Euro 2012 - day four open thread

Submitted by snarling wolverine on

France vs. England right now, with Ukraine vs. Sweden later.

Great matchup of the cross-Channel rivals today, who are the two favorites in Group D.  A pet peeve: announcers always say England has had "46 years of misery."  But obviously, they weren't miserable immediately after 1966, when they won it all.  It should be more like 42 years.

swan flu

June 11th, 2012 at 1:40 PM ^

France looks a lot better than I expected them to. They haven't done anything comically abysmal yet.

 

I'd like to see them have Marvin Martin play in the middle, he's got a very bright future.

swan flu

June 11th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^

My philosophy is that you should put the 11 best players on the pitch.  And everyone on the pitch should be able to do everything.  I think compartmentalizing players into one thing or another limits them.  Cesc Fabregas, David Silva, Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso... all those guys can pass, defend, and score.

 

That said, I think the world of Fernando Llorente and I think it was silly to keep him on the bench.

Needs

June 11th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^

Ugh. Moment that totally sums up England's approach. Walcott steals ball in dangerous position. Stumbles over it, backpasses to Gerard, who hammers it out of bounds to the corner.

MgoSuh

June 11th, 2012 at 2:15 PM ^

England's tactics seemed to be successful in getting a result against a solid French side...but unfortunately were not exciting enough for this French fan

Fhshockey112002

June 11th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^

Impressive comeback from Ukraine.  After Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for Sweden, Ukraine's Andriy Shevchenko (35 years old) has scored twice in 10 mins to give Ukraine a 2-1 lead in the 64th min.

Wolverine In Iowa

June 11th, 2012 at 5:44 PM ^

What an entertaining match.  Unfortunately, I think I may have picked the wrong host team to advance to the quarters, as I thought Poland would be the team, but now I think UKR may advance pretty far.