Oh my god,that's it we're coming home.......again!:rolleyes:..........penalties just are'nt England's strong point.

Lol. Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to a wide awake girl made me miss the penalties. Oh well!

Hood

The best team won! England and penalty shoot outs is something that can be predicted....we lose them!

Don't understand why Ashley Young gets picked - not impressed with him this tournament. That old GTBA (give the ball away) virus still infects this squad but some players put in great effort, Gerrard, Parker, Johnson, Terry, etc.

Germany will be in the finals and England need to match their clinical finishing if they are to make any progress as a feared team!

So....another England goalkeeper has just gone on the 'most hated list'?

French TV M6: "absolutely magnificent, the best match of this championship, the most dense and intense", and "great respect and sportsmanship between the two teams". "excellent England in defense, but formidable Italy in attack". Pirlo "man of the match", btw he did also one of his hat tricks, the "crochet" penalty.
"great abnegation of all players, even the less good ones did their best and gave everything".

My comment: that's football at its best. All out, no regrets.


Cheers!

Ashley won't be a preferred baby name.

Yeah but I'd have a hard time feeling sorry for Cole.

Best team won, no doubt, but a good match. How England managed to even get to penalties is an enigma though.

congrats to Italy.

Hi all,

It was the best game of the tournament.

England lost. But football won.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

Well I thought it was one of the best ones, very exciting. One must feel a bit sorry for any team to lose in penalties, but Italy was better. Still great game a some fine sprotmanship on both sides. What a great match!

yeah, remember it had england in it, Kurfurst and england and good cannot be in the same sentence, lol.

Thank goodness it wasn't of any importance as regards the price of eggs and fish.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

We didn't lose on penalties.

We lost in the 120 minutes before them. :(

+1 For the first time in my life I was cheering for Italy as I'm going there this week and want to experience a semi final on a trattoria with Italy in the game :-) Italy made it easy for me this year to go all in. No classic Italian boring defensive tactics, and an amazing game by Pirlo... And what a complete lack of nerves in that penalty shot against the annoying Hart who got what he deserved... I've never been a fan of goalies sticking their tounge out in a situation like that ;-)

yeah, it was a good game lots of shots, desearved some goals. if thsi was every other game it would have ended in some sord off 3-2. Italy was the fair winner, they had more chances and better play overrall. Tough i was cheering for the brits.

Next game is Portugal-Spain. I'll start my praying soon

Kurfurst can't even bring himself to see through the white strip to the game itself. How sad.

England have deep problems rooted in the EPL and FA. We are falling behind in ability and were outclassed by the Italians and had to play a defensive game against the French. I am presently resigned to watching England only have the ball 40% of the time, much like my own club team last season who finished 15th in the second tier.

Why the EPL and FA? They allow too many foreign players to play. Why the FA? they've taken the creativity out of the coaching setup by strictly controlling who gets badges and how they have to coach.

Radical change is needed, but we are controlled by prats in suits and the old boys club.

By the way, statistics of yesterday's match, ball possession: Italy 69%, England 31%. Great work in defense by England then, not taking a single goal despite this awesome statistics.

Cheers!

lol this thread will sadly fade away now me thinks ;-)

Still some games to play yet. Next one Spain vs. Portugal, which I will be watching and I have a certain feeling, Pupo as well ; )

Similar thing happens in portugal, the 2 greatest teams resort to scouting in south america and hiring players from that area. one of the mmanaged to fill entire teams without a single portuguese player for half of the season. Fortunatly the other "not-so-big" club still gets most of its players from national borders, and when you see the portuguese team around 70% of its players played their 16-18/21 in Sporting. Unfortonatly Sporting fails to manage this kids to an extent and sells them for a bargain to what they will become....

Three PIGS on the semifinals... bad.. really bad...

:shock:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_%28economics%29

My country should not think about Euro2012... there are worser issues: for example banks lend money to football teams but not to honest families. I would ban that sport.

england got precisely what we deserved from this tournament. awful, tedious game.

I'm aware of the "PIGS" and noted that you are from Italy. For me this abbreviation is abusive and degrading. I fully understand and agree to your point of view but the way out is not to ban the sport.

Agree completely. It can only get worse too. The week the Euro's started the EPL announced they have just sold their TV rights for the next three years for £3.02billion!!! The previous deal was worth £1.8billion.

What is the problem? That is a lot of money. If the EPL spends only a tiny fraction of that money it would be more then enough to jump start a professional training program?

Do not ban the sports, ban the banks. They suck everybody dry all over the world.

I still feel that the FA appointed the wrong coach.

Rooney looked sluggish (looks overweight to me) and unfit to play the entire match yet he gets the automatic selection along with Ashley Young who also had a bad tournament and neither were substituted when it was clear that they were well below par.

Its a good job we lost, England v Germany......not a cat in hells chance!

IMO sports like football are still like opium for some kind of people. They cloud the real problems and serve as a relief valve for personal anger.

you can't ban football and even if that would be feasible, it would solve nothing, you have to fix what's ruining it; society today sucks but banning society is no solution either

let's not get blind: the acceptance as a natural thing, that the industry main standard is making profit, instead of first providing a quality service oriented to the people's benefit, is destroying our quality of life and our hard won rights.

banning every sport won't change that, it will just add to the overwhelming ignorance, unfairness and general futility we live in.

Agreed. But this is the wrong thread for those kind of topics. Portugal-Spain is next, and I want to see Spain go down, hehe

nah, woy's a decent coach, it's the fact that there is a real lack of talent in the players, and a general belief that we are better than we are. rooney was woeful (but at least he didn't get himself sent off), welbeck looks like one for the future, young is just dogsh*t. milner and parker were rather average, but not actually damaging. gerrard did very well i thought, and the defence - glen johnson was as underwhelming as i anticipated, both in attack and defence, so no less than i expected from him - was pretty decent. carrol was another who actually surprised, in being better than anticipated, but then expectations of him were lower than a snake's belly in a tyre rut. my only real issue was why on earth he took downing and glen johnson. micah richards has had a far better season than johnson, and i can't think of anyone who has had a worse season than downing.

i think you should keep the politics out of this thread to be honest. i'd comment further but to do so would be to ignore my own request, not to say i don't agree that is.

and rob us of what little pleasures we have.

They won't. It's cheaper to bring in foreign players who are way ahead in terms of ability. Why would an Arab or Russian oligarch care about investing in kids to make great players in 15 years time when he can buy now?

I'm out, sorry for the OT. ;-)

hey i understand what Manu said, we agree in the end maybe not in the means, i don't wanna sound like a preacher or something.


anyway i'm hopping we get to score first and make Spain run after the result, making them expose their defense;

Portugal strengths: speed, counter attack, flexible midfield and solid defense, 2 outstanding wingers
Portugal weakness: lacks solid center forward, somewhat wait and see attitude, individualism of some players

Spain strengths: possession, possession, possession; tremendous midfield when it comes to getting the ball and passing
Spain weakness: rear defense positioning, lack of vertical play when needed, sacrifice tactics for names

Frankly I fell asleep on it. The first 15 mins were exciting until you have realized that the most predictible moment is when the ball gets anywhere near the goal line. You simply knew in advance that the only thing that will happen is some player missing the gate by meters.

I am not a score-w*re but watching two teams for 90 minutes doing little more than predictibly missing one opportunity after the other is just BOREDOM in my book. I was seriously considering leaving the whole match and simply go home after half time. And I couldn't care about the penelties after that, I simply checked the results on the internet. I have expected something of a bore from the Italians, and hoped that the English team will make an interesting spice in that mix, playing the type of football I actually like. They didn't.

Goalkeepers had their moments though..

Try basketball Kurfurst, you seem to need instant gratification.

Because bringing in gifted players from completly different game cultural backgrounds makes great prima donnas, but not a team that trains and plays in a manner tought from childhood on to make coherent tactics and strategies possible?

I dunno, that must be obvious to everybody watching international football tournaments.

Maybe I am naive here, but why don't you guys just found some new football clubs, like in the old days, and simply ignore the EPL? Obviousy there is not much connection to the fans in this league anymore anyways? Just wondering....

no one can say Italy play italian's style,now we are far more like spain

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...59843910_n.jpg

great game who say it was boring must had watched some other game.

Now Germany,the best team of Euro 2012,they have 2 days of rest more than us and they are far superior in attack.If we lose will not be a scandal,but if we are very lucky we can hope,btw germany vs italy were always great matches.

and watch as those talented kids are cherry picked by over seas teams? bringing in players means that the epl has been graced by the likes of bergkamp, zola, aguero... who on earth wouldn't want to watch that week in week out? i stopped giving a toss about the england team a long time ago.

Of the 4 games England-Italy was the only one worth watching. Spain-France, Czech-Portugal, Germany-Greece were snore fests.

Some people find the paraolympics exciting, too. I don't. If I want to see lame football, I only have check out the local teams. :D

Be sure, Hungary didn't even make it out of the qualifying phase to the 16.:)

I never cease to thank God for that :D

Some people is so unbelievably more clever than the rest of us that sometimes I wonder how noble and magnanimous they must be to condescend to communicate with us, lower beings :-D

Completely true. This isn't a little englander rant it's just that the EPL is now the league the world watches and for very good reason. However, for our national team the economics of the EPL dictate a trip up that creek sans paddle!

the new stipulation that each squad must have so many home grown players is an attempt to reverse/avoid the situation at l'arsenal, so it's a step in the right direction. i've always maintained that having the cream of the world's footballing talent, or a portion of it at any rate, is vital for the improvement and development of our young players - you play with quality you learn something from them. however there is also the issue that the coaches in this country place too much emphasis on a certain style of football - a particularly graceless one at that - and certain attributes for players. messi for one would've been discarded as being too small, whereas barca saw the ability and gave him hgh to try and make him less tiny.

I support Crystal Palace FC. We are second tier and occasionally make the EPL.......for a season.....:rolleyes:

And there we have it. Who do you 'support' Titus? One of those teams that isn't local to you just as one would choose which supermarket they prefer to shop at.........:cool:

That is kinda contradictionary in regards to what Osprey said. If there is not a propper youth training scheme because all the money goes to foreign players, what youth is supposed to learn from them?

well that's just balderdash, to be frank.

the financial fair play rules make developing youth players all the more vital, as you need to discover the next ronaldo and messi rather than buy them. some clubs have exceptional youth development set ups (such as manchester city, everton's is noteworthy as well as, of course, united. arsenal create some wonderful players as well. liverpool's used ot be good, but hasn't really produced anyone that comes to the top of my head since gerrard.) which, whilst they may not produce many players that walk into city's first team (hart and richards are currently the only two to have gone through it), do produce players that are capable of playing in the premier league or other top leagues in the world (guidetti on loan in the eredivisie last season was rather special i gather, onuoha, wright-phillips and barton at QPR, boyata at bolton), and are thusly sold. united's youth set up used to be quality as well, but their output has not lived up to the generation of scholes and giggs. only welbeck and cleverly are all that noteworthy of the current crop, but it's a bit early to say whether they are actually going to come good, or if they'll be a bit macheda. the problem for lower league teams is that they used to discover these players and sell them up the leagues for a profit. as the top flight now need to reduce expenditure and steal a march on their rivals they snap these kids up at any age from 11 for pennies, meaning the lower leagues are robbed of both revenue stream and of talent that may turn out for them for a couple of seasons, helping to earn promotion or higher league places before being sold. if anything, the less able players are sold down the leagues at more than it would have cost these teams to develop them, although it seems quite common that the top flight just release players from tehir contracts if they aren't going to make it, so they are free agents and can sign for whoever for nothing.

osprey, i'm a manchester city fan, like my brother, like my father and like my grandfather. my dad was born and raised in salford, and, after jaunts in edinburgh, eventually moved back within about 40 miles of manchester, where i was raised. i stood on the terraces in the kippax when i was 11. i've been to watch us play second division shite (and i mean old second division), i've seen your lot come to us when you were decent, i've watched in dismay as we play for a draw when we need a win to avoid relegation, i've been to wembley to watch us snatch salvation from gillingham... and i've seen us, finally, play the kind of football my childhood self was convinced we were capable of. to paraphrase somewhat, i've served my time in hell. to say that all clubs have disengaged from their fanbase is also to display a rather amusing level of ignorance. i can only speak for city but fan involvement and engagement is actually better than i can remember at any point in my life time. i remember one kind of fan involvement very vividly, namely protesting against swales' ownership of the club. now we have every season ticket holder's name emblazoned along the walls of the stair cases going up to the seats.

so you can take your supermarket analogy and stuff it.

The supermarket analogy stands, it just doesn't apply to you. But take note, 2 seasons with a filthy rich arab and you've started to talk like a glory seeker and 'believe' in the EPL. Maybe you didn't notice that.....

take over was in 2008, so that's four years. it's just two years of winning something. and it was certainly aimed at me.

i've always "believed" in the premier league set up, even when we weren't part of it. although how it is something to "believe in" i'm not quite sure. if you really think the reason the england national team performs badly is the influx of foreign talent then you are, quite honestly, parroting the slightly xenophobic excuse mongers among the tabloids. why were we rubbish before the premier league?

i knew a lad who, when he was 11, could hit a 60 yard ball to feet. this was around the same time that gullit was playing for chelsea, and him hitting a long cross field pass to feet earned replays. this lad was told he was too small - not tall enough and not broad enough, and got knocked back from a few trials he had with top flight clubs as a result, although he was, i believe, due to sign a youth contract with bolton shortly before he discovered fags, booze and recreational narcotics was more fun than the training involved. he would've made a superb false 10 - slight, wonderful close control, fast on the ball, eye for a threaded pass... all the kinds of things that people pay through the nose to watch someone like david silva do. coaching in this country, not the foreign players, is the problem. we play god awful football, and don't nurture talent. we'd turn players like iniesta and xavi into cloggers, or worse - injure them when they were kids, or bore the passion out of them with endless non-ball training.

Firstly, it was aimed at glory hunters, and you were talking like one. I don't include Man City in that group, most real fans don't, because all of the armchair plastic fans choose clubs with more recent titles.

If a player is not an athlete first then he won't make it wherever he is, no matter how good he is with his feet. Of course some will be missed but that happens anywhere. I assume you know that Messi was rejected early in his career? That said I already cited the failure of the FA and their old boys club in coaching from that very early age. Foreign players, who are better, make sure that a lot of young talent doesn't get first team football and the new EPPP will make that even worse - this has nothing to do with what idiotic tabloids write. I haven't time to complain about it now, I want to go home, and frankly there are better places than here to talk about it anyway. Go post your opinion of the EPL @ www.cpfc.org They aren't morons there like most football sites, well mostly, so you get a sensible debate.

And no, we weren't rubbish before the EPL. In fact, just before it in 1990 we were damn unlucky not to have won the World Cup, it was a very strong England team which came off the back of English domination of the European competitions up until Heysel got us banned.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...f3dP1/610x.jpg
:confused:

already seen a large influx of fans of the plastic ilk, since 2008 tbh. quite how i was talking like a glory hunter i do not know. there's a difference between being a plastic and revelling in success.

england have been quarter and semi-final fodder for ages, which isn't that bad really and makes out 8th place in the global rankings rather accurate, but we failed to even qualify for the '94 world cup. that the young talent doesn't get first team football is a bit of a fallacy, they just don't get it easily with the top premier league clubs. the emphasis of athleticism over ability is exactly part of the problem imo, the entire way the game is coached from 5 and up means we get athletes rather than players. you're right, they do need to have that athleticism, but if it is at the expense of nurturing skill then it's not being done with the right balance.

Anyway.................really looking forward to tonights game.
Come on PORTUGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah this is EURO 2012 thread, not 'The EPL model development thread'

lol

aye

spain v portugal should be an interesting game. can the spanish tiki taka keep the ball away from ronaldo and nani? not sure spain have quite the same explosive threat in attack, but they are overall a better outfit than portugal.

sorry if it sounded like a pun.. the hour's coming and i'm starting to get restless... it's not everyday we have the chance to send Spain home :-)

By all means, use that Chance :D
Imho Portugal vs Italy/Germany would make for a much more dynamic finale.

ehe thank you, we'll need all support we can get, i leave a tune to raise the mood to the game, since in a way it will be a match on witch both ends will be burning until one gets out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_r_...zpF&playnext=2

For what I've seen Spain is more boring than Portugal, with that silly Tiki Taka play. So ... ALLEZ PORTUGAL!

Well, penalities. Those Portugal guys really want to know it. Good luck!

Lips-read of Ronaldo: "there is no justice".

There is not. Then again, maybe there is. If Germany manages to beat Italy tomorrow.

Ronaldo not taking the first penalty - costly mistake for Portugal?

Spain looked better in extra time but I thought the match was a great example of two teams with skill and technical ability. Sometimes they cancel each other out and the match looks tedious but I enjoyed watching that game despite no goals. I hate penalty shoot outs but Spain won so best of luck to them in the final.

Spain really came off lucky here I think. They only really found their feet in extra time.

But Portugal's/Ronaldo's decision to not make him take one of the first penalties was costly.

I nominate Ronaldo for an Emmy. Why doesn't he grow some balls and be a man instead of a sissy.

+1

I can't stand him. I wanted Portugal to lose only because of him. The face he made when he realised his plan to save himself for the last penalty had back fired was priceless.

not lucky, yes " San IKER "

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CQoM1Ilz2E...0/san-iker.jpg

well, a tad dissapointed, but it was a good match.

I think we were superior tough, we clearly neutralized spain's tick tack game style, the only chances they had for 105 min were jsut lucky begginings, nothign really dangerous. On the other hand, spain did stop most of our attacks easely too. I dont think Spain was playign for the win, they stalled most of the match, and the decision to not place torres made that pretty clear.

Ronaldo did do a bad match. Pepe was amazing. Yes im dissapointed, but hte match was balanced and the result was right 0-0.

I knew we were going to loose in penaltys. Theyr GK is much better than ours, and he playes with 3 of our penalty markers. They were just better in the penaltys so.... fare and square i guess.

Now, i hope germany to win. And i have mixed feelings on the finals. I would rather see Spain win, im more of a spanish than a german, tough i liked germans perfomance better so far. and if they can neutrileze spanish game as we did, and keep the german brand of efficiency.....

of we go, 2 games still too see.

Spain was clearly a defensive team playing catenaccio and counterattacks during most of the regular time. Portugal improved their team play but at the expenses of Ronaldo performance. Portugal also succeeded in neutralizing the Tiky Taka with pressing for at least 70 minutes, then they ran out of fuel. Overall Portugal deserved to win for trying more. But there's no justice.
Now let's see if Italy recovered the 120 minutes of Sunday's battle. If they did I'm afraid that Germany's dreams will die tonight ... if not, Spain - Germany will be another blocked match with Spain's catenaccio and counterattack

Ccheers!.

AHHH, you're francaise, allez home ;)

Same here. I laugh at the way a few seasons in England he's managed to copy Johnny Wilkinson for every free kick as if it's some sort of trade mark. Sure enough though, since then he's managed to put ALL of his free kicks right over the crossbar :D

......more recent titles......

You need a few seasons of there or there abouts to join in that awful club. I preferred Man City when they brought 8000 down to Selhurst Park under the Niall Quinn Disco Pants era, real supporters, not some fat kids with London accents in the away stand like we get for the likes of Man U and Liverpool.

I don't think so, to my it was Spain who seemed to be slightly better although Portugal played its best with great pressure and counterattacks. Ronaldo could have scored instead of diving on the pitch everytime he saw a red shirt... Spain had only 2 solid chances and failed to score and could have lost in penalties. But in the OT especially they looked much stronger and deserved to win more imho. Interesting match, I quite enjoyed it - they're both great teams, great tactical match, as you'd expect in semi-finals.

yeah... ronaldo had a bad match, and thats a rel problem in the Portuguese team, they put too much weight on his shoulders. HE may be the best, but he cnat be perfect. Also he did dive a lot, but in a game with spain putting blame o any portuguese player for diving its criminal...

I simply say we won "taticacly" because this was a portuguese match, not the usual spain match, that was our acheivment. spains achievment was clearly not lettign has a worthy chance in normal gameplay. I think the only way we could have scored tough was indeed in counter-attack, but we clearly hadn't that trained....

I guess both teams could have won. i guess i just wanted to see the portuguese team winning more... ruined my night to an extent, we were kind of bored in the aftermath dinner.

I have to admit.... Im gettin' kinda nervous right now :D

Tell me about it : )

This has the potential to become an epic game

O.K., here we go. Don't mind who wins this one. Just as long as it's a good match and whoever wins goes on to beat Spain in the final!

My prediction is that germany will crush italy, but you never know....

Edit, 1-0 italy, what do i know!!!

uhmmm.... im still betting on a german win

what was that???

i may ahte ballotelly... but that goal, was one of the best ive seen on live TV.

What a great game! 2:0, but footbal is winning all along, unlike the 1st semifinals.

well.... clear winner was italy, was goign for germany till the last second tough.


NOW, SPAIN! go go go go.

Great game! Germany play like England and Italy play like Croatia, lol.

Lets hope Sundays final is as good a match as tonights was.

Never change a running system....Germany did and paid for it.

Sure, here you are


Ah ah, don't forget, I did say you were better than England! :grin:

Seconded hehe. :)

Excellent semi final, I really enjoyed watching this. Makes me even more sorry that we crapped our pants in the first half of the game vs. Italy.

Best match so far. Well deserved Italian win!

Always remember, you will have to thank the Italians for the removal of that Sig...three games late :D

Anyways, it pains me to say that, but Italy played absolutely fantastic. Imho one of the best, if not the best game in this tournament. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, the Italians used there chances so effectivly that it was out of this world. Those goals!

Totally going for Italy now in the finals, I so hope they will manage to beat Spain. Alas, Italy has a history of showing great performance against Germany and then slacking off. Hope that won't happen this time.

So, forza Italia!

On that performance you have to fancy Italy but it was 1-1 in the group stage against Spain so going to be tight. Should be a good final.

No mate I'm not French ... I live here ;-) and we didn't went home yet :-D

Ciao!

[TREE MODE ON]
As I told you Italy won this match. Don't say that I didn't warn you well before the match!

Bye!
PS: did I tell you that I told you in advance about Italy's victory?
[TREE MODE OFF]

Jokes apart, big honors to the German team. They plaid a great game, and as someone said it is the sport that won. By the way the match could have easily ended 3-2 for Germany, or 4-3 for Italy, or any other intermediate score. Quite close, but Italy deserved in the end.

And now let's hope that Spain quits that annoying catenaccio and tiki-taka and enters the field with the right aggressive menthality, for the sake of the show.

Cheers!

BTW what did CR say there in the end right after Fabregas made the winning penalty???

Very proud of my Italy tonight,btw great game by Germany that showed great agonism but always with a lot of fairplay and a very good football skill.
Remember that for italians Italy-Germany is THE GAME,we always play with blood in the eyes,this year with economical crysis our goal was beat Germany only to say F**k to Angela Merkel,we hate her here in Italy

3 games late? I said you wouldn't win it. Looks like I have a game in hand ;)

I watched the Italy v Spain game in the group and thought they were both fantastic. Italy have been the more consistent, Spain have ridden their luck at times and even looked frustrated when things didn't go their way (not that they deserved to lose any games). I picked Spain to win at the start but I think that Italy are going to do it. I'll miss the final because I'll be travelling back from the Duxford air show.

"Hurry up I need to apply my moisturiser"

Since England tied Italy 0-0 and Italy beat Germany 2-0 (disregarding the penalty goal), that means England is a better team than Germany, does it not? ;)