European Championship predictions?
 

Will Spain become the first to win 3 major titles on the bounce?
Are England complete no-hopers?
Russia?
Denmark?
What do we reckon?

I'm Dutch and very dissapointed in the way the Dutch play footbal since 2,5 years (I think I was the only Dutchmen to cheer when Spain made the late goal against our team in the Wold Cup final.

So I was pleased with Denmark's win today :twisted:

My prediction: Germany vs Spain (and I give the German's a light advantage to win)

How can you say that when Holland won like 40 matches in a row 2008-2010 right up to their final at the world championship? :?

They were dirty in the final I agree and probably deserved to lose but a lot of Dutch supporters seem to have this "We suck" approach. It's a bit silly I think considering they played WAYyy better than Denmark. Their finishing sucked or was simply unlucky. Bommel should have been taken out. Kuyt should have started but other than that it was just unlucky in my opinion. A penalty could have made all the difference. Germany weren't exactly on fire, so we will see what happens Wednesday.

That Spanish goal was a result from a goal kick which should have been a corner btw. I was there and saw it. ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqDEjQy-mxI


I predict Russia may win it but hope for The Netherlands.

I'm backing Russia!

Not a bad ticket to have!

My winners - England. "This time, more than any other time...."

I'm not sure but i'm sure loving all the football!

I think Germany have a real chance of winning as they have such a good team again now, but obviously Spain will be the one to watch. I also think despite the shock loss yesterday Holland still have a chance as they score a lot of goals, yesterday was just an off day, every team has them.

I'd back Russia to go far in the tournemount as they play great attacking football, probably semis for them.

And England? I just don't know I really don't. Anything could happen this year with us. For the first time since I can remember we're an unknown quantity. New manager, a vastly different team due to injuries, a different playing style, no one knows what will happen. The thing you can say is that straight away Roy has got them playing his way, tight, compact, hard to beat, like Greece when they won it in 2004. I suspect that with the players we have at our disposal we will soak up the pressure and hit teams on the break as we have some VERY fast players. This is no bad thing as I think we have to accept we just don't have the players any more to play attacking possession football.

Because I prefer to enjoy my matches.

The Dutch team played 20 minutes of "Dutch football" at the 2010 WC (The match against Brasil). I still believe that the Dutch should play attractive offensive football (like the Spanish team has done for over two years now, or like former Dutch squads did before the Bert van Marwijk era). v Marwijk doesn't prefer offensive football and one of the obvious results is that he doesn't dare to let van Persie play in a free role behind Huntelaar (top scorers in Germany and England) Instead he prefers to play with two defensive midfielders and v. Persie as the striker, which v. Persie is not.

Result we have a balanced midfield but hardly any power upfront because our striker is playing as a half midfielder himself. If you are the coach of a team with two of the best scoring players in the World but you are affraid to use them because you prefer to look to your defence then you don't get the Dutch philosiphy. And you don't get enjoyable matches,

40years later people still talk about the 1974 Orange squad that also lost the final (Maradonna called it the best football team ever). Nobody will remember the 2010 team for their excellent play (maybe for the hard fouls, though) and that's a major difference for me

Personally I prefer to see the Dutch lose 3-5 in an entertaining match rather than a 1-0 victory in a 'boring to hell' game. And this Dutch team has had too many boring as hell games to be a fan.

For me result doesn't mean everything :cool:

This year I cheer the German squad because they almost play like the Dutch team used to do. As a football fan I enjoy the Spain and German kind of games the most. Win or lose :cool:

Greece 120 billion Euros narrow winners over Spain 119 Billion Euros.:-)

I thought Germany sucked last night. I was cheering for Portugal last 20 minutes, THAT was passionate football. :shock:

:twisted: There are but three sports worthy of a moments consideration.

Wine, women, and song.

Or, my own version, beer, Jo, and Loaf :mrgreen:

As for football, i'll be avoiding it like the plague.

Did you see that Ronaldo changed his hairstyle during half time? What a joke.

But I agree. Germany didn't play well and Spain seem to make the Dutch mistake by putting in a whole bunch of defenders without a target man.

Well i'd like to say that I thought England did really well last night against France and i'm really encouraged by the start we've made.

Considoring we're missing players, we've just got a new manager, we were playing in hot temperatures that we never do well in, and we were playing a team technically superior and who haven't lost in over two years, we did bloody brilliant and we caused the french side a lot of problems ourselves.

We could even have won the game if it wasn't for the dirty french tactics and poor officials. Every time we had a chance to break a french player would commit a cynical foul so they could get back into position, and they never even got booked for it! They fouled us loads of other times as well and we didn't even get free kicks for hardly any of them.

Anyway I think it's a really good start by us.

^^I enjoyed the match.

80 minutes of "THE REFEREE'S A W*****!"

Oh England fans.

I predict 4-0 to the Three Lions tonight.

Why? Are they playing the Dutch?

Got to admit I had Russia as my outsiders to win, will say that a Germany Spain final would be fair. Can't see us getting further than the qtr finals even with the blessed return of our saviour "Red Card Rooney" (that's sarcasm just in case anyone was fooled)

Game so far:

http://i.imgur.com/QPjhw.gif

Oh well, hopefully the second half may prove better for England.

After much consideration and thought, I really do feel that goal line technology would ruin the flow of the game.

Lmao!

I have to say that was Englands poorest showing so far at the tournemount. They looked very flat and tried first half and gave the ball away constantly, didn't close down etc. Second half was a lot better but still not brilliant. I thought Rooney was very poor on his comeback, gave the ball away a lot. Wellbeck non existent. Milner and Ashley Young were very poor on the wings.

But do you know what, for all that criticism this England team is showing me something I have NEVER seen before. For the first time EVER they are playing as a TEAM! They are working their socks off, throwing themselves in front of every ball, looking very good at the back. They're showing true English grit and determination. And the thing is that even when you're not playing well going forward, if you're keeping things tight at the back you've always got a chance.

I think we have a chance against Italy, I would say they are huge favourites but theirs always a chance. I think Roy must make some changes though.

How you play makes no difference, it's results which count. Holland were pretty damn good I thought against Denmark, yet they lost. Spain sucked horses' ass in the last game I saw of them yet keep going through regardless. It'd be nice if Spain or Germany did NOT win it. If either of them do I feel a lot of it is just down to luck. Some of the minor teams have shown more form and willingness and heart in my opinion.

You're right to some degree. How you play does have some effect as if you can't tackle or head or show tactical intelligence and discipline you've got no chance, especially if there are things you can't do that well like pass and dribble.

Well, I guess my friend at Titan Airways needs to send the flightplan off, and Aircraft to Krakow to bring the England team home :P

I'm happy with the team. Italy deserved to win and should have won in normal time. We played well first half but I just thought second half and extra time we looked very tired. The players ran themselves into the ground and put every effort in so we have to be pleased with them. At the end of the day if you can say you've worked as hard as you can but you lose you just have to hold your hands up and say fair enough.

Yep, no complaints. Italy deserved it.
As painful as it is to say it, I thought Terry was outstanding throughout the tournament.

Lol i know it is painful isn't it. Same with Ashley Cole. We hated them but we were cheering them on.

We'd be shouting at the tele, go on knobhead! Lol

Well, best team won it, got to say I was really impressed with Spain's performance, showed everyone how it should be played.

Yeah, shame everyone cant play that way. Do you think our players will ever learn to play like that?

Sometimes it's just a case of a good group of players coming together at the right time, e.g Windies cricket 80's, Aussies cricket 90's/00's, Liverpool football 70's/80's, Brentford....er?

Seriously?

Spain is on top of the World. If you are able to win 3 major tournaments in a row with a record of clean sheets... that can't be luck. Sure they had one or two games that could have gone the other way... IN 6 YEARS!

LOL Oranje would love to be half as good as Spain. If even for one match :twisted:

The only good thing for the Dutch, out of this Euro 2012 fiasco is the leave of Bert v Marwijk. A man who, almost singlehandedly killed the Dutch flair of the national team. Under his command we never ever impressed and we never outclassed another A-grade oponents.

Yes we beat Brazil in the semi's after we should have been behind 3-0 after 45 minutes (remember the not-given penalty in the first half?)

Since the 2010 finals The Dutch played against the following A-teams - Teams to qualify for latest WC/EC (and guess how many we won)

Sweden (2x)
Germany (2x)
England
Brazil
Uruguay
Denmark
Portugal

So how many did we win out of those 9 "top" matches?

2:
Sweden in 2010 (lost to them later in 2011)
England (but to be fair, everybody beats England)

Beside that we also got beat by
Australia (!)
Bulgaria
Bayern Munchen (after they lost the C'League final and with a Dutch team on full strength)


From the last 6 matches (Bayern match not included) the Dutch lost 4. Only wins are against Nothern Ireland and Slowakia.

From the last 10 games (again without the Bayern game) the Dutch only won 3 games!

All of this wouldn't have been too bad if at least we played 'the Dutch way'. But this tournament ' Oranje' had 30 good minutes against Denmark, 15 minutes against Germany and 20 good minutes against Portugal. WOW now that's a top team :roll:

With these facts it's hard to cheer for the Dutch and call Spain lucky ;)

Actually we didn't lose a game this tournemount, haven't lose in 6 games so far under hodgson.

See, even the louzy English are better than us


:twisted: *Rob, I was being sarcastic ;)

I predict that Spain will win

*edit why did this take 3 weeks between clicking post and it appearing online?

We have won the cup!!! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

now...back to work ;)

dude, don't wanna burst your bubble, but losing on penalties is still losing...

And just how hard was the bookie laughing at you?:D

England did as well as I thought they would, no surprises there. Very surprised at your lot though, hell of a drop from a World Cup final to out in the group stage, in your defence it was a tough group but did think you'd do better than you did.

England are up to 4th in the latest FIFA rankings :shock:

I don't really see it that way. Penalty shootouts are just a lottery to decide a game that's already ended as a draw. If you ask any manager, and indeed i've heard many many managers say it, going out on penalties doesn't mean you've lost in the traditional sense.

Would you be saying that if you'd won?
Truth is, you didn't win. You went out. As in lost. Whether or not you see it that way is moot.
Now I'm just waiting for someone to mention that Wales weren't even in it to begin with lol

My work here is done :))

what??? were Wales not in it??

Actually according to FIFA and UEFA statistic rules, the game is a draw. Penalties decide who advances through but in the records there are no winners or losers because the score after 120 minutes is definitive ;)