UEFA EURO 2016 - Final Tournament

[Eisen]

People say 24 teams is too much.

But if nations like Bosnia, Serbia, Scotland, Netherlands, Grecce, Denmark was in instead of nations like Romania, Wales, North Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine the tournament would have 24 good teams. There is potential. Hopefully next tournament the best 24 teams make it.

I can't remember the last time there weren't any surprises, especially at the bottom of the list. I'm also not so sure that there is a huge drop-off between the teams you mention. Also, is the premise really true? At least in Germany in haven't read anything about 24 teams being too many.

 

[takk]

People say 24 teams is too much.

But if nations like Bosnia, Serbia, Scotland, Netherlands, Grecce, Denmark was in instead of nations like Romania, Wales, North Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine the tournament would have 24 good teams. There is potential. Hopefully next tournament the best 24 teams make it.

If you're going to make an argument like this, you can put your country's national team among the latter group as well. A team like Serbia at this time doesn't have anything over Romania or Wales, they're going through a rough patch lately. There will always be surprises, what a bummer it was for me back in 2003 when Latvia ousted Turkey at qualifying play-offs. Verpakovskis

It was all downhill for Turkey after that with a brief resurge in 2008.

 

[takk]

That doesn't stop Tore from being crazier than the average bear.

Thankfully he's omitted. I generally agree with the notion that the Turkish team has more short fused players than most other teams, a notorious example being goalkeeper Volkan's antics against Koller in 2008.

 

[Eye of Ra]

If you're going to make an argument like this, you can put your country's national team among the latter group as well. A team like Serbia at this time doesn't have anything over Romania or Wales, they're going through a rough patch lately. There will always be surprises, what a bummer it was for me back in 2003 when Latvia ousted Turkey at qualifying play-offs. Verpakovskis

It was all downhill for Turkey after that with a brief resurge in 2008.

on paper serbia is way better than romania and wales. serbia had problems with coaches, fans etc. if serbia fix the negatives they will be the new belgium.

 

[jniklast]

People say 24 teams is too much.

But if nations like Bosnia, Serbia, Scotland, Netherlands, Grecce, Denmark was in instead of nations like Romania, Wales, North Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine the tournament would have 24 good teams. There is potential. Hopefully next tournament the best 24 teams make it.

For me the problem is that from those 24 teams 16 advance to the next round. That's just too much.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

There's a prediction game there > http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/predictor

 

[Theokritos]

For me the problem is that from those 24 teams 16 advance to the next round. That's just too much.

Good point. The should use the system they used in the UEFA Champions League in 97-98 and 98-99: 24 teams, 6 groups, only 8 teams advance.

 

[Pouchkine]

Yeah great idea and that way teams would have to play for the 3 pts, so win-win.

 

[hatterson]

Good point. The should use the system they used in the UEFA Champions League in 97-98 and 98-99: 24 teams, 6 groups, only 8 teams advance.

12 advancing and have the top 4 teams receive a bye would also work. Means top 2 from each group move on, but the top one in each group is still fighting for overall seeding to try and secure the bye.

Double elimination (not just two legs matches) after the round robin would also be interesting, although that significantly increases the number of games played and isn't likely to happen.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Spain loses to Georgia? Wow.

 

[Cucumber]

Spain loses to Georgia? Wow.

On paper, they look like they could complete with France and Germany for the euro. Although after world cup 2014 and some of their performances lately, it is hard to see Spain winning it.

It's Germany's euro to lose at this point. France got a week back line which for me will be the difference with Germany.

 

[Moncherry]

There is also the format that the 1982 World Cup used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_FIFA_World_Cup#Format

 

[SB164]

Portugal could use the tuneup

Go Estonia!!!

I've been to Tallinn before. Beautiful city

I once had a little romantic ''affair'' with a girl from Tallin. When she returned home, she sent me a package of Estonian snacks and drinks.

 

[Live in the Now]

Rudiger did his ACL and is out.

 

[Tryamkin]

Rudiger did his ACL and is out.

Oh ****.

Any indication of how long?

 

[VAN-HAB]

Spain loses to Georgia? Wow.

and Georgia was killed by Romania 5-1 just a couple of days ago...go figure

 

[HajdukSplit]

Saw on twitter that if a team plays three 0:0 draws they are 87% likely to make the R16 as one of the four best third place teams. In fact you are in good shape if you have three points and a GD that isn't worse than -2

 

[Bon Esprit]

Rudiger did his ACL and is out.

Tah (Leverkusen) is supposed to replace Rüdiger.

 

[joe89]

If you're going to make an argument like this, you can put your country's national team among the latter group as well. A team like Serbia at this time doesn't have anything over Romania or Wales, they're going through a rough patch lately. There will always be surprises, what a bummer it was for me back in 2003 when Latvia ousted Turkey at qualifying play-offs. Verpakovskis

It was all downhill for Turkey after that with a brief resurge in 2008.

The countries he singled out was fair, maybe with the exception of Romania. The others never qualified with the 16 team format(except Ukraine for home euros). Sweden qualified the last four times with 16 teams.

Though to me, daily form means more in this tier of teams so I don't think you should say that this and that team deserves to be here. You can have bad or good luck with the playoff draw but that's basically it. Football is big in almost every European country, so to have about half of Europe in the tournament isn't that big of of a deal. I think the format can be discussed though, the group stage should have a bigger impact, totally agree with that.

 

[Maverick41]

Tah (Leverkusen) is supposed to replace Rüdiger.

To me that means the team got better, but then again, I have always been strongly biased against Rüdiger, and have not seen him play since he left Stuttgart.
So it is totally fair to say my assessment is wrong, but even if Rüdiger has somehow turned into a great player in Rome, I think Tah would be only a slight downgrade at worst. And since I consider Tah one of the biggest CB talents in the world it might be a good thing for him to get some big tournament experience at his young age.

In a few years he might even challenge the likes of Boateng and Hummels, and I don't really see that kind of potential in any of the other young CBs right now.

 

[cgf]

Even if you aren't down on Rudiger, Tah is just so much better...that said Gul will be just as good, if not even better.

 

[Power Man]

Quaresm beasting vs Estonia

 

[Franck]

I sat up a T***ball league for the forum, if anyone is interested.

 

[Ceremony]

People say 24 teams is too much.

But if nations like Bosnia, Serbia, Scotland, Netherlands, Grecce, Denmark was in instead of nations like Romania, Wales, North Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine the tournament would have 24 good teams. There is potential. Hopefully next tournament the best 24 teams make it.

Any argument about there being too many teams in the competition thus diluting the quality would have to be centred around ***** like North Ireland and Hungary slithering in through additional playoff or best runner-up spots rather than anything else. North Ireland won their group. Wales were among the first teams to qualify. Holland, Greece and Denmark stunk out the place, the Dutch more than most relative to expectations. Serbia got 4 points in a group with Albania and Armenia in it.

I had a nice chuckle at your suggestion of what Scotland's company should be though, so thanks for that.

 

[SB164]

Question for the Swedes: is Zlatan by far the most famous athlete in Sweden? Are there any hockey players who even come close in terms of popularity? Karlsson? Lundqvist?