Euro 2016 thread

[redsimon]

Did we expect a feast of attacking football and thrills galore?

When was the last time a major tournament delivered more than a couple of decent games?

2014 WC had, errrm, Germany v Brazil, but not much else.

At least this tourney gave us the feelgood stories of Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland.
[/quo

I'm with you on this and the supporters of so many teams have had an absolute blast. FWIW I enjoyed loads of games for a variety of reasons but accept there was no exceptional team and last night was a damp squib.

I think it is amusing we look back with dewy eye sentimentality at, say,  1996 yet the knock-out stages were awful. We loved England's progress but there were a distinct lack of goals - 6 in total from the 6 games in the quarters and semis and 4 of those games went to extra-time. By comparison, Euro 2106 delivered 19 goals from the equivalent number of games.

I loved the Brazil World Cup but again there was lots of rubbish.

England 1 - 0 Argentina
Portugal 5 - 3 North Korea
W Germany 4 - 0 Uruguay
Soviet Union 2 - 1 Hungary
Both semi finals were won 2-1 and I make that 22 goals...

and the final had another six including a hat-trick

Will grant that the group games were dour at times but the tournament averaged >2.5 goals per game. Plus, North Korea

1996 not 1966!

[david3103]

Did we expect a feast of attacking football and thrills galore?

When was the last time a major tournament delivered more than a couple of decent games?

2014 WC had, errrm, Germany v Brazil, but not much else.

At least this tourney gave us the feelgood stories of Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland.
[/quo

I'm with you on this and the supporters of so many teams have had an absolute blast. FWIW I enjoyed loads of games for a variety of reasons but accept there was no exceptional team and last night was a damp squib.

I think it is amusing we look back with dewy eye sentimentality at, say,  1996 yet the knock-out stages were awful. We loved England's progress but there were a distinct lack of goals - 6 in total from the 6 games in the quarters and semis and 4 of those games went to extra-time. By comparison, Euro 2106 delivered 19 goals from the equivalent number of games.

I loved the Brazil World Cup but again there was lots of rubbish.

England 1 - 0 Argentina
Portugal 5 - 3 North Korea
W Germany 4 - 0 Uruguay
Soviet Union 2 - 1 Hungary
Both semi finals were won 2-1 and I make that 22 goals...

and the final had another six including a hat-trick

Will grant that the group games were dour at times but the tournament averaged >2.5 goals per game. Plus, North Korea

1996 not 1966!

LMAO

I'm older than I look you know. Things were so much better when I was a boy.

[Archer]

Did we expect a feast of attacking football and thrills galore?

When was the last time a major tournament delivered more than a couple of decent games?

2014 WC had, errrm, Germany v Brazil, but not much else.

At least this tourney gave us the feelgood stories of Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland.
[/quo

I'm with you on this and the supporters of so many teams have had an absolute blast. FWIW I enjoyed loads of games for a variety of reasons but accept there was no exceptional team and last night was a damp squib.

I think it is amusing we look back with dewy eye sentimentality at, say,  1996 yet the knock-out stages were awful. We loved England's progress but there were a distinct lack of goals - 6 in total from the 6 games in the quarters and semis and 4 of those games went to extra-time. By comparison, Euro 2106 delivered 19 goals from the equivalent number of games.

I loved the Brazil World Cup but again there was lots of rubbish.

England 1 - 0 Argentina
Portugal 5 - 3 North Korea
W Germany 4 - 0 Uruguay
Soviet Union 2 - 1 Hungary
Both semi finals were won 2-1 and I make that 22 goals...

and the final had another six including a hat-trick

Will grant that the group games were dour at times but the tournament averaged >2.5 goals per game. Plus, North Korea

1996 not 1966!

LMAO

I'm older than I look you know. Things were so much better when I was a boy.

LOL  I was about to point out I was talking about Euro 1996 and not 1966.

[DungBeetle]

Did we expect a feast of attacking football and thrills galore?

When was the last time a major tournament delivered more than a couple of decent games?

2014 WC had, errrm, Germany v Brazil, but not much else.

At least this tourney gave us the feelgood stories of Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland.

I remember the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a good tournament.  The euros/world cups since have been much of a muchness with 2010 World Cup being especially poor.  However it is possible that 2006 is just far enough back to get a "nostalgia" aspect in my brain which falsely inflates it!

[AndrewT]

The last really good tournament was Euro 2000.

Portugal coming from 2 goals down to beat England, England beating Germany then getting screwed by a last minute penalty v Romania.

Spain scoring twice in injury time to beat Yugoslavia 4-3

Holland beating France 3-2

Holland managing to lose the semi-final against Italy by missing 2 penalties against 10 men for an hour.

France's dodgy penalty against Portugal right at the end of extra time in the other semi

France winning the final with an injury time equaliser then a golden goal.

This one had the Viking handclap, Will Grigg's On fire and moths.

[TightEnd]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

[david3103]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

Sample size is necessarily small and in any event goals per game isn't a pure measure of the level of entertainment provided.
If you start your graph at 1988 then 2000 looks like an outlier.

I'm not arguing that Euro 2016 was a feast for football fans, clearly it wasn't, but it had drama, heartbreak, disappointment and joyous over-achieving.

[Horneris]

A big factor in this is obviously the extension from 16 to 24 teams. This meant two things, one was the obvious dilution in quality and the other was regarding the three to qualify in 4 of the groups, meaning teams had less incentive to win matches.

Lots of the smaller nations who don't usually qualify for major comps were very well coached and well organised, i.e. Albania, Northern Ireland, Hungary to a certain extent.

[DungBeetle]

To be honest, when it comes to the summer if there are 3 international matches every day then I'm happy even if it is a bit stodgy!

[arbboy]

To be honest, when it comes to the summer if there are 3 international matches every day then I'm happy even if it is a bit stodgy!

Take out Ronaldo how many all time great strikers at the top of their game for all the major countries were actually on show this summer?  Hardly any.   It was a relatively poor quality, but competitive, renewal of the event imo.

[aaron1867]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

Sample size is necessarily small and in any event goals per game isn't a pure measure of the level of entertainment provided.
If you start your graph at 1988 then 2000 looks like an outlier.

I'm not arguing that Euro 2016 was a feast for football fans, clearly it wasn't, but it had drama, heartbreak, disappointment and joyous over-achieving.

Every tournament has "drama, heartbreak, disappointment & an over-achiever"

[Archer]

To be honest, when it comes to the summer if there are 3 international matches every day then I'm happy even if it is a bit stodgy!

Take out Ronaldo how many all time great strikers at the top of their game for all the major countries were actually on show this summer?  Hardly any.   It was a relatively poor quality, but competitive, renewal of the event imo.

Interesting point about lack of strikers. Ibra is an all-time great but didn't go too well for him. In fact  there were only (I think) 8 players there who had scored 20+ more goals in 1 of the big 5 european leagues in 15/16:

Ronaldo
Ibra
Lewandowski
Muller
Griezmann
Vardy
Kane
Aduriz

[Archer]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

Sample size is necessarily small and in any event goals per game isn't a pure measure of the level of entertainment provided.
If you start your graph at 1988 then 2000 looks like an outlier.

I'm not arguing that Euro 2016 was a feast for football fans, clearly it wasn't, but it had drama, heartbreak, disappointment and joyous over-achieving.

What was your favourite tournament for quality and excitement?

Every tournament has "drama, heartbreak, disappointment & an over-achiever"

[david3103]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

Sample size is necessarily small and in any event goals per game isn't a pure measure of the level of entertainment provided.
If you start your graph at 1988 then 2000 looks like an outlier.

I'm not arguing that Euro 2016 was a feast for football fans, clearly it wasn't, but it had drama, heartbreak, disappointment and joyous over-achieving.

What was your favourite tournament for quality and excitement?

Every tournament has "drama, heartbreak, disappointment & an over-achiever"

Do I have to have one?
I have a number that I'm happy to consign to the dustbin from the perspective of an Englnd fan.
Equally from that perspective, 1966 stands out. But this is sport at a high level, as Aaron so perceptively points out, there is always drama, etc etc. That's what makes sport so special. If players freeze, or indeed rise above their level in that moment that's part of the glorious unpredictability of sporting contests

[Archer]

Euro 2016: A dull tournament? The stats back it up.... http://bbc.in/29zcNFT

Sample size is necessarily small and in any event goals per game isn't a pure measure of the level of entertainment provided.
If you start your graph at 1988 then 2000 looks like an outlier.

I'm not arguing that Euro 2016 was a feast for football fans, clearly it wasn't, but it had drama, heartbreak, disappointment and joyous over-achieving.

What was your favourite tournament for quality and excitement?

Every tournament has "drama, heartbreak, disappointment & an over-achiever"

Do I have to have one?
I have a number that I'm happy to consign to the dustbin from the perspective of an Englnd fan.
Equally from that perspective, 1966 stands out. But this is sport at a high level, as Aaron so perceptively points out, there is always drama, etc etc. That's what makes sport so special. If players freeze, or indeed rise above their level in that moment that's part of the glorious unpredictability of sporting contests

I was asking Aaron but messed up in the quote box:)   

I'm on your side with this and have enjoyed Euro 2106 as a whole and lots of individual  games for different reasons. Others seem to have written it off as being crap.

I was a kid in 66 but  clearly stands out.  My other favourite world cup was probably Argentina in 78 - engrossed in the atmosphere of it all. Only 16 teams back then and no England.