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Euro 2016 Final - Portugal vs France

Expected France to beat Portugal to win the Euro but not really surprised Portugal won it instead ! Always knew Portugal would have advantage if the match went into extra time. France should have won it in normal time but they didn't look like scoring apart from hitting the post in the last minute. Unlike France, Portugal had the experience of playing in extra time against Croatia and Poland which proved to be their secret weapon. Have to feel sorry for Lloris for losing the Final the way he did. But France have only themselves to blame for not turning up for the Final despite having the home advantage. It seems like they couldn't handle the pressure of the expectations.

Only in Euro, can the average teams like Czechoslovakia 1976, Denmark 1992, Greece 2004 and Portugal 2016 win the trophy ! It seems like every 12-16 years, there will be a new winner in Euro ! But you won't get any of these teams having any chance in the World Cup where the competition is much higher due to the South American and African teams. Ironically, Portugal have had much better teams in the past but they failed to win any trophies while this team of 2016 somehow managed to win it despite not having much quality. Maybe the Football Gods felt football cannot afford to have both Messi and Ronaldo retiring from international football at the same time. Maybe Portugal was destined to win the Euro despite having Ronaldo replaced so early due to injury.
 
Try winning any league with 80% draws. I think you get the point. If not, I can't help you.

Sent from outer space
 
@Spurs7891......Chile, Uruguay and Colombia have all won the Copa in recent years, Paraguay making it to the final too. None of these nations have won a World Cup in my lifetime and I'm in my fifties.

Why people want to belittle Portugal's success and other unfancied tournament winners I do not know.

I'd love to see the winners of tournaments be comparable to a Brazil 1970, but it's rarely like that even when favourites win the tournaments.

For me, if a team plays within the laws of the game, there's always much to admire in any tournament winning football team.
 
The Portugeezer said:
1. Italy drew all their group games in 1982, and won the WC.

2. Nobody complained when the Italians played negative football to win the WC in 2006.

3. Greece and Denmark won the Euro's playing the same style of football in 2004 and 1992 respectively.

4. Portugal won without Ronaldo.

But that won't stop people being negative and being haters.
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Lots of people complained when Italy won the wc and when Greece won the Euros.

It's a game of margins though, and Portugal nicked it. It's not like they didn't deserve it on the night, to be honest. They were solid defensively and France rarely threatened. So congrats! :)
 
Is it just me or is anyone else getting a little frustrated that before a ball is even kicked now you know that most football matches are one team which goes out and dominates possession against another team who are happy for them to do that because they have 'a plan' to sit in then hit them on the counter. It's all getting a bit dull...........

Anyone?
 
Millsy_Yiddo said:
Is it just me or is anyone else getting a little frustrated that before a ball is even kicked now you know that most football matches are one team which goes out and dominates possession against another team who are happy for them to do that because they have 'a plan' to sit in then hit them on the counter. It's all getting a bit dull...........

Anyone?
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If a team cedes possession but then cleverly moves the ball up the field when it's able to without hoofing it, I've not got a problem with that.

If teams park the bus and then constantly resorts to an out ball to a speedy winger down their opponents flank, it gets boring. Crystal Palace under Pardew is a prime example.

The fitness levels and three substitutions makes the game less likely to be stretched like years ago.
It's now about getting eleven men behind the ball when you lose it, keep it tight, maybe nick it.
 
Millsy_Yiddo said:
Is it just me or is anyone else getting a little frustrated that before a ball is even kicked now you know that most football matches are one team which goes out and dominates possession against another team who are happy for them to do that because they have 'a plan' to sit in then hit them on the counter. It's all getting a bit dull...........

Anyone?
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I'm watching much less live football (club and international) now. It's mostly predictable and boring.
 
Kandi1977 said:
Try winning any league with 80% draws. I think you get the point. If not, I can't help you.

Sent from outer space
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It's not a league though. It's a knockout compeition with the potential of 120 mins and a shootout. Portrugal might have played differently if it was a league but instead they played to take it into extra time. Whether Santos knew Portugal would have an advantage in extra time I do not know but it doesn't matter as it has won them the trophy anyway.

You could probably even argue that Portugal have demonstrated exceptional levels of squad fitness to be able to win the tournament despite playing an extra 90 miniutes on top of regulation time.
 
Kandi1977 said:
Try winning any league with 80% draws. I think you get the point. If not, I can't help you.

Sent from outer space
Click to expand...
Like others said, it's knockout football and nobody moaned about Italy reaching the final of World Cup '94 when they finished third in their group!
 
International football is always brick .. not sure why everyone forgets and then gets excited for WC/Euros/etc.

The problem is the game itself, football has limitations that teams can exploit, either defensively (Italy always, Greece, Portugal), or even attacking wise (see Leicester's low possession, hoof ball to Vardy/Mahrez example).

People can complain Portugal didn't win whatever number of games, the only statistic hat matters is they lost none, hence they are champions, congrats to them.
 
I think there are two sides of the coin here

- Did Portugal deserve to win the Euros - Yes

- Was it a showcase of top football - No

I will not pick bones in how or why Portugal won, they did and from what I saw in the final they were the better team on the night in one shape or the other.

But it was in all a poor tournament in my opinion, I watched a huge bulk of it and I only enjoyed three games - Max
 
Grays_1890 said:
I think there are two sides of the coin here

- Did Portugal deserve to win the Euros - Yes

- Was it a showcase of top football - No

I will not pick bones in how or why Portugal won, they did and from what I saw in the final they were the better team on the night in one shape or the other.

But it was in all a poor tournament in my opinion, I watched a huge bulk of it and I only enjoyed three games - Max
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I agree, at no time did you see the Portugal defence in the shambles the French one was in for the goal.
 
Grays_1890 said:
I think there are two sides of the coin here

- Did Portugal deserve to win the Euros - Yes

- Was it a showcase of top football - No

I will not pick bones in how or why Portugal won, they did and from what I saw in the final they were the better team on the night in one shape or the other.

But it was in all a poor tournament in my opinion, I watched a huge bulk of it and I only enjoyed three games - Max
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generally agree with that, i'd change the second side of the coin to,

- Was it a showcase of free flowing attacking football - No

I wouldn't say it was a poor tournament, more a case of a common pragmatic tactical approach, it wasn't that different to the final stages of any knock out competition, the European Cup regularly receives the same criticism

It's been a long time since the general approach to top level football was "win" as opposed to "don't lose", the game is evolving, it's still football and there is much to appreciate
 
Grays_1890 said:
I think there are two sides of the coin here

- Did Portugal deserve to win the Euros - Yes

- Was it a showcase of top football - No

I will not pick bones in how or why Portugal won, they did and from what I saw in the final they were the better team on the night in one shape or the other.

But it was in all a poor tournament in my opinion, I watched a huge bulk of it and I only enjoyed three games - Max
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Sums it up to a tee and that is the way i see it as well.
 
wiziwig said:
@Spurs7891......Chile, Uruguay and Colombia have all won the Copa in recent years, Paraguay making it to the final too. None of these nations have won a World Cup in my lifetime and I'm in my fifties.

Why people want to belittle Portugal's success and other unfancied tournament winners I do not know.

I'd love to see the winners of tournaments be comparable to a Brazil 1970, but it's rarely like that even when favourites win the tournaments.

For me, if a team plays within the laws of the game, there's always much to admire in any tournament winning football team.
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I think you cannot compare Copa America and Euro. Almost all the teams in Copa have improved greatly and look capable of winning it in recent years. In fact, 8 of the 10 nations have won the Copa atleast once. Only Ecuador and Venezuela have not win it but they too look very strong nowadays. In contrast, not many teams look capable of winning the Euro. We only get teams like Denmark, Greece and Portugal winning it by way of luck from time to time.
 
galeforce said:
why is it a disgrace?

have they cheated?
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Portugal had the luck of the draw in their favour when they went from finishing in 3rd place in their group to go all the way to win the Euro. But you have to give them due credit for winning the trophy against all the odds. Not many teams can win a Final after losing their best player. But they did just that after Ronaldo went of injured so early in the match. As they say, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going ! In contrast, France went missing despite playing at home !

You also have to look at the inconsistent form of all the teams in Euro. No team has managed to get 2 good wins in a row. It was always 1 bad performance or defeat after a good win. Croatia beat Spain, then lost to Portugal. Italy beat Spain but lost to Germany. Germany beat Italy but lost to France. France beat Germany but lost to Portugal. Iceland beat England but got humiliated by France. Belgium thrashed Hungary but got beaten by Wales. Wales beat Belgium but lost to Portugal. In fact, Portugal are the only unbeaten team and so they fully deserved to win the Euro !
 
Great piece in the standard last night

Basically saying it took 2 weeks to knock out 8 teams which drew the tournament out, Platini secured his next term by gaining favour with smaller nations (That ended well ey) and the 2020 tournament is being played over 13 cities.....soon to be 32 teams in Euros too
 
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