Portugal’s squad is no worse than Germany’s but your players just seemed disinterested and went to sleep after taking the lead. Santos knew both of Germany’s wing backs are essentially wide midfielders that join the attack, and still chose to play Danilo and Carvalho who failed to protect that back 4 because they’re not mobile enough to cope with the German width, so otherwise wtf are both of them doing in there to begin with when they don’t contribute much going forward? Sanches should have came in for one of those two, but instead Silva came off and Gosens had feck all to worry about so he just bombed forward. There was absolutely no reason for Portugal to lose this, let alone lose it the way they did.
Day 9: Hungary vs France | Portugal vs Germany | Spain vs Poland
- Thread starter Samid
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Cheers mate!
Portugal is 2 tiers below Argentina historically.
Portugal had good players in the 70s and 80s, but nowhere near Argentina's best from the same era.
I don't remember Portugal being favorite to win a WC, except in 1966.
Argentina has always been considered between the favorites to win a WC, except in 2018.
Cristiano has played with way less quality than Messi, except in this Euro.
What about 2004 squad?
Ronaldo / Messi talk outside of that thread shoul be an insta ban from the internet.
Never liked the way draw is set up. Teams wanting to avoid the big teams in next round can actually throw game.
If England win, they could play Germany if they finish 2nd in their group. Not good for the Punter.
If England win, they could play Germany if they finish 2nd in their group. Not good for the Punter.
What a goal that would have been 
When he was literally still a teenager?
All hail the flying gooseWhat a goal that would have been
Now we know what happened! Portugal (Ronaldo) brought this on themselves!
I think you have a better squad than ours. The attack with Cristiano, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Jota, Andre Silva and Joao Felix is a level above ours. The midfield goes to us (although I think Sanches and Moutinho are also very good players and you could play Bruno there as well) but the defense with Guerreiro, Dias and theoretically Cancelo is also very, very strong. Goalkeeper goes to us, obviously.
So it is close overall, IMO. There are arguments for either side.
Singing the national anthem after a draw?
It's not about the result. We also signed the national anthem after the first match. It's about unity and being together. After the past year, it's especially needed.
Fair enough, my comment was a bit flippant.
But also I'm going to post this picture of Roy Keane as a warning
I know, I just wanted to add a little context. In the past year we lost colleagues, friends, parents and grandparents, everything was closed down for a long time. What you can now see in the stadium is a sign of life, joy and relief - and not only in the stadium, but all over the concert venues, bars and streets.
I also know about the unofficial "who has the best national anthem" competition and we don't have a cheerful one, but sums up the past year:
"God, bless the Hungarians,
with abundance and good spirit,
protect them
if they fight with foes,
For those who suffer by ill fate,
bring them merry year,
This nation has already suffered for all sins
Of the past and of the future!"
That's the first verse. It has another seven which is about the history of Hungary. We had a pretty rough and... let's say "eventful" few centuries.
French here. Congrats on the result yesterday! You more than deserved a point from those first two fixtures.I know, I just wanted to add a little context. In the past year we lost colleagues, friends, parents and grandparents, everything was closed down for a long time. What you can now see in the stadium is a sign of life, joy and relief - and not only in the stadium, but all over the concert venues, bars and streets.
I also know about the unofficial "who has the best national anthem" competition and we don't have a cheerful one, but sums up the past year:
"God, bless the Hungarians,
with abundance and good spirit,
protect them
if they fight with foes,
For those who suffer by ill fate,
bring them merry year,
This nation has already suffered for all sins
Of the past and of the future!"
That's the first verse. It has another seven which is about the history of Hungary. We had a pretty rough and... let's say "eventful" few centuries.
It's a bit unfair how you're not receiving Germany for the last game (as a smaller nation, you should have gotten this advantage) but wish you the best!
There's massive differences in key positions, in international football a team is as good as their worst player. The difference in midfield is huge, Kroos and Gundogan to Danilo, William, Moutinho or Sanches is like night and day. None of those players would even be called up for Germany. The fullbacks also, Guerreiro is a great player but he's not a fullback and has to play there while with Cancelo out, Semedo isn't great either. Pepe is 38 and wouldn't even be called up for Germany either at this point in his career. That's way too many weaknesses.
Our options in attack are better, it's the only area of the pitch where we're better and that's not worth much when we have more weak links to exploit.
I just don't think
--Joao Felix----Cristiano Ronaldo----Bernardo Silva--
------------Bruno Fernandes------Renato Sanches---------
------------------------------------Danilo----------------------------------
-Guerreiro-------Dias--------------Pepe-------(Cancelo)-----
would be worse than
------------------------Gnabry------------------------------
-------------Müller----------------Havertz--------------
-Gosens--Gündogan--Kroos------Kimmich--
----------Rüdiger---Hummels----Ginter-----------
I mean, if Semedo and Pepe are weak links for you, surely Gosens and Ginter are, too. And Gnabry, Kimmich and arguably Müller are played out of position as well while Guerreiro has played LB the whole season for Dortmund.
You could almost play the same system as we do:
-----------------------------Cristiano Ronaldo------------------------------
-------------Bruno Fernandes-------------Bernardo Silva-----------
--Guerreiro------Renato Sanches----Danilo-------Semedo----
----------------------Dias---------Pepe--------Dalot-------------------------
The only position you're lacking in is CB and you've got Dias to make up for it. I think this team is individually among the best in the tournament.
Ahhhhhhhhh
We can't play a 3 CB system because we don't have enough CBs for that so Guerreiro never gets to play wingback which is his actual position. Would be like playing Gosens in a back 4.
Dalot was bad in the U-21 Euros, he can never play in this Euros. He got called up because we need to have 23 players. Felix hasn't had 10 good performances all season, he should never start either. We've been playing Rafa Silva has an impact sub who would never get a call up for Germany in his career. You have enough depth to adapt the formation, we don't and it makes a difference. The only area we have better and more options in in the attack but our attackers will always be in a disadvantage compared to other teams' attackers whenever we play a top team due to who's behind them and our coach not being as good tactically. Itqly have less big names than us but their midfield is vastly superior and we'd be dominated too for example. As we did vs Spain 2 weeks ago.
I agree that comparing starting 11s, in terms of quality on paper it is similar. It was just an awful match up for us due to the space out wide and then the depth of the squad plays a part in how we're able to adjust to that.
German press talks about monkey sounds in the ranks whenever a black french player was on the ball yesterday.
I just cant see taking to the streets over a symbolic knee before the game. It just doesn’t seem to be a motivating offense to march against?
Just somehow matches to this:
The speaker of the German FA has confirmed that.
The speaker of the German FA has confirmed that.
Yea, well, it's obviously not about the knee, it's about everything it stands for. Not only does it stand for western society, modern morals and anti-racism, it's also a type of american, for mainland europe pretty foreign movement and might be felt as unneccessary cultural imperialism. Considering only around 7000 african people live in hungary (surely there are more black living there obviously but that's the only number I could find in a quick google search) it's not surprising that these people feel completely disconnected and threatened. Eastern europe in general is very openly racist I feel like. Was in Bulgaria once for two days and went out to have a delicious lunch in the middle of Sofia and started chatting with the very friendly waiters there. After 3 sentences and explaining what I'm doing there the dude openly said: "I'm a racist! All my friends are." with a friendly smile on his face, not understanding at all why I looked shocked. He explained that since I'm german it'd be okay to talk "normal" about this. Told me what a great guy Hitler was. Well, it was a very confusing stay.
What I'm trying to say is people in these countries hate BLM because they are racist and the social issues regarding black people is not remotely as present as in the US, where BLM due to obvious reasons started.
They see it as some form of american cultural imperialism.
People in Poland,Turkey,China,Russia,Japan,etc don't follow the kneeling either...they see it as an american thing.
Eastern Europe history isn't related to african slavery, which is why i believe they don't care about the kneeling and see it as foreigner thing that isn't related to their country at all...same goes to China,Japan, and Russia.
Good on them.
In the tweet it literally says "punished for fans racism in Euro qualifiers", at the very least in case of Hungary it's a tad generous to pretend this is just about rejecting the US.