Euro 2012

[Caruut]

When they play like this, sure. But as hrotha says, it relies heavily on the inspiration in the middle, because there's no width and no real forwards. They've stumbled through the tournament with dullness and tedium, but it's all come together tonight, and they've shown how good they CAN be when they're all on song.

Which only makes it more disappointing when they spend most of their time playing 1-0 football.

That said, 4-0 is often more boring than 1-0 anyway.

They are also playing against 10 men, which is easily forgotten with no red card on the match summary.

 

[Caruut]

"A team playing perfect football like we've never seen before"

Give me a break, please.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They are also playing against 10 men, which is easily forgotten with no red card on the match summary.

They were pretty comfortable even before that, but yes, the last half hour was exhibition stuff, which no longer bore the hallmarks of a competitive match.

And so ends a tournament which has been sorely lacking in class, with a show of real class from a team which had shown little of it to date. Italy peaked for the semi-final, a bit like Russia in the quarters four years ago. What real good matches have there been? There have been quite a few decent matches, but not much that's historic other than the statistics picked up by Spain's win in the final.

 

[canyonball]

Spain strategy worked today. But in my eyes that was more to do with a poor showcase of defending by the Italians. Lots of Space for La Roja do their thing. Nationalistic pride aside, Portugal was much more effective. Midfield and Defence clocked in the miles and pressured in a way Italy couldn't /didn't do. And although that didn't make for a cracking game, this one was hardly entertaining either

 

[Caruut]

They were pretty comfortable even before that, but yes, the last half hour was exhibition stuff, which no longer bore the hallmarks of a competitive match.

And so ends a tournament which has been sorely lacking in class, with a show of real class from a team which had shown little of it to date. Italy peaked for the semi-final, a bit like Russia in the quarters four years ago. What real good matches have there been? There have been quite a few decent matches, but not much that's historic other than the statistics picked up by Spain's win in the final.

England - Sweden was quite good, I thought, though I was horrendously drunk during it.

 

[Caruut]

Are anyone else's pictures just focusing on the kids of the Spanish players?

 

[hrotha]

Italy was unlucky with Motta's injury but even so they disappointed me. First off, you're 2 goals down and you put in Motta for Montolivo? The hell was that? And then, sure, you're one man and 2 goals down, so it's going to be really hard, but come on, this is a final, you're Italy, and scoring once could change the whole game. But they just gave up.

 

[DominicDecoco]

They were pretty comfortable even before that, but yes, the last half hour was exhibition stuff, which no longer bore the hallmarks of a competitive match.

And so ends a tournament which has been sorely lacking in class, with a show of real class from a team which had shown little of it to date. Italy peaked for the semi-final, a bit like Russia in the quarters four years ago. What real good matches have there been? There have been quite a few decent matches, but not much that's historic other than the statistics picked up by Spain's win in the final.

ZzzZzzZZz.. Lighten up.

Exellent final up untill Motta's injury.

Been a great tournament.

 

[Caruut]

I would rather they had taken Montolivo off for Di Natali and dropped Cassano back a bit. Perhaps the idea was to give De Rossi more freedom to push forward, and have a true ball winner alongside Pirlo.

Then you have a system - Motta wins the ball, feeds it short to Pirlo, who can then supply the forward players. I think it's difficult to really criticise a tactical decision when you don't see exactly how it was designed to work.

 

[Caruut]

Alan Shearer - "These players have had an unbelievable amount of sex, I mean success, sorry."

 

[la.margna]

Tournament rather disappointing, lacking class.
Germany had a weak performance in the wrong match.
Italy peaked a game too early and was a big disappointment today, particularly no fight and will after being down.
Spain showed one great game; the final.
But who cares.
Game over.
Now back to reality for the PIGS:
CLEAN UP YOUR ECONOMIC MESS!

Before you pull the rest of us down with you...

 

[Caruut]

Give the rest of us all the dirty money in your banks before you get all sanctimonious about "economics messes".

 

[goggalor]

Meh, there's really no competition in Europe for Spain when they play like this. The knock-out stage of this tournament was painfully dull.

 

[slim charles]

Spain is just amazing. The best NT I've ever seen in my life, and quite possibly the best one ever. Wasn't brilliant throughout the whole tournament, but tonight they showed who they are. Just, fantastic, no other words.

Result was harsh on Italy, IMO. But I think Italians can be proud of their team. Played some great football, reached the final despite some really bad circumstances [I think they had to make substitutions due to injuries in every game, and let's not forget that they lost Rossi, their arguably best striker, to a really bad injury, Cassano was severely ill in November etc]. Other teams, not only Spain, have better players than Italy [IMO, Germany, Portugal and Holland], but you have to count this Italy among the best.

Also, this was a very good tournament, I thought. Not really many classic matches [maybe Italy - Germany] but not more than 3 boring matches for me either.

Well, now we can concentrate on Tour

 

[l.Harm]

Great play by Spain. No chance for Italy. So many good players and when they got some troubles they always have Casillas, the best goalkeeper of the world. Amazing what they've reached the last five years.

 

[icefire]

3-0 Torres. Well, that was fun.

That goal (and his last pass to the 4-0) has made him top scorer of the tournament. What a joke!

 

[greenedge]

Italy did well at the start but were outgunned by a team with a 4-6-0 lol.

Spain played well and smashed them.

 

[Descender]

Well that wasn't too bad, was it?

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Italy did well at the start but were outgunned by a team with a 4-6-0 lol.

Spain played well and smashed them.

italy were outclassed by about the 5th minute.

 

[Forunculo]

An interesting data is Spain is leader at goals conceded despite playing all games with 1, the next teams have 3 goals. The Casillas-Pique-Ramos-Busquets-Alonso worked perfect on deffence.


Of course most goals scored by a team in Euro 2012: 12 – Spain

At the end they played better than we though

 

[Caruut]

Smashed is a little unfair. The first goal had a touch of luck. The second was pure class, no complaints there. Three and four were scored while a 10-man team were chasing the game.

 

[the asian]

Xavi Hernandez answered his critics with two sublime assists. Spain conserved their energy really well throughout the tournament and turned it on when it really mattered.
Enjoyed the last exciting Euro tournament as the 2016 edition will have 24 teams and lots of meaningless matches.

 

[The Hitch]

Meh, there's really no competition in Europe for Spain when they play like this.

They only won the semi on a coin toss though.

 

[hrotha]

They only won the semi on a coin toss though.

People often say penalty shootouts are a lottery, but I disagree. The laws of probability don't explain England.

There's a lot of skill and nerves of steel involved.

 

[slim charles]

That 'penalty is a lottery' meme is getting really tiring, TBH. IT's not lottery. Yes, luck is sometimes part of it, just like it's part of the game itself. But it's a lot more concentration and technique than luck.