0 goals conceded yet by Germany who now look a proper team with a centre forward (Gomez) and a bit of pace and directness out wide (Draxler) Favourites now, surely?
One day is expected. Two is a bit off, but about the limit. Three is taking the piss, in my opinion. It's especially dodgy when the tournament's designed that way and the team that benefits is the hosts. France weren't drawn into Group A. They were assigned it before the draw. They were the likely winners of the group and that meant that they'd face a third place team that played at least two days after them. That doesn't seem like balanced organisation, to me.
I think it makes perfect sense that 3rd placed teams should have the odds stacked against them. It's the only part of this bizarre system that I can understand.
The problem with that is that you're favouring other sides. That's on top of the seeding in qualifying groups, then the groups themselves and then the fixtures. Seems a bit much, to me.
Is Hazard colour-blind ?? I am wondering whether to him, the Hungary kit looks like the Spurs home kit.
Hungary have been good and a great surprise package for the tournament, and 4 feels harsh. But Belgium have executed very well tonight. On the basis of that performance they look to be contenders.
I thought Hungary looked very bright and were only a striker or two away from being a really good team. They played football and I always have time for teams that do that.
Sterling back tonight? I should be surprised but nothing surprises me about Hodgson. Even if Sterling performs well, and for goodness sake he should do given the opposition, it doesn't make it the right decision. He did nothing to get into the squad and in two performances showed why he shouldn't be anywhere near the team. But Hodgson again shows that loyalty and stubbornness are the same thing. Apparently Sterling has been good in training (although he can't replicate it in the match) so should obviously play, which is about the same logic when he states players shouldn't be picked on form. So Sterling plays well tonight (finally) so plays as well against France and, well, let's guess how that turns out. Oh, and I was forgetting that Iceland are probably going to defend deep so that negates Sterling's pace and chance to get behind the defence.
We'd be better off with Tom Daly. At least he could win us a penalty. All we have to do is to stumble across any sort of win tonight (against a country with a population lower than all my cousins) and fail to be embarrassing against France and Roy gets 2 more years - this ****ing country!
They don't get the progression in these tournaments that their football deserves. Often the only reward you get from doing the right thing is that you did the right thing (as it is in most of life) .
I thought Sterling tanked after the results on Friday? What does it mean ''good in training'' ? Did he behave himself? did he kick the ball in the right direction, passed it to someone else or maybe he ran fast?
Bugger, that's another few million quid Marseilles are going to bung onto Batshuayi's fee... What gets me about reports for Belgium/Hungary is that it's another obvious example of Narrative, as most match reports seem to have just looked at the scoreline and decided it was one-way traffic for ninety minutes. It wasn't, as anyone who was watching the match would know, as for a good chunk of the second half Hungary looked far more likely to score than Belgium were. On the subject of not having a clue what they're talking about for the sake of fitting a Narrative, at half time Thierry Henry spoke about Spain/Croatia saying Spain were 1-0 up at half time before Croatia rallied in the second half. That's simply untrue, as Croatia equalized in the first half. It's genuinely not that hard to look these things up.
