Given it's about to kick off in 4 days, here is a thread to discuss everything to do with Euro 2016. Some light initial reading. A staggeringly good guide from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/football...ide-to-every-squad-and-every-player-in-france World Soccer's exhaustive coverage: http://www.worldsoccer.com/euro-2016 The WhoScored guide is excellent and well worth downloading: https://www.whoscored.com/ Some interesting bits on Four Four Two http://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/fabregas-how-spains-2014-world-cup-could-have-been-different So, any predictions or thoughts?
The odds: France 3/1 Germany 10/3 Spain 11/2 England 8/1 Belgium 10/1 Italy 16/1 Portugal 20/1 Croatia 33/1 Austria 40/1 Poland 50/1 Switzerland 66/1 Wales 66/1 Russia 66/1 Turkey 80/1 Sweden 100/1 Czech Republic 100/1 Iceland 100/1 Ukraine 100/1 Republic Of Ireland 150/1 Slovakia 150/1 Romania 200/1 Hungary 350/1 Northern Ireland 350/1 Albania 500/1
Great links, thanks for the share. I believe this Euro has the makings of a pretty good tournament. I am thinking that there would be more emphasis on offensive play than has been seen in quite some time in Euro tournaments. My top-7 seeds for the tournament in that order: Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, England, Croatia, Portugal Personally, I would be supporting Wales, since IMO they are in a place wherein a fairy tale run is quite possible, and I would very much like to see them have one.
History says Germany, France or Spain, and so do the bookies. Having never reached the final, England as usual are too short as fourth favourites. Italy might be worth a punt at 16/1. As an outside bet, Russia at 66/1 looks tempting given their past record in the competition, though their best form was very much back in the days of the old USSR. I am enjoying reading "The Complete History". It should be added to the reading list above!
That's very kind Peter. Thank you. I actually kicked off a series today on The Set Pieces picking the 10 greatest matches in Euro history (or at least 10 great ones as I'm not convinced by the order or the exact selection to be honest) which are essentially some edited extracts. http://thesetpieces.com/world-footb...hampionship-history-yugoslavia-v-france-1960/ I think Russia do look good value though Denisov and Dzagoev are going to be big misses for them.
I think it's a hard one to call. I read this piece from Michael Cox the other day about why he thinks the group stages will be defensive and I fear he might be right: http://www.espnfc.co.uk/european-ch...make-euro-2016-group-stage-a-defensive-battle With 16 teams progressing the incentive is there to keep things tight and try and sneak a few draws.
Hadn't thought about it that way. The way you explain it and as Cox says, it makes sense for teams to be more cagey. I personally feel though that a lot of the teams aren't adept at playing as well defensively as the other half are at playing offensively (also has a lot to do with the kind of refereeing that we will see, with too stifling a presence generally hampering the rhythm of offensive play). I therefore expect a more open tournament, like what we have seen in the WC 14 group stages.
Spiegel has published their Top 50 players in Euro history: http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussbal...n-50-spieler-der-em-geschichte-a-1095768.html 01 Michel Platini 02 Marco van Basten 03 Zinedine Zidane 04 Franz Beckenbauer 05 Xavi 06 Gerd müller 07 Ruud Gullit 08 Andrés Iniesta 09 Günter Netzer 10 Laurent Blanc 11 Thierry Henry 12 Matthias Sammer 13 Paolo Maldini 14 Iker Casillas 15 Luis Figo 16 Fernando Torres 17 Pavel Nedved 18 David Villa 19 Lilian Thuram 20 Frank Rijkaard 21 Ronald Koeman 22 Marcel Desailly 23 Bernd Schuster 24 Brian Laudrup 25 Dino Zoff 26 Carles Puyol 27 Horst Hrubesch 28 Andrea Pirlo 29 Peter Schmeichel 30 Patrick Kluivert 31 Antonin Panenka 32 Philipp Lahm 33 Gianluigi Buffon 34 Jean Tigana 35 Alan Shearer 36 Thomas Hässler 37 Dragan Dzajic 38 Jürgen Klinsmann 39 Karel Poborsky 40 Milan Baros 41 Karlheinz Förster 42 David Trezeguet 43 Lev Yashin 44 Jan Ceulemans 45 Andreas Brehme 46 Theodoros Zagorakis 47 Anton Ondrus 48 Giacinto Facchetti 49 Angelos Charisteas 50 Luis Suárez
I'm very interested to see how Spain line up, I hope De Gea is their keeper and he could have a great tournament if selected, likewise has Nolito doe enough to lead the line given his goals in te two games prior to last night? France I think will be right in with a chance, I hope Griezmann has a good tournament and Pogba could be the PoTY. Germany will be tough to beat also, so many good players and lots of goals in the side, plus Neuer despite his mistakes can have a blinder, and their defence is solid. I am also interested to see more of Italy, and especially how Insigne fairs. My outside bet for a good run is Croatia, they have a great midfield and Mandzukic up front, he is not the most deadly but can do a job plus Kalinic can be great on his day.
Not a bad line-up. I was bored recently on a flight and started a similar list with a view to a potential article that I never got round to writing. My list was 1. Platini 2. Van Basten 3. Xavi 4. Zidane 5. Rijkaard 6. Beckenbauer 7. Shearer 8. Gullit 9. Senna 10. Dzajic 11. Ronaldo 12. Gerd Muller 13. Netzer 14. Figo 15. Sammer 16. Pirlo 17. Tigana 18. Van Nistelrooy 19. Iniesta 20. Seitaridis 21. Pereda 22. Thuram 23. Rummenigge 24. Ceulemans 25. Koeman 26. Hassler 27. Schuster 28. Schmeichel 29. Bergkamp 30. Brolin 31. Van Moer 32. Domenghini 33. Zagorakis 34. Baros 35. Dieter Muller 36. Brian Laudrup 37. Nedved 38. Rooney 39. Arshavin 40. Campbell 41. Dellas 42. Villa 43. Viktor 44. Mikhailichenko 45. Maldini 46. Ondrus 47. Suarez 48. Yashin 49. Van der Sar 50. Mazzola All these things are hard, but this is particularly tough given the small number of games some people played.
I am not a fan of the expansion because of this: I don't think it's good for sports when you can finish third and still progress (without a win even). It will eliminate some possible surprises and early exits (that might be exactly the intention of UEFA). E.g. France loses their first game, but winning one of the others can be still good enough for a 2nd place (and because of the 16 --> 24 expansion the average opponents strength will be lower). Some teams that finish 1st will play a 3rd placed team in the KO phase, while others play a 2nd placed team. And that's not decided by a randomized draw. That's not quite right in my opinion. I'm not sure though whether it will result in 'boring', defensive and low scoring group stage games. For the same reasons as what you say, and there's also a gulf in class between the teams (because of the expansion, plus maybe/arguably the modern football dynamics - or the entertainment business in general some would say). I was a fan of the 16 teams era. That felt just right.
Does Platini failing to qualify in 1980 effect your analysis? Van Basten's 88 might not be quite as good as Platni's 84 but it is not to far off, and Van Basten has a second sold tournament while Platini failed to qualify France in 1980, at a time when he was already seen as one of the top players in the world and France had a lot of talent.
To be fair, Platini played only two games out of six in the EC80 qualifyings. He badly injured himself in 1979.
Good call on Laurent Blanc. I think he is the only player who was named in three teams of the tournament.
France will have a chance, but their defense worries me. Varane and Lassana Diarra will certainly miss. I don't trust Evra and Rami.
Anyway, what worries me is not what will happen on the football fields, but what could happen outside the stadiums. I hope we won't see another 13th november.
To be honest it was more focussed on what people did rather than what they didn't do, so I'm not punishing anyone for failures. Personally I would see Platini's performance as the best by a margin but Van Basten was of course outstanding. As I say, my list was done on a plane journey so probably not quite as thought out as it might be!
I don't think it is good list, anyway here is L'equipe's TOP100. 17 journalists make their TOP50, and sum up. http://www.lequipe.fr/Top/Football/top100-joueurs-EURO/8/#top90 1. Michel Platini 2. Marco van Basten 3. Xavi 4. Andres Iniesta 5. Franz Beckenbauer 6. Zinedine Zidane 7. Fernando Torres 8. Lev Yashin 9. Antonin Panenka 10. Matthias Sammer 11. Iker Casillas 12. Peter Schmeichel 13. Ruud Gullit 14. Oliver Bierhoff 15. Gerd Muller 16. Sergio Ramos 17. Brian Laudrup 18. Horst Hrubesch 19. Angelo Charisteas 20. Thierry Henry 21. Laurent Blanc 22. Luis Suarez Miramontes 23. Dino Zoff 24. Frank Rjkaard 25. Jean Tigana 26. Didier Deschamp 27. Ronald Koeman 28. Karel Poborsky 29. Lilian Thuram 30. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 31. Gunter Netzer 32. Jurgen Klinsmann 33. Valentin Ivanov 34. Theodoros Zagorakis 35. David Villa 36. Dragan Dzajic 37. Anton Ondrus 38. Paolo Maldini 39. Thomas Hassler 40. Lothar Matthaus 41. Luigi Riva 42. Carles Puyol 43. Pavel Nedved 44. Ivo Viktor 45. David Silva 46. Giacinto Facchetti 47. Alain Giresse 48. Cristiano Ronaldo 49. Marcel Desailly 50. Luis Figo 51. Fabien Barthez 52. Dennis Bergkamp 53. Alan Shearer 54. Bernd Schuster 55. Jean-Francois Domergue 56. Dieter Muller 57. Gerard Pique 58. Sandro Mazzola 59. Andreas Brehme 60. Jordi Alba 61. Uli Hoeness 62. Albert Florian 63. David Trezeguet 64. Xabi Alonso 65. Rainer Bonhof 66. Patrick Vieira 67. Jose Maria Pereda 68. Andrea Pirlo 69. Rudi Voller 70. Paul Gascoigne 71. Angelo Domenghini 72. Hans van Breukelen 73. Josef Masopust 74. Francesc Fabregas 75. Paul Breitner 76. Patrick Kluivert 77. Edwin van der Sar 78. Frank Arnesen 79. Jan Ceulemans 80. Gianluigi Buffon 81. Deco 82. Marco Tardelli 83. Viktor Ponedelnik 84. Francesco Totti 85. Fabio Cannavaro 86. Vasyl Rats 87. Alessandro Nesta 88. Davor Suker 89. Tomas Brolin 90. Francesco Toldo 91. Nuno Gomes 92. Bixente Lizarazu 93. Philipp Lahm 94. Zlatan Ibrahimovic 95. Mario Balotelli 96. Preben Elkjaer 97. Gianni Rivera 98. Fernando Chalana 99. Sepp Maier 100. Igor Netto
The worst is about the comments/ profiles they made : it's all about MoMs and all-star teams, the wikisearch is screaming out. And the ranking is not very good yes (especially in some places). It is more difficult to do one for the Euro than for the World Cup I think that said. The Euro is a more difficult tournament to win generally. That's not their most knowledgeable journalists from what I know who made this. The only one which I know the name in the list is Leclaire because he is (used to be?) the biographer of Platini.
A ctually like the third team going through porely for the fact that the draw is less predicatble as in theory if you win your group and are due to play a third place team, you could get one of four different teams as oposed to knowing it was a certain's group second place.
I know I am biased but I think Nedved is appearing to low on these lists, he was great in Euro 96 and back in Czech seen as thier star player despite Porborsky and Berger grabbing the headlines, also he was one of the best players in Euro 2004. Panenka is fair to high in tsome of the lists, yes he scored an iconic penalty, and that makes him famous, but in reality he was not in Czechoslovakia's best players for the event, Viktor and Ondrus had far more influence.
Some predictions from the Guardian writers about how the tournament will pan out: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/10/euro-2016-guardian-writers-predictions
Agreed. I was a fan of the 16 team era as well. It made for some very interesting groups. Let's see how the new format turns out though for the smaller teams. As I see some of those benefiting as well, in terms of being able to move farther ahead in the tournament than might have been possible earlier.