Has any National Team ever gotten such an easy road to the Euro final?

Iceland- D
Austria- D
Hungary- D
Croatia- D
Poland- D
Wales - (Ramsey and Davis Out)

Kommander

Bale pls

You can only beat who they play in front of you.

Spoiler:

Portugal was written off before even the tournament had started. Now, they're in the semis thanks to Kommander.

They defeated Croatia, who defeated Spain.
They drew Iceland, who defeated England.
They defeated Poland, who drew Germany and defeated Ukraine and North Ireland.

You see draws everywhere, I see an underdog who still hasn't tasted defeat yet.

And why's that? Because they have a god among men within their ranks, a legend, a demigod, a phenomenon we shall never see his like again: Der Kommander

KOmmander > Messi

Real Madrid gets Wolfsburg, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid
Real Portugal gets Croatia, Poland and Wales

Queue the tinfoil hats and harmonicas

Someone out there wants Cristiano Ronaldo to clean up this season

Nah in all seriousness, tournaments are like this. Croatia, even if they choked beyond oblivion, was a very tough game, as was Poland... Wales will not be easy, even if they are weakened with the loss of Ramsey.

^^
Your right but most tournament don't have such a lopsided brackets.

One side of the bracket has 0 Euro Championship titles and the other side has won 9/15 Euro

nasir6371 wrote:^^
Your right but most tournament don't have such a lopsided brackets.

One side of the bracket has 0 Euro Championship titles and the other side has won 9/15 Euro

It's just how it happened
England fails to win their group
Spain fails to win their group
Italy tops their group over favourites Belgium
Portugal finishes third in their group

Switch even a couple of those teams around with their counterparts and the brackets balance much better. It's just how it goes I suppose, it's made for some great match ups at the very least.

If they're facing these teams instead of some "better" ones it's because those didn't finish 1st in their groups. I think the real issue is the low quality of football in European football (or int football in general).

Portugal hasn't won a single game and they are about to make the final

Most here thought Croatia were this tournament's dark horse and were expected to handle Portugal pretty easily . Now they're reduced to being part of Portugal's supposed easy road to the final ?

To be fair, people thought that because their side of the bracket looked incredibly accesible, allowing for sub-standard teams to reach the final

And portugal were one of the supposed sub-standard teams that Croatia was expected to feast on .  people would've picked Poland to beat them too  had they met in the second round .

The general consensus  was that Portugal were sub-standard even in the sub-standard bracket , so hearing people say they were handed an easy road after they made it to the semis  is a bit hindsight 20/20  .

I'll admit that I really thought Croatia would have put Portugal to the sword. They had everything going for them that Portugal didn't and by Odin's beard, Croatia managed to not do anything correct against them.

I expected Portugal to beat Poland though. Quietly observed my fellow GL mates overestimating Poland's ability to defend deep for long stretches without getting exposed. Switzerland showed it was possible and Portugal would have won outright but El Kommander felt merciful that day.

farfan wrote:Most  here thought Croatia were this tournament's dark horse and were expected to handle Portugal pretty easily .  Now they're reduced to being part of Portugal's supposed easy road to the final ?

Its incredible  how the narrative has changed here on the forum suddenly

TBH Portugal are still substandard.

Kommander is arranging the biggest Army for the biggest war the Europe has ever seen since Christians and Muslims fought for Constantinople. You blaspheme non believers better pray to your God that Kommander doesn't become victorious for if he does there will be huntdown. Non believers will be hunted one by one just like Church did with free thinking women accusing them of being witches. You, my dear non believers, will be accused of being spastic and will be trolled and mocked in the meanest way internet has ever seen. Your posts will be searched and quoted and u will be figuratively striped naked and people will point at your wily and laugh. So please, non believers I repeat please surrender urself to kommander and accept him as ur general for he is one who will decide ur fate. Time to reasses your choices and beliefs folks for the Crusade is about to start.

nasir6371 wrote:Iceland- D
Austria- D
Hungary- D
Croatia- D
Poland- D
Wales - (Ramsey and Davis Out)

Kommander

Bale pls

I have been having this thought for so long and it makes my blood boil. Firstly the tournament format is so wrong. If in any tournament the number of teams qualifying from the group stage is more than half the number of teams participating the format is screwed without question. Yes I know this is certainly not the first time this has happened but it enrages me that the likes of Fifa and Uefa refuse to learn. A third placed team in a group of four has no place in the knock out rounds and when it defeats a first placed team I consider it a travesty of justice. To compound that the pathetically lucky victory that Portugal got over Croatia makes you want to bang your head against the wall. For a team that came third in it's group to have the easiest possible path to the final, easier than it would have got had it come first or second is just horrendous. Uefa made a grave error with this tournament that they will never be honest enough to admit.

Now let's also recall how lucky a path to the UCL final Real Madrid got this season and that they ultimately won on the lottery of penalties. What do we get? Well for my money we get the luckiest year that any footballer has ever had since I began following the beautiful game. It's as if Lady Luck has offered herself to him in every whichever way completing removing her eyes from everyone else.

Having said all that though I must be honest enough to accept that results always come first. Who you beat and how you play, whether we like it or not, is secondary. So what happens if Cristiano's Portugal wins Euro 2016? He does what Messi has never done - win a senior international title. He wins his country's first ever major international title. He wins player of the tournament. He wins the Ballon D'or for 2016. He becomes a Maradona like demi god in Portuguese football history. Despite my terrible luck in this tournament I will keep hoping against hope all this does not happen but if it does then I cannot really grudge him all the accolades he will get. This is simply because history has always glorified the winners and few have bothered to research into just how much they deserved that glory. Being an undeserving winner is always better than being a very high performing loser. So just like all winners have had their glory moments and all that came with it, if Cristiano wins then he will get all this and more and there's nothing anyone in the world can do to deny him.

farfan wrote:And portugal were one of the supposed sub-standard teams that Croatia was expected to feast on .  people would've picked Poland to beat them too  had they met in the second round .

The general consensus  was that Portugal were sub-standard even in the sub-standard bracket , so hearing people say they were handed an easy road after they made it to the semis  is a bit hindsight 20/20  .

You can only speak for yourself and personally i have always thought Croatia are overrated as hell and this isn't hindsight because i have been saying it since the group stage, well longer than that really but in the interest of this tournament.

I mean Rakitic is their 2nd best player probably

Can't fault Portugal though, can only beat what's put in front of you and like BC said it's probably more about the low quality of football at international level really and you can't do anything about that in the short term.

Luca wrote:
Someone out there wants Cristiano Ronaldo to clean up this season

Shouldn't that be "Someone up there"?

The opponents don't really bother me... Portugal not winning a single game until Wales does.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:To be fair, people thought that because their side of the bracket looked incredibly accesible, allowing for sub-standard teams to reach the final

People were saying Croatia or Belgium and I would have so much preferred either of them but I always thought it would be Portugal because even though they are not the best of these teams they are the mentally toughest of the lot and Cristiano's luck this year is perhaps at a level not seen before. Only losing the final can put any kind of dampener in that. Croatia were unlucky in their knock out match but they also disappointed me by playing in a cowardly way never allowing their superior midfield to really take charge of the game. That was by public opinion the worst game in the tournament and people really fell asleep watching it.

Here's a message for all those Non believers.

Hapless_Hans wrote:TBH Portugal are still substandard.

To be honest France are not that much better either. The real final was Germany vs. Italy but the latter were so unlucky on that fatal penalty kick and the former found a way to throw away their own immense chance at glory by committing stupidities of asinine proportions. Between the finalists though there's no question who deserves it more because only one team came third in it's group and only one team needed penalties to knock out Poland.

I should have copyrighted Bolieve posts tbh.

Iceland knocked out one of the greatest footballing nations, England
Croatia defeated the current champions, Spain
Poland drew against World cup winners and the best team in the world, Germany
Wales destroyed the 2nd FIFA ranked team in the world, Belgium

But haters will say Kommander has had an easy path

Spoiler: