The Evo-Web Football Thoughts Blog

Silverdome94 said:
But there's very little jeopardy in the first round if four of the six third-place teams advance. We have a group in this tournament with Spain, Italy and Croatia in it, and all three of them are all but certain to go through; if it was only two advancing, that would make for much more compelling television.

It's a fine tournament, but it doesn't exactly explode out of the gate like a World Cup does or the previous Euros did.
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It’s exploded out of the gate 5-1 lol
I get what you’re saying though but there’s always jeopardy after the group stages.
 
ryudek said:
Can't wait... almost all groups are interesting/competitive. I think it's gonna be a great tournament: great teams, great host. I'm gonna go ahead with my predictions:
GROUP A: Germany, Switzerland and Scotland
GROUP B: Spain, Italy and Croatia
GROUP C: England and Denmark
GROUP D: France, Netherlands and Austria
GROUP E: Belgium, Ukraine and Slovakia
GROUP F: Portugal and Czech Republic

Spain will have a great tournament, I think they have the quality to win it. Austria or Ukraine are my candidates to take out a big team in the knockouts. Netherlands go out in the round of 16 and Germany in the quarter-finals.
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Don't sleep on Hungary. A recent loss to Ireland is too irrelevant because it's a friendly. They were still unbeaten in competitive games since September 2022 and might be the ones that will surprise people.

Here's my full predictions (traditional one used by the most YouTubers):
GROUP A: Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Scotland.
GROUP B: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Albania.
GROUP C: England, Denmark, Slovenia, Serbia.
GROUP D: France, Austria, Netherlands, Poland.
GROUP E: Belgium, Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania.
GROUP F: Portugal, Turkiye, Georgia, Czechia (Yep! I wanted Georgia to go further as debutants).
Best 3rd Place Teams: Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Georgia.

Second Round:
Spain over the Netherlands (another disappointing performance for the Dutch in the Euros), Germany over Denmark, Portugal over Italy (very close game, since it's a great matchup between the last 2 winners of Euros), Austria over Ukraine, Belgium over Switzerland, France over Turkiye, England over Georgia (see it going past the 90 minutes), Hungary over Croatia

Quarterfinals (This is literally a tough):
Germany over Spain
Portugal over Austria (desire won't be enough for the Austrians)
France over Belgium (Belgium couldn't get a revenge for the 2018 World Cup semifinal loss)
England over Hungary (might be the close game, but not enough for the Hungarians to continue their upset, so no repeat of the 4-0 win in 2022 Nations League match)

Semifinals:
Portugal over Germany
France over England (best game of the tournament)

Final:
France over Portugal (1-0, in a repeat of the Euro 2016 Final, but with opposite result!)

Some notes:
-Italy to go through in the last game against Croatia, which was a very close draw.
-Scotland will finish dead last in the group and even surpassed Turkiye's disappointing Euro 2020 performance by conceding so many goals (they had just got battered 1-5 by Germany in the opener and could have been a higher).
-Poland will surprise the Netherlands by picking up a draw in the opener, then simply lost to Austria and France.
-Both Austria and Hungary, two teams could surprise anyone.
-England will recover back from their disappointing performance vs Iceland by winning 2 games and drawing vs Denmark, but not good enough for them to win the whole thing. They will lose to France on extra time in the semifinal.
-Georgia will barely qualify for the Round of 16 as a debutants by beating Czechia.

Silverdome94 said:
I must say that, since it was expanded to 24 teams, it's become less interesting for me (16 is perfect). The tournament now really drags — it's a lot of matches to eliminate a third of the teams. I'd almost prefer the Euros to expand to 32 and have no third-place teams advance.

Saying that, I think it's going to be a France-Portugal final with Les Bleus lifting the trophy.
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Euro with 32 teams only increase the risk of bad injuries due to the additional 12 games. 24 teams is still good. The same format also applies to the AFC Asian Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). And you know that we still have a 32-teams Club World Cup and 48-teams World Cup in the next two summers.

Would be interesting to see Euro 2016 Final rematch happened this time around, with France winning it. We could have another France vs Italy major final in football - just like what happened in 2006 World Cup Final - coincidentally enough in Berlin's Olympiastadion, where this year's Euro Final also will be played. Italy must finish top on the Group of Death with Croatia and Spain to make this happen, which is unrealistic for them.
 
Watched Ecuador v Venezuela last night (Copa America) brilliant game, not as rigid as the Euros can be at times, its all guys on deck kinda football.
Bonus for my girlfriend running around the apt yelling (she's Venezuelan)
2-1 Venezuela.
Ps there's no Copa thread that's why I posted here
 
rockstrongo said:
Watched Ecuador v Venezuela last night (Copa America) brilliant game, not as rigid as the Euros can be at times, its all guys on deck kinda football.
Bonus for my girlfriend running around the apt yelling (she's Venezuelan)
2-1 Venezuela.
Ps there's no Copa thread that's why I posted here
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That's absolutely shame. I think most Evo-Web users are now focusing on Euro 2024, which is more important than Copa America.
My tournament favourites will be either Argentina, Uruguay, or Brazil.
 
PES4eva said:
@millossobek Good luck in the semi final vs Uruguay
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Thanks man. That's gonna be the stiffest test for sure! Both Colombia and Uruguay are having very impressive Copas, and with most likely Argentina waiting in the wings, they both are very motivated for sure!

I'm much more a Millos fan than an NT one, but thanks! It's gonna be a crackin' game with very different styles. :TU:
 
millossobek said:
Thanks man. That's gonna be the stiffest test for sure! Both Colombia and Uruguay are having very impressive Copas, and with most likely Argentina waiting in the wings, they both are very motivated for sure!

I'm much more a Millos fan than an NT one, but thanks! It's gonna be a crackin' game with very different styles. :TU:
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Don't let this guy fool you, he's been eating empanadas and arepas all day in preparation and fell asleep last night under his Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama blanket 😄
 
Silverdome94 said:
Don't let this guy fool you, he's been eating empanadas and arepas all day in preparation and fell asleep last night under his Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama blanket 😄
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Love El Pibe, what a legend! Here he is with current Millonarios Manager and Legend Alberto Gamero, I guess they go to the same barber!
:LOL:
:BSCARF:
 
A much deserved win for Colombia yesterday, the best and most exciting team to watch in the competition. Sad that Muñoz won't be in the final as he and James have been incredible for them, but I think they can go on and win it.

And as for Uruguay... what a bad loser. It always ends in a fight if they lose (not talking about Nuñez vs the fans since that has a different context, I'm talking about what happened right after the final whistle in the middle of the pitch). But if they win they love to provoke the rest.
 
Silverdome94 said:
Watching the Olympics, it is so relaxing not having any advertising on the side of the field. I am not missing any Betano or Qatar Airways ads and can just enjoy watching some footy...
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The Olympics football tournament is extremely underrated, especially when it comes to the quality of the particular game. The recent Argentina vs Morocco was even regarded as one of the worst game of all time for this case. There were so many chaos scenes in this game, particularly the last minute of play due to the harsh VAR decisions in the football (probably, the harshest one). Initially, Argentina scored a 2nd goal that would have equalled the game, but the referee somehow ruled out that goal under VAR intervention in the dying moments, and the ensuing brawls involving the fans of both sides worsened the situation. Argentina ultimately lost 1-2 in a game that ended after less than 2 hours. This might be a serious news for the football community. I don't want to see this beautiful game getting ruined by those shitty "VAR and hooliganism fiascos".
 
@rockstrongo - I'd like to thank the nation of Sweden for Jimmy Thelin.

Jokes aside, and although we've only played lower league opposition so far, what a difference. We would've struggled in those games in the last season or two regardless of the level. Four wins from four games and 15 goals scored - sets us up nicely!
 
Flipper the Priest said:
@rockstrongo - I'd like to thank the nation of Sweden for Jimmy Thelin.

Jokes aside, and although we've only played lower league opposition so far, what a difference. We would've struggled in those games in the last season or two regardless of the level. Four wins from four games and 15 goals scored - sets us up nicely!
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He did a great job at his previous club, so a good manager for sure
 
millossobek said:
That's crazy, bro.. I am always used to seeing Girondins in First Division, they are 6 time winners of Ligue 1!

Hope they can recover soon. It's always good to have historic teams in the top flight..
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I still remember how Girondins Bordeaux are used to be one of the powerhouses in Ligue 1. This is the club where Zinedine Zidane rose into one of the world's football legend. He won the World Cup and Euro with France, as well as 4 Champions League titles with Real Madrid (3 of which were done in a successive years as a club coach between 2016-2018). Also, the club somehow were in the Champions League quarterfinal stage back in 2010, where they came top of the group stage with Juventus and Bayern Munich. It's really shame why this club went a downhill so fast, just like clubs such as Deportivo La Coruna, Parma, Leeds United, etc.
 
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5 of the 8 Libertadores quarterfiinalists are Brazilian! Not too far from it being Copa Do Brasil at this rate. :LOL:

I like Brazilian teams in general but the financial difference between them and the rest of South American squads means that Libertadores is lacking variety. I cant remember the last time it was this lopsided.. Wouldn't mind seeing more countries represented in the knockout stage but it's looking difficult long term.
 
millossobek said:
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5 of the 8 Libertadores quarterfiinalists are Brazilian! Not too far from it being Copa Do Brasil at this rate. :LOL:

I like Brazilian teams in general but the financial difference between them and the rest of South American squads means that Libertadores is lacking variety. I cant remember the last time it was this lopsided.. Wouldn't mind seeing more countries represented in the knockout stage but it's looking difficult long term.
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The Brazillian Football, in general, was quite different when it comes to the success in clubs and national team. While the Brazillian clubs enjoyed a big success in the Libertadores with the last 5 winners being the Brazillians (Flamengo twice, Palmeiras twice, Fluminense once), plus the fact there was three occasions two Brazillian teams played in the Libertadores Final (2020, 2021, 2022) and all-Brazillian Finals in both Libertadores and Sudamericana back in 2021 (similar to what happened for the English clubs in Champions League and Europa League Finals back in 2019), the national team was nowhere else. They weren't quite safe for the CONMEBOL qualifiers of the World Cup after only achieved 2 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses (one particular defeat was against Argentina, which was the first time Brazil suffered a home defeat in the World Cup qualifiers). The team also got knocked out in the recent Copa America quarterfinals by Uruguay. But I'm very confident that Brazil national football team will bounce back in the World Cup qualifiers, even if they weren't in a good shape. Missing out the World Cup for the first time in history is really a "national shame" for Brazil, even worse than Brazil's 1-7 loss over Germany in the 2014 World Cup semifinal.

As for the Libertadores knockouts, it might be interesting to see another Brazillian teams winning this competition despite of Palmeiras' shock exit. Both Fluminense and Flamengo were still alive and either side might be the ones that will lift the trophy at the end. Botafogo will probably have an extra motivation after the infamous bottlejob in the league the last season (they had an absolute chance to win the league until that game against Palmeiras, where they somehow lost 3-4 after being 3-0 up in a controversial fashion). The only other club that should give a lot of attention other than the Brazillian clubs were River Plate from Argentina, but to a lesser extent. The belief for the Argentinians regarding River Plate's chance in Libertadores this year was the home advantage (this year's Final will be held in Buenos Aires). Basically, if River Plate won the Libertadores at the end, it will be very similar to Fluminense the last year, when they won the competition in front of their home fans at the Maracana Stadium.
 
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