Fanfare posts tagged with Soccer and Euro2016 Posts tagged with 'Soccer' and 'Euro2016' at Fanfare. Fri, 08 Jul 2016 12:20:28 -0800 Fri, 08 Jul 2016 12:20:28 -0800 en-us 60 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: The Final There can be only one Portugal without Pepe and William. Wales without Ramsey and Davies. A first half without real chances, in another tactical game where both teams were fonder of waiting for a mistake (like when Danilo lunged at Bale still in Wales' defensive midfield, giving the speedy winger a complete field to run just to shoot it wide). But early in the second half, Raphael Guerreiro takes a quick cross from a short corner, and a majestic leap followed by a timely header by Ronaldo puts Portugal in front. This seem to have rattled the welsh team, and just a few moments later, Ronaldo picks up a clearance, drives a low shot, and Sanches (from an offside position) lets it go past him to Nani, who takes a sliding shot to make it a crucial 2-0. Other than a couple of long range shots by a mostly anonymous Bale, Wales did little more to get back on the game, and Danilo ended up missing the best chance of remainder of the game, forcing Hennessey to pick up the ball inches from the line following an incomplete save.<br> <br> On the other match, without Kanté, France looked too soft on the middle, allowing Germany to take control of the game. Both goalkeepers had some work to keep the game level, but as the game progressed, with France mostly playing in their own half and Germany passing the ball aimlessly looking for some sort of break, it looked like it would also be deadlocked at halftime. Then Schweinsteiger takes a poor angle from the corner, and ends up deflecting the cross with his hand. After a delay, penalty awarded to France, and Griezmann calmly put France ahead right before half time. Without a proper striker, and lacking support from the wingbacks, Germany struggled to trouble the well organised French defence, while exposing their backs on a counter, and after Kimmich makes a mess controlling the ball in the box, Pogba dribbles past him, tries to put the ball on Giroud, Neuer gets a hand on it but if flies right into Griezmann who all but settled the top scorer discussion with the second of the night and sixth overall. Kimmich tried to redeem his mistake with a well placed shot outside the box, but as it flew past Lloris, it hit the woodwork proving it would not be Germany's night. As the French advantage already looked too big to overcome, Lloris denied the chance for a consolation goal, with a fantastic save from a Muller header. <br> <br> France was one of the favourites at the start of the competition they qualified automatically for, while Portugal after a bumpy qualification round (with Fernando Santos taking over a completely outmatched Paulo Bento) were at the bottom end of the favourites, and while France were the first team to advance thanks to two wins in their first two matches, Portugal advanced with three ties, with goal difference making the difference between them and Turkey and Albania (knocked out in the group stages) and goals scored from Northern Ireland (16th and last team to advance). Portugal then defeated Croatia thanks to a goal by Quaresma in the last minutes of overtime, Poland in the shootout and finally Wales. France overcome a second minute penalty against the Rep. of Ireland, easily beat the sensation of the tournament Iceland and finally Germany. <br> Both finalists have an history together - for Portugal, it will be a chance to avenge the 1984 and 2000 semi-finals, where they lost to France in a dramatic fashion both times (Platini scoring the winner in the last minute of overtime, and Xavier's penalty handball in golden goal overtime), both times with France on route to a euro title. This time, the winner takes it all.<br> <br> THE FINAL (21:00 local)<br> July 10, Portugal - France.,2016:site.7269 Fri, 08 Jul 2016 12:20:28 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Semi Finals Last stop before Paris In their best* performance so far, Portugal overcome an early goal by Lewandowski thanks to rising star Renato Sanches, and after an uneventful second half and overtime, Quaresma capitalised on the Blaszczykowski miss on the shootout to send Portugal to their fourth Euros semi-final since 2000, where they will meet Wales, who also started from behind against Belgium thanks to a magnificent shot by Nainggolan, but Ashley Williams equalised from a corner also around the half hour mark, by the time Wales was looking in control of the game. The difference between both games was in the second half, where 10 minutes in, Robson-Kanu put Meunier and Fellaini out of the play with a perfectly executed Cruyff turn, and got the ball past Courtois putting Wales ahead. Belgium looked more and more desperate and less discerning as time advanced, and after seeing a penalty claim denied by the officials, Vokes headed the ball perfectly for the third of the night, and putting the game out of contention, and confirming first time participants Wales mirrored the history of their next opponents - reach the semi-finals in their debut, also in French soil. <br> <br> And speaking of history, before kickoff, it was against Germany, playing against a team that denied them a place in the final in 1970 (in what was called the<em> game of the century</em>), 2006 and 2012, and lost a final in 1982. After an uneventful, tactically matched first half where Germany looked to have the upper hand but not doing much with it, they returned stronger, and Özil scored following a deflected low cross on the near post. Minutes later, Buffon kept Italy in the chase denying Gomez/Chielini the second, but it was Italy who scored thanks to a poorly judged handball in the box by Boateng, and the subsequent penalty converted by Bonucci. With few chances on overtime, the penalties were a display of poor technique, with Zaza (subbed in to kick in the shootout) doing a bizarre run-up and kicking it wide, Muller following with a weak shot Buffon saved easily, Pellè and Schweinsteiger kicking what could be the decider weak and wide, and at the 9th round, between Italy's unbeaten streak against Germany and Germany's penalty streak, something had to give, and Darmian kicks weak for a Neuer save, and Hector barely gets the ball past Buffon and puts Germany in the semi finals.<br> On the final game of this round, France easily beat Iceland, with Giroud and Pogba putting the hosts ahead in the first quarter of the game, and despite the usual combativeness of the Nordic team, it would be Payet and Griezmann to score again for France. With the outcome all but decided at half-time, France started saving their legs for the semi-final against Germany, and Sigthórsson finished a low cross for a consolation goal, but any remote possibility of a comeback was quickly put to bed as Giroud scored his second goal deflecting a long pass from a free kick. The final score was set by Bjarnsson heading one in with less than 10 minutes to go, with Mangala denying the last chance of a comeback with a clearance following a low cross.<br> <br> <strong>SEMI FINALS</strong> (all games at 21:00 local)<br> <em>6 July</em> Portugal - Wales<br> <em>7 July</em> Germany - France,2016:site.7250 Tue, 05 Jul 2016 04:27:38 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Quarter Finals 8 teams, 6 trophies and 23 semi-finals between them and 2 debutantes. Against Ireland, France got a scare when Pogba charged Long in the box in the first minutes, and Brady converted the penalty, until a second-half turnaround orchestrated by Antoine Griezmann (two goals, on the road to his hat-trick when Duffy tackled him outside the box for a straight red). They will play Iceland, who also got a scare against England after a penalty on Sterling was converted by Rooney early on, but normalcy was restored a couple of minutes later with Sigurdsson, and then Sigthorsson completed the turnaround with a helping hand from Hart still early in the first half.<br> Germany quickly and easily disposed of Slovakia, and Özil's missed penalty had little impact on the final result. They wil now face Italy, who signed the epilogue for Spain's golden generation with a strong showing in a 2-0 win. Germany has a famously negative record against the Italians, with just 8 wins out of 33 games, but their most recent victory was a clear 4-1 earlier this year. <br> <br> On the other side, Poland will meet Portugal after both qualified a bit underwhelmingly (against Switzerland, Poland controlled the game, allowed a nonetheless spectacular equaliser and won on penalties, while Portugal can claim to have won the worst game of the tournament against Croatia), and after knocking out N. Ireland, Wales will try to continue chasing their dream against Belgium, who crushed Hungary late in the second half. <br> <br> <strong>QUARTER FINALS</strong> (all games at 21:00 local)<br> <br> <em>30 June:</em> Poland - Portugal<br> <em>1 July:</em> Wales - Belgium<br> <em>2 July:</em> Germany - Italy<br> <em>3 July:</em> France - Iceland,2016:site.7227 Wed, 29 Jun 2016 02:33:13 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Round of 16 8 teams have gone home. 8 more will fall before next Tuesday. The bracket is exceptionally name-heavy in one side, due to England and Spain dropping points in the last round of group stage matches that would put them in first place, and as a result, quarter-finals might feature Italy - Germany (or rematch of 2008 final Spain - Germany) and England - France. This, of course, doesn't mean these teams sure to advance or the other bracket is a walk in the park - Croatia has proved they are not easily intimidated (not even by their own fans) and Wales' Gareth Bale leads the top scorers chart with Morata, and Portugal might have a word left to say, despite being only the 15th best team in the tournament and the first team ever to advance without winning a single game, while Belgium still entered as a team with reasonable expectations to win, and the terrible performance against Italy seemed to work as a timely reality check. <br> <br> The biggest surprise comes from group F, topped by Hungary and Iceland, two teams that were not expected to score more than a couple of points, and all 3 British teams decided at least <em>this</em> Europe was worth hanging around, so was the RoI, the last team to clinch a spot thanks to a late winner against Italy. On disappointments, Russia leads not only because of the scenes in Marseille, but also looking very fragile two years before hosting the World Cup. A lot more was also expected from Zlatan's last hurrah with Sweden, and the same could be said about Czechia and Rosicky. Austria, that at a time ranked in the upper half of the favourite tables is also packing home without glory and just one point. Ukraine, the first team eliminated, is the only to lose all three games.<br> <br> The highlight will obviously be Italy - Spain, a rematch of the 2012 final Spain won easily. This year, Italy was the first team to secure their group, while Spain looked in control until conceding a late, soft goal against Croatia, suffering their first Euro defeat since 2004. And interestingly enough, Croatia will meet the last team to beat Spain in the Euros, in a game Portugal will expect Ronaldo throws a reporter into a lake for good luck. Wales and N. Ireland will also meet, meaning at least one British team will drop and one will advance. <br> <br> ROUND OF 16 (all times local)<br> <br> <em>25 June</em> <br> 15.00 Switzerland - Poland<br> 18.00 Wales - N. Ireland <br> 21.00 Croatia - Portugal<br> <br> <em>26 June</em><br> 15.00 France - Rep. Ireland<br> 18.00 Germany - Slovakia<br> 21.00 Hungary - Belgium<br> <br> <em>27 June</em><br> 18.00 Italy - Spain<br> 21.00 England - Iceland,2016:site.7190 Thu, 23 Jun 2016 10:29:53 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Group Stage, Round 3 Three teams are already planning the knockout stage, eight will book their flights home in the next days, and a handful will hold their breaths until the final whistle late on June 22. France were the first to advance, followed by Spain and Italy. All three teams needed late goals at any point so far (a constant in the competition - 15 goals were scored on the last ten minutes, with 9 of them proving crucial to the final score), but have the six points to play the third game knowing they can rest their starters before the knockout stage - and Italy has even clinched the top spot in the group. The other teams have reached the four points that should be necessary to advance are Switzerland, England, Germany, Poland, Croatia and Hungary.<br> <br> At the end of round 2, between third place teams, Northern Ireland and Slovakia are leading with 3 points, and goal difference might very likely become the tie-breaker. The Ukrainians were the first to get eliminated, as their defeat puts the first two spots out of reach, and losing to Northern Ireland also meant losing the tie-breaker. Still in contention but underperforming are Russia (one point), Czechia (who now have lost captain Tomas Rosicky), Sweden (<em>zero</em> shots on goal) and Portugal (tied against Iceland and Austria in poor performances).<br> <br> The highlight is Croatia - Spain, what promises to be a battle between two of the best midfields in the competition (however, Modric is likely to miss the game due to injury) for the top spot in group D. This if Croatia isn't penalized or suspended following the flare incident against Czechia.<br> <br> ROUND 3 (all times local)<br> <em>19 June</em><br> 21.00 A: Switzerland v France<br> 21.00 A: Romania v Albania<br> <em>20 June</em><br> 21.00 B: Slovakia v England<br> 21.00 B: Russia v Wales<br> <em>21 June </em> <br> 18.00 C: Northern Ireland v Germany<br> 18.00 C: Ukraine v Poland<br> 21.00 D: Croatia v Spain<br> 21.00 D: Czechia v Turkey<br> <em>22 June</em><br> 18.00 F: Hungary v Portugal<br> 18.00 F: Iceland v Austria<br> 21.00 E: Sweden v Belgium<br> 21.00 E: Italy v Republic of Ireland,2016:site.7163 Sat, 18 Jun 2016 15:28:46 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Group Stage, Round 2 Round 1 brought every sort of action to French streets, a few surprises and some great goals. Group B has one of the highlights of the second round, as Wales play England in a game important for both sides - not only Wales wants an historic win againt their rivals that would put them in the knockout stage, but England has to do a lot better than their lackluster result against Russia to avoid reaching the third round hoping to not fall to the bottom 8 (even if that is highly unlikely). And if you were wondering what how unlikely it was they would be paired together, <a href="">Sepp Blatter has an idea</a>.<br> <br> Unfortunately, there are still reports of fights between Russian and English fans (<a href="">now in Lille</a>), and UEFA might have to do more than rhetoric to end this situation. <br> <br> Back to football, other highly touted team with a must-win game to avoid the same pitfall as England is Belgium, following their deflating defeat against Italy where they appeared outplayed and outclassed for most of it, while group D favourites Austria and Portugal will try to fix their teams against each other following their poor showings earlier tonight, losing to Hungary and dropping points to Iceland.<br> Germany and Poland play each other again, after being in the same qualifying group (2-0 for Poland in their opener, at home Germany won 3-1), and in a rematch of the 2004 game at the same stage where Zlatan Ibrahimovic all but eliminated Italy with <a href="">a back-heel kick in the final minutes</a>, Italy can punch their ticket into the next round.<br> <br> <br> ROUND 2 (all times local)<br> <em>15 June</em><br> 15:00 B: Russia v Slovakia <br> 18:00 A: Romania v Switzerland<br> 21:00 A: France v Albania<br> <em>16 June</em><br> 15:00 B: England v Wales <br> 18:00 C: Ukraine v N. Ireland<br> 20:00 C: Germany v Poland<br> <em>17 June</em><br> 15:00 E: Italy v Sweden<br> 18:00 D: Czechia v Croatia<br> 21:00 D: Spain v Turkey<br> <em>18 June</em><br> 15:00 E: Belgium v Rep. Ireland<br> 18:00 F: Iceland v Hungary<br> 21:00 F: Portugal v Austria,2016:site.7137 Tue, 14 Jun 2016 15:13:12 -0800 lmfsilva 2016 UEFA European Football Championship: Group Stage And finally, Euro 2016 is upon us. The call-up controversies and the lackluster performances and humiliating defeats on the past weeks, all come to nothing as every team starts on even footing. The highlight is certainly the late game on June 13, as favourites Belgium plays Italy in a game that could derail either team - and Italy has some bad memories of this situation, as in 2004, after drawing their opening game against Denmark, an equaliser by Zlatan in the final minutes of the second put them in a very compromising situation, where they had to beat Bulgaria and hope Denmark and Sweden wouldn't play for a draw that would qualify both... which is exactly what happened.<br> <br> This first post is above everything an experiment, as defined by the MeFi Football Club; if it gets enough activity, a post for the round 2 will be posted as soon as Portugal - Iceland ends. If it does not, I'll just add a knockout stage post once it begins.<br> <br> ROUND 1 (all times local)<br> <br> <em>10 June</em><br> 21:00 A: France v Romania<br> <em>11 June</em><br> 15:00 A: Albania v Switzerland<br> 18:00 B: Wales v Slovakia<br> 21:00 B: England v Russia<br> <em>12 June</em><br> 15:00 D: Turkey v Croatia<br> 18:00 C: Poland v Northern Ireland<br> 21:00 C: Germany v Ukraine<br> <em>13 June</em><br> 15:00 D: Spain v Czech Republic<br> 18:00 E: Republic of Ireland v Sweden<br> 21:00 E: Belgium v Italy<br> <em>14 June</em><br> 18:00 F: Austria v Hungary<br> 21:00 F: Portugal v Iceland,2016:site.7101 Thu, 09 Jun 2016 10:07:37 -0800 lmfsilva