Euro 2016 Thread

[Royal Rother]

Just came across this....

https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... n-football

[Richardovellee]

Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland all return to international action this week - and all have realistic hopes of qualifying for Euro 2016.
The five nations have never qualified for the same major international tournament before but, after a four-month break, they can all enhance their prospects of reaching next summers tournament in France with positive results.
Why is there such hope? For a start, the finals has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

[stealthpapes]

Great games of football are pretty much a thing of the past.

The game is too dominated by money, tactics and a fear of losing.

Great games are a thing of the past .........um.......ok then........

I'm exaggerating to make a point of course but it needs 2 teams to make a great match and I feel there's just too much focus on counteracting the opposition rather than really going for it.

Game plans, game management, formations and the like are too dominant. All caused by fear of losing which in turn is created by the pressure of big money / big business.

Know what I mean...?

There was a good article somewhere basically pointing out that its much easier to defend as a team than attack as one, and by extending the number of teams, you both include weaker teams but also remove some of the incentives to win - if you can qualify from the group with 2 points, then a 1-0 loss to Germany is pretty much a draw if other teams have done worse.

[bcubed]

Anyone see Russia's Hooligan Army on BBC 2 last week?

Pretty scary (although untrue according to Russian media reaction!)

I went to Marseilles and as a result I have no intention of travelling to Russia, but if I had I would think twice after watching that