EURO 2016 France - Group A

I actually don't think Albania parked the bus in the first half. They were great there. Neutralized France in a positive way. They wanted to secure a result and went defensive and parked it.

Not like Iceland yesterday where they really parked the bus to the full extent.

Hysaj is the real deal. Crushed Coman and Martial pretty easily.

His defensive capabilities was never in doubt, quite weird seeing Napoli splashing 20m for Fabinho

S wrote:Hysaj is the real deal. Crushed Coman and Martial pretty easily.

Couldn't stop Payet though

sportsczy wrote:PTB tactics are fantastic until you concede... so it looks great as long as you don't concede early.

France was experimenting in the first half and went back to its base players and system in the 2nd half and it showed.

i hate.... and I mean HATE... teams that only worry about defending and don't give a rat's arse about playing football. Those Italy teams that used this defensive tactic were LETHAL on the counter attack. This crap is bs.

So you want a team from a small country who never even qualified to any major tournament to counter like Italy who won WC and EC against a team who also won the WC and EC.

I do not care about the good game or anything like that with the team that we have. It is the first time ever that we play a major tournament and I am *bleep* proud of our team and I think we deserved at least one draw if not two from these games!

sportsczy wrote:PTB tactics are fantastic until you concede... so it looks great as long as you don't concede early.

France was experimenting in the first half and went back to its base players and system in the 2nd half and it showed.

i hate.... and I mean HATE... teams that only worry about defending and don't give a rat's arse about playing football. Those Italy teams that used this defensive tactic were LETHAL on the counter attack. This crap is bs.

stfu

sportsczy wrote:PTB tactics are fantastic until you concede...  so it looks great as long as you don't concede early.

France was experimenting in the first half and went back to its base players and system in the 2nd half and it showed.  

i hate....  and I mean HATE...  teams that only worry about defending and don't give a rat's arse about playing football.  Those Italy teams that used this defensive tactic were LETHAL on the counter attack.  This crap is bs.

Sports, France won't go beyond round of 16 if this is their game plan. Relying too much on individual brilliance vs a good team strategy will backfire on Deschamps sooner or later. If I were a french fan, I would be very concerned with today's performance.

In regards to ptb tactics, your nt is the france nt. Facing teams who ptb on you should be the norm given context of talent and stars. Deschamps is struggling with these minnows soon as tourney started. Albania do deserve their credit having said that. But that also condemns france and deschamps as well. Rather than dissing albania over their chosen style, I would recommend asking deschamps questions for today. A win is a win but you barely scrapped by here. Against germany or spain, would you have easily scrapped by there? I do not think so.

I care about playing a good game. You can defend like that, big team or small, while still having a coherent counter attack. That's football. But to PTB and then hoof it with a hope and a prayer.... that's butchering. It's not football. I'm not talking about being reckless. But at least have a rational counter attack plan. If you're so well organized defending then it stands to reason that you can also be organized going forward.

You deserve nothing. You played hard but thoroughly deserved to lose both games with the way you played.

Turok... we're better against teams that play = meaning the better teams. We always struggle against PTB because, frankly, we don't have a dominant CF that can make the difference in that much of a crowd. Our best players are very direct. So when you're facing teams that require patience, they have a hard time.

I always worry about not making it through these crap games.

Couldn't stop Payet though

Albania were pretty much done after Griezmann's goal.

Anyway, i also thought he was the best threat going forward especially in the first 45 minutes.In the 2nd half,the whole team was focused more on defending.

Tbh if Albania had more pace while in transition, they could've caused some serious problems against this shaky French defense.

A team like Wales with fast players like Bale and even Ramsey could easily make this team pay on the counter .

France still looks too uncomfortable for me, the way they play, their chemistry.
However, they won 2/2, deservedly so.

Cannot read much into the group games and ascertain their performances in the knockout stage.

After all, we've seen many teams absolutely destroy everyone in the groups only to stumble out of the competition early, and many teams who struggle in the group, scrape through and do well.

This French team has a ton of quality, I just wonder how that defense will hold up against a team that can attack- that's the real concern.

The goal Griezmann scored Veseli was at fault.He has the least games with our NT but unfortunately Ajeti was injured.
Also we consumed Sadiku too much,that's why our chances weren't supported by a real striker and were sporadic.

I also have to give kudos to Hysaj, i didn't believed much his hype especially at NT but he completely shut down Coman and Martial and even had time to put some decent crosses in.If he keep improving i can see him on a bigger club in 2 years.He's just 22.

Other good impression I had from Abrashi,our best mid in both games for me.

sportsczy wrote:I care about playing a good game.  You can defend like that, big team or small, while still having a coherent counter attack.  That's football.  But to PTB and then hoof it with a hope and a prayer....  that's butchering.  It's not football.  I'm not talking about being reckless.  But at least have a rational counter attack plan.  If you're so well organized defending then it stands to reason that you can also be organized going forward.

You deserve nothing.  You played hard but thoroughly deserved to lose both games with the way you played.  

u obvs never played futbol at even amateur competition level so i excuse ur ever so retarded comments for ur lack of brain.instead of having 12 thousand stupid posts every day go n play some football so lets see how u implement "rational counter attack plan"

This sporczy guy asks from Albania and other debutant teams to be a constant threat while big clubs like Italy do exactly the same.
The only way they are more effective is because they have more quality in players.
If you don't see that then it's your problem dude.

Albania tried to build up something but you can't expect us to have a deadly finish ffs.

What a terrible game.

France with 0 ideas and coherence, I mean, what was the plan today? no cohesion whatsoever from the players. They looked more like individuals than Belgium. Just poor from France.

Albania played a great first half and alright second but it was clear that they didn't have the talent upfront to do the damage. Great spirit, setup and effort but got tired and couldn't hit back.

I think it's stupid to expect all teams to play good football, most teams just don't have the talent. Albania would lose every game by atleast 3 goals if they even attempted to play such football. Instead they are present in Euro 2016 and didn't embarrass themselves in their first international tournament ever.

All I can say is thank you De Biasi for making us proud and challenging a potential Euro winner and the players aswell for giving everything they have.

Sports is just riding his French high horse, I wouldn't get too worked up by what he wrote. Albania did as well as they can over the 2 games. Yes, they are out but they could be proud of their performance. Hopefully they pick up at least a point next game just to make things look at least decent.

moutinho98 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:I care about playing a good game.  You can defend like that, big team or small, while still having a coherent counter attack.  That's football.  But to PTB and then hoof it with a hope and a prayer....  that's butchering.  It's not football.  I'm not talking about being reckless.  But at least have a rational counter attack plan.  If you're so well organized defending then it stands to reason that you can also be organized going forward.

You deserve nothing.  You played hard but thoroughly deserved to lose both games with the way you played.  

u obvs never played futbol at even amateur competition level so i excuse ur ever so retarded comments for ur lack of brain.instead of having 12 thousand stupid posts every day go n play some football so lets see how u implement "rational counter attack plan"

lol...  if you knew me, you would know how stupid this statement is.  I played organized top level footy and refused to accept a pro contract because my parents didn't want me to quit school.  But i did play until I was almost 16 and had very very very famous teammates.

I'm not saying Albania needs to play good football.  I'm saying it's ok to PTB if you also have a plan to counter attack.  If you just PTB and then hoof, it's crap.  It's effective.... but it's crap. 0-0 scoreline is the goal of the tactic otherwise and i just can't stand that.

Seen too many great teams in my time who fell victim to such tactics and it was a loss for football tbh.  Over pragmatism.

Regardless, I have yet to see a team so unconvincingly win 2-0 before today. Sports. You should be very concerned.

Albania had the best chances of the game in the first half, and in the second with the post they hit until France did the same...

Anyhow, congrats for making the Euro Albania. Fans were great. But I'm glad your team is out (most likely). Large, small or medium country... i don't give a shit. Crap football is crap football and the sooner such teams gtfo, the happier I am.

Awe, come on Sports you are being too modest!!!!


However since most of us don't consider la lique top level, you can hardy say the french youth lique TOP level.

rincon wrote:Albania had the best chances of the game in the first half, and in the second with the post they hit until France did the same...

60% possession.... 22 shots to 8 for France.

We played an experimental lineup in the first half and tried to rest Pogba and Griezmann. It didn't work. We switched back to a 433 and brought in Pogba at HT and then Griezmann at the 64th min. Turned the game.

When you experiment against a team that plays with 11 guys defending the goal... you're asking for trouble. First time we'd played a 4231 with Payet as the 10 and Martial/Coman wide to start a game. We only did this once before and it was late against Romania. But it's obviously a lot more scrambled late in a game against a tired side then to start a game. So those guys had a hard time.

It was not that bad of football though

Lol sports

Are you seriously suggesting Albania dint try to attack France today? Infact they looked a more threatening team than France trying to start as many attacks as they can but the lack of quality upfront meant all those threatening situations fizzled away.

Ridiculous to claim they came looking for a 0-0.