UEFA Euro 2006 U-21 Championship Thread [R]

[benficafan3]

Discuss.

[Osnator]

First results:

Portugal - France: 0-1 (Briand) Man of the match: Jimmy Briand
Serbia/Montenegro - Germany: 0-1 (Polanski) Man of the match: Lukas Sienkewicz

No surprises so far.

[GatoFedorento]

First results:

Portugal - France: 0-1 (Briand) Man of the match: Jimmy Briand
Serbia/Montenegro - Germany: 0-1 (Polanski) Man of the match: Lukas Sienkewicz

No surprises so far.
What would you call a surprise?

[__Dynamite__]

What would you call a surprise?

I`m not him, but to me France and Germany are the favourites of this tournament so France or Germany losing it`s opening match would have been pretty surprising.

Today:

Ukraine - Holland 2:1 fulltime
Italy - Denmark 1:3 at halftime (yeehaw!!!:D)

[Gnafron]

Man of the match was Jérémy Toulalan for France, Nani was good for Portugal.

Interesting games with some nice players. Danes are good (Italy 1 - 3 Denmark after 45 minutes !!), i was a bit disappointed by Portugal.

[ForeverRed]

So far, so good :D

Denmark actually has quite a talented team, their defense is especially sharp.

[sardus_pater]

Italy - Denmark 3-3 ;)

That 18yo Bendtnder is really really good.

[|--LdC--|]

Well since we are playing at home and are one of the favourites start losing was a surprise but i have to say the French played better and deserved to win.

[Ceres]

Italy - Denmark 3-3 ;)

That 18yo Bendtnder is really really good.

And then Nicklas Bendtner just turned 18 in january and it was only his 2nd match for the Danish U21's (He scored twice in his very impressive debut against Spain U21 in the Danish 2-0 win last week)...
.

[Mephistor]

I`m not him, but to me France and Germany are the favourites of this tournament so France or Germany losing it`s opening match would have been pretty surprising.

Germany isn't favourite because of loosing some players to A-team (Lahm, Jansen, Huth, Mertesacker, Podolski, Odonkor, Schweinsteiger and Hanke) or injuring (Trochowski, now also Polanski). But they have a good team which can reach the final with some luck.

[football_addict]

Serbia beat Portugal 2-0. :cool:

[Filip]

Yes we won! Portugal is out of race for second place now, but I hope that they will not let Germany to win the last game in group. Serbia need to win against France, or to play draw if Portugal beat Germany, to go in semi-final. Serbia didn't play as good as they can, but enough to beat weak Portugal squad. I hope we'll play much better against France and beat them for semi-final. I'm hoping that France will rest some players for semi becouse they are already there.
GO SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO!!!

[Forza AZ]

Yes we won! Portugal is out of race for second place now,
Portugal has a very slight chance still for 2nd place. When they win versus Germany and France beat Serbia-Montenegro, then there will be 3 teams on 3 points. Head-to-head between these 3 will count in that case, in which all 3 have 3 points and have the following goal-difference:

Serbia Montenegro: 2-1
Germany: 1-0 (+ their loss versus Portugal)
Portugal: 0-2 (+ their win versus Germany)

So, when Portugal wins with 3-0 or more and Serbia Montenegro loses, then Portugal will end on 2nd place.

So Portugal certainly won't hand the match to Germany, because they have still a slight chance, and they will want to show something to the home crowd still. Finishing with 0 points from 3 matches would really be embarrasing for them.

Also France isn't 100% certain yet to qualify, but they can only miss it when they lose with 6-0 or more and when Germany beats Portugal. Also in this case there will be 3 teams with the same amount of points (6) and the same amount of points in head-to-head with the following goaldifference:

France: 3-0 (+their loss versus Serbia Montenegro)
Germany: 1-3
Serbia Montenegro: 0-1 (+their win versus France)

[Forza AZ]

So this are the 12 possible outcomes in the last matchday of group A:

France-Serbia M.
Germany-Portugal

France wins, Germany wins: 1.France, 2.Germany
France wins, Germany draw: 1.France, 2.Germany
France wins, Portugal wins with 1 or 2 goals: 1.France, 2.Serbia M.
France wins, Portugal wins 3 goals or more: 1.France, 2.Portugal
France draws, Germany wins: 1.France, 2.Germany
France draws, Germany draw: 1.France, 2.Germany
France draws, Portugal wins: 1.France, 2.Serbia M.
Serbia M. wins with 1 or 2 goals, Germany wins: 1.France, 2.Serbia M.
Serbia M. wins with 3, 4 or 5 goals, Germany wins: 1.Serbia M., 2.France
Serbia M. wins with 6 goals or more, Germany wins: 1.Serbia M, 2.Germany
Serbia M. wins, Germany draw: 1.Serbia M., 2.France
Serbia M. wins, Portugal wins: 1.Serbia M., 2.France

[benficafan3]

Yes we won! Portugal is out of race for second place now, but I hope that they will not let Germany to win the last game in group. Serbia need to win against France, or to play draw if Portugal beat Germany, to go in semi-final. Serbia didn't play as good as they can, but enough to beat weak Portugal squad. I hope we'll play much better against France and beat them for semi-final. I'm hoping that France will rest some players for semi becouse they are already there.
GO SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO!!!

Serbia played better than Portugal, you'll get that. But we have players your countrymen can only dream about.

[|--LdC--|]

Serbia played better than Portugal, you'll get that. But we have players your countrymen can only dream about.
They got our weakness play like Greece with 9 defenders and then wait for us to make mistakes.
Fortunatly for them this seems to work out :o
Despite that, there is no excuse for our terrible performances with so many great players, certainly some of them future stars.

[goliath74]

They got our weakness play like Greece with 9 defenders and then wait for us to make mistakes.
Fortunatly for them this seems to work out :o
Despite that, there is no excuse for our terrible performances with so many great players, certainly some of them future stars.

When we talk about young players like U-21 or U-17, etc, who's to say whic one is a future star and who is not? Where are all those Nigerian and Ghanaian "future stars"?

These undobtedly good players have to show themselves against senior sides in international competition before we truly know if they are stars.

look at the Yugoslav U-21 of 1987! They became true stars in Croatian and Serbian national teams later.

So, what makes you think that Portuguese U-21 has better stars than Serbian U-21?

In my opinion, stars are those players who achieve results. Serbia obviously achieved a result against Portugal. Portugal in this tournament achieved babkes, so far.

[|--LdC--|]

When we talk about young players like U-21 or U-17, etc, who's to say whic one is a future star and who is not? Where are all those Nigerian and Ghanaian "future stars"?

These undobtedly good players have to show themselves against senior sides in international competition before we truly know if they are stars.

look at the Yugoslav U-21 of 1987! They became true stars in Croatian and Serbian national teams later.

So, what makes you think that Portuguese U-21 has better stars than Serbian U-21?

In my opinion, stars are those players who achieve results. Serbia obviously achieved a result against Portugal. Portugal in this tournament achieved babkes, so far.

First of all i am not taking away the merit of Serbia they did their game and won, it was us as the favourites and home team that had to do alot better.

About the stars we have several european titles at the youth levels, Serbia also has but as former Yougoslavia...
The reason why i think some of them will be stars is simple, they already are stars in our domestic league and wanted by the big teams in Europe.

Quaresma is a known player since he was 17, he played in Sporting, Barcelona and this season he was one of the best players in the league playing with us(FC Porto), plus he already played with the A team.

João Moutinho is one of the best midfielders at this age, crucial player with Sporting, international by Portugal A team.

Manuel Fernandes, midfielder, also international with the A team, very important player for Benfica, played in this season on CL.

Hugo Almeida, international with the A team, subsitute striker in FC Porto, crucial on the last years in all the youth Portugal teams, scored a fantastic goal in this season CL against Inter.

Nani, attacking midfielder, recent product of Sporting academy, the same that produced Figo, Simão Sabrosa, Cristiano Ronaldo and Quaresma amongst others, did a very good first season at senior level, scored some goals and certainly will have a bright future.

Vaz Te, Bolton striker, scored several goals for Bolton in the premiership this season, subsitute of Hugo Almeida at this level.

Zé Castro, solid central defender, did a great season in Portugal will play with Atletico Madrid next season.

Nelson, right defender, played his first season for Benfica, also played at CL level, hot prospect for the future.

Bruno Vale, GK, already played for the A team and will be the 3rd keeper at the WC06.

There are others that could be mentioned but those you see here will certainly be stars at the A level.

[Gnafron]

As i said, i was a bit disappointed by the portuguese team, the only one who impressed me was Nani. Quaresma is like a caricatura of C. Ronaldo: he should play a simpler football (why on hell does he have to always use the exterior of his foot ?).
One can see that the players are technically above average but there's no teamplay, and above all, they play a too much predictible football and they are too creative touching/playing with the ball and not enough construting the actions… It is usually the drawbacks of too gifted players…

Portugal was a unlucky sometimes but the pressure seem too high to handle.

Quaresma and Manuel Fernandes were to 2 deceivers: Quaresma for doing too much tricks when it's unnecessary and Fernandes because he could be in the Portuguese A team…but the rugby team :D.

[Sempre]

Italy 1 Ukraine 0 FT.

The Azzurrini are on 4 points now. A draw sees them advance
to the semi-finals, but they can still win the group. Their next
match is vs. Holland (who drew Denmark 1-1 today).

A lot can still happen here. But I'm guessing Italy and Denmark
advance, while France and Germany advance in the other 'giro'.
It is very tough to predict games at the U-21 level though. :)