Philokles Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Germany really missed Gomez, which is a worry given that he is 30 and rather limited. There is no one coming through to replace him either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 I'll say this: Neuer, Ozil, Kroos, Howedes, these guys didn't deserve to be on the losing side. But the French were still worthy winners. Sign of a good match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Walker Texas Ranger Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 As a fan of the German National Team, though not a German, I'm ok with this. It definitely doesn't feel as bad as 2008, 2010, or 2012. Losing to a very good and balance team with home field advantage while struggling with injuries, suspensions, inherent squad imbalances and a bit of bad luck isn't that bad. At least they didn't lose to Italy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 It was a really horrible tournament for Thomas Mueller. The guy was among the candidates for a top scorer and he didn't score once, not even during the penalties. And it wasn't just bad luck, he really played badly, I was surprised Loew hadn't replaced him after the group stage. It was not a great match, though a good one, and a deserved win for France. Suprisingly my prediction France will win Euro is close to the goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefCurry Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Griezmann at the moment MVP! but... Miro Klose , Germany will miss for a long time, i'm sure! P.S. One of the best moments in this semi-final game was in 65 minute. Listening to Iceland fans chanting their famous "BOOO" or "HOO" they are amazing =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkash Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Damn, Hugo, you were impressive this whole match ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altherion Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 43 minutes ago, 3CityApache said: It was a really horrible tournament for Thomas Mueller. He didn't look like he was physically ready for the tournament. It's not just that he couldn't score, he wasn't running nearly as well as he did two years ago. And yes, Low should have let somebody else play, but I'm not sure that there was anybody better on the bench. Incidentally, people are still driving around the French town I live in and honking their horns. I suspect if the French win on Sunday, they'll be at it all night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 The Germans - stupidly throwing their hands in the air since the 1930s But seriously, they definitely missed Gomez. And I would like to think that with Hummels on the field, fewer mistakes would have been made in defense. Both Wales and Germany suffered in their games because of missing key players. I hope France wins and Griezmann is declared tournament player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Killer Snark Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Tried to commiserate with my German Twitter pal, but she wasn't having it. Told me she quit watching the match because she was too depressed once the penalty went in, and wished me 'good night'. Oh, dear. Hope she's feeling better. At the moment, I do wish I were French, though. They pretty much have this in the bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SerTarod Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Well done France! As I confidently predicted : we are off to the Euro Cup Shiny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Criston of House Shapper Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 I'm happy with this outcome and excited for the finals. Both teams would be deserving and I'm hoping for a good match. France has played better so far and it looks like getting Rami out of the defense has really stabilized things, but Portugal has played it very smart so far and could surprise people. Ronaldo did well in the semis, which of course means he will suck in the finals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 2 minutes ago, Criston of House Shapper said: Both teams would be deserving. Both teams that played last night would be deserving. Portugal wouldn't be the worst team to have won the Euros, but they'd be among the luckiest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Criston of House Shapper Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Just now, Emre Mor-mont said: Both teams that played last night would be deserving. Portugal wouldn't be the worst team to have won the Euros, but they'd be among the luckiest. Luck plays a big part in sports. I would argue that Portugal was very unlucky during the group stage, there were a couple of matches that they "should've won", and then there were those two completely random goals they received from Hungary. They've been much better in the knockout stage and if they beat France, arguably the best team so far, of course they deserve it. Both teams have only had one really tough opponent in the knockout stage, with Germany and Croatia, respectively, so let's not pretend that France didn't get lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Equally, let's not pretend that this Croatia side are equally difficult opponents to this Germany side, or that France's group wasn't significantly harder than Portugal's. France have home advantage, and that's a big plus, but Portugal have undoubtedly been lucky. They scraped through the group stage with three draws (and no, having watched those games, I don't believe Portugal deserved to win any of them), which - luckily - put them into a weaker side of the draw than if they'd actually stormed through the group. They then knocked out a poor Polish side on penalties (which notoriously involves luck), and their only normal-time win was over a much lower rated Wales side, who played probably their poorest match of the tournament. That said, sure, if Portugal beat France and put on a good performance they'll deserve to win. But they'll still have been very lucky to reach the final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 24 minutes ago, Criston of House Shapper said: I'm happy with this outcome and excited for the finals. Both teams would be deserving and I'm hoping for a good match. France has played better so far and it looks like getting Rami out of the defense has really stabilized things, but Portugal has played it very smart so far and could surprise people. Ronaldo did well in the semis, which of course means he will suck in the finals. Any team that wins the finals is a deserving champion, that's not debatable. That being said, because of their performance in the tournament so far Portugal would most probably be the least popular champion since Greece in 2004. And no, Portugal haven't "played it smart" so far, they have played poorly. Scraping a point from Iceland, Austria and Hungary each is not playing it smart, and couldn't possibly be considered as such by anyone other than most die hard Portugal fans. Portugal were even outplayed by Croatia but were lucky that Croatia were so bad when it came to finishing they couldn't score in that match if it went on for days. Portugal got to the semifinal without winning a single match after 90 minutes. That's another thing that can be used to call bullshit on your "played it smart" point of view. Wales is the only match that could be considered as well played by Portugal, and even that one was a rather boring affair. Portugal made it to the finals, and they deserved it and that is beyond dispute. What is also beyond dispute is that Portugal haven't played smart but played ugly, boring, ineffective football and caught some very lucky breaks to get this far. 9 minutes ago, Criston of House Shapper said: Luck plays a big part in sports. I would argue that Portugal was very unlucky during the group stage, there were a couple of matches that they "should've won", and then there were those two completely random goals they received from Hungary. They've been much better in the knockout stage and if they beat France, arguably the best team so far, of course they deserve it. Both teams have only had one really tough opponent in the knockout stage, with Germany and Croatia, respectively, so let's not pretend that France didn't get lucky. There is no such thing as a match you "should've won" or random goals conceded. Portugal failed to outscore their oponents and failed to defend well enough on those conceded goals. It is as simple as that. As Mormont said already, Portugal didn't look like they deserved to win any of those group stage matches and could easily be considered lucky to get a point off each of those rivals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Criston of House Shapper Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 2 hours ago, baxus said: Any team that wins the finals is a deserving champion, that's not debatable. That being said, because of their performance in the tournament so far Portugal would most probably be the least popular champion since Greece in 2004. And no, Portugal haven't "played it smart" so far, they have played poorly. Scraping a point from Iceland, Austria and Hungary each is not playing it smart, and couldn't possibly be considered as such by anyone other than most die hard Portugal fans. Portugal were even outplayed by Croatia but were lucky that Croatia were so bad when it came to finishing they couldn't score in that match if it went on for days. Portugal got to the semifinal without winning a single match after 90 minutes. That's another thing that can be used to call bullshit on your "played it smart" point of view. Wales is the only match that could be considered as well played by Portugal, and even that one was a rather boring affair. Portugal made it to the finals, and they deserved it and that is beyond dispute. What is also beyond dispute is that Portugal haven't played smart but played ugly, boring, ineffective football and caught some very lucky breaks to get this far. There is no such thing as a match you "should've won" or random goals conceded. Portugal failed to outscore their oponents and failed to defend well enough on those conceded goals. It is as simple as that. As Mormont said already, Portugal didn't look like they deserved to win any of those group stage matches and could easily be considered lucky to get a point off each of those rivals. Of course they got a little lucky and if you look at the results, Portugal hasn't delivered. But they played better than their opponents in the group stage in every single match (which is what I meant by they "should've won"), they just couldn't score, which was their biggest flaw, and in the Hungary-match they knew that a draw would be enough and played accordingly when the score was tied. They had some problems against Croatia, but were the smarter team, winning with a counter attack shortly before the time was up. I didn't watch most of the Poland-game, I heard it was really poor. But against Wales they were clearly the better team. My point is, Portugal didn't get any more or less lucky than France, who had some very weak opponents in the group stage. Then there was the Ireland-game, which was very poor. The Iceland-match was good for the first half, then they sort of quit. And half of the Germans were injured. It took an incredibly dumb hands-penalty to even get into the game. It could easily have gone the other way, if the Germans had closed the deal early on. So let's not kid ourselves, both teams played well at times, both of them played poorly at other times, and both are lucky to be here. People just hate Portugal for some reason, and it's been that way since the beginning of the tournament. I guess haters gonna hate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 We were definitely watching different games if you say Portugal played better than their opponents in every match of the group stage. No, Portugal weren't the smarter team against Croatia. They were as toothless as possible, shooting twice on target in 120 minutes played, both in the same play. That's not smart, that's ineffective, defensive, shut out for almost the whole duration of the match. Portugal didn't CHOOSE to play that way, they WERE UNABLE to play in any other way. The only reason Portugal advanced to the quarterfinals is that Croatia were even worse on the night. Portugal reached the finals and we'll see what they do on Sunday. It's a great result, congratulations to them and may their fans celebrate it as much as they want. But saying getting to the finals proves that Portugal is a great team that outplayed opponents (except Wales) in any single way in this tournament is plain ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 France should win, and besides the obvious reasons (home advantage, higher overall quality of players), there is also their evolution through this tournament. Sure, Portugal's evolution has some similarities, namely both coaches struggled in the group stage to find the best team from the players they had. But France having faced Germany have had a more complete set of adversaries to go through. They dominated most of the games they had, and had to learn to break tough defenses such as Iceland's. They won a game by coming from behind against Ireland. And against Germany they had to figure out how to play defensively and strike with counters. Portugal, whether they played more dominant teams like Croatia, or had to be the dominant team themselves, only managed to win one game outright so far. That being said, Portugal could very well be the Greece of this tournament - sneak their way into the final and they have to beat the host team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 And should Portugal win this tournament, they will be considered the same as Greece in 2004 - deserved champions but oh so boring and hard to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucailduca Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 4 minutes ago, baxus said: And should Portugal win this tournament, they will be considered the same as Greece in 2004 - deserved champions but oh so boring and hard to watch. I'd say even worse: Portugal should play better, given their technical players while Greece couldn't do better. Anyway one of the worst finals ever: two lucky and mediocre teams, that both faced only one decent opponent (and when they played their worst game) in 6 matches: Croatia and Germany. Look at Italy: they had to face Belgium, Spain and Germany. They showed great football and were eliminated only after 18 freaking penalties. Still no one will remember them in 2 months, but everyone'll remember the crappy "winner". 4 hours ago, baxus said: Any team that wins the finals is a deserving champion, that's not debatable. I get your point, which is sportsmanship at its best, but honestly I can recall a lot of non deserving champion that "won" their finals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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