c4countdown

Too many rubbish teams at this tournament, hopefully UEFA will see sense and get it back to 16 teams.

Nah m8. The rubbish (I'd prefer to call them unlikely...) teams are brilliant. Absolutely love watching minnow countries dick bigger/'better' teams, especially when it leads to Ballon d'Or winning babies having a massive cry because Iceland didn't roll over for them. Not to mention how lovely it is to watch excited supporters/players who are so chuffed to even be there.

Not sure that many teams have really proven themselves to be rubbish anyway (from the handful of games I've seen and others I've heard about), apart from Russia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_1976
Something like this? (Best tournament ever, by the way.)

I have watched all the games bar Switzerland v Albania (a "Classic" apparently) and at least 1 if not both teams has put in a "rubbish" performance in nearly every match.
Some examples...........BELGIUM against ITALY, AUSTRIA against HUNGARY, N. IRELAND against POLAND, FRANCE against ALBANIA, WALES against ENGLAND, RUSSIA against ENGLAND & SLOVAKIA!, CZECH REPUBLIC against SPAIN, PORTUGAL against ICELAND, UKRAINE against N. IRELAND,GERMANY against POLAND,TURKEY against CROATIA.
Hopefully the Tournament will pick up, once these tedious Group games are out of the way.

Steven M. McCann wrote:I have watched all the games bar Switzerland v Albania (a "Classic" apparently) and at least 1 if not both teams has put in a "rubbish" performance in nearly every match.
Some examples...........BELGIUM against ITALY, AUSTRIA against HUNGARY, N. IRELAND against POLAND, FRANCE against ALBANIA, WALES against ENGLAND, RUSSIA against ENGLAND & SLOVAKIA!, CZECH REPUBLIC against SPAIN, PORTUGAL against ICELAND, UKRAINE against N. IRELAND,GERMANY against POLAND,TURKEY against CROATIA.
Hopefully the Tournament will pick up, once these tedious Group games are out of the way.

Loads of the teams you mentioned would have been in the competition with 16 teams, though. France, obviously, while Belgium, Austria, NI, Czech Rep, Portugal and Germany all won their qualifying groups. How do you propose UEFA legislates against teams qualifying and then playing shit in the actual tournament?

Well done UEFA, thanks to the crazy format, we've now got GERMANY, FRANCE, SPAIN, ITALY & ENGLAND plus the possibility of BELGIUM or PORTUGAL or both joining them in one half of the draw and a bunch of teams that have absolutely no chance of winning it, in the other half!

Some of the 'big teams' were complacent or underperformed! What a fucking conspiracy!! Mate, seriously, take off your tinfoil hat for a day and stop crying over your shit, doomed bets.

Steven M. McCann wrote:Well done UEFA, thanks to the crazy format, we've now got GERMANY, FRANCE, SPAIN, ITALY & ENGLAND plus the possibility of BELGIUM or PORTUGAL or both joining them in one half of the draw and a bunch of teams that have absolutely no chance of winning it, in the other half!

Well apparently they do have a good chance of winning it, given the draw.

Croatia to make the final to play England or Germany......you heard it here first

Oops......ok then Meakins,next tip...Ireland to beat France today and Harry Kane to Score tomorrow in a 2 0 win

Well done UEFA, the ITALIAN Referee (less than a week after GERMANY put out his fellow countrymen) chosen to guide FRANCE through to the final, didn't let you down.
The penalty for the opening goal was absolutely ridiculous and would never have been given against the French.
The Germans barely got a decision all night.
PORTUGAL have zero chance of lifting the trophy, the officials will make sure of it!

How much did you lose then

I see an English Referee Mark Clattenburg (rather than a GERMAN!) has been given the task of ensuring FRANCE lift the trophy on Sunday.
The same Mark Clattenburg that ensured MAN. UTD lifted the FA Cup by twice refusing to play the advantage rule, when CRYSTAL PALACE were clean through on goal.
Some bets for Sunday.......France to get a Penalty, Portugal to get a Red Card, Payet to score from a free kick (he will get at least half a dozen opportunities!).
I backed FRANCE to score a Penalty @ 7/1 last night as insurance that I didn't lose anything, Marc, but I was denied substantial winnings if GERMANY had won the Tournament.

Steven M. McCann wrote:I see an English Referee Mark Clattenburg (rather than a GERMAN!) has been given the task of ensuring FRANCE lift the trophy on Sunday.
The same Mark Clattenburg that ensured MAN. UTD lifted the FA Cup by twice refusing to play the advantage rule, when CRYSTAL PALACE were clean through on goal.
Some bets for Sunday.......France to get a Penalty, Portugal to get a Red Card, Payet to score from a free kick (he will get at least half a dozen opportunities!).
I backed FRANCE to score a Penalty @ 7/1 last night as insurance that I didn't lose anything, Marc, but I was denied substantial winnings if GERMANY had won the Tournament.

You're probably right.

p.s. Do you write for The Sun?

So you did kind of miss out on some winnings then.
I have a hunch old winker might win it for the the Portugesers....so lump it on France lol

I feel we are witnessing a breakdown.

Not a breakdown. A BREAKDOWN.

Steven M. McCann wrote:I see an English Referee Mark Clattenburg (rather than a GERMAN!) has been given the task of ensuring FRANCE lift the trophy on Sunday.
Some bets for Sunday.......France to get a Penalty, Portugal to get a Red Card, Payet to score from a free kick (he will get at least half a dozen opportunities!).

Just out of interest Steven, have you placed these bets? And if so, how much did you stake and at what odds?

No doubt other Bookies will be offering better odds than Paddy Power,Jim, but with them, I have had £30 @ 7/2 Payet to score at anytime, £20 France to score a penalty @ 17/2 (will probably get one and miss it!) £20 on Portugal to get a Red Card @ 13/2.
The 11/10 France to win in 90 minutes didn't really appeal.

One betting slip to tear up....Payet just gone off

Steven M. McCann wrote:No doubt other Bookies will be offering better odds than Paddy Power,Jim, but with them, I have had £30 @ 7/2 Payet to score at anytime, £20 France to score a penalty @ 17/2 (will probably get one and miss it!) £20 on Portugal to get a Red Card @ 13/2.
The 11/10 France to win in 90 minutes didn't really appeal.

Eagerly waiting for the BREAKDOWN!!! Am I a bad person?

James Laverty wrote:

Steven M. McCann wrote:No doubt other Bookies will be offering better odds than Paddy Power,Jim, but with them, I have had £30 @ 7/2 Payet to score at anytime, £20 France to score a penalty @ 17/2 (will probably get one and miss it!) £20 on Portugal to get a Red Card @ 13/2.
The 11/10 France to win in 90 minutes didn't really appeal.

Eagerly waiting for the BREAKDOWN!!! Am I a bad person?

The correct answer to this would normally be "yes", but I happen to have guessed that Steven will have placed some miraculous saver bet to recoup all his losses and then some. Consequently he now owes us all a drink. I know, it makes little sense, but that's how gambling works.

James Laverty wrote:

Steven M. McCann wrote:No doubt other Bookies will be offering better odds than Paddy Power,Jim, but with them, I have had £30 @ 7/2 Payet to score at anytime, £20 France to score a penalty @ 17/2 (will probably get one and miss it!) £20 on Portugal to get a Red Card @ 13/2.
The 11/10 France to win in 90 minutes didn't really appeal.

Eagerly waiting for the BREAKDOWN!!! Am I a bad person?

Very possibly but I'd have to include myself as such a person. This thread genuinely made tonight's match way more enjoyable than I was expecting. I'm now getting great entertainment contemplating that someone from UEFA had actually read the thread and engineered the whole thing just to piss Steve off.