ATW, do you think that Portugal has a shot against either Germany or France? I know which side you think will dominate regardless I tend to think that they have no chance. France and Germany are in a different class.
I think France and Germany are clearly better than Portugal. But one never knows what can happen in 90 minutes. There's always some luck involved, and so on. By the way, I think France will beat Germany.
Well, congrats to Portugal. Considering how poorly they've played in general, it's quite amazing they're going to the final. Congrats to Wales on getting this far. It was an upset that they even qualified for the tournament...let alone winning a group (over England), getting to the semis and having a chance to play for 3rd place. I was pulling for them just because it would've been a story possibly greater than Leicester City and I'm a big fan of Bale.
With the way they performed today, they definitely can beat any team. France and Germany are slightly better, but it's definitely as one-sided as some may think.
Iceland and Wales were among the most sympathetic teams that went far. Germany, Portugal and France are known powerhouses, so no Greek happy ending this time.
Unlike at the WC there is no official match determining 3rd place at the Euros. It is more like who lost with less goal difference will be third.
Portugal got the easy bracket. Italy/Germany/Spain/France all would have made it to the finals if they were in the other bracket.
Honestly, I think the criticism directed at Portugal is a little unfair. In the group stage, aside from the game against Hungary, I thought they played pretty well. They absolutely dominated Iceland (26-4 shots, 69% possession) and Austria (23-3 shots, missed penalty), but failed to win those games. Then they played a Croatian team who quite a few experts had as a dark horse after their win against Spain, and while Portugal couldn't do much offensively, I thought they did very well defensively (which might not be appealing to the casual fan, but is just as important). The game against Poland was the only game that warranted criticism, but then again we couldn't beat Poland either in the group stage and even lost to them in the qualifiers, so they're no scrubs. And today's win against Wales was pretty convincing, although Wales was missing a key player in Ramsey. Having said that, I still don't think they'll beat Germany or France, but you have to give credit where credit is due.
Last time we played the host nation in a semi-final, this happened... Germany is 6-1 when it comes to a semi-final against the hosts in a big tournament. Let's make it 7-1.
Like our starting XI, should be really solid defensively and make it tough for France to score. Also good to see Draxler starting.
Didn't realize that as I had just assumed. I rarely pay attention to those games anyway. Still a fantastic result for Wales and something to hopefully build on to get to Russia.
