Euro Footsy Championships!

[Charger]

So finally the UEFA Euro Championships are here...well almost...

So lets talk.

Who are your favourites to win?

I guess this is mostly for me and KDC though but I'm thinking Jack might follow these a bit as well...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Don't forget Tyr66, I imagine has an interest too...

... talking of which most (as in 12) of the BBC football pundits are saying France will win (a couple went with Belgium and 1 went with Italy). I'm inclined to go with Belgium myself, but once you get to the Semi-finals anything is possible. Obviously I'm supporting England and if they get to the semi-finals they will have home advantage as both semis and the final are at Wembley.

If I'm being realistic the last 4 will be France, Belgium, England and Italy.

The other home teams (ie Wales and Scotland) have some good players and "might" escape the group stages, but don't have the strength in depth to progress much further.

Hopefully Finland can escape their group, I'm not sure how likely that is!

[Tyr66]

if N'Golo Kanté is in good shape, we can go far in the competition.
One of my work colleagues knows a youngster who is at the Clairefontaine training center who trains future French players. This youngster says that Deschamps is a real dictator. Everyone fears him. He doesn't let anything go: delay in training, childish behavior, bad atmosphere in the team ... Good coach.

[Jack the Stripper]

Jeez I’ve been a bit out of the loop this time around on who have been the better teams through the qualifiers. I see Spain and Germany aren’t as strong as they’ve been in the past but you can never count them out of these competitions. Belgium look strong and I’m sure the Italians will be right in there as well, as will France. I do like England though and are hoping they can win it. Can’t see an outsider doing a Greece of 2004.

Great couple of months coming up in World sport with the Euro’s and then the Olympics in Tokyo to follow soon after.

[Charger]

I put money down on Belgium winning the whole thing myself.

I think England also has a good chance this time to get far as they probably have their best team in ages.

France is a question mark...but having a world championship under their belt already they could easily go far as well. But it has often been seen that winning a double is extremely hard.

Germany I think is getting back on track but they still got a long way to go...same with Spain.

The reigning champion Portugal is always a wild card, but Ronaldo is getting up with the years and his legs aren't quite as fast as they used to be.

I would like to see one surprise to make it to the semis...Croatia maybe? Modric is getting old as well though and might not quite have the energy to do the work like he used to...

Finland is in for the first time ever. But we won't win a single match. I'm predicting we'll get a tie from Denmark and that's it. 1 point. If we're lucky we might get another one from Russia.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

First match today:

Italy vs Turkey

Turkey are often better than you realise, but they're against Italy and I don't see them getting anything out of the game. I predict 2-1 to Italy.

[Zzzptm]

How bad did a team have to be to *not* make it into a group?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

There is six groups of 4 so 24 teams are involved.

There are 44 Countries in Europe, however it's a little more complicated than that... firstly, Israel take part (but didn't qualify this time), and some territories which aren't considered countries in their own right also field teams; Gibralta, San Marino, Faroe Islands, Lichtenstein, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland... probably some others I forget which!

So it's around 40-ish% of the available teams!

[Charger]

Turkey isn't a bean bag that's for sure...but Italy has a pretty strong team this year so I did put some money down on Italy. 2-1 isn't a bad guess...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

A little easier for Italy than expected. 3-0 against a lacklustre Turkey team, it probably should have been more.

[Charger]

I was bit worried for Italy during the first half though...Turkey was horrible and still Italy couldn't get much done...but then during the second half after that own goal things started to move for Italy as I think Turkey kind of lost all the remaining energy that had...

First games are always bit tricky...

But hey I started my tournament with a win...which is nice...let's just hope it won't end here...

[Zzzptm]

Saw the own-goal there, how awful for a tournament start. Don't see Turkey making the round of 16...

[Charger]

Saw the own-goal there, how awful for a tournament start. Don't see Turkey making the round of 16...

Indeed. And that's kind of footsy basics NEVER EVER run towards your own goal during that kind of a situation because if the ball hits you it pretty much automatically goes into your own goal...a dumbass move and that player only has himself to blame for that. However I doubt they could have held on much longer against Italy even if that hadn't happened.


So today Finland opens their tournament against Denmark. Just looked that the betting odds 1.32X for Denmark 12.50X for Finland!

That's pretty cold. Denmark isn't THAT good...in fact they only have one top player Christian Eriksen and he's getting on with the years as well and I doubt he can move around in the middle field as much as he used to...granted it is possible that our top dog Teemu Pukki (Pukki = Buck (male goat) in english which I always found hilarious name for an attacker) isn't in 100% shape either.

But I am still confident that Finland would score a tie out of this one... 1-1 perhaps.


Just heard that Kevin De Bruyne is out of the Belgium team due to the head injury he sustained in the Champions League Final...that's a huge blow to the team. Although De Bruyne was horrible in the last Euro Championships that was 5 years ago and he has grown as a player and as a person a lot since those hot head times...now I think he's a vital part of the team...much more so that do nothing Lukaku. But I'm still confident Belgium will wipe the floor with Russia.

Wales Switzerland is a wild card...I'm predicting a tie. The Swiss team isn't nearly as strong as they were 5 years ago but I'm not sure about Bale either...Wales' defense seems to be the weak link so that might be their downfall...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

So on to today's fixtures

14:00 BST
Wales v Switzerland

17:00 BST
Denmark v Finland

20:00 BST
Belgium v Russia

I don't think Wales will lose to Switzerland but it really has draw written all over it. Wales don't have the team they had in 2016 that got to the Semi-finals but Gareth Bale is still there and played quite well for Spurs once he got a good run in the team. 2-1 to Wales if it's not a draw.

Denmark and Finland I don't have a handle on, as I'm not familiar with either team. I guess from what Charger said that Finland *might* get a draw against the Danes so let's go 1-1

Belgium should walk all over Russia as they are the #1 ranked team at the moment and Russia are barely in the top 40. I think this could be emabrrassing for Putin. 4-0 to Belgium but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more.

[Jack the Stripper]

Draw
Denmark
Belgium