Euro Footsy Championships!

[Zzzptm]

Italy and Switzerland win.

And now I've doomed them both!

[Charger]

And now we saw the first real gross Ref error of the whole tournament.

Totally useless straight red there for Wales. It was an obvious foul and and obvious Yellow but under no circumstances was it worth a Red card...absolutely not.

And I do imagine there will be some blowback and I doubt we'll see this ref again in this tournament...nor the next.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

In the end the sending off didn't matter. Wales held on to only lose 1-0, which was enough to secure 2nd spot in the group as Switzerland needed to make up 4 goals... they managed 2. I've not seen any of their match with Turkey, but it looks like the Swiss had a good game.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Today's Games

Early Games:
North Macedonia v Netherlands. The Dutch will win this easily by at least 3 (possibly more goals) to 0!
Ukraine v Austria: Both need a point so I thhink a draw could be a good call. If it's not 1-1 I think Ukraine will get the winner.

Later Games
Finland v Belgium. It would be nice if Finland could get a point. But realistically I just hope they don't lose too heavily, as goal difference will determine final positions and Finland could still be 4th... which would be a shame. 2-0 to Belgium,
Russia v Denmark. If Denmark win they are quite likely to finish second if Finland lose! I think Denmark will win, I think it will be by 2-0

[Zzzptm]

Netherlands, Ukraine, Belgium, and Denmark are my winner picks today, glad my curse didn't happen yesterday.

[Charger]

It is interesting to see how much Netherlands and Belgium will recycle players for these non important matches...

Macedonia vs Netherlands...This is rather insignificent game for the Dutch...they probably will change their line up somewhat...and that might show in the result. I do think they will win but doubt they'll be playing 100% so it won't be a massacre.

Ukraine vs Austria...now this is actually an interesting match as they both are looking for a win. I'm putting my money on Ukraine on this one.

Finland vs Belgium. Lukaku atleast isn't playing on this match but De Bruyne is...and Martinez did say that they won't be doing a whole b-crew for this match so this might be a bit of a slaughter. But then again Belgium doesn't need a win...they've won the group regadless. Finland needs a tie to move on...that won't happen. But to a country this small and this lacking in footsy culture just getting in was a win in itself.

Russia vs Denmark. Quite shockingly Denmark is still at zero points...so they need a win. Tie is all Russia needs to advance. So they will probably be playing tight defence...so it's up to Denmark to try to break the defence...can they? That is the question...I believe they will...

[Zzzptm]

Hey... if Russia gets the tie with Denmark, then Finland's in the running for the Round of 16... or am I missing something? I do see Croatia/Scotland each with 1 point, and Spain can still flub it and stand on 2 points...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

It depends how many teams in third place have a better record than Finland. 3 points can be enough to get through -- Portugal proved that in 2016 -- but also two third place teams will go out, and 4th place has no chance regardless of points! Russia, Finland and Denmark could all finish on 3 points 1 in 2nd, 1 in 3rd and 1 in 4th!

[Charger]

The goal difference counts...

And I am sure Belgium will score more than 2 goals so that's the end right there.



Ukraine was surprisingly weak...or should I say Austria was surprisingly good during the first half.

Netherlands seemed to have scored one already.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I was watching the Netherlands game rather than the Ukraine/Austria one, and their goal came against the run of play as North Macedonia had already had a goal cancelled out by a marginal offside and also hit the post.

EDIT: Looks like the Dutch have now got the measure of North Macedonia, now 3-0 up with half an hour to go.

[Charger]

Yeah 3-0 for the Dutch I see...

Austria took the better of the very very lackluster Ukraine. but only by 1 goal so that also screams trouble for Finland.

[Charger]

Okay...looks almost like Belgium isn't even trying...very odd indeed...but ofcourse they are content with the result in the group and they don't want to risk injuries or such...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Finland have defended quite well, and Belgium have made 8 changes so only Lukaku and De Bruyne (with his facial injuries) are world class... and Denmark are beating Russia... but it's only half-time, let's not get ahead of ourselves!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Finland defended well but in the end Belgium were just too strong getting late goals to win 2-0. But Finland finish 3rd in the group after Denmark thrashed Russia 4-1 and finished second! They "could" get through with 3 points but I'm thinking it will be unlikely sadly.

[Charger]

Finland did manage to keep the zero surprisingly long...but yeah there wasn't a doubt in my mind that this would happen.

No Finland has no chance of advancing and that's okay...nobody really expected that either. But all in all we played quite well considering this was our first ever tournament.

Maybe next time we can actually get a "real" win under our belt as well.