Rd of 16 schedule:
BEL-POR 6/27
ITA-AUS 6/26
FRA-SWI 6/28
CRO-SPA 6/28
SWE-UKR 6/29
ENG-GER 6/29
NED-CZE 6/27
WAL-DEN 6/26

>BEL 3 POR 2
>ITA 2 AUS 0
>FRA 3 SWI 1
>CRO 1 SPA 2
>SWE 1 UKR 0
>ENG 1 GER 2
>NED 2 CZE 0
>WAL 0 DEN 1

especially SWE-UKR

>especially SWE-UKR

I can easily envision England losing that way

>I can easily envision England losing that way

Own goal...German winner in the 95th minute...red card/down to ten men...Pickford howler...

after thumping in an OG at the 89th

sign me up for that one. He's probably mad that Dubravka stole his shine in the group stages.

If England beats Germany, anything less than them making the final is a bitter disappointment. So I guess I want to see them beat Germany and then lose a game they should win (preferably against Holland).

Meanwhile I really have no idea which of France, Belgium and Italy makes the finals out of the other side.

3atb with was a curious choice to me but they look really solid.

Its a little bittersweet watching Dumfries and Malen play their way out of PSV. With them they are good enough to get thru CL qualifying, without them its gonna be tough.

I don't know what plan that is, except be generally better at football.

And ESPN keeps squeezing him in everywhere. Wtf

Just leave a small red thingy over the NED side of the score and KIM

In England, you're just expected to know.

It’s 2021, we all follow with Twitter and various apps anyway. Meanwhile ESPN still thinks the respective FIFA rankings is a meaningful graphic

at 1.5 to 1, and Portugal is 2 to 1.

It might go to penalties, but I’m hoping Belgium is the better side. They have
more prolific players.

I’ll go 3-1 Belgium. Lukaku is in beast mode, and is possibly the best striker
in the world.

Too much hazard, hazard, Lukaku and KDB.

There will be more goals.

Portugal playing scared as hell...Now they have to go forward, and not
rely on the counter.

Good lord. Hope it’s not that serious.

And he is out of the game...this is nuts.

No Hazard or KDB, and if they make out of this game

Will they be available against Italy?

missing something between Renato and Ronaldo to drive the car in the front third

but they were never going to hang with belgium, with or without KDB

I still think that Belgian defense is gonna get caught out at some point, but they've held down the fort better than I expected

But I hold out hope for the Swiss.

.

spain believed in themselves too much thinking they should have been up 3-0. uggh.

at worst, a good learning lesson for a really young team but jfc, they had this game completely dominated for 75 minutes.

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

France with no clue, Swiss doing the small team thing = boooooring

rather than put them away
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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

Lloris saving his first PK in 9 years, the Benzema touch, his double

fucking football man, nothing like it

Should be 4-3 Swiss actually. They missed a penalty.

Kante looks spent. The Swiss have been ripping straight through the midfield.

And Pogba is all offense.

I mean, Karma is undefeated when you party a little too hard before the game is final no matter the sport.

I have to question my judgement about everything now.

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

PSG is too comfy an environment for him.

get their asses outta here!

Yes!

England step up...and Belgium. My bracket is looking glorious.

What a set of games!!!!

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

probably one of the worst performances i've seen him have then to cap it off w/ that pen

the pressure to bring in Zidane before Qatar is gonna be deafening

You're replacing one pragmatic manager with another, only this one holds grudges?

personally I think it's too close to the WC for a change

All tournament really, too bad getting turnover there led to that goal. Really good tackle.

But he was the best player for France all tournament long. So good

Embappe man, just underwhelmed all tournament really in terms of end product. Didn’t really feel he was going to put it away.

Nov 2022 isn’t very far away. Wonder if Loris gets replaced by then. Anyone coming up behind him?

>Nov 2022 isn’t very far away. Wonder if Loris gets replaced
>by then. Anyone coming up behind him?

Arsenal wants him to be something other than what he is, while his country builds their team around who he is

Xhaka in the PL is like a human blooper reel.

>Arsenal wants him to be something other than what he is,
>while his country b uilds their team around who he is


The system he needs doesn’t exist in the premier league, that is for sure. Arsenal have been foolish for persisting with him, but of course they’ve had & continue to have bigger problems than him, if that makes sense

SerieA, maybe even la liga is what he’s best suited for. It actually would be interesting to see him play for Jose at Roma

literally all the French ppl I was texting with during the game were in agreement he was gonna miss his pen, as soon as ET ended. Most of us thought he'd try something silly, like an Aguero-style Panenka

Anyway, we lost because Deschamps panicked before the game, the team was over-confident, Griezman was subbed for Sissoko, and Coman lacked a few inches on his shot. Mbappe playing average (he was involved in the first two goals) is definitely not what led us to lose a 2 goal lead with 9mins left. I just hope he stays strong mentally this summer cos he's gonna get hit with a tsunami of takes

They already hadn't done what they were supposed to do.

And it wasn't THAT bad a penalty, really. Wasn't like he blazed it over the bar. He played it too safe and the keeper guessed right. Not what the best attacker in the world should be doing, but he didn't humiliate himself.

anyone who puts too much weight on an international tournament, or blames him for giving up a 3-1 lead to Switzerland, needs to reevaluate their life choices

But hey, if some French fans want to run him out of the country, LFC is ready and waiting.

Again, I’m happy for saka, but c’mon

over-cautious to the point of parody

WTF.

5 defenders and 2 defensive midfielders. Absolute pussy

That's not what I really think.

XI
Pickford, walker, stones, maguire, trippier, phillips, rice, shaw, saka, kane, sterling


Bench
Calvert lewin, rashford, sancho, foden, mount, james, bellingham, j henserson, mings, coady, d henderson

And with Havertz and Werner up front for Germany,
that’s not anything to really fear.

I think the strategy is to let Germany expend a lot of energy in the first half,
and then hit them with super subs in the second half ...and bomb away.

“their finest hour”...

Adidas keeps showing Nike how it's done, whose designers are presumably busy as we speak adding more items to the Portugal shirt

I don't wish him ill, but move, man, move.

For England, splinter Jack comes on. Can he help England?

Mount limited due to being quarantined regarding Covid concerns...not sure he is fit.

Shitting on his doubters ...

He made that whole play!!!

Has all of england’s Goals in the tourney

bombing away in the second half.

all critics taking massive Ls ...

Get one more goal and close shop

how do you miss that

This era of German players are toothless in the final 3rd...

from Klose and Podolski to this?

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

and was in position to possibly help out if he had.
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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

And chilling with a champions league title and Chelsea player of the
year award...

minute ago yall were hating on southgate...lol

No lineup knowing mofos

>minute ago yall were hating on southgate...lol
>
>No lineup knowing mofos

Just got back from dealing with COVID

despite the fact that he and McGinn are extremely close.

luckily, Timo Werner is straight ass drippings and Mueller shockingly missed his chance.

also should be noted hell of a strong wrist by Pickford on that that Havertz shot. Pickford was very good.

shit coulda went left for England. happy for them it didn't.

just Pitty Pat the ball and stay the hell out of the way.

Jack's assisted half of England's goals in the tournament.

Kane..

Send Z Germans home...Churchill would be proud!

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

did we mention the English fans booing the German anthem today? What a lovely group of ppl

all 3 teams out

Calvert Lewin should’ve taken up knitting this tourney bc that’s about as much action as he is going to see

play worse players because you 'have' to.

2 more to go.

Belgium let’s go. ...and take out the Italians.

Now they have to push

Sketchy defending makes for shots from all over.

If this stands, it’s a huge upset.

And they still ain’t going to win shite...where the hell is going
to play? I thought Greenwood had the right wing position locked
down?

Sancho and Rashford will play everywhere likely in the style of Sancho and Reus.
Greenwood will split time at RW but now it’s time for him to study under Cavani. Ole always said striker would be his end position but he would begin on the wings

Rashford can actually get some games off now and hopefully get the foot surgery he needs

Next we move for Varane and a CDM

You just can’t ever count on him to come in and give his all though. Think a change of scenery and bursting his bubble a bit is the only chance he has to fulfill his talent to what everyone thinks it can be.

he needs some kind of kick in the butt it seems like. change of scenery probably needed.

Don't really care, but it seems newsworthy.

apparently he was offered more money from an English club but prefers Paris. Shorter flights back home?

In more important news Mbappe has apparently told PSG he won't sign a contract extension. Fuuuuuu

>In more important news Mbappe has apparently told PSG he won't
>sign a contract extension. Fuuuuuu

Or...somebody on the Guardian podcast made the point that he's pretty much always the best player on the pitch in any given match...no offense to Ligue 1, but there might be some benefit to his development to move somewhere else.

and it's a grim outcome

Still, pretty decent mercato so far, with Hakimi and Ramos we've strengthened our thinnest part of the lineup. The Donnaruma signing is still silly to me, but it's not my money so whatever

>The
>Donnaruma signing is still silly to me, but it's not my money
>so whatever

It’s old news, but was courtois really an upgrade? I guess he’s about to go through the same thing again with PSG

Thibaut Courtois has been named the third-best goalkeeper of the decade by the reputable International Federation for Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). Here's the

And second best in la liga to Oblak.

No respect for Navas. absolutely top class, no need to sign a new guy level dominance. Donnarumma, one could argue, is coming in as Navas is ageing out, but still no respect

yet Real spent the most ever in la liga on a goalkeeper the season after Navas was absolutely dominant and saved that season for real with some of his CL performances after being goalkeeper for 3 straight CL trophies. But somehow real madrid needed a better GK.

it makes how barca treated Claudio Bravo looked like loving kindness and barca did him kinda dirty too.

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you think we playing chess, but i'm playing mad-making. Basaglia

I like Navas, and he is a great GK. However, the poster was taking a knock at
Courtois while speaking in support of Navas. You don’t have to put down
one player in order to support or celebrate another player.

I said nothing negative about Navas while making a statement about
Courtois’ great ability.

P.S : Forever Fock Barca and what they do...

he asked if it was really necessary to spend the money for a whole other ice cream cone, just to have the same thing they already have, except with sprinkles.

Or put another way, not being European or Brazilian/Argentinian.

SWI 0 SPA 2
BEL 2 ITA 3
CZE 0 DEN 1
UKR 1 ENG 2

Not feeling real good about that BEL/ITA prognosis though.

8': Spain score off a deflected shot

Then again, as I type this, Embolo has to come off injured.

this might be it for the Swiss. Getting mad at Deschamps all over again

Or maybe Spain isn't all that interested in creating chances. Hard to say which.

But they're still in it. Just need one good counter.

Still kind of a harsh red.

no one wants this?

still let's not forget Sergio's opening masterpiece, may it get the youtube/Tiktok tributes it deserves

Oh well. If that's the best Spain can do, this is as far as they're going.

As an aside, I guess I do need to start watching Serie A

Props to Italy, but damn

eeeesh. After seeing the injury originally, I couldn't believe he played in this game.

I know these guys are super competitive and have immense pressure on them to play, but damn, that is so bad for your long term career and long term health.

IT'S AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE bla bla

Dude spent half the time talking about his being the last change for the Belgian golden generation. Can we focus on the game happening right this second, leave the tired narrative for the in-studio panels?

And were defending euro champs. That FIFA ranking was doing a lot of lifting in that narrative

> That FIFA ranking was doing
>a lot of lifting in that narrative

Love skipping the extra time and going to PKs

so the players can just go back to their teams (the Brazilian league hasn't been interrupted during the Copa :O ). Kind of a dumpster fire of a competition overall but I guess I might tune into the final if it looks promising

Paraguay dominated after being down 10 men since the 40th minutes; only to have a terrible PKs

Alexis Sanchez is playing tonight maybe he'll have a flashback to past copas and make it a game tonight vs. Brazil

Kind of team England (or Ukraine) should be a bit scared of.

Then again, Czechs ain't done yet...

They’re as good as anything England has shown so far.

Ukraine is a +700 underdog. That’s some good value considering their upset
of Sweden, and England has a history of choking.

100 wins you 700...

England could very well dominate...but it’s worth throwing some change at a it.


The irony? I like England and want them to win. ..lol

When they can actually get the ball through the midfield, they look dangerous. But Ukraine's getting real close...

Harry and Harry

Look at how England flows with Mount orchestrating and pushing forward..

They’re horrible.

its coming home

Good for him. Not sure why he was hated at arsenal, thought he was pretty decent for us all things considered

ended up playing a lot of games

Zapata and Muriel for Colombia, Joakim Maehle for DEN, Remo Freuler for SUI, Robin Gosens (one of my favorite players in the world. lot of dawg in that one), Matteo Pessina (filled in really nicely for ITA last week), Rafael Toloi (naturalized Italian from Brazil), Christian Romero, Papu Gomez playing in his first major tournament in his 30s, Marten de Roon

im even gonna count Timothy Castagne

pretty remarkable stuff going on there. they are either going back to CL or to the deposit window at the bank with a fat sack of Euros.

I can't think of any clever puns, or I'd make one.

These are two really good teams working hard. Heavyweights going at it.