Euro: Euro 2016 Final: France vs. Portugal, 7/10/2016

[Deficient Mode]

I know Messi is some kind of autist but fanboys are white knighting for that guy like he's their little brother with Down or something rather than a multi-millionaire fully capable of handling his affairs and standing up for himself.

wot.

 

[Panteras]

I just came here to poop the party and say Chile plays the best football in the world

 

[Bures Elbow]

They couldn't beat Greece, what makes you think they could "run over" this year's Portugal team which is every bit as good defensively while also having more individual talent than Greece 04

Sorry but it makes no sense what you're saying

eh, he's right. Ricardo Carvalho basically came out before the final and admitted that in 2004 that Portugal team took the final for granted and thought they already won before stepping on the field. He said they lacked urgency and desperation, and the raw hunger wasnt there due to thinking that by getting through Spain, England, and Holland that Greece would be a cake walk...and that lightening wouldnt strike twice.

Absolutely shocking to me since they had an opportunity in a final at home...with a team of legends and fantastic players.

Figo, Rui Costa, Deco, Miguel when he was one of the top RB in Europe, Carvalho in his prime, J.Andrade who was voted best defender in Spain and better than Carvalho, Maniche, Simao etc...the backbone of Mourinho's porto team..

They would beat this one, no question about it imho.

 

[Bures Elbow]

I'm still in a state of disbelief. I don't think this actually happened...or maybe the "way' it actually happened is more apt.

After losing to Greece on home soil in Euro 2004 when we previously got through Spain, England, and Holland. With a team that was composed of Figo/Rui Costa/Deco/Ronaldo/Maniche/Miguel/Jorge Andrade/Carvalho..

After losing to France in 1984, 2000, and 2006 in heartbreaking fashion.

Losing Ronaldo after 20 minutes when it was obvious ouryoung players were nervous at the start of the match with sloppy play, and getting absolutely deflated when Ronaldo went off. Yet again it seemed as if we were destined to fail in a massive match.

To beat France, in Paris, one of our demon teams..and after losing Euro 2004 in Lisbon...with a team of inexperienced youngsters, a few seasoned veterans (Fonte, Nani) and 2 world class players near the end of their prime(Pepe, Ronaldo)....

And ********ing EDER to score the winner? I guarantee you 11 million Portuguese cried out in terror and horror at the sight of him getting subbed on....and to be fair to him he actually did decent, won a lot of freekicks, held up play, prayed to the lord when he "won" Gurreiros freekick that smashed against the underside of the bar, had the header saved by Lloris, and scored the winner with a thunderbolt when I was screaming at the TV that he looked like a donkey dribbling...

Eusebio was with him when he came on. He deserved to be here to see this.

Gurreiro was unreal, and Joao Mario was again fantastic when he was pushed into his natural position in the middle after we went 4-3-3...while we held on for life in the first half, I felt we grew into the game while in the second and rode some decent saves and gignacs post into ET where we had all the good chances and were comfortable. Sanches was overawed by the occasion but he did have some great moments, turning pogba and sissoko with that piece of skill to burst through the middle and counter shows what he is capable of doing.

I wonder what Ronaldo said at half time, because the team looked "shocked" and deflated as Cedric admitted to.

What a 24 hours..I'll never forget it. Who knows when/if it will happen again...but to know that for once we had some luck run our way (gignacs post) coupled with the surrounding factors I mentioned at the start...it must have been written in the stars.


Sir Alex waiting to hug Ronaldo: I'm sure that meant so much to both, Sir Alex was his father in football.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/4s9jpl/sir_alex_patiently_waiting_to_congratulate_ronaldo/

 

[JS19]

Yeah except they of course never would have been in the final without Ronaldo. Heck, they may not have qualified in the first place.

And of course it bears pointing out that Messi played poorly in the World Cup final and did miss his penalty in the Copa final. While obviously it's unfair to pin the losses solely on him, it would also be wrong to claim that he had no part in Argentina losing those key games.

I know Messi is some kind of autist but fanboys are white knighting for that guy like he's their little brother with Down or something rather than a multi-millionaire fully capable of handling his affairs and standing up for himself.

Qualification is one thing, but the point is about winning the European Cup. There are people who are writing as if Ronaldo is automatically GOAT simply because he won a cup, while conveniently disregarding that he was injured during the game. Not to take away anything from him (after all, I'm a Real Madrid fan and watch him), but it's asinine seeing people in the internet act like he had a championship-winning play, and then **** on Messi for not winning when his team has had issues too (Higuain being garbage and missing shots that he would have nailed in Napoli, Aguero being a nonfactor and not showing up when it matters, etc.).

Are people that aloof-minded that they care only about championship wins and no context? Ronaldo helped his team get to the finals, but he wasn't the reason they won the Euro. People are conveniently disregarding that.

Yep. Same when people say that Cristiano should win the Ballon d'Or since Portugal won but shouldn't have won the BdO if Portugal had lost. Why does the result of a single game in which he barely played and did so little either way make such an impact on an individual award?

I don't get that notion either. Ballon D'Or by extension is being treated as "Best Country" instead of actually being about the best player in the world (then again, that award has its share of issues).

Ronaldo contributed to his team making it there. Having suffered an injury early into the game shouldn't change anything. He earned/won that trophy just as much as the rest of his team.

Not when people are acting like Ronaldo singlehandedly won Portugal its Euro in the Final. And as I said, context absolutely matters. What happened in qualification and knockout is irrelevant when people are making arguments like "Ronaldo is a top2/5 generational player in the world after winning an international competition."

 

[Live in the Now]

http://www.espnfc.us/european-champ...ning-euro-2016-but-we-must-hope-for-no-repeat

This is how I feel, and it's unfortunate that Portugal's good/great young talent played this way.

 

[Evilo]

So Ronaldo is praised for taking his team to the final and doing nothing there, but Messi is flamed for taking his team to the final (in fact moreso than Ronaldo) and doing nothing there.

 

[SB164]

Are people that aloof-minded that they care only about championship wins and no context? Ronaldo helped his team get to the finals, but he wasn't the reason they won the Euro. People are conveniently disregarding that.

Jesus, nobody gives a ****. Just give it a rest man.

 

[Theokritos]

I just came here to poop the party and say Chile plays the best football in the world

Better than the reigning European champions, that's for sure.

 

[Suiteness]

So Ronaldo is praised for taking his team to the final and doing nothing there, but Messi is flamed for taking his team to the final (in fact moreso than Ronaldo) and doing nothing there.

I'm assuming you're not talking about the World Cup where Messi scored 0 and provided one assist in nearly 8 hours of knockout football?

 

[Evilo]

I'm assuming you're not talking about the World Cup where Messi scored 0 and provided one assist in nearly 8 hours of knockout football?

Even if you talk about the WC, people must REALLY have missed the games if they think Messi wasn't the main factor for their qualification to the final.
From the group stage when he came up huge in the last minutes of several games, but in the knockout stage as well since he open huge amount of spaces for his teammates and repeatedly beat 2/3 opponents to do so.
Of course, his teammates managed to miss open nets and thus the stats didn't show Messi's impact, which was huge.

 

[YNWA14]

I dunno about "moreso" than Ronaldo. Without Messi Argentina is still stacked and likely would have made it there anyway (and maybe they play better without him). Portugal would have been out in the group stages if Ronaldo didn't have an heroic game against Hungary and he made their only goals against Wales as well as being involved in the attack against Portugal while scoring the first peno against Croatia.

Ronaldo didn't "carry" that team to the final, but he was definitely the biggest contributor in them getting there and it's a damn shame he didn't get to finish out that match.

 

[Blueblood9]

Everyone needs to stop. Everyone is so freaking ******** that Portugal and Ronaldo won the final. They played a way that gave them an opportunity to win.

If Argintina, England, or Italy played this way you all would be cheering and praising theyre defensive composure and system. Just because Portugal has Ronaldo its a different story? Stop just ****ing STOP.

Portugal MY COUNTRY MY BLOOD MY HERITAGE just won one of the biggest tournaments in the world get the **** over it. France didn't step up. They played on the back foot most of the game.

Portugal played 7 games in qualifying with Santos and only scored 11 goals. If anyone thought that it was going to be any different when they hit the tournament you guys were delusional.

As for now stop trying to tear down a team that just won the tournament.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

So Ronaldo is praised for taking his team to the final and doing nothing there, but Messi is flamed for taking his team to the final (in fact moreso than Ronaldo) and doing nothing there.

There's a big difference between being knocked out with injury early on in the Final and simply not performing to the level expected from you.

 

[Theokritos]

If Argintina, England, or Italy played this way you all would be cheering and praising theyre defensive composure and system. Just because Portugal has Ronaldo its a different story? Stop just ****ing STOP.

For me, personally, the issue is not Portugal or Ronaldo. It's the fact that a team that finished 3rd out of 4 teams in the group stage ended up winning the tournament. In my opinion they shouldn't even have advanced out of the group. And I'd say the same if it was Argentina, England, Italy or any other team. It's a question of principle.

 

[Suiteness]

For me, personally, the issue is not Portugal or Ronaldo. It's the fact that a team that finished 3rd out of 4 teams in the group stage ended up winning the tournament. In my opinion they shouldn't even have advanced out of the group. And I'd say the same if it was Argentina, England, Italy or any other team. It's a question of principle.

This is silly, we knew beforehand that only 8 teams out of the 24 would not make it past the first round. Same with people arguing that they didn't win a game in first round. So what? Italy drew their first three games at the 1982 World Cup as well, does that make them unworthy winners?

If you want to blame someone for this fiasco, blame France who couldn't beat this weak Portuguese team at home, without their star player for over 100 minutes. Blame Croatia, arguably the best team in the tournament in the first round, for coming up so limp against Portugal.

 

[Power Man]

This is silly, we knew beforehand that only 8 teams out of the 24 would not make it past the first round. Same with people arguing that they didn't win a game in first round. So what? Italy drew their first three games at the 1982 World Cup as well, does that make them unworthy winners?

Agreed

 

[Power Man]

I'm still in a state of disbelief. I don't think this actually happened...or maybe the "way' it actually happened is more apt.

After losing to Greece on home soil in Euro 2004 when we previously got through Spain, England, and Holland. With a team that was composed of Figo/Rui Costa/Deco/Ronaldo/Maniche/Miguel/Jorge Andrade/Carvalho..

After losing to France in 1984, 2000, and 2006 in heartbreaking fashion.

Losing Ronaldo after 20 minutes when it was obvious ouryoung players were nervous at the start of the match with sloppy play, and getting absolutely deflated when Ronaldo went off. Yet again it seemed as if we were destined to fail in a massive match.

To beat France, in Paris, one of our demon teams..and after losing Euro 2004 in Lisbon...with a team of inexperienced youngsters, a few seasoned veterans (Fonte, Nani) and 2 world class players near the end of their prime(Pepe, Ronaldo)....

And ********ing EDER to score the winner? I guarantee you 11 million Portuguese cried out in terror and horror at the sight of him getting subbed on....and to be fair to him he actually did decent, won a lot of freekicks, held up play, prayed to the lord when he "won" Gurreiros freekick that smashed against the underside of the bar, had the header saved by Lloris, and scored the winner with a thunderbolt when I was screaming at the TV that he looked like a donkey dribbling...

Eusebio was with him when he came on. He deserved to be here to see this.

Gurreiro was unreal, and Joao Mario was again fantastic when he was pushed into his natural position in the middle after we went 4-3-3...while we held on for life in the first half, I felt we grew into the game while in the second and rode some decent saves and gignacs post into ET where we had all the good chances and were comfortable. Sanches was overawed by the occasion but he did have some great moments, turning pogba and sissoko with that piece of skill to burst through the middle and counter shows what he is capable of doing.

I wonder what Ronaldo said at half time, because the team looked "shocked" and deflated as Cedric admitted to.

What a 24 hours..I'll never forget it. Who knows when/if it will happen again...but to know that for once we had some luck run our way (gignacs post) coupled with the surrounding factors I mentioned at the start...it must have been written in the stars.


Sir Alex waiting to hug Ronaldo: I'm sure that meant so much to both, Sir Alex was his father in football.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/4s9jpl/sir_alex_patiently_waiting_to_congratulate_ronaldo/

Parabèns!

Was rooting for Portugal before the tournament started

Very happy for yo guys

 

[Theokritos]

This is silly, we knew beforehand that only 8 teams out of the 24 would not make it past the first round.

And I've already complained about it even beforehand, as others have done too.

 

[Blueblood9]

For me, personally, the issue is not Portugal or Ronaldo. It's the fact that a team that finished 3rd out of 4 teams in the group stage ended up winning the tournament. In my opinion they shouldn't even have advanced out of the group. And I'd say the same if it was Argentina, England, Italy or any other team. It's a question of principle.

So Portugal gets **** on cause they won a tournament which had rules and a setup that they didn't set. That's awesome.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Sorry, but neutral fans don't want to watch **** football. You don't need to be apologetic about it, but neither do the rest of us.

What takes it to the next level for me is Ronaldo whining about Iceland only for Portugal to play the entire tournament with these tactics.

 

[Suiteness]

What takes it to the next level for me is Ronaldo whining about Iceland only for Portugal to play the entire tournament with these tactics.

But that's not true. Portugal was not a negative boring team in the first round.They couldn't score cause they have shyte for strikers but this was not a park the bus team in the first round. Their dominance over Austria in the second game was ridiculous. 59% possession, 23 attempts on goal (versus 3 for Austria)? Come on. Their 3-3 game against Hungary was one of the best games in the tournament.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

But that's not true. Portugal was not a negative boring team in the first round.They couldn't score cause they have shyte for strikers but this was not a park the bus team in the first round. Their dominance over Austria in the second game was ridiculous. 59% possession, 23 attempts on goal (versus 3 for Austria)? Come on. Their 3-3 game against Hungary was one of the best games in the tournament.

I'll grant you all of that. Didn't they need a result against Hungary, though? As I recall, the only reason that game was open was their defending was crap, not design. They kept having to chase the game.

The fact is that when they weren't playing minnows, they bunkered down and actively tried not to play. Which again, is fine in a vacuum. But no one has to like a champion playing that way or Ronaldo being a total hypocrite when it comes to his side's tactics.

 

[Suiteness]

The fact is that when they weren't playing minnows, they bunkered down and actively tried not to play. Which again, is fine in a vacuum. But no one has to like a champion playing that way or Ronaldo being a total hypocrite.

Oh absolutely, they were dead to me after the game against Croatia, I was so freaking let down by that game.

As bad as they were, I'm more disappointed that Croatia couldn't tear them about apart. Unlike France, Croatia's midfield had the technical quality to break down a park the bus team but they played horribly.

 

[pcruz]

A few facts to throw into this conversation to contradict much of what has been said here. There is far too much conjecture and far too little substance.

I'll take a look at the 4 semi finalists and compare some offensive statistics that are often associated with attacking football - shots, shots off the woodwork, crosses, passes and possession.

Team|Games|Shots|Per Game|Woodwork|Crosses|Passes|Completed|%|Possession
Portugal|7|121|17.29|3|204|3633|3150|86|52
France|7|121|17.29|6|174|3519|3112|88|52
Wales|6|68|11.33|0|84|2333|1960|83|48
Germany|6|108|18|4|179|4020|3639|90|63

Can someone look at these numbers and explain to me exactly how it is that one team looks so far out of place here? If anything, it'd be Wales that falls far short of the other 3 teams.

How about anti-football? Apparently Portugal was only into anti-football and caused many fouls and stopped the play.

Team|Games|Fouls Suffered|Fouls Committed|Yellow Cards
Portugal|7|94|93|13
France|7|70|73|13
Wales|6|70|65|11
Germany|6|62|69|11

Hmm....there seems to be little to distinguish between those teams. Both teams that played the extra game got 2 more cards, committed and suffered more fouls.