France - Albania (R)

Interesting match. It's sad to see some media sources who are against France. They are really playing good, it's not easy to make a big difference against defensive teams. Only Martial played weaker today.
Media often considers Adil Rami as the weakest link, but he always plays rational in defence.
The main problem is the age of Patrice Evra, this is not Man. United dynamics.

Sagna and Koscielny haven't done much, but their defensive roles were good.

Kante and Matuidi are really great players.

After Pogba entered, really big difference without him and Griezmann.

Payet, Giroud, Coman and Gignac afterwards played great. Media turned against French team, Deschamps and they try to create that he wanted to punish Pogba and Griezmann because of weaker Round 1. The story reminds me a lot on World Cups 2002, 2010. Why do they try to spoil something nice.

Varane, Benzema, Ribery would just give new dimension.

22 attempts, 10 went on the goal frame, 1 woodwark, 6 corners, 59% ball possession, 439 completed passes.

Observe the media articles tomorrow, they won't be good, at least in Europe.

Albania literally suffered tonight. Heroic defence, but not enough.

 

Don't know about that. The last 4 co-hosts were much weaker teams. Many of them wouldn't have qualified for the tournaments if hosts weren't given an automatic spot. So those examples don't really apply now since a "big" nation is hosting.

 

No not just Euros but actually look at others:

Germany failed in 2006 World Cup
Brazil failed in 2014 World Cup

Also look at club football as well which is even more home than the national team.

 

Those teams weren't that good and yet they made the semifinals. I think those examples prove the opposite. i.e. that home advantage helped them

I'm not sure where to look(?). The top 3 teams in Serie A combined for 2 home losses last season.

 

I think 2006 Germany was a really good team. Not as good as Germany now, but Italy, France, and maybe Brazil were the only teams superior to them.

2014 Brazil you are right about that, LOL, but they actually got a lot of help from the referees. I was pissed off from the Brazil vs Croatia game. They also had some help against Colombia although that was a game with so many fouls, and the referee was under huge stress and pressure.

 

I recall there being several teams considered stronger than Germany at that time. Certainly Argentina and Spain could be added to your list. Arguably Netherlands and even England could be considered better too .

Anyway, agree to disagree.

 

Who else has two? I saw this morning that there were 26 joint top scorers on 1 goal each lol

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I disagree. I expected the games against the Eastern European teams to be frustrating because they both have a defensive style that doesnt allow France to play free flowing football. In the friendlies leading up to the euro thats what happened. Remember that France and Switzerland met in WC 2014 and it was a goalfest. 5-2 for France and I expect another open game this time around.

 

Yeah because Italy looked so good against Sweden...