Euro 2016

Neki_sl said:

Hungary 1-0 Portugal

Ronaldo already moaning again. lol

His freekicks are so shit. Bale should take Madrid's FKs but you know Ronaldo and his ego would not allow it.

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Yeah....and then the rest of the game happened.

I agree his free kicks have been off lately though. But pretty transcendent performance from Ronaldo today.

Icelandic Joy

https://streamable.com/e/f6h

Our defense was so shitty, it was painful to watch. Ronaldo could do whatever he wanted. Oh well.

Belgium will be a tough one, I'm not too optimistic.

Love Iceland's performance. Wish I could've watched that game live.

There seem to have been a lot of late goals in this tournament. There's a couple of decent looking matches in the next round, Croatia v Portugal on Saturday and Italy v Spain on Monday.

I drew Iceland in the office sweepstakes. I'm happier now than I was at the time

Szlia_sl said:

It's the 5th/6th referee that is supposed to look at the keeper and with goal line technology it's the only thing he has to do during a penalty kick... maybe the guy called for the very very generous penalty in the first place and felt guilty? Or maybe these guys are just being paid to do nothing...

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also 4 croatian players ran into the box before the penalty, and not a single spanish player. It doesn't get any more obvious.

Quineloe_sl said:

I wonder if we will ever see a penalty being repeated in a tournament or if that's a rule that just doesn't matter.

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Never a penalty so justice was served.

Portugal might just be due.

That team hasnt won fuck all in their entire history basically, with Benfica (and Porto, they did win the Champions League in 2004) being that country's only source of pride when it comes to silverware. But that was in the days of fucking Eusebio in the 60's when they won back to back Champions League (or European Cup at that time) I believe. The national team has ALWAYS disappointed. I still remember watching in 2004 when a young Ronaldo cried on the pitch after somehow losing to fucking Greece in the final ON THEIR HOME SOIL. Truly one of the biggest football upsets in history.

I also remember Portugal beating England in 2006 to reach the semi final in the World Cup at Germany, a sensational game they won on penalties. But then they lost to bitch ass Thierry Henry and his flopping antics to lose 1-0 by virtue of a PK. That was the closest they have ever got in both tournaments. So maybe Ronaldo can drag this team to glory, as knockout rounds is where he thrives, and his confidence should be at an all time high given his Champions League triumph. That backheel goal was fucking sublime and if he can get a couple more goals over the next game or 2 they can end up playing in a semi final or perhaps even a final.

Reckon Croatia will beat Portugal anyway, smarter bet I reckon. Good odds, better team balance.

I'd be quite odd for portugal to win, indeed. They are only team that qualified without a single win. The odds of Portugal beating Croatia seem low, Croatia team is fairly strong this time around.

Gurgeh_sl said:

I'd be quite odd for portugal to win, indeed. They are only team that qualified without a single win. The odds of Portugal beating Croatia seem low, Croatia team is fairly strong this time around.

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I agree but Ricardo Queresma has been a revelation for this Portugal team. I remember when he was a 22 year old kid (played for Porto I think, still does?) and Scolari and that other idiot coach they had at the last World Cup didnt put him in the side. He has finally been given his opportunity after maturing as a player and teammate and has made good on it.

He is very dangerous on the ball, particularly his service into the box. If he gets out wide in the opponents half he is pretty much a threat every single time down. If Ronaldo can continue to ease into form they should be able to score enough goals to be a tough side to beat. I mean cmon, they should have beaten Austria, Ronaldo missed PK isnt a regular "thing" the guy sealed the Champions League with a PK as cool as they come. He has flubbed a few from the spot over his career, but he finds the back of the net more times than not. Iceland equalized off a sublime outside the box strike against a Portuguese keeper who has been absolutely dreadful this tournament. (although 2 goals from Hungary were deflections) As easy as they didnt win a match, they could have easily won all 3 and thats not a ridiculous argument.

All that matters is they advance and they advance because the best player in the world showed the fuck up when his side was on the precipice. I mean fuck, he scored his first goal to break the ice with a disgusting back heel flick that was a 1 in a thousand type goal. The header to secure the result and his brace was pretty much a video game type goal where he raised up above everyone else and finished with such brutal efficiency. The Hungarian defenders were literally bystanders as the ball from Queresma came in; Christiano timed it perfectly and headed home leaving the keeper with zero chance.

Croatia is very good and could easily beat Portugal as a lot of their players are old and I dont trust their coach, but if Ronaldo plays like he did against Hungary and there aren't 2 deflected goals or Pepe going all Pepe and getting sent off, they win this game.

Portugal can definitely win, the trouble being that if Ronaldo is not at 100% in a single match then the tournament is over. And even if he's 100% it's not going to be enough against some team, so with a little luck, not impossible, but portugal will need more luck than some other team that are not dependant on a single player.

Consolation prize for Switzerland: Shaqiri scored the best goal of the Euro so far and it will be tough to top. Losing a penalty shoot-out 4-5 is a bit lame, but the lamest thing really is to not have won before it came down to the penalty lottery. They pay an expensive price for a poor first half and sterile domination through the extra time.

How do the xenophobes and radical right in Switzerland feel about half the team being immigrants?

I am not sure really. Actual extreme right wing parties are close to non existant in Switzerland, mostly because there is a big populist right wing party that got the nationalists/xenophobes covered and since they are terrible but also not total idiots, they know better than to badmouth the national team!

I'll assume they don't care when the team wins and blame the albanians when it loses! Note that all the players are either born in Switzerland or immigrated when 5 or under (with the possible exception of Embolo, but he played for the youth national teams growing up).

From a sport standpoint, they are all players who learned to play in Switzerland, which should be the criteria for selection really, more than the passport.

Dat Swiss goal was sexy as fuck.

The fuck I'm looping at?

So for 110 minutes nothing happens, then they start playing football.

Haha I fuckin called it again. Who would of thought the forum idiot knew his sports? I didnt win those fantasy titles on accident.

What a shit fucking game though.