The Euro 2016 thread

The curse is broken!

The guy who made the last goal is from a place that's 30 klicks from here. Yay

Poor Iceland :-(

I so wanted Iceland to win… They fought bravely, but France was simply better. It goes without saying that Iceland was my favourite team in this tournament. I've been cheering them since their first game in this tournament.

Sure this was an end to a beautifull story, but just them getting this far is a victory of it's own. So walk proudly Iceland! What ever happens after this, the best moment of these games was when small Iceland beat team England against all odds! And It was amazing to follow how their whole nation was behind them..and the chanting… I just loved it.

Sports moments like these will not be forgotten.

I really hoped Iceland could pull out yet another major upset, but that France team is super loaded with talent. A valiant effort, and better luck next time for Iceland.

I'm rooting for Wales here. They deserve to get through! And it would be so awesome to see Ronaldo's face after that kind of defeat.

Wales for me as well! And largely for the same reason

Edit: ack, looks like we're getting happy-ronaldo-face this time!

Wales, was not the same team without Ramsay.

May Germany stomp a huge mudhole into France. That is all, carry on!

Congratulations France!

That game was straight up ugly. The foul called at the forty-five minute mark was totally bogus.

I think Germany dominated the match and should have won, but I guess it's like Thiery Henry said after the match. I'm paraphrasing:

People will say that we won due to mistakes made by Germany and the referee, but in the end what matters is that we got two balls into the back of the net.

Germany was the better team. France have the help of the referees the whole tournament. Supporting Portugal now

Undeniably, Germany has the best volleyball team in this Euro 2016.

Originally Posted by akarthis
Germany was the better team. France have the help of the referees the whole tournament. Supporting Portugal now

Actually there might be more thruth to this than you expected. I heard yesterday that the referee was the same who lead the WCh final 2014 against ARG. He was criticized by everybody in the world who isn't German for missing a foul in the match which would have given ARG a penalty.
Yesterday the referee went out of his way to look very carefully whenever there was a potential foul by a German player. And it was really a masterpiece to be 100% certain (that's the rule!) it was "hand" while standing with his back to the scene. His decision was correct from a formal standpoint. Schweinsteiger hit the ball with his hand and his head. You *can* give such a penalty. The FR players obviously didn't expect a penalty, if you watch their reactions.
In the end this scene decided the game. Generally speaking you don't want a referee decide the game.

The other aspect is that Germany, for the first time in ages, has a real attack problem. They could have played for another hour, I doubt they would have scored a goal. Without the penalty this would have meant another penalty shootout.

France played cleverly used their chances. It's one of these rare games in which the better team loses and it's not undeserved.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
Undeniably, Germany has the best volleyball team in this Euro 2016.

I don't get the joke?

Originally Posted by Gorath
Actually there might be more thruth to this than you expected. I heard yesterday that the referee was the same who lead the WCh final 2014 against ARG. He was criticized by everybody in the world who isn't German for missing a foul in the match which would have given ARG a penalty.
Yesterday the referee went out of his way to look very carefully whenever there was a potential foul by a German player. And it was really a masterpiece to be 100% certain (that's the rule!) it was "hand" while standing with his back to the scene. His decision was correct from a formal standpoint. Schweinsteiger hit the ball with his hand and his head. You *can* give such a penalty. The FR players obviously didn't expect a penalty, if you watch their reactions.
In the end this scene decided the game. Generally speaking you don't want a referee decide the game.

The other aspect is that Germany, for the first time in ages, has a real attack problem. They could have played for another hour, I doubt they would have scored a goal. Without the penalty this would have meant another penalty shootout.

France played cleverly used their chances. It's one of these rare games in which the better team loses and it's not undeserved.

I agree with you. I don't know the reason why Gomez wasn't playing yesterday. He would help a lot. As for lack of scoring, they were a little unlucky in 2 or 3 occasions where the ball could easily go into the post

And don't let me go to the subject of France stealing the Iclandic way of cheering!!!

Originally Posted by lostforever
I don't get the joke?

Germany only caught 3 goals. The 2 important goals were caused by GER players having their hands up way higher than they should ever have. Even more tragically, in both cases it was a player who had played a very good game until then.
The third goal falls into the "shit happens" category because at that point GER had to take risks and open up.

Originally Posted by akarthis
I don't know the reason why Gomez wasn't playing yesterday. He would help a lot.

He's injured. He wouldn't have played in a final either.

As for lack of scoring, they were a little unlucky in 2 or 3 occasions where the ball could easily go into the post

True. But it's a homemade problem. The 9 is the only position Löw hadn't covered twice because he believes in a false-9 as the more modern concept. As it turned out in certain situations you need a guy who knows how to strike.