Anybody has 4 extra tickets for France Belgium? My friends would come but cannot buy it anymore on the website.
Italy look beat at this point. Bonucci has been expelled for a second yellow and Spain have gone into the half two to their good. Italy are not the same without Chiellini.
Now we will have two different European champions. Portugal won both to avoid any dispute about that.
Italy showed caracter reducing the deficit with one man down. Spain did only the bare minimum in the 2nd half. After Italy got Bonucci sent off the match was basically over barring a miracle.
Roma captain and today's scorer, Pellegrini, should have started given his form. Italy can't afford to leave Chiellini on the bench when he's fit and healthy, but at his age it's difficult to play him every match so I can see the rationale. Mancini's infatuation with Bernadeschi does not help either. Di Lorenzo I feel is harshly criticized. Napoli are top of the league. He's no slouch. It's anyone's game tomorrow between France and Belgium, but France I still feel hold a bit of an edge in terms of quality. I see Belgium playing from deep and trying to hit France on the counter. De Bruyne might have scored against Liverpool, but he didn't really show up that game. Neither have Lukaku and Hazard been in tip top form in the past couple of matches for their clubs. Belgium need these guys to hit their stride if they are stand any chance of winning.
Impressed with Spain's goals. Italy just did not look like in the same league today but fought hard. Belgium needs to beat France in the air with some headers like the Swiss did to them to have a chance in that one. Hopefully it is an entertaining match and both teams go for it.
The reffing has gone from one extreme to the other !!! Just then Mbappe was clear on a break away .. the French defender just kicked straight through him taking him out completely and nowhere near the ball. I half expected a straight red for denying a goal opportunity but the ref did not even BOOK him!! Absolutely ridiculous
It was in the air. France wasn't playing badly by any means in the first half. They turned it around. What a 2nd half! Belgium have to blame only but themselves. Too negative in the 2nd half. I think "Les Bleus" will also beat Spain in the final.
France are just that good. Shame for Belgium because this was probably their last shot with this generation to win a trophy.
It's the ********ing Nations League, who cares. If they had won this tournament it wouldn't have changed my opinion of this generation either way. Their greatest achievement would still have been third place at the WC, not a fourth tier tournament that UEFA dreamed up five minutes ago. World Cups and Euros are where you can find glory, everything else is bullshit. And yeah, we are done. But what do you expect? We are a nation of 11 million, you can't expect us to have a conveyor belt with a new Hazard and KDB and Lukaku every generation. Like you can't expect Croatia to produce a Modric or Rakitic every new generation. The more interesting story to me is how far France have regressed since 2018. It's not just their elimination from the Euros, but also us scoring twice against them today. They barely allowed us any chances at all in the game in 2018. They were very leaky defensively at the Euros too (by their standards).
100% agree. its a glorified friendly. can't wait until this gets scrapped just like the confederations cup.
I suspect the above comments would have differed a little if it was going to be a Belgium v Italy final.
The Nations League is imo a good invention. It gave us some memorable matches like Belgium - France today. Of course it's not comparable by any means with a World Cup or the EUROs but you can still win a trophy after all. For Belgium this loss is hurting. To have a Nations League trophy on your stamp would be better than nothing. It wouldn't change anything about the fact that this generation never reached the heights many of us had predicted. It had been a nice consolation prize though.
not at all. go ahead and click on my profile and read any of my past posts before the game was played.
Ha ha exactly. At the end of the day there can only be one winner, for the rest there's always the "it's not the Euros or World Cup" excuse but at the end of the day it is a trophy and you can tell the players are going for it. Personally I really like this tournament, just think it was not a great idea putting it so close to the Euros which makes it a bit anticlimactic. Anyway, do look forward to the final. Spain vs France games are always intense so this one should be good. Will the World Champs take it or will it stay on the Iberian peninsula?
The Nations league is arguably harder to win than the euros since it’s done in a league format. No minnows play in league A or the finals. We will now be living in an era with two different European champions (Italy and France/Spain) who is the real European champion? This is unprecedented as the previous winner of the euros (Portugal), led by the greatest of all time CR7, became undisputed European champion when they won the nations league in 2019. this is bringing up a similar problem to what has affected heavyweight boxing, with multiple titles.
LOL! Belgium winning the Nations League wouldn't have changed my opinion about the competition. It's a stupid UEFA invention to needlessly pad the schedule even further. I'd rather win one Euros or WC than 10 Nations Leagues.
Yeasterday wasn't only a semi-finals of the Nations League. It was much more at stake. Much more so for Belgium. It was the legacy of this generation. Contect is key here. Since ever Belgium lost to France in Russia there is a heated rivalry with France. Just telling to you who aren't aware of what happened in the aftermath to that semi-final in St. Petersburg. Just watch at the intensity of the game and reactions when goals were scored on. Did you guys see Deshamps' reaction after the final whistle? Or Roberto Martinez in the moment when Lukaku scored the goal which got disallowed.... So if I were a Belgium supporter I wouldn't downplay the importance of yesterday's match. I'll go one step further. Had Belgium won yesterday they would have made some motocade celebrations back in Belgium.... Don't tell me something different.
It’s the skilful players that will be picking up injuries though after years of encouraging creative / skilful play