I thought you always want to see strong match-ups from early on...

Historically, sure. But the way England, Germany and France have been playing lately?

You have to think one match at a time. And Germany only starts properly when it comes to the knock-outs anyway. ^^

UEFA handing El Kommander a free path to the final if he can top his group consisting of Hungary, Austria, and Iceland

How did we not win our group

Could have gotten to a final ffs.

Don't call me James wrote:UEFA handing El Kommander a free path to the final if he can top his group consisting of Hungary, Austria, and Iceland

Eh ? He's gotta beat Belgium first who are a similar level team.

Infact, he's got to beat Hungary first before making such statements.

Don't call me James wrote:UEFA handing El Kommander a free path to the final if he can top his group consisting of Hungary, Austria, and Iceland

This is actually pretty true. If Portugal avoid the bottom half of the bracket, Ronaldo will walk to the finals. Portugal isn't playing all that bad, they are creating a bunch of chances and what not, just aren't finishing. Once they start scoring they will be a good enough side out there

I knew this 24 country tournament would be a mistake!! Now it is all the (pre tournament) favorites in one half of the bracket. Only team not on this side that was rated by some is Portugal. I think we'll see Croatia in the final.

Let's see if they beat Hungary first. They haven't been able to grind out a single win in the tournament so far.

One bracket has teams that have won 11 World Cups, the other side has no World Cup winning team. Quite amazing as a result.

UEFA isn't handing anyone anything all these  big teams  had to do was win their fairly winnable groups to prevent this bracket from happening .

Could honestly see Hungary winning against this weak Portugal team

farfan wrote:UEFA isn't handing anyone anything all these  big teams  had to do was win their fairly winnable groups to prevent this bracket from happening .

Italy was one of the first teams to win its group. It did not help them at all. Belgium which will come second is rewarded. See the problem?

CBarca wrote:If that's your viewpoint then alright.

Personally I would put in my best lineup tonight to try and win because a third place finish means you're facing Spain or Croatia. A runner up finish isn't all that bad, but going for the win on the other hand has you up against some shite third placed teams

Had no idea that a runner up finish puts England on this side of the bracket

Hodgson making six changes

Henderson

breva wrote:

farfan wrote:UEFA isn't handing anyone anything all these  big teams  had to do was win their fairly winnable groups to prevent this bracket from happening  .

Italy was one of the first teams to win its group.  It did not help them at all.  Belgium which will come second is rewarded.  See the problem?

Their problem is that Spain couldn't win their group .

Had Spain and England won their groups as expected , we would've had 2   strong brackets (  France , Germany  , Italy , Croatia   vs  Spain , England , Portugal  ..... )

At least for France, it's fine.  Having tough games from the QF stage until the end is typical in such tournaments.  Getting a difficult opponent at the 1/8 stage is unlucky and not having one until the semis is fortunate.

For us, it's a normal path.

Portugal would face Belgium if the finish first.  Poland and Croatia will likely face each other in the QFs.... so i don't consider them having an easy road.

Having storied histories means very little to me. It's about how good you are in the present and Croatia, Belgium and Poland are all good teams in the present... especially Croatia.