UEFA EURO 2016

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I wanted to bump the thread of the world cup of two years ago and make it a soccer general thread so it could be discussed all year around :( *hates Leneth*

Aye looking forward to it.

England team:

Kane already missed a penalty and the tournament hasn't even started yet, so I see how this is going to go.

Yup. I have low expectations

Your brazil 2014 thread cannot be used ever again. I put it in a cabinet and polish it every now and then in my mind.

There are also other reasons to not use it again. Netherlands aren't in this softened tournament, have to respect their fragile hearts too.

Ah before I forget I have to edit a picture into the OP.

England will pass the first round.. I mean Wales and Slovakia 2 debutants in your group.

If no one else makes a concentrated effort in an England bio, I might give it a go when I get home, frankly, as an opposing view to the other Englishmen so far, I'm actually quite optimistic of our chances at Euro 2016 and yes we should get out of the group, it would take a failure of catastrophic proportions not to.

Do remember 4 of the third placed teams will advance to the knock-out rounds, as a result we'll be left with 16 teams advancing, only 8 being knocked out in the group stage.

Test game results of the impotant teams (feel free to post results involving other teams)

England 2:1 Turkey
England 2:1 Australia
Switzerland 1:2 Belgium
Germany 1:3 Slovakia
Spain 3:1 Bosnia
Italy 1:0 Scotland
Portugal 3:0 Norway

Looks like Germany being the only 'favourite' who screwed up. Yes the second half was pretty much unplayable due to heavy rain. At that time though we were already 1:2 behind. After controling the game for 35 minute and failing to score more goals (a weak point like I mentioned in OP) Slovakia had 2 chances (one being a well placed shot from 25 meters or so away, the other one was a corner) and scored 2 times. It wasn't till the 60. minute till a ball on the German goal did not went in.
This was the last test game for us before the final nomination. We will have one more after it.

How was the impression of your teams?

Italy is terrible. It's gonna be a miracle if we even pass the first phase.
I expect us to end behind Belgium, Sweden and Albania respectively.

edit: we don't have Albania but Eire, probably the only match we can hope to win

Don't bash all your teams! oo
Mine at least lost to a debutant.. so it's justified.
If everyone keeps doing it, we're in for a very weak European Championship.

Italy is not permitted to drop out in the group phase, as stated in the OP I want a match for all the pain it caused us (1970, 1982, 2006 and 2012). Even if it will result in a 5th number, I want at least a chance to end this curse.
At least leave Albania behind will you?

Wait a moment... Albania is Group A on my sheet!

It's Belgium, Ireland and Sweden for you!

I wanted to avoid it.. but I guess I will add the groups to the OP tomorrow.

I was about to say that but the page didn't load and couldn't fix my message <.< yeah I was mistaken.

With Ireland we can get at least third place then!!

ugh, go team!?

That's the spirit I want to see from our opponents!

Italy ranking third will push our meeting into the semi-final, final unlike if you win. In that case it's the quarter final. (always under the assumption Germany comes out as winner of Group C.
While we face Poland again (didn't perform well against them in the qualification round) I think we will win that game.
We usually have one good game vs the best opponent in group phases.

Since Seha mentioned a specific result, shall we all have a game about it?
3 points for winning team/draw + correct result
2 points for winning team/draw + correct Goal difference
1 point for winning team
0 points for losing team
for KO-stage the result after 90 minutes.
Does that sound ok? Open for suggestions if we decide to do one.

Sure I'm up for a little guessing game when matches come around.

Btw I saw you put Italy's player list in the op but Conte will only decide tomorrow which are the 23 for the cup.

No Verratti sucks(he broke a knee or something).

I took the players who were nominated for the training camps, same with Germany.
Shouldn't be too hard to cross the kicked players out when every coach decides tomorrow. If they wait till the last moment, like our coach, I most likely won't be able to update it till thursday.

EDIT:
I don't know how big the loss of Verratti is for your team.
I had to look him up, seemed like he was a talented player in his youth, but I cannot find much about his development.
It's sad to see that injuries keep crippling the national team for these big events.
Gündogan is our biggest loss, Schweinsteiger will most likely not be able to play in the first part of the tournament and Hummels became questionable as well for the group phase.

He's the new Pirlo basically. He's one of the main players in PSG, one of the best playmakers around o.o

Oh the Pirlo comparision is not to be taken lightly.
I don't have a memory of a good PSG game recently... but I barely see them anyway. Mostly at champion's league in the recaps unless they advance enough.
And in national dress, well Italy got kicked/bitten out of the world cup quite early and he didn't play against us 2012 right?
No wonder I don't recognise him.
I'm not a football fanatic to begin with who follows everything.

Yeah he wasn't around in 12, he's only like 24 years old or something like that.

edit: he's 23

Even if I didn't want to the knowledge is kinda forced on me. In Italy football represents 98% of all conversations.

Too bad I cannot see him this tournament. Would you recommend an other player I should focus on if I watch one of Italy's games?

Are the conversations limited to Home Leagues and a few famous players/trainers abroad, or do they talk about everything in europe?
As for Germany I don't hear much besides the home leagues (1st to third) and what Klopp does with Liverpool in normal conversations. Even big players like Kroos and Schweinsteiger aren't mentioned at all unless Madrid or United face a german team.
When I think about it the german view is very limited.

Serie A and champions league mostly, but it's talked about 24/7.

Meh..this team is really bad, there's hardly anything worth watching about us.
Bernardeschi though is one of the few young promises of our nation(and he'll probably go to Bayern this summer).

*knows things*

The England - Turkey game was a nice run out for younger players, I think Rashford did enough to impress Hodgson. The goal keeping error that gifted Turkey their first ever goal against us needs to NOT happen in an important game. I don't know what Hart was thinking but he needs to not do it again, that was just stupid.

I hope he doesn't take Delph or Wilshere, because they haven't done enough this season. It's being argued that Wilshere will get picked on merit based on his previous call ups, but that's not good enough when he`s played 1 match this season. And Delph is just Delph, he`s an average player, not international quality.

I will watch him closely then.
If the transfer happens I would be surprised, really. I don't think I even heard a rumour about it. They already paid 70M for 2 new players (Hummels + a young talent from Benfica) for 2016/17 season. It would be unusual if they spend more in one year (pure guessing based on vague memories, I don't really care about them w). Mostly small fry is leaving them so they should make a big minus on transfers already. 2017 they plan to go after Sané if he is not bought this year by the big clubs this year.

If you are correct though.. I don't know yet. I'll think of something.

@Calatilla
Most teams will have to take average players with them.
You shouldn't be too worried about a single one or even two.

Smh

I second this suggestion. Posting random stuff about football in RT is meh because nobody would care.

Not having the Dutchies to support so hmmm... which country to support this tournament...

Kind of torn between the powehouse Germany and underdog, the Red Devils. (Belgium)
I accept bribes in the form of good beer and food, and I know both neighbours are very good at making either.

I'm rooting for Croatia this year. Belgium as alternative!

Italy's team

1 Buffon, 2 De Sciglio, 3 Chiellini, 4 Darmian, 5 Ogbonna, 6 Candreva, 7 Zaza, 8 Florenzi, 9 Pellé, 10 Motta, 11 Immobile, 12 Sirigu, 13 Marchetti, 14 Sturaro, 15 Barzagli, 16 De Rossi, 17 Eder, 18 Parolo, 19 Bonucci, 20 Insigne, 21 Bernardeschi, 22 El Shaarawy, 23 Giaccherini

Bringing Sturaro but not Jorginho makes no *** sense.

We crossed out:
Karim Bellarabi (only decent in my eyes, we have better options)
Julian Brandt (youngling)
Sebastian Rudy (not good enough, but we don't really have good ones on the wings for defenders)
Marco Reus (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Reason: injury)
That is most likely the reason why Podolski hasn't been sorted out once again.

I didn't know Reus was badly injured :o A huge loss for Germany.

Crotia has a very impressive squad on paper, but not expecting them to go so far.

I am not really hopeful about our own team. Not to mention our group is... ugh.

None of our players show any sign of game changing performance, except our new talent "Emre Mor" (grown up and playing in Denmark). Scouts will be all over him. He plays just like Messi, dribbles with the ball like a boss and have the confidence and skill to run into multiple defenders and get past them. We have very high expectations from him, but he lacks experience and seem to have a long way to go for finishing shots. Be sure to check him on youtube.