Sticky: Official UEFA Euro 2012 Thread

[bouli77]

Benzema is a versatile forward, he can do it all, assist, score, but I think he's better as a creative forward since he's not a poacher. good game but i wish he had scored, maybe next game

Ukraine was very weak though.

[Invincible]

Shocked not to watch a boring England game. For once we didn't just sit back and defend. It was only against one of the poorest Sweden sides in a while but we still managed to make things hard for ourselves. Satisfied with the end result though.

[bouli77]

wellbeck's goal was a stunner... the game could have gone both ways. sweden had numerous chances too but lacked realism

[wcsoldier]

Ribery ( finally) and Cabaye are the 2 best players of our team after 2 games ... with Benzema not too far behind ...

I'd prefer Benzema to play just behind a real striker who is in the box most of the time but we don't have one ( Giroud lacks experience at this level)

I'm glad Clichy and Menez ( lacks maturity and doesn't do the defensive work but at least create offensive opportunities unlike Florent " Casper" Malouda") replaced Evra and Malouda who are useless ..

Rami is fucking garbage though ... I don't think our D in the center will be solid enough against top competition

[bouli77]

i wouldn't call rami garbage, but he has concentration lapses regularly and lacks security. he's as good as he's ever been since he's always been overrated. a decent central defender, who every so often makes crazy mistakes and is a bit erratic on the pitch.

i'm pretty satisfied with our offensive asset. everybody's showing up so far. i mean french critics and pundits hate on Nasri but dude put on a hell of performance last night and against England, and i don't even like him that much (both as a player and a personality). Ribéry is on beast mode and has played so well for the national team, Cabaye is unexpectedly stepping up and is almost flawless, Menez lacks realism but scored a goal on one of his most difficult chances, Benzema is dropping too deep on the pitch but he assists.

but we're still shaky, our defense seems unreliable, even though full backs are doing the job, and there's a huge gap between the defense and the midfield. it looks REALLY unbalanced. at times, both against England & Ukraine, they had counterattacks where they would run 50 yards unattacked. it's a blessing Ukraine was so weak yesterday because against strong teams, we should have conceded at least a goal.

anyway, France is now having a bit of a style of play and for the first time in years seem creative and disciplined, let's hope it continues. it's a shame Laurent Blanc is probably leaving at the end of the tournament, i think we have the potential to buil something huge for the years to come, just like Hidalgo from 1978 on.

[wcsoldier]

yep Nasri is playing well.... Diarra has been a good surprise too considering his average season with OM ..

Rami is always slow too react/late in his interventions ...

I don't like our pitch balance either ... and I think it starts with our offensive players doing an inconsistent defensive job at pressuring the opponent when they lose the ball .. only Benzema is doing a consistent job at it imo

[bouli77]

Benzema is indeed good a pressing, but we can't ignore Ribéry's work rate and discipline when it comes to defensive matters. one of the good surprises.

[Lunatic]

FORCA PORTUGAL  What a FANTASTIC performance! Absolutely outclassed the Dutch. Ronaldo!!!

[The_Ripper]

HOLLAND 

[wcsoldier]

The Netherlands D in this Euro was the worst I've seen from an elite country since .... ?

Pathetic D

Portugal will advance to the Semi , probably to face Spain

[bouli77]

never seen such an amateurish display from Holland. that defense was truly terrible. i mean they had to be on strike or something cause the Portuguese were not properly marked, not aerial presence whatsoever (which is Holland's forté, usually, much more than Latin countries). This is even worse than France's display in 2008. 0 point. I mean, that has to be a record, even France in 02, 08 & 10 (what a streak though, lol) left the group with a point (well at least Holland scored during the tournament lol).

it's all the more weird since Holland had a hell of an attack. players linked up rather well and yesterday it seems as if Robben had decided to pass the ball after cutting in, instead of shooting non-stop.

[7even]

I'm worried Greek players might injure German players just out of spite because their country hates us for giving them money. Therefore I much rather would have faced Russia, even though that team is much better.

Either way... semi-finals prediction:

Portugal - Spain

Germany - France

[Furor Teutonicus]

I'm worried Greek players might injure German players just out of spite because their country hates us for giving them money. Therefore I much rather would have faced Russia, even though that team is much better.

Either way... semi-finals prediction:

Portugal - Spain

Germany - France

Oh you are worried. Who would've thought

You were the one who expected genocide in South Africa 2010, nothing but unwarranted scaremongering again.

Surely the Greek will fight for their life, and the media will be heated again. I would rather look out for the German fans before talking about Greek players, they better not pull that stupid shit again they did in the opener.

[7even]

I'm worried Greek players might injure German players just out of spite because their country hates us for giving them money. Therefore I much rather would have faced Russia, even though that team is much better.

Either way... semi-finals prediction:

Portugal - Spain

Germany - France

Oh you are worried. Who would've thought

You were the one who expected genocide in South Africa 2010, nothing but unwarranted scaremongering again.

Surely the Greek will fight for their life, and the media will be heated again. I would rather look out for the German fans before talking about Greek players, they better not pull that stupid shit again they did in the opener.

German fans have always belonged to the more normal. You just hold them to much higher standards and criticize them a lot easier, typical left wing shit. Either way, I expect your apology after the game (given the most likely scenario that I was right).

[bouli77]

I'm worried Greek players might injure German players just out of spite because their country hates us for giving them money. Therefore I much rather would have faced Russia, even though that team is much better.

lmao you're crazy

if every big team makes it to the knockout stages, the semi finals are gonna be the most prestigious games we've had in a minute, whether it'd be Portugal - Spain, Portugal - Italy, Italy - Germany, Germany - France, or whatever, nothing but classics.

I'm really hoping for a France - Italy matchup in the quarter finals