3 July 2016
FRANCE 5 (Giroud 12, Pogba 19, Payet 42, Griezmann 45, Giroud 59)
ICELAND 2 (Sigthorsson 56, Bjarnason 84)
France whipped Iceland like dogs, as many expected, and it only took 12 minutes to break down their defence. Matuidi played a one-two with Payet and hit a longball down the left, Giroud caught the ball on the half volley, slamming a left foot shot into the bottom corner. Very good finish. Pogba headed in Griezmann's corner (why is he taking the corners? Because he's short). Incredibly it was Pogba's first goal for France since October 2014. The French were loading in crosses and high balls to Giroud, who was proving unplayable. Two players went up with him as he jumped for a cross, with his back to play Griezmann touched the ball to Payet and from the edge of the D he fired past Halldorsson. This was proving to be very, very easy.
Giroud shredded the Iceland defence with a glorious back heel in the centre circle, Griezmann blew past his marker and lobbed over Halldorsson as he came off his line. Wonderful goal. If France have one weakness it's in defence, their full backs are especially poor. Evra failed to get tight on Sigurdsson and Sigthorsson poked in his low cross at the near post. Man of the match (!) Giroud got above Ingasson and goalkeeper Halldorsson to head in a Payet free kick. Lloris made a brilliant point blank save to deny substitute Ingason as the French proved just as inept at defending crosses and to compound the point their defence ball watched as Skulason's cross flew into the box and Bjarnason's header flew into the bottom corner.
Gomez went off injured against Italy and Germany were getting a lot of joy out of his hold up play. If he doesn't play that will be a serious blow. France should beat Germany to reach the final. They're bigger, faster, stronger, their best players are on form whereas no one in particular has excelled for the Germans but they've got good dead ball delivery and France are useless at defending crosses.
Attendance : 76,833
Assists : Matuidi, Griezmann (ck), Griezmann, Giroud, Sigurdsson, Payet (fk), Skulason
2 July 2016
GERMANY 1 (Ozil 65)
ITALY 1 (Bonucci 78 Pen)
Low ditched his 4-2-3-1 formation and matched up Italy with Conte's three man defence, going to a 3-4-2-1 formation. The result was a tactical stalemate, which is carny for crap match. Cripple Khedira went off for Schweinsteiger after just 16 minutes, just retire already you pathetic excuse for an athlete. The game came to life, briefly, in the last two minutes of the half. Hector pulled back a centre for Kroos, his wild shot cannoned off Kimmich and fell to Muller at the back post but his awful first time shot was easily saved. The Bonucci-Giaccherini double act produced Italy's first real chance. Giaccherini's first touch was poor but he managed to keep the ball in play and fire a centre across the goal-line, the ball broke to Sturaro but his shot was deflected wide by Boateng.
Gomez playing a great ball inside Florenzi, Hector's centre clipped off Bonucci and Ozil slammed the rebound past Buffon. Gomez beat Italy's offside trap, bounced the ball off his chest and attempted a back heel volley but Chiellini got there first, and would have scored an own goal but for a brilliant one handed save from Buffon. Boateng conceded the penalty with a bonehead handball. Bonucci, who apparently has never taken a penalty outside of a shoot-out, stepped up to score.
Nothing happened in extra time.
Penalty Shoot-Out
Insigne - Bottom right.
Kroos - Inside left.
Zaza - One of the all time worst penalties. He stuttered and stuttered and stuttered then smashed the ball high into the stands.
Muller - Tamely struck right, easily saved by Buffon.
Barzagli - Top right.
Ozil - Thrashed against the right post and out.
Pelle - Motions to Neuer that he's going to do a Panenka, drags wide of the left post. Idiot.
Draxler - Smashed into the bottom right.
Bonucci - Bottom left, brilliantly saved.
Schweinsteiger -High, high into the stands. Awful.
Giaccherini - Top right. Made it look easy.
Hummels - Smashed right, Buffon gets a hand but not strong enough to save.
Parolo - Top right.
Kimmich - Bottom left, Buffon dives the right way.
De Sciglio - Smashed in off the underside of the crossbar.
Boateng - Left, Buffon dives the right way, again, doesn't get close to the ball.
Darmian - Awful penalty, right of centre, easily saved.
Hector - Bottom right, Buffon goes the right way, the ball goes under him. Lucky.
Germany finally beat Italy at a majors, for the first time in 54 years and 8 tournaments. Conte devised a strategy that was successful against teams that weren't as disciplined. Germans are disciplined. Germany didn't risk much either, Low set out to stop Italy playing and they succeeded.
Italy punched above their weight. It's not a good Italy side, one that wouldn't need to run so much if they had a great DM (Marchisio was a big loss). It's not a brilliant German side either, they're going through the same sort of thing that happened to Spain post 2008, they struggle to produce sparking football and against good sides their matches are now more of a war of attrition.
Conte claims, rightfully, that this Italy said have raised the status of Italian football but Italy will be very different going forward under veteran Giampiero Ventura because he doesn't play Conte football. He's also in something of a win-win situation as little will be expected of him and the pressure on the side has been lifted after a good tournament, besides, Ancelotti and Allegri aren't available.
Ventura has never won anything, never coached a team capable of challenging for honours and has been consistently sacked. Seemingly a poor choice then to take over but he's been selected on the back of his excellent work over the past 5 years at Torino. He's good with youngsters - it's under him Immobile formed an explosive partnership with Cerci and under him that Darmian developed into an international class full back. He plays a counter attacking style, he loves pace. Verratti (23) will be back after injury, El Shaarawy (23), Insigne (25), Immobile (26) and Bernardeschi (22), who were all part of the squad, will almost certainly get more playing time. New faces will include Milan's left wing wizard Bonaventura (26) and Berardi (21), Italian football's outstanding talent who, in addition to having the technical qualities associated with classic Italian forwards, runs like a dog, has pace to burn, can play anywhere in attack and is tall, standing 6ft 1".
Ventura's toughest decisions will be whether to look at the World Cup as the last chance of veterans like Buffon and Barzagli, who should do the smart thing and retire or whether to look at the long-term and build the team around Berardi, put Perrin in goal and get Romagnoli (21) in defence. Italy have a realistic chance of winning Euro 2020. With an old goalkeeper that only makes saves you expect a good goalkeeper to make and a (then) 37 year old defender (Barzagli), they won't do much of anything at the World Cup.
Attendance : 38,764
Assists : n/a, n/a
1 July 2016
WALES 3 (Williams 30, Robson-Kanu 55, Vokes 85)
BELGIUM 1 (Nainggolan 13)
Belgium started like a side ranked #2 in the World playing against minnows. There was an almighty scramble inside seven minutes. De Bruyne helped on Hazard's pass to Lukaku, who recovered from a predictably awful first touch to lay on a chance for Carrasco, Hennessey dived at his feet to save, Meunier's follow-up was hacked off the line by Chester and Davies threw himself at Hazard's shot to send the ball over the crossbar. From the resulting corner Lukaku, unmarked at the back post, missed the ball. Mental midget. Witsel and Nainggolan passed the ball between each other 25 yards from goal before playing to Hazard, the Welsh defence suddenly dropped deep, presumably fearing a run from the Chelsea forward, Hazard rolled the ball back to Nainggolan and he struck a violent right foot shot which flew into the top left corner. Wonderful strike, clocked at around 67mph. Bale and Ramsey combined down the right before pulling back a centre for Taylor, brilliantly saved by Courtois. Williams lost Lukaku's younger, and even more hopeless, brother to head in the equaliser.
The original Lukaku headed wide from six yards out and Hazard flashed a shot wide of the right post. Bale hit a longball upto Ramsey and he crossed to the isolated Robson-Kanu. With his back to goal and Meunier and Fellaini bearing down on him, he juggled the ball, did a Cruyff turn then smashed the ball into the bottom left corner. Absolutely ridiculous! The Welsh were struggling with the much larger Belgians but fortunately for them, the chances came and went, Fellaini was next to waste a great cross, heading wide just yards from goal. Nainggolan dived in vain to win a penalty, so far we haven't had any historically bad decisions by referees. Vokes made them pay with a tremendous flick header. He ran across the six yard box and beat Alderweireld to Gunter's cross, emphatically heading into the bottom left corner.
One of the great footballing shocks in Euros history. Wales played as you would expect a British side to play, they got the ball to the flanks and fired in crosses, two of the goals coming from headers. It's not rocket science, play to your strengths. A damming indictment of everything associated with the England national team and of course to Wilmots. Never before have such a talented team been coached by someone so truly incompetent. He has to go. This team should be getting to the semi-finals of every tournament they enter, even taking into account their injuries in defence. They do need a better forward than mental midget Lukaku. With Origi and Batshuayi it's not as if they don't have alternatives but regardless, with such a loaded midfield they can probably get away with having a crap frontman.
Ramsey picked up a yellow card for handball which means he's out of the semi-final against Portugal. Bale will need to step-up, again. Given he's got a chance to upstage Ronaldo, he won't need extra motivation. As for Ronaldo, he's going up against the type of defenders he laid waste to in the EPL. He won't get a better chance to fill his boots and get out of his funk, the problem of course is that there's nothing from his performances at Euro 2004, World Cup 2006, Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 to suggest he's going to deliver.
Attendance : 45,936
Assists : Hazard, Ramsey (ck), Ramsey, Gunter
30 June 2016
POLAND 1 (Lewandowski 2)
PORTUGAL 1 (Sanches 33)
Piszczek swung a crossfield pass out wide to the right flank, midget Soares misjudged the bounce, Grosicki ran towards the box, pulled back a centre and Lewandowski shinned a right foot shot past Rui Patricio. The Poles got away with murder when Pazdan shoved over Ronaldo. Sanches, the Portuguese Pogba passed into Nani as he cut in from the right, failure to trap the return pass on his right foot, which forced him left, he skipped Maczynski's wild sliding tackle and let rip with a shot that flew in off Krychowiak.
After an entertaining first half both teams risked little in the second. For the second time in this tournament Ronaldo kicked free air, Moutinho found him with a great ball over the top but having lost Kapustka he also lost the ball. Am embarrassing miss. Even worse was to follow in extra time. Eliseu whipped in a superb left wing cross and he stumbled over the ball.
Portugal win 5-3 on penalties.
PENALTY SHOOT-OUT
Ronaldo - Walloped into the bottom left.
Lewandowski - Rolled right.
Sanches - Ba-boom. Smashed into the top left corner.
Milik - Bottom left.
Moutinho - Bottom left, again.
Glik - Bottom left. I think there's a pattern.
Nani - Top right.
Blaszczykowski -Bottom right, saved. Should have went left.
Quaresma - High into the top left.
Messi missed the first in the shoot-out against Chile so of course Ronaldo had to get one over on him and score. While the Portuguese players stood together in a huddle, he stood yards away to one side. He's such a twat but Portugal need him more than he needs them. I'm glad Portugal won. The Poles are so unbearably limited. They only played for one half against the Swiss and were equally cautious here.
Attendance : 62,940
Assists : Grosicki, Nani
Quarter-Finals
9. Poland vs Portugal. Thursday June 30. 20.00
10. Wales vs Belgium. Friday July 1. 20.00
11. Germany vs Italy. Saturday July 2. 20.00
12. France vs Iceland. Sunday July 3. 20.00
Semi-Finals
Portugal vs Wales
Winner of 11 vs Winner of 12