Then again, based on how France and England have been playing its more a death quadrant than a death half of the bracket. I mean... France - No Ireland; England - Hungary/Iceland ... is not so rough.
True, but after the 1/8 final you have France vs England, then the winner plays Spain / Germany / Italy.
You can say what you want about France & Italy but at least we won our group. ******** England, ******** Spain and also ******** Ronaldo, they're responsible for this situation.
Great comeback by Croatia even with the referee being against Croatia. A very good performance from the young guys in Pjaca Jedvaj Rog. Perisic was superb as well.
The victory is the best it seems. Croatia avoided Italy. Spain went out with the strongest players, nobody wants to meet Italy obviously. Spain tricked the media by saying that they will play with changed team. On the other hand, Croatia played with 5 new players: Jedvaj, Vrsaljko, Rog, Pjaca and Kalinic. Huge risk, but Croatia needed to rest Mandzukic, Modric, Brozovic, Vida and Strinic. The referee also gifted Spain with one penalty. It's visible that Spanish player pushed Croatian player Vrsaljko and that Vrsaljko wanted to avoid Spanish player with lifted arms. The next problem was with the penalty. Penalty should be repeated, because Croatian goalkeeper needed to be on the line, but he left the goal and took 1 or 2 meters of advantage. Some players entered too early in the 16 meter space. In normal circumstances, penalty should be repeated, but Kuipers knew that he made injustice by giving the penalty, so he didn't had strength to make this decision of repeating the penalty. The case with Marko Pjaca and his potential penalty against Croatia. He used diving methods, which was also visible, he fell too late. Also, you could see Srna and his whispering to Subasic before the penalty. Luka Modric said to Srna from the bench how Sergio Ramos shoots and Srna went to Subasic. Ramos also saw this, he should change his way of shooting. The match was very hard, in some moments Croatia had problems with their possession. Slides, ball taking was not the option. During the first 20 minutes, it seemed that Croatia wanted to lose, they thought that Czechs should win against Turkey, so that Croatia ends as third team and plays against Wales. But after they realized that Turkey is winning, so they started to play normally. Not sure have you noticed this, but from my angle, they had some strange unforced errors. If we observe the type of these players, they can't do such mistakes. Even after they started to play normally, defensive confusions were visible. Still, Croatian defence is the main problem, defenders returned some dangerous balls to the Croatian goalkeeper. Dejan Lovren is missing a lot. During the match against Hungary, coach sent him to the warm up area. The custom in English league is that player comes to the coach, if he is ready, but in other European countries, the custom is that player spends in the warm up area until he becomes invited and this period could last 50,60 minutes. Lovren came to the coach with the words: I am ready...and coach saw this as authority breaking. Also Lovren said in the media, that he deserves the first squad. Spain is still the EURO 2016 favourite. But they should be in fear of Italy. Especially if Thiago Motta becomes better. With Bonucci, Chiellini, Darmian, Parolo, deRossi Spanish creative players will have problems. Morata is not so much better than Graziano Pelle. Only in Serie A, Pelle is not so popular, that's why he plays abroad. Match players: Perisic, Morata, Kalinic, Subasic, Silva, Iniesta. Croatian coach said that this team with the 5 new players is the Upcoming Croatia. Those players will replace Corluka, Srna, Strinic, Mandzukic some day. Gerard Pique and his middle finger. Potential insult against Spain and Spanish anthem.
my predictions for round of 16: 1. SUI-POL 2. CRO-ISL 3. WAL-TUR 4. POR-BEL 5. ITA-ESP 6. GER-SVK 7. ENG-HUN 8. FRA-NIR SUI -POL 3:0 Poland does not score goals and their matches in group C were boring CRO-ISL 4:0 WAL-TUR 3:0 POR-BEL 1:1 p. 5:4 Portugal will win because has Ronaldo ITA-ESP 1:1 p 4:5 Must see match of this round! GER-SVK 4:0 ENG-HUN 4:0 FRA-NIR 4:0 1/4 1. SUI - CRO 0:4 2. WAL - POR 1:1 p. 4:5 because Ronaldo is better than Bale 3. ESP - GER 2:2 p. 5:4 Another ust see match! 4. ENG - FRA 1:2 Sorry England! 1/2 CRO - POR 2:1 ESP-FRA 1:1 p. 5:4 Must see! FINAL CRO - ESP 1:1 p. 4:5 Spain takes a revenge!
I wouldn't say Italy is better than Spain, their playing style has proven to be effective against the Azurri in the last 2 Euros. As for Germany I think that they will defeat Spain by close margin.
Yeah, Germany is formidable (although they seem less fluid as a team since the WC win). Just find the argument "Spain will never get past Italy/Germany" amusing since they've always gotten past them consistently lately.
Spain is weaker, Germany and Italy are much stronger than during their previous encounters. The last competitive game vs Italy ended in a draw in 2013 (before that 1 draw and 1 win in Euro 2012) and the last competitive game vs Germany was in 2010. The last friendlies (since 2010) are 1 win, 2 losses, 3 draws. I can see Spain getting past one team, but not both. And must I remind you Italy and Germany won their groups, unlike Spain.
Italy loose game against Ireland. Germany won their group with only one goal ahead of the weak Poland
Italy lost their game by playing a 100% team B outfit after being sure of winning the group. Poland is not a weak team.
Poland IS a weak team. Just look at their last two qualifications on the big tournaments: World Cup 2014 and 2010 (EURO 2012 they're co-host). qual. WC2010 (wikipedia) 1. Slovakia 2. Slovenia 3. Czech Republic 4. Northern Ireland 5. Poland 6. San Marino Despite the fact that was a shite group Poland in their group beat only San Marino! They must be weak
Not sure what those results have to do with the current team. Poland has had a very strong cycle since they hired Nawalka following the mediocre WC '14 qualifying campaign. They finished only 1 point behind Germany in their last qualifying group and they beat Germany in Warsaw. And of course they finished their Euro group on 7 points. I expect them to beat Switzerland. Not sure I see the evidence of how this team is so weak.