EURO 2012

cant believe this guy is so good at soccer

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__A72yyd5Nfw/THfg0CicWrI/AAAAAAAAArM/_eeVs8dp01E/s1600/mario_batali.jpg

oh dear Keown wheeling out the "German arrogance" cliche

Keown! Nearly every word is wrong.

Keown "German arrogance" Fuck Off.

A hoy tipped Italy at the start of the tourney I think. I wrote off Italy when they were wretched against Russia pre-tourney.

Keown is actually the worst of the BBC lot just in terms of ignorance

wasn't the keown-dixon pairing A Breath of Fresh Air when it first arrived? Has the BBC just sucked everything interesting out of them?

nah, Keown was just coasting off Dixon and the fact that he sounds a bit posh

^^^This.

Speaking very slowly and sounding thoughtful helped as well.

He speaks slowly cos he's a yokel

group game was a cracker

It was interesting tactically but I look forward to a game that one side or the other has to win.

Not entirely sure you're going to get it, Del Bosque seems pretty content with 0-0s and Italy might lose their nerve, Cassano might not replicate his great performance tonight, etc.

hot as hell here, ppl have put their tvs out on the pavement with extension cables. v sad people on our street.

Torres prolly won't get the call - I remember him being off form in the group game against Italy

he had a nightmare when he came on, yeah

v pleased to see italy completely outplay a v overhyped & sloppy germany. so many great interceptions, italian positioning was fantastic.

torres is not on great form, but the italians do often play p high so spain need runners

disagree that germany were/are overhyped. But yes Italy were v good.
xp

shoulda stuck with the quarter-final team though

totes

just glad to see over-rated EPL failure Balotelli found out at last

FOUND OUT

german defence has never been v smart even though they are excellent on the ball

eh he scored an unmarked header (gk might have done better) and cunted one in, hardly definitive.

The desperation for him to be hailed as a current great makes me want to ronan the shit out of ye tbh

just sayin'

Save it til next February, Andy will have his 20 by then I'm sure and we'll be more receptive to your iconoclastic methods of evaluating strikers.

did we ever agree that the ilf fantasy league winner got final say for the year or anythin

2nd sentence in and McNulty's described Mario as "enigmatic" in his match report.

Fair enough; I'll stand down. xp

i just need some closure!

oh yeah, i completely forgot about the euro 2012 fantasy league.

thanks for yer 7 points today, ozil, now i'm only bottom of one of the two leagues i'm taking part in.

anyway, i'm p sure i won the boxall memorial premier league.

Ita was very fkning classy - only thing is there was no way they were losing from 2-0 down but still good (as was much of the 1st SF).

Germany haven't been Germany sine Euro '96, have they? Something sad about that. Their back line was totally exposed.

Cassano and (hate saying this) Mario were awesome...but still Mario has to do it in the final, and he's just as likely to lose his rag and get sent off.

Bosque to drop Silva for the final.

Navas and Llorente to come on at some point.

Jesus Navas coming on at some point is a bold prediction.

lol yes yes ok.

Silva's not been great

Silva/Negredo out, Pedro/Cesc in.

pirlo vs the best midfield in the world is pretty delicious

did we ever agree that the ilf fantasy league winner got final say for the year or anythin

like cristiano ronaldo, i don't want that responsibility.

eh he scored an unmarked header (gk might have done better) and cunted one in, hardly definitive.

The desperation for him to be hailed as a current great makes me want to ronan the shit out of ye tbh

lol... that said let's not forget how many chances he completely fucked up in the england game. he's still a cartoon character, so far away from ruthless.

really hope italy can do it now, spain have taken on a really grim feeling. never hated cesc at arsenal but he has this gurning, whinging, ref-baiting face these days that makes me despise him.

he's turned into an ugly man, i think?

i'm missing the reference unless that's simply a direct slur.

he used to be such a looker though
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CBrg2cTGKFU/Rw_AKNLq1CI/AAAAAAAAAM8/fFDvudb11YU/s400/Fabregas.JPG

no, you have me rightly

it is weird how he has come to represent the cuntish face of that brutally arrogant team. i think pique spitting on the official's head as they were supposed to be celebrating a world cup was a grim watershed. cesc is like the new ronaldo in terms of smug fuck ref whining though. that smiling face and constant shake of the head is horrendous, someone needs to have a word.

Phil Brown tried to warn us...

Say what you like about Fabregas, but at least he wasn't too homophobic to play in England.

But...the manner in which he was dressed!

Germany were disappointing last night, their lack of experience was sorely evident. There were three (I think? Cassano, Pirlo, Buffon) World Cup winners in the Italy team and it showed, they played the game exactly right, and bashed Germany on the counter-attack. Schweinsteiger was totally off-key, when on his day he's an amazingly effectively strings-puller. They didn't seem to know what they were doing. Kind of gutted, as I've really enjoyed watching them pull teams apart.