Croatia - Spain - 21st June 2016

Kuipers is a joke.

 

not a pen in freezing hell

 

Silva dive and a Ramos missed penalty now all that is missing is a Croatian winner.

 

Croatia should've had an obvious PK from that reckless challenge from Ramos which happened right in front the official beside the goal , but instead the ref gives a phantom PK to Spain ( the defender actually got shoved into Silva by another spanish player ) which also happened right in front of the official behind the goal AND the linesman.

i still to this day have no clue what so ever on why those useless extra officials are used ...

 

Why did Ramos take that penalty? Don't we have someone more proficient in that department ?

 

Any chance you know what the lottery numbers are next week?

 

PERIŠIĆ!

 

Italy-Spain...

 

Not really a dive, but the Croat defender was pushed into Silva so shouldn't have been a penalty anyway. Then Subasic was a mile off his line when Ramos took the kick. Should have been retaken.

 

huge goal that for Croatia... now instead of playing Italy in the Ro16, then probably Germany in the QFs, and then probably France in the SFs.... they can let Spain have that route, and play a 3rd placed team in the Ro16, Poland / Switzerland in the Qfs, and who in the semis? Wales? Portugal? Hardly any powerhouses in that bracket!

 

and so we end up with a bracket of death and a minnows bracket

 

If this result holds one bracket has Germany, Italy and Spain... Plus once thats done its likely they'll meet the winner of the bracket with England / France / possibly Portugal...

Meanwhile the other half will have:
Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Wales, Belgium or Sweden (or both), maybe Portugal.

 

Wow - huge result for the Croats.

 

I agree about the retake but they almost never get called.

 

Oh! And high chance of Belgium joining up with England / France / Portugal

 

Yep just look at those brackets! Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England all in the same bracket to reach the final, and only one or none can make it to the final..... meanwhile, that second final spot is anyone's... Portugal have a huge match tomorrow... should they beat Hungary, they can join that bracket with the easier route to the final. I reckon Portugal or Croatia to make the final from the first bracket, that second one is just brutal... this Euro could have a real surprise winner as all the favorites will have to play each other to make the final...

 

The 2nd bracket looks like a normal 16 teams euro

 

If I win I will give you a cut I am not greedy

 

The top half of the bracket looks like the Europa League. The bottom half looks like the Champions League.

 

That is superb for us and Croatia who I have always liked since the early 90's. Now all we have to do is beat Hungary by more goals than Iceland if they happen to beat Austria to take top spot. The only problem is our finishing has been terrible in this tournament.

 

I would have suggested that Morata took the penalty, but I wasn't watching the game since I'm at work and wasn't aware that he had been subbed a few minutes prior to the incident. Now Going through the lineup and I've noticed that we didn't have anybody who could be considered a terrific penalty taker(Maybe Aduriz, but I wouldn't be so confident). So yeah I guess that Ramos was the best choice after all. This lack of prolific penalty takers is weakness I wasn't aware of till now, and it could go bad for us if we have to decide a game that way)

 

True. If Sweden beat Belgium tomorrow it will make the two halves even more lopsided as that would likely mean Belgium play France.

 

I have Belgium going to the weak half of the bracket with either a win or a draw against Sweden, who have been terrible so far. So yeah, possible but should still be Belgium, Portugal and Croatia representing the minnow bracket.

 

The best or worst part is that the death bracket has one day less rest before the final.

 

Germany will have a relatively easy first game vs most likely Slovakia (95% chance). That said they were the strongest 3rd placed team so far.

The runner up in group F is a bit of an unknown, but it could viably be Portugal, albeit that would mean Iceland needs to beat Austria to win the group or two draws in the group with Portugal's being a higher scoring one. The most likely outcome is however that Portugal wins the group thus moving out of the death bracket.

If Sweden beats Belgium then it's likely France vs Belgium (group F will likely have one of the best 4th placed teams as only a Portugal loss and group phase exit would prevent that happening).

Therefore the GoD bracket will be:
Germany - Slovakia
Spain - Italy

France - Belgium (Sweden wins) or Northern Ireland (Sweden loses or draws) (with an outside chance of an Ireland win vs Italy changing this)
England - group F runner up (my bet is on Hungary)