Although BOTH teams had *excellent* scoring chances in the last stages of the game, the Italy - Spain game ends up as a 1-1 tie!

Littlefish and Akselborg, what did you think of this game?


Chess Fan

That was a good game, both entertaining and fascinating tactically. Spain played without a striker (until Torres came on) and still looked dangerous with their almost insanely fluid attack. Italy was mostly dangerous on the counter, but not as ultra-defensive as many of Spain's opponents, which made for quite an open game. In spite of "only" drawing I think Spain confirmed themselves as tournament favourites (also because Germany didn't impress yesterday), and Italy could also go far. Both teams should be content with the result as they should have good chances of beating the other opponents in their group, Croatia and Ireland.

Euro 2012. France, Germany and Spain look the strongest so far IMO, closely followed by Russia and Portugal. Sweden out yesterday. Ibrahimovic showed his class, but the rest of the team "ordinary workmen", and poor defending from crosses and corners.

The third and final group matches starts today. Greece vs. Russia. If Greece scores first, they may defend well and upset the faves Russia. Poland vs Czech Rep. Poland the home team, but Czech perhaps the stronger team and advances with a draw - open.

I think there are no big surprises in the performances of the teams so far. Behind Spain and Germany France should be the third favourite - they seemed a bit sedate against England, but excellent against Ukraine. Italy looks slightly inconsistent with a dominant first and a weaker second half against Croatia. England is as expected, well organized, but without flair, although it may become better when Rooney returns from his suspension. The Netherlands are the main disappointment, although they can still advance, and it wasn't completely surprising that their rather static way of playing could be exposed.

Can't really see any of the "smaller" teams winning the tournament. Portugal looked very good defensively against Germany, Russia looks good when they have space to counterattack, but I didn't find either of them entirely convincing. Croatia was nice to watch with their ambitious play, although they may end up behind Spain and Italy.

Overall this is a very good tournament, almost all games are interesting. A goal average of 2.88 so far must be one of the highest in recent big tournaments. Even most of the underdogs aren't especially defensive, so the fear that teams would try to "do a Chelsea" didn't come true.

Not completely unexpected that the Netherlands are out, but a pretty weird finish in group A with Russia and Poland out, Greece and the Czech Republic advancing. The big question now is, will Germany-Greece in the quarterfinals turn out as in the Monty Python sketch?

England somehow stumbles to first place in their group, thus avoiding Spain in the quarterfinals. Apparently another lacklustre performance from France against Sweden, although I haven't seen the game. Spain-France and England-Italy should be interesting, with Spain and Italy slight favourites.

Spain is actually becoming a bit frustrating to watch - there's a sense that they could be much more spectacular, but they seem happy to play it safe by passing their opponents to death and grinding out 1-0 wins. Maybe that's the correct approach to win tournaments, though.

Well, I have NOT been watching this tournament recently; but, I saw on the news a replay where a goal was scored against England that was disallowed by the referee; but, the replay showed that the ball had *clearly* crossed the goal line before the England defender booted the ball away.

Littlefish, do you remember this, and, if you do, what opponent of England was this against?


Chess Fan

It was in the last group game against Ukraine, which England won 1-0. But it seems like there was an offside in the Ukrainian attack before the disallowed goal, so play should have been stopped before the shot. In this case, two referee mistakes probably cancelled each other out. Anyway Ukraine needed to score two goals to advance, which never looked likely. It does seem like the two additional referees behind the goal line are pretty much useless. Don't know why football is so reluctant to allow the referees video reviews.

Three very one-sided quarterfinals, but an exciting fourth one. England with a decent performance, but Italy were dominant for most of the game and clearly deserved to go through after a penalty shootout (what is it with England and penalties?). Pirlo was brilliant, the old guy can still play! Strange that England barely closed him down, though.

So, Spain did overcome Portugal on penalties. Ronaldo had his chances, but it wasen't to be. Quite a few spectators did find Spain's continued passing frustratig to watch, as you mentioned earlier Littlefish, some booing from the crowd. I found it more frustrating that they did not pass as well as usually, with Portugal defending well.

Yes, video reviews in big championships is probably just a matter of time. And yes, England not marking Pirlo seemed like a bad idea during the game, but they made it to the penalties.

Italy vs. Germany today. I find the German game both attractive and efficient, and they have more rest days. Probably Spain and Germany in the final IMO.