Euro 2012

The Poles opened the tournament and after looking quite useful and taking the lead they had to finally settle for a 1-1 draw with Greece who went down to 10 men and missed a penalty as both sides finished the game with a player short so two sendings off in the very first match.
Later on it was Russia who took the eye as they comprehensively swept aside the Czech Republic by 4-1. I know it is very early yet but I get the feeling that Russia mean business and could be one of the big successes at this years Euro games.

Re: Euro 2012

Only saw the Greece game. Surprised at the other result. Must have been great goals to put four past Petr Cech.Thought Greece were down and out, but they could have won it, but for that missed penalty. Looking forward to the Holland game later on. Trouble with these games coming thick and fast, is getting 'er indoors' to allow moi to watch them on the main telly. Half the time, its get out the portable, and hide in the back bedroom. Time to get in touch with the UN peacekeeping forces!

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Now I don't mind watching Man City and England playing, or even our own league games.
Hubby has watched every game of this Euro up to now. We have Germany Portugal game on now. I think I will be doing a disappearing act now and again.
How long is this Euro on for.

Re: Euro 2012

It's on for 3 weeks Shaz, but as the tournament goes on and teams get knocked out, there will be fewer games shown on TV, so you'll be able to reappear again!

I enjoy the Euro. and the World Cup and don't mind what teams are playing....am looking forward to Monday when England play-should be interesting....

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Good on you Shaz, patience is the keyword (or a tv set apiece).
The final is on July 1st so be a very good wifey and Him indoors will probably buy you a surprise pressie for your patience! As Merz has stated, after the initial group matches you will not have so many games to worry about!
Back to the results, Holland surprisingly went down 0-1 to Denmark and Germany squeezed through 1-0 against Portugal.
Tonight at 5pm it's Spain v Italy (could be tasty) then at 7.45pm it will be Republic of Ireland v Croatia (worth watching.) England's date with France looms ever closer.

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I'm a big fan of the Dutch team but watching Denmark beat all the odds to win a match in the "group of death" was thrilling.
The Germans outclassed Portugal but squandered their chances early on giving Portugal a chance, is anyone else sick and tired of seeing Ronaldo showing off when he gets a chance then disappearing from the majority of the play?
Russia is not the most talented team in the tournament but they are so well coached that they will be a force to be reckoned with. It's a rare sight to see every player on the team working together and adhering to the coach's system. Well played, Russia.

Fair play update: With only four games played to date Greece is the only team that has showed a propensity for the behaviour we have come to hate in international football although Portugal tended to be a little on the whiny side.

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I don't see a lot of promise from the English team but I hope they prove me wrong.

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You certainly are not in the minority there Hu99, most of the footballing fraternity in the UK plus of course the ever fickle media 'experts' have already written the team off but I am not going to jump on the band wagon and I do believe that England may carry on with the good luck that so far seems to have been with the so called underdogs. Hopefully tomorrow evening we may have enjoyed the game for all the right reasons!

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Poor little Ireland. They don't really stand a chance with Italy and Spain in their group but they were robbed by no offside call on Croatia's second goal at 44 minutes.
I realize that the call was based on the Irish player having played the ball to the offside player, but in a panic situation like they were in, can you really judge his actions to have been "playing" the ball?
St. Ledger's equalizer gave me hope but their subsequent play after that made me believe that a tie was the best they could hope for. It's always sad when the underdog goes home without a point.

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Is it just me or is this the first major tournament where English people haven't been full of hope? I've always had the feeling going in to World cup or Euro tournament that our boys had some unmeasurable something that if tapped could bring home the trophy, but this time I'm resigned to the Three Lions going home early. They may be lucky enough to make the last 16 (and I don't even see that happening) but they haven't a chance against the top two from any of the other groups.
There are 23 English players with the talent and spirit to win Euro 2012 but the team Hodgson has chosen isn't it.

I've always felt that if you selected an England squad from players who ply their trade in the Championship League (and even lower) then gave them to a really good coach, they'd be world beaters given the fact that they wouldn't have the distractions of the multi-millionaire primadonnas who are always selected, but then I wonder how other country's superstars are able to perform on the world stage without the seeming lack of desire that plagues England. Are we really that bad? Have we been fooling ourselves because 1966 was an aberration and not proof that we truly are the best at the game we invented?

Having said that, I do believe that the team we sent to Mexico in 1970 was the best England team ever assembled and if not not for the fact that the team was decimated with diarrhea and stomach flu could have stolen another Jules Rimet from the true powers of football. Subsequent English squads should be ashamed of themselves, not qualifying in '74 and '78 should have sent the people of England a clear message that we no longer owned the game that we invented.

When finally qualifying again in 1982 we found ourselves in a group with France, Czechoslovakia and Kuwait. Hardly a challenge and England went 3-0 to the next round. Suddenly, reality hit England in the form of West Germany and Spain and we were out. The question is: why are England still considered a seeded team after failing to qualify for two World Cups, three if you count the fact that we didn't need to qualify for Mexico in 1970. I believe that we have a bloated self-image when it comes to world football and should accept our place as it truly is. That is a country that has the best league in the world (I'll apologize to the Budesliga for now) and can produce great players from time to time but is far from being a world power as a national team. The sooner we accept that and take our place with the likes of Ireland, Denmark, Austria et al, then the sooner we can on to the business of tapping the spirit of England instead of reliving past glory.