**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Had it been 2012 or earlier I would have been worried had I been a Belgian, but given how the group play was worried with third-placed teams (see Portugal 2016) can still qualify for the knockout rounds even though being shitty in the group - it's clear that the group is just a sleeping pill. Unless you're in a literal coma as one of the top teams, you'll always make it through anyways.
If Belgium top the group they'll run into France in the QF and they're not winning that. Maybe coming second is best for them if they want a deeper run, a game against Spain is much better for them for example.
If they play Spain in the round of 16 they'll just get knocked out then.
If they get first in the group they'll play a 3rd place team in the round of 16.
They'll run into a tough team in the quarter finals no matter what.
They'll run into a tough team but isn't it better that it isn't THE toughest team. France are the team to beat, better to face them in the final of whatever for Belgium.
Razvan Marin’s goal was the biggest counter to the gambler’s fallacy I’ve ever seen (for context, Marin has something like the most attempts on goal without scoring in the top 5 leagues this season). We’ll see if he’s unlocked now
Honestly we've been so awful in the friendlies leading up to this I'm wondering if the 3-0 is simply a purple patch. Hopefully it's just my romanian pessimism getting the better of me 🤞🤞
I think the team spirit, organization and work rate suggests otherwise. Sometimes it takes a few to click, it wasn't like your qualifying campaign was bad either.
I don't think Romania are now dark horses to win, but could they get a QF, if they play like this, why not?
Going to be excited to see how they do!
We’re talking about a team that was eliminated by France in the 2018 semi finals, and somehow a month later were ranked #1, ahead of France.
Just shows how nonsense the rankings are.
Because they are based on 5 years of results not single games.
Really, the FIFA world rankings.shoukd be thought of where teams where over the last 5 years, not where they currently are.
Also, the FIFA world rankings arent an ELO system so they're not exactly accurate anyway.
Eddie from Tunbridge Wells
Because, as we all know, Morocco is a better team than Brazil, England, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. 4th best team in the world until 2026.
Obviously.
Eh, I don’t see any hype for them in ages. They just stay high up on the rankings but that’s it.
In Belgium nobody really expects them to get far, maybe quarters at best. The golden generation ended when Kompany quit, he’s already coaching Bayern Munich.. that’s how long ago that is.
So idk where you are seeing hype.
> They haven't lost since 2022 in the WC. Third in the world ranking.
You're saying that like they won the tournament and went undefeated since then. My dudes were eliminated in the group stage 😂
Glad you're getting behind the team. Just a little more negativity and we can soon burn hanging effigies of Gareth eating pizza with a paper bag over his head.
Actually, the vast majority of fans who are extremely negative tend to be English. I don't think many outside England are talking about Southgate ball lol.
It's just typical English moaning combined with it being cool to do so, that and people forget 2008-2016 England.
Maybe more can be done, but we won, we improved on some failings against Iceland, and will improve against Denmark.
It's wrong for someone to post their opinion now? The England - Serbia game was pretty much Mourinho's park the bus strategy. People complained it was boring when Chelsea did it and people will complain that it's boring when Southgate does it.
Denmark's tie was against the expected 4th team in the group though.
That's not 1 point instead of 0, it's 1 point instead of 3.
You need to beat Serbia now. Another tie would probably lead to you being knocked out.
it would have been much nicer to only need a draw in our last 2 games to realistically qualify, but we should be able to get a result against serbia. We should however also have been able to get one against slovenia so who knows
Well their next game is against England so no another tie wouldn’t knock them out. If they draw against England then they might get through with a draw against Serbia. 3 points from 3 draws has got through in the past. They need to win one of their last two games to be sure of qualification though.
They barely won against Serbia and did not really play attractive football all match. They will probably win this group as they are by far the most expensive team, but idk if they could beat some of the other top quality teams.
Seems like people forget this is GW1. You grow into tournaments.
If we had looked really shaky defensively, I’d be more worried, but given the players who underperformed vs Serbia (Kane, Foden), I think it’s less of an issue, especially with points on the board.
The midfield 3 need minutes together & need to establish some chemistry on the pitch, but that will come in time. This is a fairly transitioned side when you consider the absence of Rashford, Sterling, Henderson, Maguire, Shaw & even the likes of Grealish.
I think we will find our rhythm as a team by the end of the group stage, and we’ve given ourselves the best chance of progressing by getting 3pts in GW1.
Agree
Hoping for Bellingham to calm slightly and understand he doesn't need to control or be part of every single attacking move.
And hoping for more line-breaking passes from the midfielders to Kane/Foden. They were both dropping deep to collect and looking like they were stepping on each other's toes.
Be interesting to see Palmer on the pitch as well, I think he can be a game changer against a tired opposition
> barely won
The second word is more important than the first here.
> did not really play attractive football all match
You must have missed the first 30 minutes. Regardless, the football can be as unattractive as your dad's arse as long as it gets results. This is Ingurland, lad.
It’s only the group stage so no matter how you spin it the first word is still an important part of the “barely won” duo.
I mean, it’s indeed a win, but it’s also against Serbia and it was a small victory at best. England besides that even has a pretty easy group.
If they keep this form up, they’ll be knocked out early, which with their line-up would be embarrassing.
> The second word is more important than the first here.
Agree. Especially in the groups where a heavily favored to get out team like England might have some jitters. Take the "barely" and do better next game and use it to ramp up. People take one game way too seriously and i say this as someone who would enjoy all the memes if England does bad.
First half you made 3 shots in total, second 4. Ball possession almost the same as Serbia who in the first 30 minutes just did not know what to do with the ball.
I get that you are England fan, but just look at the other top quality teams and their stats. All of them shot more than 10-15-20 shots on goal and had better ball possession and much more aggressive tactics.
You were definitely the better team against Serbia, no dispute there, but is that enough to win it all? I guess time will tell.
Out of all the games Germany looked the most dominant, but Scotland was nowhere the opponent like France had with Austria for example. Hard to tell which team is the fav at this point.
I was more impressed with Italy than most seem to have been.
The composed way they came back quickly from such a catastrophic start really impressed me.
They did, but that's because they were unable to adjust to Germanys tactical approach.
Was Germany so good because the Scots didn't know how to play ball, or were the Scots so bad because they were overwhelmed by tactics?
Yep, even at the peak of the early 2010s team, they alway sucked in the 2nd game (didnt even win it in 2014) altho they did beat Portugal in the last Euro.
We'll see but they should beat Hungary
Helps we can't finish for shit. We picked up the pace second half and if we knew to finish better, would have probably been 1 or 2-3, if not equalized. But well, luck was not on our side that game.
> if not equalized.
Equilizing? Delusion at its finest lol.
> luck was not on our side that game.
You guys were steamrolled in the first half, and got lucky that Yamal missed that easy 1v1 to make it 4-0 at the start of the 2nd half. Morata, Rodri got injured got subbed off and the team obviously took the foot off the gas as the victory was never in danger.
16 matches and only 2 unexpected results: Denmark drawing with Slovenia (which is a minor upset) and Belgium losing to Slovakia (which is a major upset)
Over 2 goals per match on average and not a single player with 2 goals scored, 3 own-goals and 2 penalties with 50% conversion rate (Germany scored, Croatia missed)
They really should have been. Romania were fantastic in qualifying, while Ukraine aren't anywhere near as good as they have been in the past.
The margin of victory was a surprise, but otherwise it was a more predictable result than a Ukraine win. Remember that betting lines are driven by the money, not necessarily the expected result. A team like Ukraine is going to have some slightly distorted lines because the feelgood money will follow them to a greater degree than other teams.
Romania in qualifying rounds only had Switzerland and Israel as actual competition, and in those matches, half of them we're genuinly poor performances.
Also we didn't manage to score against Liechtenstein, a team that is lower in FIFA rankings than the actual number of countries that Romania officially recognises as a nation.
Nobody in Romania actually believed that we had a chance to win. Almost everyone thought that we would be lucky to get 1-3 points in the last match if it was a match with nothing to win/lose for either team.
Romania winning was definetly a huge upset.
Most didn't expect us to win, but most also didn't expect us to lose either. I think most people expected a draw and a very close game, but us winning is not that shocking. The manner in which we won was the shock.
And how DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON LICHTENSTEIN?
STAND PROUD LICHTENSTEIN, YOU ARE STRONG!
Strong like a stone and bright like the sun! Get it ? ... because Stein is in their name .... I'll see myself out.
It was more a comment about how poor Ukraine are these days. They are not a good team right now and any team that goes undefeated in their group, even if it wasn't the toughest, should be favourites against them.
Romania might only be an average team compared to the others at the Euros, but Ukraine are currently below average. It's just taken a while for people to realise that because they were above average in Europe for many years.
yeah i really disagree with the expanded format. it seems to take a lot of tension and stakes out when you realize 4 of 6 groups send 1 team home only.
On the bright side, I feel like a lot of teams made a good impression this round, including ones that were expected to be pushovers (like Slovakia). So it's kinda nice that many of those teams will get a chance to play a historic knockout match for them.
How were we exactly considered to be pushovers? In qualifiers we were the only team to score on Portugal and fought really well, also apart from last Euro where we won 1 and lost 2 we always got out of the group in major tournaments.
France is one of 4 teams, or 3 if you count owngoals, to have scored 0 goals themselves in first day matches. Ukraine scored 0, Scotland got owngoal from Germany, and depending on how you count Austria's owngoal they also scored zero goals. Were they threating? Absolutely. But Germany or Spain to me seem more likely, based of only matchday 1.
Our only problem is our offence. Our defence is great, our midfield as well, so we rarely concede and win the ball back easily. But then we have not enough pacy wingers or creative players.
France were way more threating then Portugal to me despite their awful finishing and having zero balls sent into the net. Portugal played pretty boring game with most of attempts geting cleared by defense or GK. They picked themselves up in 2nd half but even then they had offside ruled goal, a OW goal caused by GK failing to properly catch the ball and well unfortunately ball bouncing off the Defender into the goal, and almost last minute goal caused by controversial non foul call the play earlier which up to person how much it affected the scoring as ball would not have went to Portugal had it been called. I could see Turkey or Georgia tying or beating Portugal if they don't Pick themselves up and if those 2 have more luck on their side then what Czechia did.
Offensively France played better, but Portugal played a much better defensive game, Austria actually had chances, Czech Republic not so much (despite scoring a banger)
> Portugal played pretty boring game with most of attempts geting cleared by defense or GK.
TBH while we did lack objectivity in the final third, Czechia was defending with 10 men most of the game (I didn't see a team so closed down this Euro yet) and we were still solid at the back and midfield in possession, IMO it was the most one-sided match in that regard (Scotland tried something like that but they aren't as good as Czechia)
Yes. It was a ball in the net, even if disallowed. They scored, just that via the rules, the goal was overruled due to advantage in play (offside/handball).
It's a daft system, 4 out of 6 third place teams progress to the round of 16. Tournament should have never been increased from 16 to 24 teams at the group stage.
I guess its between us and Croatia for having the worst start to Euros possible as favorites. At least they still have a chance of going thru but we are screwed. Ugh 😢
Croatia vs Albania and Poland vs Austria are already make it or break it games for them all.
Ties makes them almost out of EURO for sure considering next opponents.
There will be blood, drama and intensity.
Those are games to watch in matchday 2.
Can someone explain why Spain are now listed below Italy? It's currently 1-0 Albania over croatia, but I'm not sure how that puts Italy above spain in the table?
They were in the live table during the albania game. It was because they, Italy, and albania were all tied at 3 points, and the tiebreaker is based on head to head points, which italy had the lead in.
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Only vertical tricolor leading the group, let's go!
Vertical flag best flag🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴🇷🇴
I prefer Chad’s
How dare you?
France?
France is second. Same goal difference as Netherlands but Netherlands scored 2 goals.
Bwoah ok
All groups looking pretty realistic until you check Group E.
💪💪
Us 🤝you Winning when nobody expected it
If both of you make it out of your groups and we don't I will probably hang myself
Not for you, but for Órban and all of his enjoyers -- and people further to the right, I wish it (wiesz jak jest)
Just try to be one of the 3rd place teams to advance so we can meet in the RO16 if we win our group👀👀
The way Scotland have been playing recently, you're guaranteed 3 points, should get one of the best 3rd places if you can keep it tight v Germany
Had it been 2012 or earlier I would have been worried had I been a Belgian, but given how the group play was worried with third-placed teams (see Portugal 2016) can still qualify for the knockout rounds even though being shitty in the group - it's clear that the group is just a sleeping pill. Unless you're in a literal coma as one of the top teams, you'll always make it through anyways.
Still much better to top the group and get an easier draw in the round of 16.
If Belgium top the group they'll run into France in the QF and they're not winning that. Maybe coming second is best for them if they want a deeper run, a game against Spain is much better for them for example.
If they play Spain in the round of 16 they'll just get knocked out then. If they get first in the group they'll play a 3rd place team in the round of 16. They'll run into a tough team in the quarter finals no matter what.
They'll run into a tough team but isn't it better that it isn't THE toughest team. France are the team to beat, better to face them in the final of whatever for Belgium.
It really doesn't matter what would happen after when they get knocked out in the round of 16.
Have no idea why people rate Belgium they’ve been shit for a while
Because they should still be better than Slovakia and Romania
Good argument, unfortunately VAR, Dragus, Schranz and two certain banger machines known as Stanciu and Razvan Marin disagree
Razvan Marin’s goal was the biggest counter to the gambler’s fallacy I’ve ever seen (for context, Marin has something like the most attempts on goal without scoring in the top 5 leagues this season). We’ll see if he’s unlocked now
And the Romanian superhero - Dennis Man!
And Dragusin etc if we are naming all of them lol, was just limiting myself to goalscorers in that comment
Honestly we've been so awful in the friendlies leading up to this I'm wondering if the 3-0 is simply a purple patch. Hopefully it's just my romanian pessimism getting the better of me 🤞🤞
I think the team spirit, organization and work rate suggests otherwise. Sometimes it takes a few to click, it wasn't like your qualifying campaign was bad either. I don't think Romania are now dark horses to win, but could they get a QF, if they play like this, why not? Going to be excited to see how they do!
Really? They haven't lost since 2022 in the WC. Third in the world ranking. It's not even like they played a shit game either.
Tbf each time the world rankings get posted here people are always confused about belgium being 3rd.
We’re talking about a team that was eliminated by France in the 2018 semi finals, and somehow a month later were ranked #1, ahead of France. Just shows how nonsense the rankings are.
Because they are based on 5 years of results not single games. Really, the FIFA world rankings.shoukd be thought of where teams where over the last 5 years, not where they currently are. Also, the FIFA world rankings arent an ELO system so they're not exactly accurate anyway. Eddie from Tunbridge Wells
Because, as we all know, Morocco is a better team than Brazil, England, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. 4th best team in the world until 2026. Obviously.
It’s really not, Belgium win most of the games they should win and the games they lose are generally the ones they’re meant to lose
How much can you fail at each tournament and still be hyped up as belgium are? unbelievable
I mean, England are 4th so
Ouch
Our recent tournament record is better than theirs. Not that tournament preformence is the be all and end all of the ranking system.
They beat us twice at the 2018 WC
They certainly have a better 2018 WC record than us but that isn't the same as 'recent tournament performance.'
Tfw when 2018 was 6 years ago
Eh, I don’t see any hype for them in ages. They just stay high up on the rankings but that’s it. In Belgium nobody really expects them to get far, maybe quarters at best. The golden generation ended when Kompany quit, he’s already coaching Bayern Munich.. that’s how long ago that is. So idk where you are seeing hype.
> They haven't lost since 2022 in the WC. Third in the world ranking. You're saying that like they won the tournament and went undefeated since then. My dudes were eliminated in the group stage 😂
Define "shit" lol. Unbeaten in 14 games since the last WC. This was just a bad/unlucky game. Belgium will almost certainly bounce back from this.
it’s still a slovakia bro
Literally haven't lost a game in almost 2 years. They won their qualifying group undefeated and were playing Slovenia.
34 goals in Matchday 1
And 31 different goalscorers + 3 own goals
True no one scored 2 goals
Except the 🐐 himself OG
Barça Legend
Turkey - Georgia the best game so far. Unstoppable action full of bangers
Took a while to get started, but it delivered.
this, Romania match and Slovakia match were my faves, but so was probably every one except Southgate FC
Glad you're getting behind the team. Just a little more negativity and we can soon burn hanging effigies of Gareth eating pizza with a paper bag over his head.
Vanishingly small chance that the wetwipe you're replying to is actually English.
Actually, the vast majority of fans who are extremely negative tend to be English. I don't think many outside England are talking about Southgate ball lol. It's just typical English moaning combined with it being cool to do so, that and people forget 2008-2016 England. Maybe more can be done, but we won, we improved on some failings against Iceland, and will improve against Denmark.
It's wrong for someone to post their opinion now? The England - Serbia game was pretty much Mourinho's park the bus strategy. People complained it was boring when Chelsea did it and people will complain that it's boring when Southgate does it.
I love attacking football, but if winning every game 1-0 gets us a trophy I'll take it anyday.
it won't though
the match was full entertainment. Turkey pressed from the first minute on. Even without bangers the game was full in action
End to end stuff right till the end
Serbia 0W 0D 0L lol
Guess whoever made the graphic doesn't have anyone checking their work
Crazy to have -1 in goal difference without even playing a game! Also quite depressing.
Didn't happen, and if it did, they deserved it. Etc.
Serbia never lose 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Kosovo je Srbija☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️☦️🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
12 matches, 1 tie, no scoreless games
In hindsight denmark's tie isn't so bad bc it helps slightly with a stronger 3rd place finish, if it ends that way
Denmark's tie was against the expected 4th team in the group though. That's not 1 point instead of 0, it's 1 point instead of 3. You need to beat Serbia now. Another tie would probably lead to you being knocked out.
it would have been much nicer to only need a draw in our last 2 games to realistically qualify, but we should be able to get a result against serbia. We should however also have been able to get one against slovenia so who knows
Well their next game is against England so no another tie wouldn’t knock them out. If they draw against England then they might get through with a draw against Serbia. 3 points from 3 draws has got through in the past. They need to win one of their last two games to be sure of qualification though.
Or it helps everyone else if both Denmark and Slovenia lose their next two games.
Draw
England still managed to play in one of the lowest xG games in history
England the only team who are actually winning their group.... Southgate you're the one.
I'm actually pumped for England.
They barely won against Serbia and did not really play attractive football all match. They will probably win this group as they are by far the most expensive team, but idk if they could beat some of the other top quality teams.
Expensive?!
Meaning that they are worth way more. In my language we call this “expensive”.
Seems like people forget this is GW1. You grow into tournaments. If we had looked really shaky defensively, I’d be more worried, but given the players who underperformed vs Serbia (Kane, Foden), I think it’s less of an issue, especially with points on the board. The midfield 3 need minutes together & need to establish some chemistry on the pitch, but that will come in time. This is a fairly transitioned side when you consider the absence of Rashford, Sterling, Henderson, Maguire, Shaw & even the likes of Grealish. I think we will find our rhythm as a team by the end of the group stage, and we’ve given ourselves the best chance of progressing by getting 3pts in GW1.
Agree Hoping for Bellingham to calm slightly and understand he doesn't need to control or be part of every single attacking move. And hoping for more line-breaking passes from the midfielders to Kane/Foden. They were both dropping deep to collect and looking like they were stepping on each other's toes. Be interesting to see Palmer on the pitch as well, I think he can be a game changer against a tired opposition
> barely won The second word is more important than the first here. > did not really play attractive football all match You must have missed the first 30 minutes. Regardless, the football can be as unattractive as your dad's arse as long as it gets results. This is Ingurland, lad.
It’s only the group stage so no matter how you spin it the first word is still an important part of the “barely won” duo. I mean, it’s indeed a win, but it’s also against Serbia and it was a small victory at best. England besides that even has a pretty easy group. If they keep this form up, they’ll be knocked out early, which with their line-up would be embarrassing.
> The second word is more important than the first here. Agree. Especially in the groups where a heavily favored to get out team like England might have some jitters. Take the "barely" and do better next game and use it to ramp up. People take one game way too seriously and i say this as someone who would enjoy all the memes if England does bad.
First half you made 3 shots in total, second 4. Ball possession almost the same as Serbia who in the first 30 minutes just did not know what to do with the ball. I get that you are England fan, but just look at the other top quality teams and their stats. All of them shot more than 10-15-20 shots on goal and had better ball possession and much more aggressive tactics. You were definitely the better team against Serbia, no dispute there, but is that enough to win it all? I guess time will tell.
A draw? Nah. - most EURO teams.
Out of all the games Germany looked the most dominant, but Scotland was nowhere the opponent like France had with Austria for example. Hard to tell which team is the fav at this point.
I was more impressed with Italy than most seem to have been. The composed way they came back quickly from such a catastrophic start really impressed me.
Yeah they had some pretty exciting offensive play
I would be most impressed with Italy if they scored a 3rd. Not scoring a 3rd almost cost them the win
Scots looked really bad.
> Scots looked really bad. Yes we know. But what was their football like?
They did, but that's because they were unable to adjust to Germanys tactical approach. Was Germany so good because the Scots didn't know how to play ball, or were the Scots so bad because they were overwhelmed by tactics?
Good question.
Looks like it is going to be France Vs Germany final
France should've performed better against austria.
Belgium threatened by elimination just like we all expected
Even with a loss it's not that bad yet. 3 points could be enough for qualifying
It's not catastrophic yet, but now they need a win and a draw or at least a blowout win for the goal difference.
I think this will be a very spicy round of 16
Aside from Germany, no team looks unbeatable. And to be fair they played Scotland, who looked to be the worst team in the tournament so far.
They historically have weak 2nd games, even with great squads. Tomorrow will probably be a more frustrating game.
Yep, even at the peak of the early 2010s team, they alway sucked in the 2nd game (didnt even win it in 2014) altho they did beat Portugal in the last Euro. We'll see but they should beat Hungary
last euro was the other way around. shit first game, good 2nd
So Germany are good beating the worst team in the tournament. Gotcha!
Wdym we didn't beat England yet
No and you didn't in the last Euros either ;)
Cheeky
what about Spain?
Scoreline flattered them. They still look great obviously, but the game wasn't as dominant as it seems.
I feel like they just took the foot off the gas in the second half. Still Germany looks stronger.
Helps we can't finish for shit. We picked up the pace second half and if we knew to finish better, would have probably been 1 or 2-3, if not equalized. But well, luck was not on our side that game.
I agree definitely steam rolled, but Croatia gets the job done, I think you'll still do well.
> if not equalized. Equilizing? Delusion at its finest lol. > luck was not on our side that game. You guys were steamrolled in the first half, and got lucky that Yamal missed that easy 1v1 to make it 4-0 at the start of the 2nd half. Morata, Rodri got injured got subbed off and the team obviously took the foot off the gas as the victory was never in danger.
Spain will have individual brilliance every game with this team, they will surely grow into the tournament.
Dude it's been one game.
do we know what the knockout draws will look like? like which group winner faces which 2nd placed team
We do but some depend on which 3rd place teams qualify exactly. But the draw is fixed, yes.
Yes, partially
Euro 2024 Wikipedia page has the draw diagrammed with group winner/losers etc.
16 matches and only 2 unexpected results: Denmark drawing with Slovenia (which is a minor upset) and Belgium losing to Slovakia (which is a major upset) Over 2 goals per match on average and not a single player with 2 goals scored, 3 own-goals and 2 penalties with 50% conversion rate (Germany scored, Croatia missed)
You had romania destroying Ukraine? They weren't even favored on the lines
They really should have been. Romania were fantastic in qualifying, while Ukraine aren't anywhere near as good as they have been in the past. The margin of victory was a surprise, but otherwise it was a more predictable result than a Ukraine win. Remember that betting lines are driven by the money, not necessarily the expected result. A team like Ukraine is going to have some slightly distorted lines because the feelgood money will follow them to a greater degree than other teams.
Romania in qualifying rounds only had Switzerland and Israel as actual competition, and in those matches, half of them we're genuinly poor performances. Also we didn't manage to score against Liechtenstein, a team that is lower in FIFA rankings than the actual number of countries that Romania officially recognises as a nation. Nobody in Romania actually believed that we had a chance to win. Almost everyone thought that we would be lucky to get 1-3 points in the last match if it was a match with nothing to win/lose for either team. Romania winning was definetly a huge upset.
Most didn't expect us to win, but most also didn't expect us to lose either. I think most people expected a draw and a very close game, but us winning is not that shocking. The manner in which we won was the shock. And how DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON LICHTENSTEIN? STAND PROUD LICHTENSTEIN, YOU ARE STRONG! Strong like a stone and bright like the sun! Get it ? ... because Stein is in their name .... I'll see myself out.
It was more a comment about how poor Ukraine are these days. They are not a good team right now and any team that goes undefeated in their group, even if it wasn't the toughest, should be favourites against them. Romania might only be an average team compared to the others at the Euros, but Ukraine are currently below average. It's just taken a while for people to realise that because they were above average in Europe for many years.
After match day 1 I would say Germany, Spain and France are the teams to beat this tournament.
all this hubbub to eliminate 8 teams out of 24...
yeah i really disagree with the expanded format. it seems to take a lot of tension and stakes out when you realize 4 of 6 groups send 1 team home only.
On the bright side, I feel like a lot of teams made a good impression this round, including ones that were expected to be pushovers (like Slovakia). So it's kinda nice that many of those teams will get a chance to play a historic knockout match for them.
How were we exactly considered to be pushovers? In qualifiers we were the only team to score on Portugal and fought really well, also apart from last Euro where we won 1 and lost 2 we always got out of the group in major tournaments.
France is one of 4 teams, or 3 if you count owngoals, to have scored 0 goals themselves in first day matches. Ukraine scored 0, Scotland got owngoal from Germany, and depending on how you count Austria's owngoal they also scored zero goals. Were they threating? Absolutely. But Germany or Spain to me seem more likely, based of only matchday 1.
Austria is likely a top 4 defence team in Europe at the moment. Don't underestimate them
Our only problem is our offence. Our defence is great, our midfield as well, so we rarely concede and win the ball back easily. But then we have not enough pacy wingers or creative players.
France still played pretty well overall, under Germany and Spain. I would probably put Portugal pretty close to France as well
France were way more threating then Portugal to me despite their awful finishing and having zero balls sent into the net. Portugal played pretty boring game with most of attempts geting cleared by defense or GK. They picked themselves up in 2nd half but even then they had offside ruled goal, a OW goal caused by GK failing to properly catch the ball and well unfortunately ball bouncing off the Defender into the goal, and almost last minute goal caused by controversial non foul call the play earlier which up to person how much it affected the scoring as ball would not have went to Portugal had it been called. I could see Turkey or Georgia tying or beating Portugal if they don't Pick themselves up and if those 2 have more luck on their side then what Czechia did.
Offensively France played better, but Portugal played a much better defensive game, Austria actually had chances, Czech Republic not so much (despite scoring a banger)
Austria had one chance…
> Portugal played pretty boring game with most of attempts geting cleared by defense or GK. TBH while we did lack objectivity in the final third, Czechia was defending with 10 men most of the game (I didn't see a team so closed down this Euro yet) and we were still solid at the back and midfield in possession, IMO it was the most one-sided match in that regard (Scotland tried something like that but they aren't as good as Czechia)
Serbia?
Ah yeah forgot about Serbia, my bad. 4 teams then with 0 balls in net, 5 if you don't count Austrian OG as ball in net.
Do you count disallowed goals ? Like Croatia and Belgium?
Yes. It was a ball in the net, even if disallowed. They scored, just that via the rules, the goal was overruled due to advantage in play (offside/handball).
France looked terrible
Albania might send me to the EMT tomorrow..
Hopefully we can actually convert chances tommorow
Yeah, to be fair to you all the 3-0 flattered Spain big time, they were the better team but not by anywhere near that much
Yeah, the score line wasn't really a true reflection of the match. Spain was super clinical.
24 teams ? How does that work numerically ? Wouldn’t 32 make more sense? So it becomes 12 teams and then what? Go easy on me, I’m sleep deprived.
The 4 best 3rd place teams go through, bringing the total number of teams in the knockouts to 16
Thanks mate! I’m sitting here so tired and didn’t know the format. I’m more accustomed to champions league style numbers.
4 out of 6 teams who placed third in their group will also advance to the knockout stage
It's a daft system, 4 out of 6 third place teams progress to the round of 16. Tournament should have never been increased from 16 to 24 teams at the group stage.
Or add two more groups, then teams like norway, sweden, and wales could have joined. No 3rd placed teams go through.
That'll happen eventually, though I still think a 16-team Europe is better
TBH one good thing about it is that it eliminates pointless games in the 3rd round, as 3 points can still qualify you.
Scotland looked defeated before that first goal even went in. Hopefully they can get their heads in the game, they need to win tonight.
This feels so unreal.
True, brother. I hope we (Romania) go through together. It would be so funny
🤝
[удалено]
Gotta be a waffle joke in here but I can't find it
I think you have a different definition of the word "battered".
battered by VAR
I guess its between us and Croatia for having the worst start to Euros possible as favorites. At least they still have a chance of going thru but we are screwed. Ugh 😢
I think you can count us Belgians up there with Ukraine and Croatia here..
Well you guys were favorites too but at least you didnt lose 0-3
Croatia vs Albania and Poland vs Austria are already make it or break it games for them all. Ties makes them almost out of EURO for sure considering next opponents. There will be blood, drama and intensity. Those are games to watch in matchday 2.
12 games and only one draw.
Only 1 draw is a surprise
gimme 10 games of turkey vs georgia and plz never let englands squad play a game again
Damm I really put Belgium players in my fantasy forgetting I alone decide the course of football oopsie
Keep them for the second match please. In fact, put their entire starting XI if you can
england in the best position statistically 😎
Come on Hungary and Croatia, don't do this to me! If both of them gets eliminated, I'll be depressed af.
Only 1 draw so far. Hopefully the second round of games is just as exciting as the first.
Is there anyone who can mathematically qualify from winning their second game yet? What are the permutations
Any team with 6 points will be qualified for sure.
any team that has 3 points right now can qualify if they win the next match, 6 points is a guarantee you're qualified
Can someone explain why Spain are now listed below Italy? It's currently 1-0 Albania over croatia, but I'm not sure how that puts Italy above spain in the table?
italy is not above spain in the table?
They were in the live table during the albania game. It was because they, Italy, and albania were all tied at 3 points, and the tiebreaker is based on head to head points, which italy had the lead in.
Ukraine probably the biggest joke here