Playing in the 90 degree, high temps will so that to a team. Not to mention both the teams had ridiculous travel schedules.
It’s a horrible format that I never want to see again. There was a graphic about the distance travelled between Ukraine and England and it was an insane difference. I just feel like it’s a huge issue when it comes to fatigue in the late stages of the tournament. Specifically, with teams that don’t have as much depth as the top teams... Denmark today even looked extremely tired and they had games in Copenhagen.
Azerbaijan national oil company signed a deal with UEFA... sigh.
Its also openly recognized that Qatar bribed FIFA officials in smaller countries to get the World Cup away from the US. It’s still not clear to me now having a tournament in the middle of the club season is supposed to work.
It will likely have detrimental effects on league play for several years. At the very least leagues are going to have to start a month earlier and play a month later than normal in order to fit in the 6 weeks required for World Cup in December and January. Add in other cup competitions around the world and players will be maxed out physically with little time for recovery between seasons.
I saw a guy from Spain fall like he got shot and no one was within 5 yards of him.
Eh… Spain, Italy, and France have all won the Euros on their own turf. It happens.
Yes but in a “neutral” tournament it sure has seemed they might as well remove that neutral tag.
Yeah, I agree.
Idk. Emerson looked good to me in the limited time Italy was able to gain possession. He hit the crossbar on one run and had several nice combinations with Insigne before he was subbed for defensive reasons. Veratti and Barella were both “off” today being forced to chase Spain around the middle of the pitch. I thought Mancini may have waited about 10 minutes too long to replace them with Pessina and Locatelli. Immobile looks totally lost at this point but the replacement options are limited so I guess you roll the dice and send him out there. I was a little surprised Moise Kean was dropped from the squad before the tournament. I think he might have been a difference maker in this game and the game against Austria. Both goals scored today were magnificent. Felt bad for Morata on the pk miss. Del Piero mentioned that all of Spain’s games in this tournament went to OT which is pretty amazing given the amount of possession they had. Final should be wide open and fun game to watch. Home field advantage to England if they make it. Denmark and Italy both playing on the emotion of losing Eriksen and Spinazolla. Italy seems like a team of destiny. As Del Piero said they find a way to win and have been a little lucky as well.
