The Official Euro 2004 Thread

Final score Alex 4.5, Nick 0.5

Alex -- I was distracted by the freak show on Channel 4 (not BB, the former antiques progidy, sex change with the looney family)

Nick -- You were docked half a point for nto getting Sir Stanley Collymore despite copious clues.

Matthew

Something of a challenge For those that haven't seen this.
This is an excell spreadsheet in a zip file.

I've got about 40, after a fair bit of time and a bit of playing on the internet. The spellings need to be correct (including 1st name, unless player is generally known by a single name). I think the answers are spelt wrong on a couple of them.

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Something of a challenge For those that haven't seen this.

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Sorry. I tried to attach an excell spreadsheet, but then realised I couldn't. I thought I had deleted the entry.

I will email to anyone if they are interested.

Portugal 1 Holland 2
Czech R. 2 Greece 0

Neither game to extra time.

The Dutch have worked out their best side and will have too much for an average Portuguese side.

The Czechs had their mulligan first half against the Danes and will ease past the Greeks

Final goes to extra time, Czechs win with a wonder goal from Baros.

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Originally posted by alexgerrard:
Looks like Advocaat is going to have to work a miracle half time teamtalk.

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This was the stupidest game I've ever seen. Portugal should've beaten Holland by 4 - 0

What a bunch of losers.

Herman

At last a few commentators have realised Davids is crap. 'Dreadlocked Teapot' was about right.

Moment of the match, apart from the Maniche goal which was far too good for the cameraman, was Van Nostrilhair giving a little kick up the arse to Ricardo who then writhed about in a manner to embarass even the Dutch Maestro.

Great Game, I'm very happy for the Portugese people they deserve it.

Fritz Von Beautifulgame

The biggest shcok of the night -- bigger than Portugal playing well, the Dutch underachieving, Figo regaining some form and Pauletta missing a bunch of sitters -- was Ian Wright actually being funny rather than just annoying.

As last night's game was moederately exciting (at least towards the end) and had a great goal the laws of football indicate tonight will be a dreary, 1-0.

Matthew

Well said Mat, I'm really looking forward to tonight's game, there are many Greece fans over here.

Graham.

As my team at work includes two Greeks I am claiming this as a victory.

Matthew

One things for sure - it'll be an interesting final !

Matthew R

Quote:-

"The Dutch have worked out their best side and will have too much for an average Portuguese side.

The Czechs had their mulligan first half against the Danes and will ease past the Greeks"

Hmmm....and I thought you were the resident football expert!

Steve D

So Alex, what will the score be on Sunday?

Portugal 2 - Greece 1

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One things for sure - it'll be an interesting final !

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Err, no it won't.

The Greeks have one tactic and that is to stop the opposition playing. This makes for a very dull game. In last nights game the Greeks made no goal threat at all until extra time. I can't believe however that using this tactic they have managed to beat Portugal, France, Czechs and draw with Spain.

I hope it is an interesting Final - I'm flying out to Lisbon tomorrow and will be there on Sunday night.

The Greeks have a very efficient game plan. Neutralise the threat from the opposition and hope to score on the break. Baros & Koller were well marked and the previously free flowing Czechs were not so good last night. You sort of wondered when Nedved hobbled off if luck was on the Greek side.

Granted, the Greeks did not create too much in the normal 90 minutes but both teams went for it in extra time.
The Greek goal against France was brilliantly crafted and executed and was imo the goal of the tournament (It did'nt even make ITV's goal of the tournament selection).

Portugal will have to play as well as they did against Holland if they are to win. It is vital to score first against Greece in order to lure them out of their shell. Hopefull it should be a great match.

Rooney was the victim of some rather unfortunate layour work by the Daily Mail this week:

Well if you beat can draw with Spain and beat the French, Czechs and Portugal twice then I suppose you deserve to win the tournament.

The Greeks were certainly the fittest and best organized team there so good luck to them.

Nice One Greece. Perhaps players from other countries will take a leaf out of their book and work harder for their respective teams when wearing the national colours.

I thought the most organised and fittest team won in the end - fair dues indeed.

andy c

Am I the only one somewhat saddened by the Greek's success?

Whilst I agree that they were very fit, and very well organised, their football was hardly going to win any medals for creative flair and excitement.

I foresee a return to the bad old days of defensiveness and negativity.

Steve D

This thread seems to have gone very quiet suddenly (!), so can I take the opportunity to thank the Greeks for a splendid holiday on the island of Samos last week, and for the fun & frolics during the semi-final I watched in a bar and when in the plane back to Heathrow last night they scored the winning goal!!

The best team won, I reckon.

They deserved to win. The Portuguese never worked out how to unlock their defence, which was superb last night. Some of their tackling, even in the box, was timed well and wasn't the "last gasp, backs to the wall" type defending we are used to seeing from our team. When they won the ball back it wasn't just lumped upfield, they at least tried to pass it to a team mate. They were very well prepared for the game and stuck to the gameplan. German effeciency wins again!

They were well organised and played to their strengths, the Arsenal fans must have been reminded of how their team used to play...

Yes, it was a shame that we didn't have two flair sides out there but the Czechs and French couldn't get past them either.

Generally though it has been the attacking teams who have succeeded recently - France and Brazil being the prime examples (until this year of course!) Overall I think it was a disappointing tournament, too many of the 'big names' failed to play well and some teams were too negative (England and Italy being the prime examples) and did not deserve to win. The Greeks made the most of their resources and actually looked like they wanted to win.