Group B (Spain, Croatia, Italy, Albania)

It struck me last night like 16 years ago vs Turkey. I can't forget that night and I will never forget last night. Horrible. And we did the same errors. Allowing them to go through when you have to do everything to stop the ball.

Four points lost deep in stoppage time.
Six goals allowed in three matches.
Two missed penalties.
Many chances, only three scored goals.

We are yet to lose vs Italy, but this was way way worse than if we had lost 5-0.

 

Sucks that Spain and Germany are on the same side of the brackets and might face off in the Quarters.

That would have made a better Final or at least a Semi since they are in the same side of the tournament.

 

It’s good for Italy!!! That way we might not have to face a tough team for a bit!

 

Yeah, I remember that match well. Coincidentally, I had a flight from Vienna to Dubrovnik the very next day. Would have been an amazing experience watching Germany v Croatia semifinal in Dubrovnik, but it wasn't to be.

 

Yeah, probably England will be in the same quadrant with Italy.

So far I am not seeing a lopsided bracket like we had in the previous 2 Euros. But a lot of that depends on which half France ends up in.

 

I’m hoping Denmark beats Serbia by multiple goals and England ties Slovenia. That would send England to the other side of the bracket. Probably unlikely but definitely possible.

England haven’t been playing well so far, but they do have a great team and I think they’d still be favorites against us by quite a bit. Better them than Portugal, Germany, and Spain going off of what we’ve seen so far though.

I sure hope France gets second in their group.

 

Whatever happens, England will get the easier side of the bracket. It never fails!

 

Ironic. BS was the Metrofans forum before the ISFA collapse.

 

Croatia needs a lot of help to be one of the four best third place teams with 2 points and a -3. Hungary (3) and Netherlands (4) are third with more than 2 points, and Group E has every team with 3 points. Group C plays later today. England has 4 points and +1, Denmark has 2 points and +0, Slovenia has 2 points and +0, and Serbia has 1 point and -1. England plays Slovenia, and Denmark plays Serbia. Croatia needs Serbia to lose, win 3-0, or win by at least 4. If Serbia wins 4-1, Croatia and Denmark will be tied on points, goal differential, and goals scored. If Denmark vs. Serbia is a draw, Serbia will be third with 2 points and a better goal differential than Croatia, or Serbia will be fourth behind Slovenia with more than 2 points. Croatia also needs Slovenia to lose 3-0 or by at least 4. If Slovenia loses 4-1, Croatia and Slovenia will be tied on points, goal differential, and goals scored. If Slovenia does not lose, they will have more than 2 points, and so will England, and Denmark or Serbia, so Croatia will be eliminated. If Croatia gets the help they need today, they need help from both Group F games tomorrow. Portugal has 6, Turkiye has 3, Czech Republic has 1 point and -1, and Georgia has 1 point and -2. Portugal plays Georgia, and Czech Republic plays Turkiye. If Czech Republic and/or Georgia draw, they will have 2 points and a better goal differential than Croatia, so Croatia will be eliminated. Croatia needs Czech Republic and Georgia to lose. It must be very rare for a team to be done playing and need help from four other games, and it is only possible in a tournament that does not advance the same amount of teams from each group. In World Cup 2026, there will be even more scenarios, as there are 495 combinations of eight of twelve third place teams advancing, and I do not know how FIFA will make the knockout round bracket. I hope I did the scenarious correctly.

 

OH MY GOD!!!! I remember the ISFA days...

 

I actually miss those days even though I post on their forum.

It was so long ago, but I believe in that case there was an issue with the moderator there deleting stuff. I don't recall any of my stuff being edited or deleted.

 

It’s game over for Croatia

 

France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, England, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland are the best European teams for now. Others must make certain changes. Belgium dominated in many aspects against France.

Teams like Denmark, Italy, Croatia must make some changes.

I liked Georgian counter attacks, they seemed inventive. But, other aspects are very modest.

Others are just boring and too defensive.

Austria, Turkey and Romania gave their maximum so far. Solid teams.

 

The Swiss to me are a very confusing team. Always have confused me but recently even more so.
Case and point they eliminated France in 2020 and played Spain really tough.

Then in 2022 the got absolutely annihilated by Portugal in the World Cup after many close matches in the Group stage.
Just a weird team that has some good qualities but then can also look bad.

 

Nothing confusing at all. They are very good, they made inclusive few generations of players with foreign backgrounds. But, they all have fear of so called great teams. Nothing unusual. Before they had local Swiss players: Lehmann, Chapuisat, Wicky, Bregy, Sutter…today they have players from Kosovo, Chile, Africa, Greece, earlier from Turkey…nice inclusion with subordinated role towards Spain, France, Germany, England…they only need to discover that they are big enough to be in semi-finals more often. The same thing we saw with Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Portugal, Netherlands, good, but not big enough.