The whole line-up was absurd - no Insigne, weird choice of strikers, and clinging to their ancient defence like a comfort blanket. I think they can actually put out a pretty good side even with Verratti missing, but this was not it. They've got a lot of work to do to come back from this.
No Insigne was just bizarre imo, really Italys best attacking playmaker stays on the bench in a game they had to win, can't get my head around it. On another note, happy to see Italy out though, have no love for them that's for sure.
Denmark slaughtered Ireland 5-1, I must say I’m looking forward to seeing the RTE pubdits dissect this one, they were rather rude about Denmark. I saw the highlights it looked like Erickson just tore them apart.
I have no idea why Ireland would think they'd be favourites against the Danes. Both of the Irish teams were massive underdogs in the play offs the way I saw it.
Denmark is much better than people give them credit for. Erickson has been a top five No. 10 in Europe since 2015 and their midfield and wingers are decent, plus the back is alright. I'm not surprised at all that they thrashed Ireland. The boys in green just hope somebody scores a goal and then hold on afterwards. Their one goal yesterday was a typical Irish fluke goal that came off a Danish defender off a free kick. I think Denmark is a round of 16 type team with their quality.
At all NT levels, Denmark always insist on not getting results by playing defensive minded (unlike Ireland and the other Nordic teams), so it takes time for Denmark to build a new team, which is also why Denmark missed the last Euro finals (losing narrowly to Sweden in the play-off's). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_national_football_team#Current_squad But the present Danish NT starters are also regular starters and usually key players for their teams, though not for the absoloute top teams in their leagues ... you mentioned Eriksen ...Kasper Schmeichel is also typical for the Danish NT ... Pione Sisto is absolute key for Celta Vigo and the assist king of the Spanish La liga at the moment,... and though playing for a bottom-half German Bundesliga side, Thomas Delaney has been in selected for the Bundesliga 'team of the week' several times and also been picked as 'player of the week' in the Bundesliga. ... and then there are the recent U-21's ... like Chelsea's Andreas Christensen (who quite surprisingly played against Ireland), Kasper Dolberg at Ajax, Philip Billing at Huddersfield, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg at Southampton, who are not yet among the regulars for the Danish NT, but there is a good generation of younger talents on the way ...
I'm quite fond of Hojberg, but it seems like he's struggled since he moved to England. I'm also excited about Dolberg and Billing. I'm a bit of a fan of Demark and I hope they do well in the World Cup.
Have to say, now all the other British Isles teams are out I am looking forward to their support next summer.
In the medium term Ireland are sorta screwed, they only have one squad memb Haha, I actually do support them, even though the feeling isn't mutual.
Ireland is kinda screwed in the medium term, they had one under 25 in their squad. I don't know if Grealish can change alligience again but I have no doubt some Irish Grannies are going to be found in the near future, I'm calling Patrick Roberts now.
Don't think Roberts has any immediate Irish or Scottish heritage that would enable him to switch. Tried to find any info on this a while back but couldnt find anything and if he was then we would have seen lots of articles on the issue some time ago.
I don't think he did and IMO he was always waiting for England to call him back and just wanted to do it at an appropiate time. He's still plenty talented and needs to make a move away from Villa.
Ireland is a bit screwed because it doesn't seem like they have any decent talent coming up. I remember they had a couple other decent 95 players like Graham Burke but they've tailed off. It looked like they had a decent future coming off of Euro 2016, but they're back to the drawing board now.
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/i...inst-sweden--heres-its-epic-response-2017-11/ I'm sure this is a bit exaggerated but still, lol
They have such an old squad/talent pool. Literally no good young players under the age of 25. Worrying times for them, unless they just start calling up English 18 year olds like Wales are doing now.
Declan Rice and Lee O'Connor seem the best of the bunch as defenders for them. Their forward prospects looks like Callum O'Dowda & Sean Maguire. Work their way up through Champ. They look ok to possibly contribute. Who their manager will be is another matter.
They have been doing that for many years anyway to be fair. I don't know what the other home Nations would do without us developing players for them. Some time ago, I had some interesting discussions with some Welsh fans on Twitter claiming that Wales have developed players like Woodburn & Ampadu and that England have done nothing in regards to their development which I frankly found amusing since they have lived in England there whole life, schooled educated and no doubt coached at grass roots level in England, yet it's because of Wales they are the players they are today.
Ireland asked Kieran Dowell about the possibility of switching before they were knocked out. He's obviously sticking with England but he would probably be the most high profile option they are interesting in. All of the home nations + Ireland are going to have challenges in the next campaign. Either old squads requiring drastic overhaul or a real lack of depth. I kept hearing Chris Coleman talking about how strong their depth is now and was surprised by that comment.