Sticky: Official UEFA Euro 2012 Thread

[Meho]

Exciting first day! Ok, it's not.

[Lunatic]

I feel as Greece was lucky to get a point, yet they did have some odds stacked against him..horrible sending off, and could have been a PK in the 1st half.. but they did get one in the second, and missed it.

Horrible goaltending by Szczesny on the first goal

[Furor Teutonicus]

Is it certain Hummels won't start?

Pretty much. They speculate that Gomez might replace Klose tho.

Schweinsteiger and Klose can't be in shape either, you should have a chance today. Go Portugal

Pleasantly surprised about the first 2 games.

[Lunatic]

Congrats to Germany

As for my take on Portugal..

I thought we played well. We showed a ton of passion and heart and we deserved a draw. I liked how at times, we didn't give them too much space in the MF and forced them backwards. We did play for a draw though.

On the goal, I don't know why we let them cross it in..we basically gave them the space & time to do so.. Reminded me of Euro 2000 vs. England, when we basically allowed Beckham to take a free kick cross into the box.. Patricio had no chance on the goal. It did take an unlucky bounce off Moutinho which affected Pepe's positioning on Gomez.

I thought Joao Pereira (our RB) was pretty bad. Unfortunately, he's the best of a bad group at RB. Pepe was solid, Alves surprised the heck out of me. Coentrao was easily our best player on the pitch.

Veloso as well, surprised me and was quite solid. Meireles was very disappointing, gave away possession far too often. Moutinho was quite decent, played some slow balls at times but was still quite good.

Ronaldo created when he received the ball, but I feel like we didn't get it to him enough. Nani didn't show any signs of the injury and was effective. Postiga is a waste of space and I hope he doesn't start vs. Denmark.

No complains on our manager Paulo Bento, I thought the 2 subs were excellent.. Shocked and HAPPY he went to Nelo/Varela over Almeida/Quaresma. Nelo didn't get too involved but created something out of nothing on Varela's golden opportunity.. He absolutely should have buried that! Varela played damn good though as a sub.

I hope Bento saw enough from Nelo to start him Wednesday, but I'm concerned he did not.. And I hope Varela remains first choice substitute if we need offense off the bench..

Obviously the last 15 minutes was gorgeous play as we looked for the equalizer, and many (including myself) may say "why didn't we play like that all game?" But keep in mind that's a dangerous style to play for 90 minutes, far too open..Germany probably would have scored 3 if we played like that all game.. But that was really some beautiful attacking football.

We'll play much more open vs. Denmark, as we absolutely need a win and they're offense isn't as dangerous as Germany.

Very bad luck.. Pepe's crossbar, Nani's [freak] crossbar on a cross, and Varela's golden opportunity..Add in Alves header at the end, and Nani's shot which was blocked on a gorgeous pass back from Ronaldo.. Ronaldo had a decent shot or 2 also, that forced a nice save(s). We should have scored & would have deserved it, a draw would have been a just result.

I am faithful we can still advance, we showed a ton of quality today. But it has to start Wednesday with a victory over Denmark who I think may defend tough for a draw since they already have 3 points.

Portugal beat Denmark
Germany tie Holland
Portugal tie Holland
Germany beat Denmark

We'd advance as 2nd place with only 4 pts..

[daWappla]

After tonight's games, group B should be even more interesting than before. Even though the Dutch lost to Denmark, I still think that the Danish will come up last in this group. Tuesday will be make or break for Oranje, basically. I don't think they will beat Germany, so assuming that Portugal beats Denmark it would be Germany/6, Portugal/3, Denmark /3 and Holland/zero. That would lead to Germany/9 against Denmark, and Portugal/Netherlands would play for 2nd place. Killer group right there, can't wait.

[Lunatic]

It won't be easy, but I think Portugal may get through. They showed quality today.

[Furor Teutonicus]

Yep typical German lucky win, about time they found old German virtues again. Germany always had the best results when they peaked not too early.

The offensive line Poldi - Özil - Müller was weaksauce today. They have to show next games or the excellent bench players should get their chance. Schweinsteiger and Lahm were also poor
 
Oh yeah and HUMMELS  FTW

[wcsoldier]

I feel Portugal has been playing way more defensive oriented/minded than they should for a while ... sure the D is solid but they should be/ are able to be more offensive minded ... instead of always counting only on fast breaks opportunities when the game is still 0-0...

This was a  " well , we could have done more , we may have some regrets at the end" type of game ... same for their non game against Spain in 2010

[Fraxxx]

I'm pissed! Holland shows the best offensive performance so far and loses to Denmark, that's just not right.

At least Germany won and surprisingly Löw came to his senses and let Hummels play. Weird game, out of the whole team the often critizised defense was strongest and out of them Lahm was the weakest. Can't say that I saw this before.

I have to say, Mereiles' fist in Badstubers face was typical South European bastard shit. Hope he gets suspended.

Ger - Ned will be a killer game hopefully, Holland's defense is weaker than Portugal's, Germany should get more chances on scoring. And the Dutch simply have to get rid of their bad luck. You don't play two games in a row like this, impossible.

Do you have the feeling that many players are slipping? It's like they're playing on ice.

[Lunatic]

I feel Portugal has been playing way more defensive oriented/minded than they should for a while ... sure the D is solid but they should be/ are able to be more offensive minded ... instead of always counting only on fast breaks opportunities when the game is still 0-0...

This was a  " well , we could have done more , we may have some regrets at the end" type of game ... same for their non game against Spain in 2010

Against Spain in 2010, we were just coached by Quieroz, who was ALL about defense..we played defense that entire tournament.

But under Bento, we've played very offensive, for 2 years now.. yesterday was the 1st exception under Bento. I can't complain though. We played beautifully the last 15 mins, but if we played that open all game, we probably would have conceded 2 or 3.

[bouli77]

Spain - Italy was the best game i've seen in the tournament yet. both teams were strong, but Italy was more impressive imo. Spain still got it obviously but their defense seem shaky and their offense isn't as sharp as in 2010 without Villa and with a low self esteem Torres. a world class player like him doesn't miss that type of opportunities usually. Iniesta, Jesus Navas & David Silva were on fire.

can't wait for tom's game

[Lunatic]

I was quite shocked they used Jesus Navas as 1st sub over Mata who didn't play at all.

[wcsoldier]

Del Bosque needs to put the sangria down if he expects to win the competition without playing a real striker most of the time .... I was shocked about this tactic ... I mean against Italy , WTF

[Furor Teutonicus]

Spain - Italy was the best game i've seen in the tournament yet. both teams were strong, but Italy was more impressive imo. Spain still got it obviously but their defense seem shaky and their offense isn't as sharp as in 2010 without Villa and with a low self esteem Torres. a world class player like him doesn't miss that type of opportunities usually. Iniesta, Jesus Navas & David Silva were on fire.

can't wait for tom's game

Yeah good game.

Italy was surprisingly good. They seemed tired the last 25 minutes though.

And I agree with wcsoldier, they need to play with a real striker. Torres had to score yesterday, but I think he slowly passes his looong crisis. He already improved in the CL final. I think he may become a world class player again. Still don't think Spain can defend the title, because nobody has so far.   Almost as mighty as the CL defender curse

[wcsoldier]

^^^^ yeah Euro is a tough and very homogeneous competition ...  the majority of the games from the 1st round to the Final are interesting to watch ... can't say the same about a World Cup

that's why I hate the decision to extend it to 24 countries as of 2016