Worst game so far. France - Ireland promises to be far better: 0-1 to Ireland after two minutes!
Cheers mate.
And yes, she can get a licence here too but the cost of insurance for young drivers is such that Iāll be giving her lifts everywhere for some time yet.
@stanton will be happy: the Mannschaft is going full speed ahead, one of the most impressive performances so far, even if Slovakia looked rather poor today.
Out:
Ireland
Slovakia
Hungary
IN:
FRANCE
GERMANY
BELGIUM
No real surprises today, the favorites did what they had to do, eliminate weaker opponents. In all three games the difference in quality was obvious. France had some trouble with the Irish, but mainly because they were one goal down (virtually) from the start. Germany and Belgium ,on the other hand, took an early lead, which made things much easier.
By the way: This French team still fails to impress me. I donāt see a possible winner in them.Yes, a couple of very good players (Griezman, Pogba, Payet), but as a team it doesnāt seem to click, and they look shaky in defense.
As said Germany was impressive today and Iām very happy that the Red Devils finally showed what they are capable off. They have top players in every position, but so far they didnāt live up to the - admittedly very high - expectations.
I expected Italy to win. Spain has still a good team, but has lost its punch, and Italy played even better than expected.
Thatās tricky, when Italy makes it beyond the group phase they are always a pretty difficult opponent. And unfortunately especially for Germany. They never, never won against Italy in a tournament. Absolutely never. But at least there were some spectacular batterings ā¦
Yeah, okay, England, as ever ā¦
They are really not longer the ultimate quarterfinalist. Maybe they should exit the national team. or football at all. The Premier League works with foreign players also, ā¦ but wait, many foreigners will not be allowed to play there in the future. Problematic ā¦
Certainly a well-deserved win for Italy. I wonder though what happens if the opponent scores first.
Yes, Spain has lost its punch. Still good players (Silva, Iniesta, PiquĆ©, a couple of others), but they seemed to lack any inspiration today. Fabregas was invisible and Iniesta wasnāt much better. Their game was slow, almost routine. Was the season too long for these players? They were involved in all kind of competitions untill the very end: the Spanish League, the Copa del Rey, the Championās League ā¦ or is it simple over for them? Compared to the golden team from 2008-2012 they lack of course several top players: Xavi, Xabi-Alonso, Puyol, Torres, Ricardo Villa ā¦
Itās going home, itās going home, itās going. Footballs going homeā¦
That was one of the most remarkable sporting events Iāve ever witnessed. Iceland are such an incredible unit of players. So happy for them.
[quote=āscherpschutter, post:67, topic:3927, full:trueā]
Certainly a well-deserved win for Italy. I wonder though what happens if the opponent scores first. [/quote]
It will probably be like Atletico against Bayern. Conte makes the Simone on the bench, well actually before and around the bench.
I think it is the preempted final.
But they have young talented players following.
And they were not bad in the 2nd half, they had enough chances to tie the score. But of course they were less compellent than in former years.
Of course we are used to inept performances from our national team at international competitions but I think this one against Iceland is the pinnacle of such things. Itās really quite comforting to know that at a time in life when it is easy to assume you have seen it all that you can still see something that stretches your experience further. Well done to Rooney, Hodgson and all for that.
I had not said a thing about the England performance last night, thought it was better give thr brits the opportunity to say something about it first. And yes, your post probably says it all. It was painful to watch, almost literally: I was afraid Rooney would break an ankle, stumbling over the ball and his own feet all the time
The only good thing about the game, was Iceland qualifying for the quarter finals. Not that their game was that spectaculair or refined, but a country with no more 325.000 inhabitants qualifying for the QF is no less than a miracle, a fairy tale they will talk about on Island Island (i think itās really called Island in their language) for the next hundred years or more
Yes, well done to them. They were very well organised and thoroughly deserved the win. And who knows?, the Euros have seen smaller nations win out in the past. (although admittedly not as small as Iceland) I remember Greece shocking everyone by going all the way with a defensive system and dogged determination not that long ago.
Itās a tradition since the glorious days when England played their first WC in 1950, and losing there 0:1 against the USA (of all countries). I read that journalists first thought it must be an error and assumed a 11:1 win was meant.
Well, England was and is always the 2nd country for which I have an emotional fondness, and which games I always watch with more than the usual interest. There was even a time, when I was a child, where I wasnāt sure which team I wanted to win when they played against Germany.
The rational reason for this is probably that they had then the more beautiful shirts, those in red with the 3 lions.
I have a special preference for that red shirt too. Maybe itās because they played in red during the World Cup 1966 and I had a red shirt for a while as a kid because of that tournament. It was my first World Cup and I have a fondness for all things - including teams and players - related to that tournament (Charlton, Moore, Banks, Seeler, Haller, Eusebio, Farkas, Bene). Every time i think about the tournament, the image of Bobby Moore appears before my mental eye. Funny thing is we - like all other people - had black & white television, so we had to image all coulors of the shirts.
Those were the days ā¦
1966 was my first world cup too. Nothing like starting up the top eh? Only one way to go from there.
The red shirt has become iconic here as a result of course and although we only saw it in black and white originally (colour TV didnāt get released here until '68 I think and most of us didnāt actually get colour TV sets until the 1970s) I do remember seeing them in all their red glory in a documentary film released just after the tournament called Goal!
True, Ćsland, to be exact. It means English āice landā, not Englsih āislandā.
Sure. We say/write in Dutch āIJslandā meaning also Ice-land. I checked: the Germans say Island, not Eisland.
Ilha
terra do gelo
For me it was the WC 70, and I think I watched the famous 3:2 in the quarter final, but Iām not exactly sure as it must have been quite late in the evening.
B/W too, of course, but I got for X-mas a wonderful big WC 70 book with lots of photos, and they were in glorious color, at least half of it. I still have it, even if it turned meanwhile into some kind of loose-leaf-collection.
I donāt think it was late at night. It was played during the weekend (quarter final), most probably on sunday - I think all quarter finals were played on one day - at 12 oāclock local time, prabably seven or eight oāclock in Germany.
Edit:
Yes, it was played at 12 oāclock local time :