it is so obvious that it is not the truth.

english media are an embarrasment anyway, they are agenda driven and do not report what is exactly happening.

spanish league is best in world, please admit it english media, the truth hurts yes, but its your job to tell it.

It's the most exciting and even league, but obviously not the best, judging from Champions League results over the years.

The premier league also has had the most World Cup players time after time.

And even in this Euro, Payet at West Ham, Eder at Swansea, loaned to Lille currently.

If one uses the Champions League as a gauge, Germany only has what? Something like 7 champions league titles so I don't use the Champions League as a gauge.

[en.wikipedia.org]

The Spanish league is great but way too much domination by Barcelona and Real Madrid. If one wants to use the Europa League as a gauge too, so be it; a lot of people don't see it that way though. Then one would also have to say, England has done well with a number of runners up in the Europa league.

How do you even measure if one league is better than the other one? Does it even matter?

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Koen
How do you even measure if one league is better than the other one? Does it even matter?

That's easy: if my team is playing the league, then it's the best league in the world.

Boca Juniors, Newell's boys, whatever they are. Great football in many countries.

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marcovandereijk
BTW
I do hope next time the tournament will start with only 16 countries, four groups.
And only the numbers 1 and 2 of every group will continu to the quarter finals.
I think it was silly to have a couple of numbers 3 from the groups into the eighth finals.
And the tournament lasted a week too long.

see, that is a very good point. The whole group stage was set up too easy. reminded me of NBA in US, where too many teams make the playoffs.

Portugal ended 3rd in its group.

Yep, 16 teams, 4 groups. And take it down to 2 weeks.

no I don't agree with a short tournament.
It's interesting to see different nations that we rarely see on tv or hear of.
It shows a larger vision of football in Europe and can give nice surprises.
Iceland and Wales are one of them.

Well the Olympics in Rio in August goes on for 16 days. I think a month is too long a time for a football tournament. You seem to lose interest after 2 weeks.
Especially, of course, if your team is out. No, I think 16 teams and 16 days would be the ideal format.

The qualifiers for the World Cup are potentially more difficult than qualifying out of the group stage in the Euro: just looking at the groups.

[uk.soccerway.com]

The longer tournament made this a bit of an endurance contest as well; in the end, Portugal won the endurance part in my opinion, more or less, a favorable draw in the knockout rounds despite finishing in 3rd place.

Per World Cup qualifying, check out Group A because I know it is of interest to this group:

Group A:
Belarus
Bulgaria
France
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Sweden

And then, compare with

Group D:
Austria
Georgia
Moldova
Republic of Ireland
Serbia
Wales

See website for more info; 2nd place has a possible chance at a playoff but overall; I think Group A looks quite a bit tougher than Group D.

Of course, one can do something like figure out the average rating of a group per FIFA ratings and often comes to the conclusion that the groups are more or less equal. But here, I am not so sure about that.

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Stoneage
Well the Olympics in Rio in August goes on for 16 days. I think a month is too long a time for a football tournament. You seem to lose interest after 2 weeks.
Especially, of course, if your team is out. No, I think 16 teams and 16 days would be the ideal format.

It did seem like a long tournament really, from watching the final on Sunday to the hooliganism in the first few days, it seemed like a long time.

A bit off-topic to the Euro Cup but.

Any Greeks here? Amazingly, Georgios Samaras plays for Rayo OKC, Oklahoma City that is, very tiny club. I watched the game tonight and the crowd was maybe 5,000 if that big. How surprising. He's been a very able player and he's a good person, I forget what he did at the World Cup in Brazil two years, I think he had some real sick child flown in to see the game in Brazil. A class act. And he still has played for Greece this year.

[uk.soccerway.com]



He's played for Man City and Celtic, big clubs, then eventually, played in some Arab league and now in Oklahoma City. Fascinating, he was playing hard out there.

Payet paid his way and took out Ronaldo.
But it didn't pay in the end...

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BroomWagon

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Stoneage
Well the Olympics in Rio in August goes on for 16 days. I think a month is too long a time for a football tournament. You seem to lose interest after 2 weeks.
Especially, of course, if your team is out. No, I think 16 teams and 16 days would be the ideal format.

It did seem like a long tournament really, from watching the final on Sunday to the hooliganism in the first few days, it seemed like a long time.

it did for you but not for everyone if it's allowed to have a different opinion.

the euros was too long drawn out. for both qualifiers, qualifying play offs then tournament group stages.

then it changed to a quick knockout tournament.

i didnt like the set up, had its positive points but many negative ones.

too many qualifying games in long groups makes it virtually impossible for the big teams to not qualify, a major shock was holland not getting to france.

3 teams qualifying from some groups wasnt right in my opinion.

then in the tournament itself, 3 teams qualified for the knockout stages in 4 of the 6 groups, that was plain wrong, and benefited portugal more than anyone.

no more than 50% of teams should qualify in a group format, not 75% it made the groups a farce and resulted in very defensive football as many teams felt drawing games would suffice.

knockout stages should start at quarter finals, not the last 16, unless its the world cup.

i just didnt enjoy the fact that portugal won this tournament, easy qualifying group, easy finals group stage, no wins,3 draws and into the knockouts in 3rd place, then failing to win 3 of their 4 knockout games, advancing via extra time and penalties and a rather easier semi final tie than imaginable at this stage of an international tournament.

enjoyed the world cup 2 years ago much better, higher quality football, attacking football rewarded and a proper attacking team deservedly winning.

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Payet: I did not mean to hurt Ronaldo

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"No, it was a challenge, that's all, period," Payet told reporters after the match. "I regained the possession and if I hurt him it was not intentional.

"It's not in my nature to be a bad guy on the pitch. There is no question about it."

[us.soccerway.com]

France was a heavy favourite going into the game, they really wouldn't have a reason to go after Ronaldo.

Players go down all the time in football.

Ronaldo played a long blistering season in Spain.

I've even seen players go down with no one even near them.




For all we know, we could think Ronaldo was trying to hurt Payet or Ronaldo was trying to draw a foul or so on.

It's a game, if some pundit talks about this such as when Wales' Aaron Ramsey went down a few years ago, I might see what they are saying.

[www.youtube.com] <- play

It probably is valid to say Cristiano hops a little in the play.

There's stories out there, Ronaldo tore ligaments.



On the right, is a listing of the many knee injuries he has suffered already.

[www.marca.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-14 17:54 by BroomWagon.

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BroomWagon
A bit off-topic to the Euro Cup but.

Any Greeks here? Amazingly, Georgios Samaras plays for Rayo OKC, Oklahoma City that is, very tiny club. I watched the game tonight and the crowd was maybe 5,000 if that big. How surprising. He's been a very able player and he's a good person, I forget what he did at the World Cup in Brazil two years, I think he had some real sick child flown in to see the game in Brazil. A class act. And he still has played for Greece this year.

[uk.soccerway.com]



He's played for Man City and Celtic, big clubs, then eventually, played in some Arab league and now in Oklahoma City. Fascinating, he was playing hard out there.

Don't remind me of the time he played at Man City. He missed so many great goal scoring chances that he was known as the Greek Tragedy then.

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Silver Dagger
Don't remind me of the time he played at Man City. He missed so many great goal scoring chances that he was known as the Greek Tragedy then.

It's just amazing to see such a famous player on the pitch; though he certainly is not playing in the topflight.

In this EuroCup; Eder has been called a flop for Swansea, Altidore was called one when he played for Sunderland. There is a lot of that around.

The Greeks qualified for the big tournaments a number of times straight before this last Euro with him. This time, they were not there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-14 17:57 by BroomWagon.

Can't help myself, Joe Cole scored, an absolute screamer (if I have that right as they say over there) of a goal; it's made its way all around the media:

[www.dailymail.co.uk]

See video above.

That thing is amazing; I've watched quite a bit of footy. High ranks for that one.

Compare say to the famous Shakira goal for Switzerland at this year's Euro:

[www.youtube.com]

I've seen guys try bicycle kicks, Chilenas in Spanish I think of also used by Leonidas Da Silva, the black diamond...not pearl as I said a few weeks ago.

[www.v-brazil.com]

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bv
Most people who watch football games are biased. They are pro or con France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain and so on. The game is all about winning, not about anything else. Portugal ended up with the cup. May be France was an inch away from winning but that is how football works. I thought some of the games in this tournament was pretty boring, but again that is football. That is why I love ice hockey more, there are very few 0-0 games, and it is hard top play ice hockey defensive for 3 x 20 minutes.

Anyway, congratulations to Portugal. To win the final without the world's best player on the pitch is pretty amazing. Knowing the team they beat was propably the best team in the tournament.

Thank you BV.

worlds best player. thats a joke.

worlds best players usually have at least one great international tournament.

i suppose the media have their reasons for ignoring those that have influenced big tournaments.

portugal winning the euros did make a mockery of the media.

Of course, one can say ice hockey is the best... if they cheer on Sweden? Right, they've had some very good results in recent years.

And deserving; great sport.

Yes, now that I know how this mega-24-team Euro tournament is, maybe I won't be following it so very close. It's great to see but does take quite a bit of time.