After 51 matches and 108 goals, Euro 2016 is now a memory. As the complete football obsessive that I am, it has taken me a few days, as it always does after the big international tournaments, to come to terms with life without football; at least for the four weeks before the start of the […]
Sunday’s Euro 2016 Final sees France take on Portugal at the Stade de France. While the hosts have seemed to gather momentum with each game that they have played, especially in their knockout games; Portugal have won little praise thanks to their pragmatic and quite frankly rather boring approach. Both teams have significant firepower up […]
After the heartbreak of England’s penalty defeats to Germany in 1996 and Argentina in 1998, my wife wisely decided to save herself further misery and drew upon her French heritage and the strong Franco-Gooner connections and became a fully-fledged supporter of Les Bleus. As an Arsenal fan myself, and having lived in Marseille, I can […]
Wales’ progression to the semi-final of Euro 2016 has had a slightly surreal feeling to it; as other, more highly rated teams were sent home, Chris Coleman’s men just kept doing what they do and found themselves facing Portugal, who had looked pretty underwhelming through the tournament thus far. However just as us football romantics […]
Due to my own five-a-side football commitments I only got home in time to watch the last five minutes and then extra time and penalties of the Poland –Portugal match. After an early goal which saw Lewandowski finally get his name on the scoresheet, by all accounts the match was a bit lacking in goalmouth […]
Other than Portugal sneaking a win late in extra time against Croatia, who couldn’t replicate their performance in defeating Spain in the Group, and the two surprising results on Monday, the Round of 16 went largely to form. We now have the four quarter final match-ups over the next four days; here are some thoughts […]
Just as they had done against Belgium in their opening game, Italy implemented their tactical system perfectly and completely stifled Spain in the first half of the highly anticipated Round of 16 clash in Paris. The incessant pressing and near perfect defensive organisation meant that Spain couldn’t find any space to play through them and […]
With the start of the knockout phases and three matches per day, the intensity of the tournament went up a notch or two over the weekend, but my wife and I decided that the only way to spend the weekend was by watching all six games. First up was Poland and Switzerland, the game started […]
Switzerland – Poland – looks to be fairly evenly matched on paper, extra time is a distinct possibility and possibly penalties. Poland on penalties for me. Wales – Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland may well prefer playing a British side but equally the Wales defence will be prepared and used to their threat at set-pieces, […]
With the Group Stage now concluded, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the tournament so far: Team of the Group Stage For me the stand out team so far has been Croatia, who would have claimed maximum points if they hadn’t let their concentration drop after the suspension of their game […]
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