UEFA has removed the referee of the England-Ukraine game and his assistants from the rest of the tournament.

Finally a night where all of us can sleep at a more normal hour!!!

QFs from 2moro...late nights again, followed by lethargic days at office:)

My semifinalists are


As for England...they have managed to stay unbeaten in their three matches, but have been rather poor in their play. Har din sunday nahi hota....lekhin they are playing their match on a sunday, so you never know :P

I don't think neither Italy is playing any good football it is known for. I would rate England slightly ahead of Italy coz for 2 reasons:
1. Midfield, esp. Gerrard & Parker in scintillating form.
2. Return of The Rooney!!!

I hope Roy Hodgson replaces Welbeck with Carroll in the starting line up, coz he is much more stronger, both physically & in the air.
On a more Happy note, elated to see England in the quarters!!!

Puys,

What is your take on the Goal line clearance from Terry last night,

John Terry Goal Line Save England vs Ukraine Euro 2012 1-0 - YouTube

I do not think that was a goal..he just managed to fend off the ball didn't he??

the ref had just 1 job and he couldn't do it .
On a lighter note his wife would be safe from terry.
That was a goal for sure.

My semifinalists are

Portugal
Greece
France
Italy

I don't think Spain has looked nearly as good as the previous tournaments. Villa is a big big miss and in the matches against Italy and Croatia, he would have made the difference as he did in the WC. The defense isn't that strong either....Arbeloa has been poor for few months now barring the bayern/barca week where he was quite decent. Pique has been making too many mistakes and has made brainfarts a regular part of his game. Alba is young but currently is a downgrade from Capdevila. Xavi and Xabi both are not in the WC form.

Iniesta has been the best player, with Silva, Casillas and Fabregas putting in good performances. Busquets has been quite bad too especially against Italy. He needs to be dropped for Cesc. I am amazed Llorente hasn't got a look in atleast as a sub...I think he deserved the chance more than Negredo.

As for England...they have managed to stay unbeaten in their three matches, but have been rather poor in their play. Har din sunday nahi hota....lekhin they are playing their match on a sunday, so you never know :P

I am amazed you chose Greece, U like upsets..don't you? he he
Spain have been Bad but I feel France have shown their vulnerability the last game..so anything is possible
If your prediction go right certainly we would find some ripples going through the Fantasy Manager standings!! ATB

Puys,

What is your take on the Goal line clearance from Terry last night,

John Terry Goal Line Save England vs Ukraine Euro 2012 1-0 - YouTube

I do not think that was a goal..he just managed to fend off the ball didn't he??

Close but I think it's clearly over the line...so Goal

My semifinalists are

Portugal
Greece
France
Italy

I don't think Spain has looked nearly as good as the previous tournaments. Villa is a big big miss and in the matches against Italy and Croatia, he would have made the difference as he did in the WC. The defense isn't that strong either....Arbeloa has been poor for few months now barring the bayern/barca week where he was quite decent. Pique has been making too many mistakes and has made brainfarts a regular part of his game. Alba is young but currently is a downgrade from Capdevila. Xavi and Xabi both are not in the WC form.

Iniesta has been the best player, with Silva, Casillas and Fabregas putting in good performances. Busquets has been quite bad too especially against Italy. He needs to be dropped for Cesc. I am amazed Llorente hasn't got a look in atleast as a sub...I think he deserved the chance more than Negredo.

As for England...they have managed to stay unbeaten in their three matches, but have been rather poor in their play. Har din sunday nahi hota....lekhin they are playing their match on a sunday, so you never know

From what I saw in the replays, here are my observations:

1. The ball was well past the goal line when Terry cleared it (Goal should have been given).

2. Platini's much publicised extra official was looking at it from point blank range and still made the wrong decision!!! (Two extra officials are paid for just that and they can't even do it properly)

Puys,

What is your take on the Goal line clearance from Terry last night,

John Terry Goal Line Save England vs Ukraine Euro 2012 1-0 - YouTube

I do not think that was a goal..he just managed to fend off the ball didn't he??

Euros definitely living up to the expectation of being the most competitive International football tournament..
Teams like Russia, Croatia, Denmark and Poland could be said to be unlucky to have not made it further, but thats the way it is, a few have to go out
Netherlands deserved to be out, ego clashes, team selection all went awry this time,,,,Robben was the worse for me
Italy to be honest showed some good football, tactical acumen, and a decent squad..they are flexible in approach, 3-5-2, 4-4-2 tried, I guess the latter was employed better,,but one thing is for sure Prandelli has changed the style of play, it is not " defend till you die" approach...
On the other hand England seem to be the new Italy (defensive style of play), Tactically getting it rite, they mite have conceded but I find them sorting their defensive woes..I feel England would march on
Spain have been On and off, they have no plan B as usual when tiki taka just does not produce goals, Croatia nearly had them knocked out,
However they still are the Champions, and expect the champions to play like champions
France have shown decent enough game, Ribbery Nasri Cabaye have all been good,,the problem has been Benzema not providing them with goals and run into the box as frequently as required..
Germany the most professional, lethal, hungry looking team, Should breeze through to semis..
Portugal could not have asked for better chance to get through to semis..Cr7 can boost up his fight towards the golden boot..Czech are not bad,,he is just to good (if it is his day)

My take on Semifinalist
Germany, Portugal, England, Spain

man_05 Says

@barcaboy, A slight correction to ur semifinal lineups. The winner of Czech Republic-Portugal will face the winner of Spain-France, while the winner of Germany-Greece will face the winner of England-Italy.

Thanks for the correction @man_05 .That makes the route for spain a litter easier than ther germans as they will be facing an easier team in the semis than Joaqim Low's men

The france result last night mite suit spain a lot.They would definitely prefer facing france in the quarters than eng coz the english defence would draw a leaf from the chelsea book and definitely looks much more organized than that of france.

They would have caused a lotta problems to the spanish tiki taka.As a pleasant corollary France have being trying to emulate spain's game of passing to death and have been beaten at that by the tournament fringers sweden so they might be in a soup to rework their strategies.

And copying spain against spain is definitely not a good idea coz the total footballers of spain would boss the game and tell the french who the daddy is :biggrin:.

So france definetely needs to come up with more solutions on how to breach the spanish armada.When it comes to spain,they'll be more than waiting for the french encounter to begin.

@barcaboy, A slight correction to ur semifinal lineups. The winner of Czech Republic-Portugal will face the winner of Spain-France, while the winner of Germany-Greece will face the winner of England-Italy.

My predictions went for a toss again!!!:sneaky:

Anyway, France are in a real spot now. Not only is their 23 match unbeaten run over, they get the "reward" of facing Spain next. What a goal by Ibra though!!! It's definitely my pick for goal of the tournament so far.

After the Oranje saga in the edition the first big upset with france going hands down to sweden.Ibra may have proved a point to all his critics.
As a result france will space the spanish armada and eng run away safe to face italy.

quarter final 3 : spain vs france
quarter final 4:england vs italy

definitely look more mouth watering than a germany vs greece or portugal vs czech.

My predictions for the semi final clashes

germany vs portugal and spain vs italy

Prediction
Eng 3-ukr 0
fra 2 -swe 0
thrilling qf's coming up after today
@barcaboy:-if u can't beat them u don't deserve to be above them,as simple as that.
Ex:-if a team goes down to 10 men loses 4-0,5-0 etc in a game that doesn't mean they are out of the tournament or the winner definitely should progress.
I like the rules,they are fairer than goal difference by far.

Coming to my predictions for today:

England 2 Ukraine 1
France 2 Sweden 1

France to face Italy, England to meet Spain

barcaboy Says

UEFA seems to be really twisting and tweaking the rules for promotion in case of a group stage point clash a lot.Feel sad for russia a lot,they would have offered much better competition to germany than greece .Netherlands have themselves to blame for all their misery.They are the only elite nation to not notch up a single point on their table. They need some rebuilding for sure and Croats lacked luck yesterday but being pinned in a group containing Spain and Italy meant that they had to performout of their skins which sad to say they didnt

Regarding Russia, they choked when it mattered. The Dutch have too many big egos in their squad (Robben, Van Persie etc.). Croatia was unfortunate yesterday. But , teams are now regularly using the Chelsea template to stifle the tiki-taka.

barcaboy Says

UEFA seems to be really twisting and tweaking the rules for promotion in case of a group stage point clash a lot.Feel sad for russia a lot,they would have offered much better competition to germany than greece .Netherlands have themselves to blame for all their misery.They are the only elite nation to not notch up a single point on their table. They need some rebuilding for sure and Croats lacked luck yesterday but being pinned in a group containing Spain and Italy meant that they had to performout of their skins which sad to say they didnt

I agree. In Group A, we had the freakish scenario where the group winner had a negative goal difference!!! Will be the end of the road for Arshavin, Kerzhakov etc.

barcaboy Says

If i read that right....did u just say 1.29 SECONDS?? dude must've been minutes

yeah ..my mistake ...will edit it..it would be 1 min 29 secs..

Some facts about CR7 in the match against Netherlands

1. CR7 hit 12 shots targeting the net in the match against Netherlands.In the last 32 years of Euro no player has been able to target the ball at the goal box this number of times in a single match.

2.He is now amongst the top 3 goal scorers from Portugal with 33 goals toppling Figo.Only two players are ahead of him at the moment-Pauleta (47) and Usebio (41).

3.His ball possession has been increasing day by day...against Germany it was .49 seconds,against Denmark 1.01 seconds and against Netherlands it was 1.29 seconds.

If i read that right....did u just say 1.29 SECONDS?? dude must've been minutes

Some facts about CR7 in the match against Netherlands

1. CR7 hit 12 shots targeting the net in the match against Netherlands.In the last 32 years of Euro no player has been able to target the ball at the goal box this number of times in a single match.

2.He is now amongst the top 3 goal scorers from Portugal with 33 goals toppling Figo.Only two players are ahead of him at the moment-Pauleta (47) and Usebio (41).

3.His ball possession has been increasing day by day...against Germany it was .49 seconds,against Denmark 1.01 mins and against Netherlands it was 1.29 mins

This edition of Euro has been extremely harsh on few teams. Teams like Russia, Denmark, & Croatia deserved a spot in the quarters, but alas! They played some quality football, & entertained the viewers. They really displayed teams-man-ship & demonstrated that U need not have "Stars" in your line-up to stand apart.
Lets see what surprise is in store for tonight.

UEFA seems to be really twisting and tweaking the rules for promotion in case of a group stage point clash a lot.Feel sad for russia a lot,they would have offered much better competition to germany than greece .Netherlands have themselves to blame for all their misery.They are the only elite nation to not notch up a single point on their table. They need some rebuilding for sure and Croats lacked luck yesterday but being pinned in a group containing Spain and Italy meant that they had to performout of their skins which sad to say they didnt

This edition of Euro has been extremely harsh on few teams. Teams like Russia, Denmark, & Croatia deserved a spot in the quarters, but alas! They played some quality football, & entertained the viewers. They really displayed teams-man-ship & demonstrated that U need not have "Stars" in your line-up to stand apart.
Lets see what surprise is in store for tonight.

Full on in both of my yesterday's prediction..Italy-Ireland and Spain Croatia...

for today my predictions

Eng 2 -Ukraine 1

France 2- Sweden -0..

Croats sure learnt from Chelsea and Italy all thats needed to stifle the tiki taka masters ,but one has to say that lady luck decided not to join their cause last nite or else it could have been a completely different story altogether.

The La Rojas need their think tank to work on solutions for problems of deliverance of their forwards in big matches.Spain were completely unbeatable till the last 20 yards of the croat goal where they were up against a wall,and it was only for some brilliance from iniesta that they could breach it.

By the looks of it,they may end up facing england in the quarters.And terry might draw a page or two from the chelsea books:sneaky:.

Italy's display was needed and balotelli shot home a heroic goal.
But they may end up facing France in the next round and i have my reservations for their performance against the Les Blues who have admitted to be emulating the spanish side in this edition.

My predictions for today
Eng 2 Ukraine 1
France 1 Sweden 0

Portugal vs Holland Euro 2012 Result: 2-1

28368

Hurray PORTUGAL made it to the Quaterfinal of EURO-2012.

The way I see Group D's fate, it seems the most vital match of this group would be Spain vs Croatia.

Critics everywhere have written Republic of Ireland off for this match, and expect them to bow down easily to the 2006 World Champions.

And hence the pressure would be on Croatia to come out as the better side of their tie with the World No 1 team!

I personally feel that the bookies would be the happiest with the uncertainty of the outcome giving them the best opportunity to make some quick bucks.

In my opinion, the scores would be like this.

Italy 1-1 Republic of Ireland
Croatia 1-2 Spain

In spite of my love for the Italians, I still feel, its an outside chance for them to go through into the group stages, as all the eyeballs and spotlight on the Spain-Croatia match would mean Ireland will be ignored, and they'll bounce back as a surprise!

A big match coming up between Spain and Croatia ...my prediction either 1-0 or 2-1...however i keep my fingers crossed..Croatia is the dark horse in this years tournament..lets see what awaits both the players and the match viewers..

Italy 2- Ireland 0

Interesting group today..Spain has a leeway after a thumping of ireland.
My predictions for today

Spain 2 Croatia 1

Italy 3 Ireland 0

Spain and Italy to qualify in that order


Croatia will understand the importance of this encounter as if spain and croatia draw then italy need to beat ireland by a 3 goal difference in order to qualify.

Italy has to go all guns blazing today against the minnows.Their performance against croatia was not very commendable.The lone goal came off a set piece.They need Cassano and Ballotelli to fire today for sure.

My predictions for today:

Germany 3 Denmark 1

Portugal 2 Netherlands 2

Germany and Portugal to qualify

Crazy Insane Rules of Euro:-


1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question

2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)

3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)

4. If, after having applied rules 1 to 3, two teams still have an equal ranking, rules 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams.
If this procedure does not lead to a decision, the following rules 5 to 9 apply in the order given:

5. superior goal difference in all group matches

6. higher number of goals scored in all group matches

7. position in the Uefa national team coefficient ranking system

8. fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament)

9. drawing of lots.


Edit:- For this reason only matches are played at the same time on the last day.Else teams playing second would be knowing the goal difference or the points they need to qualify and may approach the game in a different way.

This makes it tricky for Italy too because if Spain and Croatia draw 1-1 then goal difference in all group matches will be considered.So, Italy need to score at least 4 goals.
If either of Spain and Croatia lose then it would be the heart break for the losing team.I hope it's not Spain.

Italy fear a repeat of Euro 2004. Just like then (it was Denmark and Sweden that time), a 2-2 or higher draw between Spain and Croatia will eliminate the Italians irrespective of their result against Ireland.

Crazy Insane Rules of Euro:-


1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question

2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)

3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)

4. If, after having applied rules 1 to 3, two teams still have an equal ranking, rules 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams.
If this procedure does not lead to a decision, the following rules 5 to 9 apply in the order given:

5. superior goal difference in all group matches

6. higher number of goals scored in all group matches

7. position in the Uefa national team coefficient ranking system

8. fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament)

9. drawing of lots.


Edit:- For this reason only matches are played at the same time on the last day.Else teams playing second would be knowing the goal difference or the points they need to qualify and may approach the game in a different way.

This makes it tricky for Italy too because if Spain and Croatia draw 1-1 then goal difference in all group matches will be considered.So, Italy need to score at least 4 goals.
If either of Spain and Croatia lose then it would be the heart break for the losing team.I hope it's not Spain.

Phew!!! Group 1's climax has stunned Europe!!!

Everyone (myself included) expected Russia and Poland to qualify. Instead, the unspectacular but solid Czechs and Greeks made it.

Unfortunately, Karagounis'll miss the QF (huge loss for Greece and in his absence, will be hard 4 them to go further).

I expect both qualifiers from Group B will fancy their chances against the Greeks and Czechs. But, gr8 achievement for these teams to make it this far, against all odds.:)

Germany to go through comfortably and Portugal will go through as well...
Portugal never lose to the dutch ..its been 20 years since they last lost..and this time around dutch have the same bad luck as they did in 1980 wen they were runners up 2 years before...history just keeps repeating..in football atleast..portugal to win 1-0 or 2-1 or even a draw 2-2
I cant germany doing anything else apart from beating denmark 2-0 or even 3
They have won 13 competitive matches on the trot..all time german record..make it 14 tonite..

ShivamSudarshan Says

If it's a draw in the germany game then Denmark will go through.

what if portugal beat dutch ??
Prediction-ger 3-0
1-1 draw for porugal and dutch.
Germany ,germany,go get it!!

Russia had a goal difference of +2 and greece had 0 but on head to head basis greece beat russia 1-0 so,they were through......is it so??


if yes,then how can dutch qualify even if they even if even if they score 10 goals......because denmark beat them 1-0 so on head to head denmark will be through.

I don't know the rules if their is a tie but my brother told me that this his how russia got eliminated...still can't digest it

I see some fallacy here because every one is saying dutch can still qualify but how?

Please explain ??
Don't wanna take the pain of searching and reading the rules:biggrin:

ps:fantasy mein to watt lag gayi

ShivamSudarshan Says

If it's a draw in the germany game then Denmark will go through.

oh yessss... sorry.. my bad..

If germany beats denmark 2-0 then netherlands even with a 1-0 victory over portugal can qualify to the quarterfinals.

If its a draw in german match then a 2-0 victory will be needed for orange..

Interestingly enough it doesnt sound too difficult for the dutch tonight.. I think they will qualify............................... :)

If it's a draw in the germany game then Denmark will go through.

If germany beats denmark 2-0 then netherlands even with a 1-0 victory over portugal can qualify to the quarterfinals.

If its a draw in german match then a 2-0 victory will be needed for orange..

Interestingly enough it doesnt sound too difficult for the dutch tonight.. I think they will qualify...............................

Group B can get very cute tonight.

Probable result today is a German and a Dutch win.

And we'll have Portugal,Denmark,Holland all on 3 points. So we go down to goal difference. Had it been a two way tie, we would have looked at head to head results.

So Russia (possibly the 2nd best looking team after Germany) went out on head to heads and Holland may go through on goal difference!!

That is why we love football

I lost hope on Oranje after that loss against Germany .

But Greece Wild card entry has given me some hope

I hope they play well as team today :grin:

Go Oranje Go

No one would have expected Greece to bounce back and kick Russia out of the tournament!
...
Group A concluded!

Czech Republic and Greece walk on, while Poland and Russia move on! :biggrin:

Russia knocked out!! :w00t:
Seriously! No one gave the Greeks a chance :biggrin:
Group B quarter-finalists seem to have an easy road now.
Excited for both matches today. The Group of Death!
May the better team win!

P.S - What if Netherlands qualify

No one would have expected Greece to bounce back and kick Russia out of the tournament!

Both my friends here have made wrong predictions for both the matches.


Final Score:
Russia 0-1 Greece
Czech Republic 1-0 Poland


Group A concluded!

Czech Republic and Greece walk on, while Poland and Russia move on!

My predictions for today:

Russia 3 Greece 1
Poland 2 Czech Republic 1

Bhai Log,
Sorry to come up with a question again!!
Dose activating Wild card in Fantasy football mean u can keep on transferring players throughout the matchday??

Illustartion: If I are to activate Wild card today can I ,make free transfers till 19 before the last game??
Confused..

No.
Changes till today 12:00 midnight.

Today's prediction ->

Czech 1:2 Poland
Russia 2:1 Greece

Yahoooo is out of reach at the moment. 126 :w00t:

Who would have expected Menez 2 shine 4 France yesterday? 23 games unbeaten now...Les Bleus aren't dark horses, but serious contenders.

Bhai Log,
Sorry to come up with a question again!!
Dose activating Wild card in Fantasy football mean u can keep on transferring players throughout the matchday??

Illustartion: If I are to activate Wild card today can I ,make free transfers till 19 before the last game??
Confused..

how can u judge the gender of a person on the basis of a pg name.. ???

but i agree with u sports are not a famous issue among girls in india.. dont know why is that so..???

every sport can be played by a female.. in india females are still abstaining from these.. cant understand any reason..

I was just going through the names of all those who already have voted on this poll above, and it made me realize one thing.

"HOW MANY GIRLS ARE SUBSCRIBED TO THIS THREAD, AND FOLLOW EURO DISCUSSIONS HERE? ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS I AM SURE ARE NONE."

Football too, it seems to me is a male dominating sport in India.
Though I know a few girls who know a lot more than CR7, Messi, Kaka about football! But its a dying breed I tell you.

Sweden 2 : England 3

Walcott simply mesmerizes!!

Hither-thither, nerve jangling game wherein the 3 Lions scrapped through knocking the Swedish out of fray..
France on the other hand proved why they are the Dark horses this year

Ahhh! Got a reason like I needed one

A certain BLONDIE in my team for the next round

i apologize for predicting that Spanish victory wont be that easy.. i said in an earlier post that spain will win 2-0 only they won 4-0 over ireland..

i think only THE GREAT WHITE SHEAMUS is worthy of being called an irish man.. :(

You were right mate. Who would have thought that Torres would have netted two :biggrin:

On a more serious note, I am really happy that Torres did that :).


At last any of my prediction came true.

I think group D can more entertaining than other group since Ukraine have gone ahead of the pack.

Today will be very crucial for other three teams. Sweden definitely need to get something out today.

Prediction =>
France - Ukraine =2:1
I think Ukraine have shown enough promise in the first match to give France a challenge today.

England 1:1 Sweden

France 3 : 0 Ukraine; Ribery - 2 goals, Debuchy - 1
England 1:0; Ox - 1 goal.

Lucky thing that I got Ribery(c), Debuchy, Ox and Lescott in my team

Seriously though hope OxC starts agn....he did quite well I thought in the first game. Di Natale not starting hurt my team :/

france 3-1 ukaraine
england 1-1 sweden

Group C has been jokingly referred to as the Group of Debt!!!

Neway, gr8 performance by the World and European champs yesterday nd I don't c dem letting up against Croatia.

my predictions

England 1-Sweden 1

France 1- Ukraine 0

No body said that the group C is group of death..but Croatians definitely justifying their FIFA rankings
Spain need another point atleast to be through, so everything still to play for..
Italy despite being so good find themselves on the verge of elimination, will on vacation Irish do anything to trouble the Azzurri progress?? I doubt..sadly Croatia may have to pack their bags.
Today's Prediction
England 1-0 Sweden
France 2-1 Ukraine