EURO 2008

[TANGODANCER]

Just settling down for a very tasty looking France V Holland. Should be a cracker.

[Prufrock]

Just settling down for a very tasty looking France V Holland. Should be a cracker.

Cheers Tango, youve gone and fecked it, couldnt keep your trap shut could ya?! If this is boring i'm holding you personally responsible!

[TANGODANCER]

Good lively first half, goal after 9 mins via Kuyt header from a corner and Holland looking composed. France not out of this and Govou looks dangerous. Makalele adopting attacking midfield and getting forward more than normal. Gallas and Evra pretty sharp down the left and Ribery is always unpredictable. Henry also still needs watching but the Dutch defense are strong and Van de Sar made a couple of good saves.. France had a good spell before the break. Still game on.

[FD]

Very impressed with the Dutch side, quality all over the park.

A prime example of building a TEAM that is exceptional over a team of exceptional players.

Kuyt (and I loathe to say this) is impressing me of late. What he's doing for club and country reminds me of a certain "super" Whites player.

[Verbal]

In the space of 5 days, Holland have destroyed the 2006 world cup finalists. Phenomenal.

[TANGODANCER]

Utter class. France never giving up but the Dutch win 4-1. Superb performance and entertainment; all class goals and Holland so strong in depth they could affords to have Roben and Van Persie as subs. Very impressed with Van Nistelroy, brilliant piece of skill to set up Van Persie's goal. Ribery never stopped running, Henri still has some nice touches and Anelka wasn't disgraced in any way. Gomis?

Great game, and seven goals against Italy and France is ominous in the extreme. Orange is the colour.

[spraggy]

Anyone know what happens if France and Italy draw 0-0 and Holland beat Romania 3-0? Each team would have two points, a goal difference of -3, 1 goal for and 3 against. I think.

[Worthy4England]

Anyone know what happens if France and Italy draw 0-0 and Holland beat Romania 3-0? Each team would have two points, a goal difference of -3, 1 goal for and 3 against.

What happened last time was that the team whose games had encompassed the most goals from either side, went through. That's how Greece made it out of the group stages

So:

Holland 3 Italy 0
France 0 Romania 0

Italy 1 Romania 1
Holland 4 France 1

France 0 Italy 0
Holland 3 Romania 0

Goals in games played Italy 5, France 5, Romania 5....

Then I think it goes to greater number of goals scored

Italy 1, France 1, Romania 1

Then it goes to the higher coefficient derived from Euro 2004 and 2002 World Cup Qualifiers...I think Italy have 2.364, Romania have 2.250 and France have 2.091

If that didn't for some reason separate them (and I'm not sure how it couldn't, then it would go on Fair Play standings in Euro 2004 so Manchester Citeh would qualify by not kicking any fecker again.

Lastly they would draw lots.

[spraggy]

Marvellous!

[Worthy4England]

Marvellous!

Not sure the co-efficients I quoted are for the right matches....Only the coefficients from the 2006 FIFA World Cup and 2006.08 UEFA European Football Championships count....Can't be assed working them out.

There is an interesting variation possible. If only two sides couldn't be split on the basis of same points, same number of goals scored and conceded, and were playing each other (so it'd have to be France and Italy), then their game would go to pengies.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Utter class. France never giving up but the Dutch win 4-1. Superb performance and entertainment; all class goals and Holland so strong in depth they could affords to have Roben and Van Persie as subs. Very impressed with Van Nistelroy, brilliant piece of skill to set up Van Persie's goal. Ribery never stopped running, Henri still has some nice touches and Anelka wasn't disgraced in any way. Gomis?

Great game, and seven goals against Italy and France is ominous in the extreme. Orange is the colour.

Robben and Van Persie are both being eased back in from injury, TD, but 'our' orange boys are certainly looking good. I always thought that as soon as this team got some momentum behind them they could really do some damage - as such, scoring first against Italy was crucial!

Another terrific display - the big man Engelaar was poor tonight and was rightly hauled off, but difficult to find fault apart from that. Somehow, that centre-back pairing is still holding up, thanks in no small part to the man behind them.

Boulahrouz is something of a sensation - he's barely kicked a ball all season, wouldn't even be there but for Ryan Babel's injury, but he looks very fit and very on the pace.

Don't bet against a Romania victory on Tuesday though - players can now be rested with the top spot secured. And when the Netherlands had already qualified for the finals, they managed to lose to Belarus in their last, meaningless qualifying game.

[Worthy4England]

Interesting comments about their defensive abilities Mummy, and one I think you've made previously. The Dutch conceded only 5 goals against in qualifying which was the joint lowest total. Is their defence really that bad?

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Interesting comments about their defensive abilities Mummy, and one I think you've made previously. The Dutch conceded only 5 goals against in qualifying which was the joint lowest total. Is their defence really that bad?

One way another, the goals have certainly been kept out in the competitive games, you're right! (Although the Netherlands' qualifying group was not a strong one, and the even the better teams such as Romania were better known for their defending than going forward.)

People have been concerned about how the defence was going to hold up though, because there has been no such thing as a settled back four.

Plus, I think the post-qualification friendly against Austria in which they were 3-0 down at half time (but went on to win 4-3) made people rather nervous! Denmark were also allowed to scored twice in a recent friendly.

The team has played really well in these first two games, but has ridden its luck at crucial times, as most successful teams have to, of course. Ooijer completely lost Henry tonight, for example, but his effort over the keeper was actually very clumsy in the end - how often does that happen?

[Prufrock]

think I'll let you off TD :mr green:

[Worthy4England]

Interesting comments about their defensive abilities Mummy, and one I think you've made previously. The Dutch conceded only 5 goals against in qualifying which was the joint lowest total. Is their defence really that bad?

One way another, the goals have certainly been kept out in the competitive games, you're right! (Although the Netherlands' qualifying group was not a strong one, and the even the better teams such as Romania were better known for their defending than going forward.)

People have been concerned about how the defence was going to hold up though, because there has been no such thing as a settled back four.

Plus, I think the post-qualification friendly against Austria in which they were 3-0 down at half time (but went on to win 4-3) made people rather nervous! Denmark were also allowed to scored twice in a recent friendly.

The team has played really well in these first two games, but has ridden its luck at crucial times, as most successful teams have to, of course. Ooijer completely lost Henry tonight, for example, but his effort over the keeper was actually very clumsy in the end - how often does that happen?

Thanks sounds a bit like Bolton's defence then....kept 'em out but not sure how...

[communistworkethic]

Anyone know what happens if France and Italy draw 0-0 and Holland beat Romania 3-0? Each team would have two points, a goal difference of -3, 1 goal for and 3 against.

What happened last time was that the team whose games had encompassed the most goals from either side, went through. That's how Greece made it out of the group stages

So:

Holland 3 Italy 0
France 0 Romania 0

Italy 1 Romania 1
Holland 4 France 1

France 0 Italy 0
Holland 3 Romania 0

Goals in games played Italy 5, France 5, Romania 5....

Then I think it goes to greater number of goals scored

Italy 1, France 1, Romania 1

Then it goes to the higher coefficient derived from Euro 2004 and 2002 World Cup Qualifiers...I think Italy have 2.364, Romania have 2.250 and France have 2.091

If that didn't for some reason separate them (and I'm not sure how it couldn't, then it would go on Fair Play standings in Euro 2004 so Manchester Citeh would qualify by not kicking any fecker again.

Lastly they would draw lots.

can I just point out that romania have to beat holland not vice versa to set up the scenario suggested.

[spraggy]

Anyone know what happens if France and Italy draw 0-0 and Holland beat Romania 3-0? Each team would have two points, a goal difference of -3, 1 goal for and 3 against.

can I just point out that romania have to beat holland not vice versa to set up the scenario suggested.

No, because if Romania beat Holland then they would qualify together with Holland, regardless of the score in the other game.

[warthog]

Elmander starts for Sweden. Should be interesting.

[communistworkethic]

Anyone know what happens if France and Italy draw 0-0 and Holland beat Romania 3-0? Each team would have two points, a goal difference of -3, 1 goal for and 3 against.

can I just point out that romania have to beat holland not vice versa to set up the scenario suggested.

head somewhere else, was thinking about the conversation we had in the pub last nite about the permutations and how it wouldn't be a shock to see Holland reseves turn out against Romania.

[warthog]

Cracking finish by Villa, but hard on Sweden, who are a fair bit better than they're given credit for. Elmander's not bad on that display, but he's nothing special. Would he improve us? I can't see it.