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Euro 2024

Captain Ron

By Captain Ron
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RichUT
RichUT

I had the opportunity to take in the final in person. It was truly a spectacle and the energy throughout the match was unlike any sporting event I’ve attended. England fans outnumbered Spains by a goo

Firemans4Horn
Firemans4Horn
TexArcher
TexArcher

Typical boring, non-contact soccer match.  Nobody ever scores.  This sport sucks.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 13133

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2 minutes ago, Blotto said:

this turkey/czechia game is getting good now. 

I've switched to this game 100% because Portugal-Georgia looks pretty well done.

Turkey wins or draw - Georgia & Turkey advance

Czechia wins - Georgia & Czechia advance

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Firemans4Horn

Firemans4Horn 18535

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Ian Darke is talking like Georgia had no business even being on the same field as Portugal today. Dude, they started 9 backups, Georgia had a great chance to win today.

 

But also, have some respect for Georgia; they have some brilliant individual players and play free flowing football. 

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Napoleon

Napoleon 8853

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1 minute ago, PittsburghTiger said:

How do you not just let that sequence go and then check VAR?

That was a goal for CZE, or at worst a PK for them.

Absolutely Czechia should be up and going through. 

60K angry Turks are more than this ref wanted to deal with.

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Blotto

Blotto 24044

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Just now, Napoleon said:

A 6 on 4 break when Czechia would have been bunkering because they would have had the lead. 

This ref may need to be burned at the stake.

Yup. czechia got proper fucked in this match. 

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sidis

sidis 10019

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image.thumb.png.b07b6d5a60a315a15e6557387b4d6d3c.png

bracket.

 

19 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

What a boring tournament, huh?

not sure you're making the case you think you are...shitty reffing and cynical play does not make a great tourney. plus, i thought you were "done with it after your melodramatic proclamation. don't be a passive aggressive twat.

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sidis

sidis 10019

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looking at the bracket, the belgium-france game should be the most exciting match of the first round but the way both have played in group stage, it will require a sea change in both teams' forms thus far...belgium with two 0 goal matches and france has yet to score an offensive goal in open play.

the austria-turkey cinderella throwdown in the first round will likely be the one to watch.

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Derka

Derka 6403

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been out at the pool all day, just got back and caught up on the games on my dvr. holy shit. first i watch georgia being their fans (and even a diplomat or two) to years as they accomplished the impossible (lol ronaldo), and im only just now seeing the first goal in türkiye vs chechia and holy shit what a madness this is. the euros are delivering! 

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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 11294

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Spoiler


Euro 24 group phase: multiple own goals, no strikers, and Georgian heroics

by Ian Plenderleith
Marcel Sabitzer scores the winner in Austria's 3-2 victory over the Netherlands — a rare high-scoring game at Euro 2024. (Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa via ZUMA Press/ISI Photos)
Marcel Sabitzer scores the winner in Austria's 3-2 victory over the Netherlands — a rare high-scoring game at Euro 2024. (Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa via ZUMA Press/ISI Photos)

The group phase of the 2024 European Championship is over, and as usual it's something of a relief to put the 36 games behind us and move on to the knockout rounds. The problem with the 24-team format, as always, is that it takes two weeks to break down the field and lose just one-third of the participants.

With four third- place teams qualifying for the round of 16, it also means that mediocre teams that haven't won a single game — Denmark and Slovenia in the barren Group C — have progressed with just three points and two goals apiece. Let's break down the tournament stats:

Goals scored. There have been 81 goals in the 36 games, an average of 2.25 per match. The tournament's historical average is 2.44 per game (2.34 in the group phase), so this has been a relatively low-scoring tournament so far. We began with a rash of long distance goals, with all three of Türkiye's strikes in their thrilling opening game against Georgia coming from outside of the area. This served to encourage several players to ill-advisedly 'have a go' from distance, and by the end of the group phase some kind of ball fatigue had crept in — shots were going high and wide like in a halftime amateur kick-in competition. And keepers seemed to be more alert to the long-range effort— witness Italy's Gianluigi Donnarumma's incredible save from Luka Sucic of Croatia's shot early on in their final group game.

Most goals in a game. Germany's 5-1 shellacking of a shockingly poor Scotland side in the tournament's opening game was only the ninth time that a team has scored five or more goals in a single game since the tournament's inception in 1960. In the early years, this was often down to the tournament's small field (only four teams until it was expanded to eight in 1980, 16 in 1996, and 24 in 2016), meaning that only the best nations were competing in the latter stages. Nowadays, 10-man defenses make it much harder to break down weaker opponents, even with the expanded field allowing mediocre nations (Scotland, say) to qualify.

Own goals. There were seven own goals in the group phase — a staggering number that doesn't even include Scott McTominay's strike for Scotland against Switzerland, which was heading straight for the arms of Swiss keeper Yann Sommer before his teammate Fabian Schär stuck his leg out and diverted it into the net. Yet the high number of own goals is perhaps not that surprising given how many teams may have nine or more players defending in their own penalty areas at any given time. On the one hand, many more shots are blocked before reaching the keeper, but the number of goals scored by deflection and/or intervention has soared correspondingly — another negative aspect of defensive tactics that's been little discussed. A fortunate trend for teams like France, which has  progressed from competitive Group D by scoring just two goals —  a PK and an own goal.

It also means that OG is far and away the leading scorer, reflecting the absence of old-fashioned No. 9s. In Germany, a debate is raging about whether their reliable striker Niclas Füllkrug should start in this weekend's round-of-16 game against Denmark, having scored twice after coming off the bench. Starting forward Kai Havertz is not an all-out No. 9, and although he's a very fine player, he can be infuriatingly wasteful or hesitant to shoot. France's reluctance to play Randal Kolo Muani — an excellent poacher — may also explain why none of their players seem to be in a position to get on the end of their multiple crosses. In an era of packed penalty areas, it's strange that natural goalscorers are more often than not overlooked.

Füllkrug, by the way, is a lovely bloke. When a German TV interviewer pointed out his stats of 13 goals in just 19 games for Germany, many of them after coming off the bench, he added with a smile, "And don't forget the four assists!"

CR7. Cristiano Ronaldo, the championship's all-time top scorer with 14 goals, has yet to score in his sixth European Championship, although he did assist against Türkiye when he might have been expected to shoot. He was one of the few first-choice Portuguese players not rested for their final group game against Georgia, and suffered a frustrating night in his side's 2-0 defeat. After falling dramatically to the ground in the penalty area when his shirt was tugged by Luca Locoshvili, Ronaldo complained so vehemently to the unimpressed referee that he saw yellow for dissent — a victim of the excellent UEFA  experiment that only captains can address the ref. In our household, this goes down as the funniest moment of the tournament so far. It's amazing that one of the greatest players in the history of the game can behave like such a spoiled brat that he invites nothing but contemptuous mockery at the end of a storied career.

Best game: Austria 3 Netherlands 2, followed closely by Türkiye 3 Georgia 1

Most dramatic goal: Italy's 98th-minute equalizer against Croatia (1-1) that put Italy through and dumped Croatia out. In the last half hour of this game it was instructive to see how Italy could attack when it needed to. Scorer Mattia Zaccagni was one of several forwards dusted off on the back row of the Italian subs' bench to come on and try to rescue a point. No one knew they were there. No one had even heard of the 29-year-old Lazio striker. This was his first goal for his country.

Most undeserved and heart-breaking exit: Ukraine, after an unlikely 2-1 comeback win against Slovakia, then a stirring performance against Belgium that ended in a very unlucky 0-0 draw. Four points and out, while dreary England, Denmark and Slovenia (have I mentioned the abominable Group C?) are all still there.

Biggest surprise: Georgia — refreshingly adventurous, and an example of what an underdog can do if they dispense with caution in favor of verve and a little flair.

Best team: Spain, by a country mile, crushing Croatia and out-playing Italy. They're heading for a possible quarterfinal with host nation Germany on July 5. Mark the date.

Worst teams: Scotland and England, possibly not even in that order. Though England managed to win its miserly Group C (where there were just seven goals in six games), despite a reluctance to cross the halfway line. Just awful and embarrassing to watch.

Round of 16:
Switzerland-Italy (June 29, noon ET)
Germany-Denmark (June 29, 3 pm ET)
England-Slovakia (June 30, noon ET)
Spain-Georgia (June 30, 3 pm ET)
France-Belgium (July 1, noon ET)
Portugal-Slovenia (July 1, 3 pm ET)
Romania-Netherlands (July 2, noon ET)
Austria-Türkiye (July 2, 3 pm ET)

 

 

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Funk Doctor Spock

Funk Doctor Spock 13292

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Just now, Macklemore said:

They did win the last Euro :) Not qualifying for the World Cup the past 2 times is inexcusable. 

Yep. I was for sure they would after winning Euro the last time, but when they missed the WC for the second time I was like this is inexcusable for a country that was once a power.  

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Blotto

Blotto 24044

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I missed the first  part of the half but from what I did see, Italy is  completely impotent. When they do maintain possession, its just passing the ball around the middle or back third. The second they try and attack, SUI just slaps them down and takes it back. 

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