Ends with Bowie, nice touch 
The Final: Portugal vs France - (10/7/16) KO 8pm, BBC1/HD & ITV1/HD
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Originally Posted by Eurostar:
“I'm fully in favour of the expanded format. It's not the small teams' fault that the likes of Spain, Germany, England and possibly even France have been misfiring.”
“I'm fully in favour of the expanded format. It's not the small teams' fault that the likes of Spain, Germany, England and possibly even France have been misfiring.”
I'd bump it up to 32 teams to make the group stage and knockout advancement a bit less scattergun.
Originally Posted by SegaGamer:
“Bias voting for goal of the tournament. Why don't people just vote honestly ?”
“Bias voting for goal of the tournament. Why don't people just vote honestly ?”
I bet the people in Switzerland voted for Shaqiri as goal of the tournament
Originally Posted by DUNDEEBOY:
“Internationally the havent in recent times.
Champions league Ronaldo wasn't hugely significant in the bigger games
That will continue”
“Internationally the havent in recent times.
Champions league Ronaldo wasn't hugely significant in the bigger games
That will continue”
I don't think there is any player in international football that look's amazing to be honest, Messi and Ronaldo aren't the only ones.
Ronaldo may not dominate games anymore, but he still scores a lot of goals, even against top teams. And Messi still plays a huge role in how Barcelona plays. They are still at the very top in the sport, alongside Iniesta, Suarez and Neymar.
Aw....Bowie.
Well, there we go! Quite a negative summing up from Shearer et al but I'll remember the tournament fondly as a Welshman!
Well, there we go! Quite a negative summing up from Shearer et al but I'll remember the tournament fondly as a Welshman!
Originally Posted by celesti:
“I'd bump it up to 32 teams to make the group stage and knockout advancement a bit less scattergun.”
“I'd bump it up to 32 teams to make the group stage and knockout advancement a bit less scattergun.”
Then even more poor teams would get into the competition. There would almost be no point having qualifiers.
Originally Posted by Thomas007:
“Whats the chances of Messi coming out of retirement and playing the in the 2018 WC?”
“Whats the chances of Messi coming out of retirement and playing the in the 2018 WC?”
He was never going to stay retired and miss the next World Cup.
Originally Posted by owen10:
“I bet the people in Switzerland voted for Shaqiri as goal of the tournament”
“I bet the people in Switzerland voted for Shaqiri as goal of the tournament”
The vast majority of people voting in that poll would have been English unless they couldn't be bothered because there was no English player to vote for.
Originally Posted by celesti:
“I'd bump it up to 32 teams to make the group stage and knockout advancement a bit less scattergun.”
“I'd bump it up to 32 teams to make the group stage and knockout advancement a bit less scattergun.”
Well according to Lineker, UEFA are perfectly happy with the structure of the competition, so the possibility of any changes would appear to be minimal.
It's also worth remembering that the next European Championship will fall under that bizarre arrangement where the matches will played in a dozen cities across Europe, which would hardly seem conducive to making a more stable tournament.
Originally Posted by SegaGamer:
“Then even more poor teams would get into the competition. There would almost be no point having qualifiers.”
“Then even more poor teams would get into the competition. There would almost be no point having qualifiers.”
Who were the poor teams that qualified?
Originally Posted by Eurostar:
“I'm fully in favour of the expanded format. It's not the small teams' fault that the likes of Spain, Germany, England and possibly even France have been misfiring.”
“I'm fully in favour of the expanded format. It's not the small teams' fault that the likes of Spain, Germany, England and possibly even France have been misfiring.”
I don't think the quality of the game in general is good enough to support an expanded tournament personally. There aren't many top players around.
Setting your team up to defend has become easier in recent times because there aren't enough top players around to open them up like there used to be.
??
Originally Posted by Thomas007:
“Whats the chances of Messi coming out of retirement and playing the in the 2018 WC?”
“Whats the chances of Messi coming out of retirement and playing the in the 2018 WC?”
Well Argentina will be favourites for the World Cup
So i would say there is a big chance of him coming out of retirement
Originally Posted by SegaGamer:
“Then even more poor teams would get into the competition. There would almost be no point having qualifiers.”
“Then even more poor teams would get into the competition. There would almost be no point having qualifiers.”
Rather pointless qualifiers than a pointless group stage.
Maybe its just a case of lots of very good defenders. Quite a lot of centre backs have credible arguments for being in the final team of the tournament.
Sickened by this result, more evidence that good things happen to bad people. More tournaments like this will kill International football.
Originally Posted by owen10:
“Well Argentina will be favourites for the World Cup
So i would say there is a big chance of him coming out of retirement”
“Well Argentina will be favourites for the World Cup
So i would say there is a big chance of him coming out of retirement”
They are not germany are
Originally Posted by mikeyddd:
“Who were the poor teams that qualified?”
“Who were the poor teams that qualified?”
Austria
Ukraine
Romania
England
Ian Wright clearly hasn't heard of the UEFA Nations League.
I don't buy at all the argument being put forward by the panel that an expanded tournament justifies itself solely because it gives the smaller nations a taste of tournament football.
Their incentive should be to improve to the point that they can qualify for tournaments in their existing sizes, not to get there by being given the equivalent of a consolation prize.
I hope they realise when they get to the upcoming World Cup qualifiers that there are only half the berths of Euro 2016 open to them.
I don't buy at all the argument being put forward by the panel that an expanded tournament justifies itself solely because it gives the smaller nations a taste of tournament football.
Their incentive should be to improve to the point that they can qualify for tournaments in their existing sizes, not to get there by being given the equivalent of a consolation prize.
I hope they realise when they get to the upcoming World Cup qualifiers that there are only half the berths of Euro 2016 open to them.
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