wingman wrote:

Spain really needed to nationalize Messi at 13. Such an incredible midfield but nary an attacker in sight to sink the knife when it matters most. I do like all those youngsters getting time in a big tourney. Maybe by next WC they'll be seasoned enough to challenge for the semis.

Morata up front will hold Spain back. He's been misfiring in front of goal and today vs. Sweden was no different. Yet another game of Spanish dominance in play that doesn't translate into an easy win (or a win at all).

Dutchy wrote:

scbriml wrote:

B777LRF wrote:

The world feed is controlled by UEFA, but it's up to each broadcaster when to cut that feed. Danish TV cut the feed the moment CPR was administered and switched to a helicopter feed of the stadium. They didn't resume broadcasting the world feed until the last moments when Christian was taken away on a stretcher, shielded by blankets and a Finnish flag.

Some may have noticed that the Danish captain, Simon Kjær, was substituted half-way through the second half. Not because of an injury, he simply couldn't continue playing after what happened to his best friend. Simon was also the first guy on the spot, having sprinted 2/3rds of a field length, checking his airways and making sure he was breathing. Once the medical staff was on site, he organised the ring of players who shielded Christian from view, and then went to the side of the pitch to comfort Christian's girl friend. He behaved like a true friend and a true captain, a "real man" who thought of others first and assumed his duties as a captain with dignity, conviction and strength.

We lost the match, but we won a life. And that's all that really matters.

The Danish team deserves full credit for even playing the rest of the game. Nobody would fault them if they'd decided to simple forfeit the game (although I suspect UEFA would not be happy about that).

I feel that the UEFA should have protected the Danish team and just cancel the game. Sure it would rave havoc in the schedule, but that would have been the humane thing to do.

Also the Finnish team was upset what happened. Personally I and most Finns wanted the game end at 40 minutes and both teams would have got 1 point. But that was not available by the rules and the UEFA person made the right choise by the rules. No matter what we think, rules are rules whether we like it or not.

Today's games:

Hungary 0 - 3 Portugal
A rather dour Hungary side was eventually overwhelmed by Portugal with Ronaldo scoring a record-breaking goal.

Germany 0 - 1 France
Not the epic I was hoping for, but probably too early in the tournament. France looked very good in brief spells, but gave the ball away a lot. However, that suggests to me they have room for improvements and seem to be justifying their status as favourites. Germany generally huffed and puffed but really didn't create very much.

That's the end of the first round of matches, round two starts tomorrow with Finland vs Russia, Turkey vs Wales and Italy vs Switzerland.

MrHMSH wrote:

Glad that Eriksen seems to be OK, wasn't a good call to force them to play, but UEFA aren't known for valuing players' wellbeing.
.

They weren'y forced, UEFA was all for playing at a later date. ....the players (of both sides) themselves requested to continue that evening.

ChrisKen wrote:

MrHMSH wrote:

Glad that Eriksen seems to be OK, wasn't a good call to force them to play, but UEFA aren't known for valuing players' wellbeing.
.

They weren'y forced, UEFA was all for playing at a later date. ....the players (of both sides) themselves requested to continue that evening.

My understanding is they were offered two options - continue that evening or continue at 12:00 the next day. Personally, I would have supported Denmark if they'd told UEFA to stick their game, even if it meant forfeiting it 0-3. I read that the Finnish team said they would go with whatever Denmark decided, but again Denmark didn't have much choice.

ChrisKen wrote:

MrHMSH wrote:

Glad that Eriksen seems to be OK, wasn't a good call to force them to play, but UEFA aren't known for valuing players' wellbeing.
.

They weren'y forced, UEFA was all for playing at a later date. ....the players (of both sides) themselves requested to continue that evening.

Options of the next day or immediately is essentially forcing them to when they didn't really want to, the players didn't really request to continue, they just chose the least bad out of 3. It's a little lacking in empathy and respect to give them little choice and the threat of a forfeit. .

MrHMSH wrote:

ChrisKen wrote:

MrHMSH wrote:

Glad that Eriksen seems to be OK, wasn't a good call to force them to play, but UEFA aren't known for valuing players' wellbeing.
.

They weren'y forced, UEFA was all for playing at a later date. ....the players (of both sides) themselves requested to continue that evening.

Options of the next day or immediately is essentially forcing them to when they didn't really want to, the players didn't really request to continue, they just chose the least bad out of 3. It's a little lacking in empathy and respect to give them little choice and the threat of a forfeit. .

That's my take as well - a choice between two bad options isn't really much of a choice.

I can't help wondering what UEFA would have done had Eriksen had the temerity to actually die on the pitch

scbriml wrote:

I can't help wondering what UEFA would have done had Eriksen had the temerity to actually die on the pitch

They'd be on the phone with their copyright lawyers before the body had gone cold. This in anticipation to various (news-) broadcasters using footage.

Finland came to warm up with a shirt "Get well Christian"

Romelu Lukaku said that Belgia will stop the play against Denmark at 10 minutes to respect Christian Eriksen. https://www.bt.dk/em/live-foelg-med-i-e ... -for-minut at 19:16

THS214 wrote:

Romelu Lukaku said that Belgia will stop the play against Denmark at 10 minutes to respect Christian Eriksen. https://www.bt.dk/em/live-foelg-med-i-e ... -for-minut at 19:16

Nice gesture! No surprise this comes from Lukaku, he's just as great a person as he is a football player. Him and KDB also are the ones driving the whole team to kneel at kickoff. Lukaku explained recently that it isn't about BLM anymore, but as a protest against all kinds of discimination, racism, sexism, violence against gays, ...

And based on the 1st round played my impressions:
- Belgium (my country) played decent, well organised and very efficiently. They're the most experienced team in the tournament and have a decent claim on their chances to win it. It remains to be seen however in what shape KDB, Witsel and Hazard will be when things get serious.
- England was impressive for 25 minutes. The rest of the game was decent. Definitely motivated and enthousiastic, but perhaps they lack experience when they'll be up against France or Belgium. Still got a chance though.
- Netherlands was far better than I expected. But that wasn't reflected in the final score. They should have scored more and taken less. It looks like they're going to score many and take many. If they manage to improve their defensive organisation, they could go far.
- France was, well, France. Rock solid organisation, always keeping head cool. Preventing opponent to play a good game and razor sharp and fast attacks. They will be very hard to beat. Top favourite to win the tournament.
- Germany was unimpressive. No creativity and not enough speed. One would say that they have little chance to get far but it would be naive to write them off.
- Italy and Spain I didn't see play.

Italia looking sharp!

Wednesday's games:

Finland 0 - 1 Russia
A dour game of very little quality. One flash of class for the goal, but otherwise 90 mins of dull. Nobody will worry about meeting either of these teams in the knock-out stages.

Turkey 0 - 2 Wales
A very entertaining game which Wales justifiably won and could (should) have scored more.

Italy 3 - 0 Switzerland
Another good performance by Italy. What happened to the days of Italy taking two 0-0 draws in their first games?

wingman wrote:

Spain really needed to nationalize Messi at 13.

Nah, the man is through and through Argentinian.

He's spent 2/3rds of his life in Barcelona and still speaks like he just came from Rosario, prefers to surround himself with his family and other Argentinian mates, etc.

It's a great what if, but wouldn't have really worked.

scbriml wrote:

Finland 0 - 1 Russia
A dour game of very little quality. One flash of class for the goal, but otherwise 90 mins of dull. Nobody will worry about meeting either of these teams in the knock-out stages.

The problem is the format. So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums. For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany. Personally I hope that the format will go back to the old so games would be played at impartial pitch. This new format means way too many real home and away games and is unfair. It affects a lot to tactics.

THS214 wrote:

The problem is the format. So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums. For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany. Personally I hope that the format will go back to the old so games would be played at impartial pitch. This new format means way too many real home and away games and is unfair. It affects a lot to tactics.

From what I understand it’s because no one wanted to host/the bids weren’t acceptable.

Personally I hate it. There’s no real tournament vibe surrounding it (will be fun trivia someday-who hosted Euro2020 and in what year was it played?)

The stadium organization is absolute nonsense. How is it reasonable to have teams fly 1000s of kms to play all away games, while other members of the tournament travel 0km, and have all “home” games?!

Look at Italy, all 3 games at 1 stadium; their home stadium. Meanwhile the Swiss get to go Baku-Rome-Baku, almost 10,000km in total.

England also play all 3 at home, although much less travel for their opponents only having to go to Glasgow. But in that case, the Czechs and Croatians get to play 2/3 of their opponents at their home stadium.

Personally I think the teams that play all their group games at their home stadium should be out of the running to host tournaments in the near future, as a traditional host would be.

scbriml wrote:

Italy 3 - 0 Switzerland
Another good performance by Italy. What happened to the days of Italy taking two 0-0 draws in their first games?

You mean 1-0 win don't you?

NIKV69 wrote:

scbriml wrote:

Italy 3 - 0 Switzerland
Another good performance by Italy. What happened to the days of Italy taking two 0-0 draws in their first games?

You mean 1-0 win don't you?

That was Germany, scoring in the last minute…..

THS214 wrote:

So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums.

Although Saint Petersburg isn't that far from the Finnish border!

FGITD wrote:

From what I understand it’s because no one wanted to host/the bids weren’t acceptable.

Personally I hate it. There’s no real tournament vibe surrounding it (will be fun trivia someday-who hosted Euro2020 and in what year was it played?)

The stadium organization is absolute nonsense. How is it reasonable to have teams fly 1000s of kms to play all away games, while other members of the tournament travel 0km, and have all “home” games?!

The tournament is spread across Europe because the idea was to celebrate the 60th "birthday" of the European Championship competition. In April UEFA announced that Seville would replace Bilbao as tournament host, while the matches in Dublin would be reallocated to Saint Petersburg. Brussels also lost the right to stage matches following delays in the development of its new stadium but that change was made quite a while back.

FGITD wrote:

THS214 wrote:

The problem is the format. So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums. For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany. Personally I hope that the format will go back to the old so games would be played at impartial pitch. This new format means way too many real home and away games and is unfair. It affects a lot to tactics.

From what I understand it’s because no one wanted to host/the bids weren’t acceptable.

Personally I hate it. There’s no real tournament vibe surrounding it (will be fun trivia someday-who hosted Euro2020 and in what year was it played?)

The stadium organization is absolute nonsense. How is it reasonable to have teams fly 1000s of kms to play all away games, while other members of the tournament travel 0km, and have all “home” games?!

Look at Italy, all 3 games at 1 stadium; their home stadium. Meanwhile the Swiss get to go Baku-Rome-Baku, almost 10,000km in total.

England also play all 3 at home, although much less travel for their opponents only having to go to Glasgow. But in that case, the Czechs and Croatians get to play 2/3 of their opponents at their home stadium.

Personally I think the teams that play all their group games at their home stadium should be out of the running to host tournaments in the near future, as a traditional host would be.

Fully agree but wasn't it Michel Platini who wanted this format?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -euro-2020
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -euro-2020

mke717spotter wrote:

THS214 wrote:

So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums.

Although Saint Petersburg isn't that far from the Finnish border!

It's still away game where Finnish fans got only a small amount of tickets available. Do you know how difficult it is to get over that border? Why not play all group stage games at impartial countries (stadiums)?

So goes the UEFA story.

I don’t fully believe it was the plan, mostly because UEFA opened up host bids. They were also receiving bids from Ireland/Scotland/Wales, Azerbaijan, and Turkey had expressed interest.

It became Pan-Europe pretty quickly, but it doesn’t seem logical to go through the usual processes and then change it

Dutchy wrote:

NO hopes for the Dutch team, unfortunatelly. Italy indeed looks good. I would say France and Italy have the best chance of winning this year.

I like the look of Dumfries.

Looks a cracking player

noviorbis77 wrote:

Dutchy wrote:

NO hopes for the Dutch team, unfortunatelly. Italy indeed looks good. I would say France and Italy have the best chance of winning this year.

I like the look of Dumfries.

Looks a cracking player

He is indeed a welcome surprise. The Dutch go through to the next round, well done.

Battle of Britain (England - Scotland) ended like they started: 0-0. Scotland tried to win the game, but failed to score. England didn’t want to lose the game and forgot to score.
Scotland won a point and England lost two.

FGITD wrote:

So goes the UEFA story.

I don’t fully believe it was the plan, mostly because UEFA opened up host bids. They were also receiving bids from Ireland/Scotland/Wales, Azerbaijan, and Turkey had expressed interest.

It became Pan-Europe pretty quickly, but it doesn’t seem logical to go through the usual processes and then change it

Most likely you are right. Didn't follow the process that much.

THS214 wrote:

The problem is the format. So far Finland has played away games at the opponents stadiums. For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany. Personally I hope that the format will go back to the old so games would be played at impartial pitch. This new format means way too many real home and away games and is unfair. It affects a lot to tactics.

Playing at home technically halves the international travel. On balance a good idea to me.

marcelh wrote:

Battle of Britain (England - Scotland) ended like they started: 0-0. Scotland tried to win the game, but failed to score. England didn’t want to lose the game and forgot to score.
Scotland won a point and England lost two.

Neither team was much good. There was an awful lot of back passing. Frustrating to watch IMO. I don't give either side more than a tiny chance of becoming champions.

THS214 wrote:

For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany.

Maybe they simply did not run fast enough and shoot enough? Should this format save taxpayer's money which would otherwise be wasted on pro sports, I am all for it.

marcelh wrote:

You mean 1-0 win don't you?

That was Germany, scoring in the last minute…..[/quote]

Not in 2006.

NIKV69 wrote:

marcelh wrote:

You mean 1-0 win don't you?
That was Germany, scoring in the last minute…..

Not in 2006.

Neither 10 minutes ago.

petertenthije wrote:

Neither 10 minutes ago.

Please explain!

L410Turbolet wrote:

THS214 wrote:

For example Portugal had huge problems and barely won even they were better (first goal at 84 minutes) at Budapest against Hungary. Also France was very defensive as their game was played at at Munich against Germany.

Maybe they simply did not run fast enough and shoot enough? Should this format save taxpayer's money which would otherwise be wasted on pro sports, I am all for it.

Ok, I'll bite.

First of all lets have 15-20 countries (stadiums) (pretty much what we have today). And there are more than that willing to host a game. At group stage no de facto home team. Still stadiums fill be full. A lot of team supporters and then locals (like before). After that you have 15 games. Make them at 15 different countries (stadiums). On first round groups 1 and 2 won't get home game. Only the lucky looser (third like Portugal last time) might get a de facto home game in the first round. Now we have 7 games left. All games at different countries (stadiums). Easy. So in the end no team will get more than 1 de facto home game.

How to choose the stadiums? At group stage minimum capacity 30 000. Next round 40 000 and after that 50 000. Or something like that.

Anyone who wants to host a game have to bid. Then a lottery of who gets what. Like Wembley can get anything from a group stage game to the final. A single venue will only host one (max two games if one is at group stage) game. So a single stadium can get two games max and only one of those de facto home field. Minor amount of taxpayers money and what UEFA wants, FAIR PLAY. And this works also against corruption!

Someone might thing about travelling, visas etc. Again easy. Venues are chosen before but days (and groups) are not. So England, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey in one group. Pretty much the most possible travelling if all get a home and an away game (like in the qualifications). They play in places like Amsterdam Vienna, Munich, Warsaw etc. Also easy to get for the fans without excessive travel.

This is what I come up in ten minutes. So easy to arrange if there is a will.

Danish DYNAMITE is back fantastic match! 4-1 Denmark Russia so far

Was pulling for Finland but Belgium is just too good.

AirPacific747 wrote:

Danish DYNAMITE is back fantastic match! 4-1 Denmark Russia so far

nice win and second place, they are through to the 1/8 finals. Good for them.

Dutchy wrote:

AirPacific747 wrote:

Danish DYNAMITE is back fantastic match! 4-1 Denmark Russia so far

nice win and second place, they are through to the 1/8 finals. Good for them.

20 year old Damsgaard did an amazing job. What a talent.

Also Christensens goal was fantastic

By virtue their win today England secured the top spot in the group and will also play their first knockout game in London, but now they're going to be matched up against the runner-up from Group F, likely to be France/Germany/Portugal. Personally I haven't found their performances too inspiring thus far so they could be heading for a relatively quick exit from the tournament. There's also been some talk in recent days about moving the final match out of Wembley. First UEFA was upset that their VIPs wouldn't be exempt from the UK's quarantine rules and now Italy's Prime Minister wants the match moved out due to increasing COVID infections in the UK.

mke717spotter wrote:

By virtue their win today England secured the top spot in the group and will also play their first knockout game in London, but now they're going to be matched up against the runner-up from Group F, likely to be France/Germany/Portugal. Personally I haven't found their performances too inspiring thus far so they could be heading for a relatively quick exit from the tournament. There's also been some talk in recent days about moving the final match out of Wembley. First UEFA was upset that their VIPs wouldn't be exempt from the UK's quarantine rules and now Italy's Prime Minister wants the match moved out due to increasing COVID infections in the UK.

The issue of quarantine and that absurd, bloated army of UEFA 'VIPs' is addressed here;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -isolation

mke717spotter wrote:

Personally I haven't found their performances too inspiring thus far so they could be heading for a relatively quick exit from the tournament.

They haven't set the pitch alight yet, although I thought they had a much better first half against Czech Rep. Interestingly, as some of the pundits on TV pointed out, if a team like Germany, Italy or Spain had England's group results, folks would be saying "Ooh, they're quietly going about their business without drawing much attention to themselves, growing into the tournament."

We've often seen teams that start strongly in tournaments falter when the going gets tough, and vv, teams that start slowly get stronger and go all the way. Now, I'm not suggesting for one minute that England can win it, but if they'd won all three group games in the manner of Italy/Netherlands/Belgium, everyone would be saying they'd peaked too soon!

GDB wrote:

The issue of quarantine and that absurd, bloated army of UEFA 'VIPs' is addressed here;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -isolation

Source: https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.1544218 ... 1c12de.jpg

She makes some very valid points about the issues around Gilmour's positive Covid test.

scbriml wrote:

but if they'd won all three group games in the manner of Italy/Netherlands/Belgium, everyone would be saying they'd peaked too soon!

At least in Belgium nobody feels the team is peaking yet. On the contrary, general sentiment is that they'll need to play quite a bit better if they want to go far. The results were fine, but that's largely because of lack of opposition vs Russia and Finland and short (but bright) flashes of genius against Denmark. If we go out in next round, it wouldn't be a total surprise, based on the group games.
But then again, complaining is our national sports no1, football is no2.

Thoroughly disappointing end to the tournament for Poland. Even after their disastrous performance in the first game, they simply needed to win today against a team that really had nothing to play for. Instead they didn't seem ready to play at all. Give up a goal in the second minute and then Lewandowski headed it off the crossbar twice. The second half was obviously better but they're still prone to way too many lapses and outside of Lewandowski there isn't a lot of quality. Then to lose it at the end like that was just bad. With the exception of EURO 2016 they flop every time in the big tournaments.

A couple of very good games this evening which ebbed and flowed, with all teams changing positions in the table as the night progressed. Amazingly, after both games ended in 2-2 draws, the table finished the same order as it started!

So now we have the full Round of 16 line up:

Italy v Austria
Belgium v Portugal
France v Switzerland
Croatia v Spain
Sweden v Ukraine
England v Germany
Netherlands v Czech Rep
Wales v Denmark

Now we have two days of no football (time for my wife's revenge!) before the knock-out games begin.

scbriml wrote:

A couple of very good games this evening which ebbed and flowed, with all teams changing positions in the table as the night progressed. Amazingly, after both games ended in 2-2 draws, the table finished the same order as it started!

So now we have the full Round of 16 line up:

Italy v Austria
Belgium v Portugal
France v Switzerland
Croatia v Spain
Sweden v Ukraine
England v Germany
Netherlands v Czech Rep
Wales v Denmark

Now we have two days of no football (time for my wife's revenge!) before the knock-out games begin.

1966, Two World Wars, Ten German Bombers and vandalising Mercedes cars. Yep, it's that time of the decade again!

Will the Easy for the UK.

Hungary and Poland out with honour, they put up big fights, they never threw in the towel.

Chaotic games yesterday in Group F - that German performance caused me quite a few grey hairs.
They had done very well against Portugal, one of the best performances I have seen that team show probably since the 2014 semifinal but yesterday was a disappointment.
Yes, it's hard to score against a team like Hungary parking two buses in front of their goal but the way Germany defended (or rather didn't defend) counter attacks was embarrassing.

Either way, Group F proved why it was considered the toughest of them all, no team (not even reigning World Champion France) managed to win more than one game; at the same time, to the credit of a very courageous Hungarian side, no team lost more than one game either.
Can't remember the last time I saw a group stage table with 5 - 4 - 4 - 2 points.

Germany - England is going to be a great game that I'm very much looking forward to.
England played some excellent 25 and 45 minutes against Croatia and Czechia, respectively, some decent football for the remainder of those games, and disappointing football for the Scotland game.
So not too unlike Germany. I feel that those teams match up pretty well, with Germany having showed a lot more offensive draw so far (6 vs. 2 goals in the group stage), with England playing a much less chaotic and more stable defense (0 vs. 5 goals conceded in the group stage).

The only team that has been convincing to me so far was Italy (and mayyyybe Belgium), although even for Italy that needs to be seen in the context of their relatively easy group stage opponents - the strongest one of them, Wales, was already qualified for the round of 16 when they met up.

Knockout stage starts today, here are my predictions:

Wales - Denmark
Wales played a solid group stage and has some class players on their team. Denmark is on an insane emotional high after weathering the loss of Eriksen and subsequently advancing. On top of that, they actually played some excellent football against Russia and during parts of the game against Belgium. They won't have their home fan advantage this time though. I still see them coming out ahead though, maybe 60:40 for a Denmark win.

Italy - Austria
This might be the most lopsided game, most clearly favoring one team in this round of 16. Excellent showing by the Italians in the tournament so far. 90:10 for an Italy win.

Netherlands - Czechia
I can see the Dutch winning this one quite handily, although Czechia might be putting up a formidable fight. Could imagine this going not unlike the nail biter in the Netherlands-Ukraine group stage opener. 75:25 for the Netherlands.

Belgium - Portugal
The game I'm most looking forward to as a neutral observer. On paper, Belgium goes into this game as a 9-point group winner while Portugal advanced as one of the four best 3rd-finishers with just 4 points, however coming out of a much, much tougher group. This could become a goal festival, with two formidable offenses facing off - KdB and Lukaku against a Portugal squad led by a 36-year old CR7 who nonetheless exhibits physique, skill and willpower of a hungry 22-year old megatalent. Easily a 50:50 game - maybe with the decisive +0.5 for the Portuguese who since 2016 possess the sheer mentality needed to win big games.

Croatia - Spain
Both highly anticipated teams that showed disappointing group stage performances until the very last game. I do think the Spanish team is more adapted now though and Croatia just doesn't seem to be able to match the shape from their 2018 WC final run. 60:40 Spain.

France - Switzerland
This one should be easy, France is quite simply the better team in all aspects. 80:20 France, with the caveat that they might get themselves into real trouble if they don't learn to finally turn their incredible pitch superiority into more goals (only 2 goals achieved in open play across 3 group stage games, the other two were a penalty and an own goal)

England - Germany
So much history, so much anticipation. I already voiced my thoughts on this game above, I think this is gonna be a real 50:50 nail biter, with (hopefully) the better outcome for Germany. Although I will say that if England clinches it, they're a favorite for the title because it would mean they finally managed to beat a big team in a big game and god knows what kind of positive psychological effects that will unleash on a young and talented team.

Sweden - Ukraine
Sweden has played a very solid group stage, not playing the prettiest but some of the most effective and successful football. 7 points and finishing ahead of Spain is quite the statement. I believe they should be able to clinch this one, which makes me worried for a potential quarterfinal as Germany would face them if they win against England, and Sweden's defensive/counter-attack heavy style is exactly like the kind of football Hungary played that had us knocked out of the tournament for about 70 out of Wednesday's 90 minutes. 70:30 Sweden.

Denmark 4 Wales 0

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL Italia!! What a great goal! Now some defense and they advance!