T O P

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ZgBlues

Well, it’s a shame that Belgium’s Golden Generation, once heralded for their flair and attacking mindset, ended their era in such a feeble way, playing 85 minutes of defensive football. Yes, they are aging, yes, they are transitioning towards a new crop of players. But also, Tedesco is a crap manager. Carrasco probably shouldn’t have played, and Lukaku struggled the entire tournament. France is also playing crappy football, even though on paper they should dominate every game they play. They somehow always manage to squeeze by and go to the next round, but I don’t think any neutral wants to see this team lift the trophy in the end. Both Spain and Germany are so much better than them this year. England is still plodding along somehow, Portugal still has flair (although I hope Slovenia knocks them out tonight), and Switzerland and Austria are playing their best football in decades.


el_loco_avs

Netherlands not even worthy of mention Q_Q


El_Dinksterino2

Rightfully so lol, we’ve been utter shit so far


ThatWontFit

I thought this game would be different until people started getting yellow cards for creating gusts of wind. Of course the game is going to slow down if it's a YC to touch someone.


Pleasant-Direction-4

Own goal will win the golden boot at Euros this year


Mo4d93

Is it me or AFCON has been better than EURO this year?


Hopeful_Outside_8711

yes, most AFCON matches were worth watching unlike EURO


Embarrassed-Pair5058

On terms of entertainment, yeah AFCON was surprisingly the best one this year, at least in the group stages We haven't been into the knockout rounds yet besides a few Euro matches, so we don't know how the Euros and Copa America will end this year


Ankhere123

Even Asian cup was better than this crap


Powerful-Chemical431

how does mbappe have only 0 open play goals in 2 euro tournaments tf


ZealousidealChard133

Overrated


W0666007

I can’t watch any of the coverage bc Fox local news decided they’d rather talk about a mistrial in some stupid murder case. Fuck off, Fox.


Random0cassions

This is actually Terrorism at its finest. Fuck the French far right, what’s happening at euros is more insane


AffectionateRush2620

What with all the own goals this has to be a record or something😭


IzodCenter

Are we seriously thinking that US isn’t losing 4-0 to Uruguay?


LobsterObjective5695

How is that relevant to France v Belgium?


longbeachny96

They cut into a segment on the Fox broadcast talking about it, and to answer his question, I’m predicting 5-0 Uruguay


AcademicSheep

Worst fucking tournament in ages. All the talent of the world is stacked on this continent, and yet afcon or afc produces more entertainment than this dross.


Random0cassions

Not one competition can ever beat AFCON. That shit is like arguing to a dumb person. Anyone is bought down to the same level regardless. Love it immensely


El_Dinksterino2

Lol what u on about mate, the euros are by far the best international football tournament after the world cup ofc


goombagoomba2

You only watched the big games didn't you


AcademicSheep

Don't take my word? Folks who are paid to watch and analyze all games have been saying the same thing really.


goombagoomba2

Only the games involving England and France have been boring for me, and that's only a small part of the tournament so far. I'm assuming thats most of what you've seen though


IzodCenter

Defense is really good and has gotten faster and stronger


wuonky

it's not just that, it's that stats based tactics and pragmatic football playing from the back have become discovered to be more effective than artistry


Forsaken_Matter_9623

Bingo. Possession is overrated


MrVegosh

I mean if it wins it’s not exactly overrated


Forsaken_Matter_9623

Point is that there is no correlation between possession and likelihood/likeliness to win a knockout game or even success in a table


MrVegosh

Without bothering to check I can tell you that you are being dumb lmao. I think the 3 teams in the PL with the highest possession are City, Arsenal, and Liverpool lol. It doesn’t mean you win every time but there is def a correlation If that wasn’t the case, then why the fuck would good teams play with high possession lol


Forsaken_Matter_9623

There’s a whole lot of layers here to really unpack the “possession %” stats but I’ll just say if you really look at it the data is pretty inconclusive and that the game, as a whole, is moving towards chance creation and chance denial rather than the time that you keep the ball. I’ll just say to your specific point there are so many variables but I’ll just bring one up: the teams with better talent tends to be in the lead more, which means that they will have more possession of the ball (the other team will give the ball up more because they have to create additional opportunities to secure points when they’re down). When you control for those variables (plenty of advanced research out there) possession, in your scenario, is more of a “chicken or the egg” situation where it’s much more inconclusive


MrVegosh

If it was better to not have possession top teams would not play a possession heavy style lol. That’s not hard to understand.


Sentreen

Shame to go out this way. France obviously deserved the win, as they controlled the game and had most of the chances. However, the OG was very unlucky and there were some chances that could have made the difference if luck had turned the other way. Also the ref was pretty shit. Carded like crazy at the start, and didn't call a few obvious fouls later on.


duney

Similar to England’s game yesterday regarding the bookings. Obviously a very small sample size, but it has me beginning to wonder if this is how refs are being encouraged to officiate at this point


Adrianm18

I think we were spoiled with the last couple of tournaments being fast paced . This tournament is definitely like the ones before .


vazne

The bean counters and statisticians ruin everything. Football included.


BlaBlub85

Great now you jinxed it. Watch us bomb out of the tournament vs Spain with a score of like 5-3 after 90 minutes of all gas, no brakes style football from both teams 🤣


kalamari__

the 1st matchday was very good though. after that it declined.


BlaBlub85

Welp, this most certainly was one of the games of all times...


realmojosan

ZzzZZzzzZz


Z0idberg_MD

A mis-hit shot being deflected in a pathetic way into the back of the net and that being France's "goal from open play" sums up everything about this tournament so far.


wuonky

also, the same team which is one of the favourites with an overpowered squad has had 66 shots, 0 non-penalty goals and are quarterfinalists let's not even talk about the team they're gonna face in the quarters


cristitarlea

In the end they go into quarters while Belgium goes home stop crying


wuonky

are you a toddler? i wanted belgium to lose myself, go to bed child.


itsyourboiSAI

the ref be officiating like he playing roulette


3rd-party-intervener

Kdb can’t do anything in internationals.  Goes to show how much of a byproduct he is of stacked man city 


Exciting-Holiday337

what game were you watching? both kdb and doku single-handedly kept belgium in that game


3rd-party-intervener

By scoring 0 goals?  😂


Exciting-Holiday337

Your reply just shows how little you know about the sport


3rd-party-intervener

Whatever helps you cope 🤷‍♂️


SisyphusWithTheRock

Arguably the same is said of Foden on England, and I don't think it's really true of either tbh - KDB is excellent at club level and always has been, I just don't think the Belgium system suits him


alimuhammad_1999

Accept it mate, city players are just not good enough without the well drilled pep machine.


SisyphusWithTheRock

This is possible, but I don't buy this as plenty of players succeed with or without Pep (look at Gundogan as a great example of this)


mongster03_

Has France scored a goal in open play yet?


Surfer949

Crickets


Redditsavoeoklapija

Remember when europeans were saying euro > world cup? Pepperidge farms remembers


n10w4

yeah, though I think it suits a different style, maybe even mentality, no way Denmark or Greece (or even *that* Portugal) win the WC.


TanananaTananana

Croatia was close, Turkey as well in 2002


Dwarfmophobia

Only mbappe said that, now he's proven wrong again.


osakwe05

how is this contradicting what he said? he said the euros is harder than the world cup, and now he has gone another game with 0 npg in the euros while he is already a world cup legend


Redditsavoeoklapija

Oh I'm not even talking about mbappe, I'm just citing r/soccer users


Dwarfmophobia

Well mbappe is the reason why that there's an whole argument between the euros and the wc, he could just atleast shut his mouth and focus more into the tournament then the whole argument on this board wouldn't happened.


chapeauetrange

The WC/Euro argument predates Mbappé by many years.  I remember hearing it last century.  


Kvasir19

It even predates the first Euro cup


RikikiBousquet

He’s the reason? It’s a pretty old opinion dude lol. England players used to say that decades ago.


Redditsavoeoklapija

No disagreement there on my part, between England, France and Mexico games in the last 2 days I want to tear my eyes out


Hexo_Micron

WC>Afcon>Copa>Asian Cup>Euro


WhereistheZol

People downvoting don’t know shit about Afcon, entertainment wise it’s a better tournament than most give credit for, everyone plays at the same level even if you played for European clubs, it doesn’t mean shit when you get to the tournament


Hexo_Micron

Yeah lol, I watched Asian cup and AFCON this year they were great.


FunMoment10

Wc first and afcon second after that it's based on taste I would go for copa but I haven't been able to watch this year.


Redditsavoeoklapija

Loved the angry euroeans downvoting  But you are right, they just won't admit it


MrVegosh

As if any off you watch all these games


Redditsavoeoklapija

I did, also watched all the copa ones, this is the reason I like to call bullshit on crappy r/soccer takes, specially European ones


The_Pilot_101

Bots are everywhere just downvoting as if it changes the truth lol


RaFi1005

" Golden Generation "


MrVegosh

This is not the golden generation lol


Separate-Traffic3219

That was 8 years ago bro


theforsaken9000

And that too was "Belgiums" golden gen. Not the worlds best team. It was Belgiums best team. It had 2 world class outfield players, lukaku who was quite good, courtois, and an injury ptone kompany amongst others. St the same time France had stars even in their reserves.


TitusRex

The OG is the best player.


Alex00a

Olivier giroud ? Sure he is


Patio1950

Deschampsliban coming for the trophy


great_whitehope

I'm not trying to be rude but maybe practice shooting in training so you can do it in the match


Sabur1991

In earlier days teams played to win. In this tournament they play not to lose. Big difference between these two.


RikikiBousquet

Over 20 shots isn’t at all playing not to lose. They just lacked quality for sure.


KyloRenWest

Earlier days? You mean like the last few tournaments? I swear I have been seeing 1-0 major tournaments games since I can remember


Toni253

I remember waaaaay worse EUROs and World Cups


LFGBatsh1tcr4zy

Which ones?


bautim

Autogoal does it again ballon d'or incoming 🤩


Kumonomukou

Belgium's Golden Generation officially ended. It's funny Belgium's Golden Generation peaked exactly with Hazard's form. It started going downhill ever since the year Hazard went to Real Madrid, and "exploded".


theforsaken9000

Its not funny or observant. Belgiums golden gen have had just 3 world class players, one of them being a keeper. Ofc removing one of the 2 world class outfield players would lead to a massive drop in quality


MrVegosh

I mean yeah that makes sense. If you’re a hair nation that has one golden gen. And one of your golden gen stars becomes washed ofc you will be worse


juancorleone

This made yesterday’s , England vs Slovakia look interesting


Fabulous_Oven4607

My mind is melting...snoop Dogg in a commercial with Harry Kane


Worldly_Client_7614

France is just as dire a watch as england.


chapeauetrange

Honestly I’ve seen us play far more boring matches than this.  We’ve created a decent number of chances but for some reason cannot shoot at all in this tournament.  


vaindioux

They still have no clue how France operates most of the time 1) Always announced favorite and they are going to blow everyone 4-0 2) France struggles and plays like shit in the first round but makes it to the second round 3) Then more often than not France makes from the final 4 to winning it all 4) Next tournament repeat 🇫🇷👍🏻


BenjiSBRK

Had the 10 missed shots been on target and 4 of them been goals, everybody would be praising France.


vaindioux

⬆️ This


caljl

Had Rice post shot gone in and Kanes point blank header not missed, England probably wouldn’t be getting roasted either.


TheAskewOne

They have scoring opportunities, they just always shoot wide.


ElijahBaley2099

That’s not fair: they *also* shoot it high.


tigeridiot

I’m not sure about that at least they attack


El_Dinksterino2

Tbh this Euro’s has kinda been underwhelming so far. Only good thing that came from it so far is that we’ve had quite a few smaller teams punch above their weight


The_Pilot_101

This. I can’t remember a Euro or a World Cup being this bad.


MrVegosh

Developing dementia? Every NT tournament is like this


Dwarfmophobia

This copa america looks more exciting than this euros.


GustaveQuantum

Copa is entertaining because of absurd refereeing and shithousing but aside from Argentina or Uruguay the quality of football is dire, too


DFW11

I've watched 5 games of the copa america and let me tell you, it's been bad. That being said 3 of those were Canada's matches and they are borderline diabolical.


manqoba619

Or maybe the “smaller” teams have improved?


lauriekeyheart

Spain & Germany carried this tournament with plentiful of goals, definitely see the Spain vs Germany the tournament highlight


Team-Name

Austria and Turkey have been great to watch. Hopefully they both put on a good show tomorrow. 


EnjoySlurm

I honestly think whoever emerges from that will be the tournament winner


CasioJay88

Hot take


Mychatismuted

France has a fantastic midfield and defense, a great goalkeeper… but the attack is painful.


Patio1950

but the midfield is partly responsible for that, yeah, it's well organized to defend but it totally lacks creativity and that's also important when it comes to attacking. France lack someone like Pogba who was able to combine those two things.


Silent-Chemist-1919

last time griezmann was used correctly at the euros was in 2016


nalydix

They have the accuracy of a blunderbuss. Like 20 shots for 2 on target, one of them being an off your own leg then OG is like, not top team expectation. We are literally joking that the reason that goal went in is because they screwed up instead of trying to get it on target.


Blyton1

God i hate how france plays..


BagingRoner34

I never want to watch france ever again.


DistraPlus

Normally I have a hard time falling asleep during the day but this was so boring that I couldn't help it, thank you guys 👌


Annabond

Belgium had a corner in the last minute, yet they barely sent five players up front.


planetary_beats

At least Doku was incredibly fun to watch. His burst of pace is insane


Mean_Office_6966

Yea indeed. Hope he is able to start more for man city


planetary_beats

This Euros I’ve found myself appreciating the direct wingers even more than usual- Doku, Nico, Yamal etc. Breath of fresh air


tigeridiot

Slowly but surely the cycle moves back towards 4-4-2 with true wide men on the pitch


Mean_Office_6966

Yes me too. Leao for Portugal is this kind of player too. But hope he don't get another yellow for diving later lol. That said, Spain is another level.


osoichan

I though nothings gonna top England's performances but here we are, not one but two teams raised the bar! what a snoozefest


pnova7

I know that they're through, but France has been so painfully underwhelming in this tournament thus far.


SafeContext202

So how boring was the match?


Quanqiuhua

Very


AllHailKingCorbin33

Worse than ours yesterday


Daspsycho37

Yes


Enjzey

how many goals has France scored so far to reach quarter finals?


Azlayr

None in game. 2 OGs 1 pen.


Fvblst

0 from open play without own goals


ShowMeMoeMane

3 I think. Own goal against Austria, none against the Netherlands, penalty against Poland, own goal against Belgium


Franchementballek

3 😎


Barbarossa429

Wrong, 1 goal and that’s a penalty lol. The rest are own goals.


Franchementballek

I’m glad I did my joke before you ruined it 😁


Franchementballek

Oh you meant by ourselves? One.


eifjui

Liberté, égalité, efficiencé (this somewhat works)


Surfer949

Luck


JanGuillosThrowaway

the OG does it again


Winter-Werewolf8366

Mediocre. Eso fue Belgica hoy.


recuerdamoi

Own goal strikes again.


SPARKLEOFHOPE6IB

Say what you want Faes was solid


franconot-mark

Will Mbappe be fit for the next match? He’s clearly playing with 20% vision with that masl


nalydix

I don't think vision is that big of a deal for him. I believe he's apprehensive of getting booped again and is scared to engage in more physical duel.


slimaneslilane02

Yeah, one action really showed it. The ball was passing near his head and he just thrown his two arms ahead. He didn’t touch it, but that would have been a direct yellow card, probably. France always played like this under Deschamps, but we had leaders that had this little sparks. With Mbappe and Griezmann in doubts and having a bad tournament, the only thing that remain is this solid but bland and stereotypical game. We still have the qualities to go through somehow, but damn, that’s shitty


C6DilucEnjoyer

most boring game so far


reddit-time

Sorry, you didn't watch any England matches?


recuerdamoi

England-Slovakia


DeapVally

With that ending? Not a chance. England v Slovenia on the other hand....


recuerdamoi

Yeah. More true.


Ballybomb_

How was that boring tho?


recuerdamoi

Until the end. Slovenia as well.


Rontheking

Refs are terrible this tournament


hodonata

Yeah this guy lost his marbles 2 minutes after kick off


1kamikazebombarn

Whats wrong with this ref? Maybe one yellow to much, but not the biggest deal. He was always close to the play, talked alot with players, didnt miss anything big?


Rontheking

Yeah the first few yellows were atrocious and then later on not stopping at all for fouls on Belgium towards the end ? Complete mental.


itsyourboiSAI

Why in the world was KDB playing deep for 60 minutes


reddit-time

idk, but Pep is coming out of this tournament looking better than ever. KDB essentially had no impact, Foden looks like trash, Walker playing worse than ever, Stones mediocre, Kovačić looked poor, Doku ... well, doing Doku things and making nothing of it. and where's Haaland? he's been invisible. (obvious joke there.) Only Man City player really looking like a world beater is Rodri. So, I guess can say that Pep and Rodri come out of this tournament looking even better than they did before. ah, well, the Portuguese boys also looking good, but let's see if they don't get upset next. :D


theforsaken9000

First of all, kdb won 2 MOTMs in the group stage which he deserved. Second of all, they played defensively today coz they knew France were better. Hence why Kdb had "no impact". I know this is reddit but surely you couldve watched the game, listened to the commentary and understood why he wasnt attacking? Rodri looks insane because they're playing the exact same system at Spain as they are at City. You really want to compare the star qualiy of Belgium and Spain? Carrasco, theat, faes, lukaku, onana and more. They provide nothing. Wtf can kdb do with the likes of them


k0ntrol

Onna was good. Imo lukaku did nothing. It's a shame because I believe the var had a toll on him


theforsaken9000

First of all, kdb won 2 MOTMs in the group stage which he deserved. Second of all, they played defensively today coz they knew France were better. Hence why Kdb had "no impact". I know this is reddit but surely you couldve watched the game, listened to the commentary and understood why he wasnt attacking? Rodri looks insane because they're playing the exact same system at Spain as they are at City. You really want to compare the star qualiy of Belgium and Spain? Carrasco, theat, faes, lukaku, onana and more. They provide nothing. Wtf can kdb do with the likes of them


Quanqiuhua

Italian manager


SrgtButterscotch

every time a match ends you can tell which comments are from people who actually watched the match and which people are just trolls, what an ass performance all around lol


manqoba619

How?


DieuMivas

Yeah the comments in the match threads are generally really dreadful


Annabond

Euro 2024 so far: - OG is king (has more goals than all the top strikers together) - The worst coaches/managers I can remember - Players are tired and some don't bother when they are losing


tftvrft

Tragic ending for Vertonghen


hodonata

I mean kinda but not really. Honorable death for Belgium and I don't think Jan will lose a wink over that goal. Nothing he could've done, just totally random occurrence. Terrible miss by Kolo that he couldn't have calculated


ElCaminoInTheWest

Good riddance Belgium, stinking up yet another tournament.


BawsYannis

Well, can't stink it up if you barely make it to one


psssyslayer69

That’s RICH coming from a SCOT


EnjoySlurm

France v Portugal in the quarters 😭🤣


hodonata

drži moje pivo


AllHailKingCorbin33

Any way they can both lose?


joe4553

Easy, own goal wins again.


EnjoySlurm

Would be top tier if possible


Rhemyst

As terrible as that was, the "best" team still won. GG I guess.


niarferf

Portugal-Slovenia is gonna be another 1-0 snoozefest 🔒


hodonata

I bet you're wrong   2+ for Portugal   In fact the bookies odds were for 2.05 so I'll wager 3


niarferf

Lmao


snoopdoggsworld

Looks like they were right lol


hodonata

Yeah I'm losing my Internet karma bet  rn... Surprising lack of cutting edge from the Portuguese     The thing is there's probably another 30 min to be played. If Slovenia ever allow one the chance of the 2nd or 3rd get much greater 


snoopdoggsworld

You were right in the end if you want to count penalties as the score lol


hodonata

Yep 3 nil, just as I always predicted! 


reddit-time

no way. Portugal is going to light it up. unfortunately.


Alex00a

Lol


masteraddavarlden

Can someone explain to a football noob - every nation considered top nation like France, Belgium, England, Portugal, France and so forth play so fucking slow. Most of these teams I have barely seen try a through ball and they rarely use the side to put in crosses to the center. Like omg these games are dreadful to watch. They get a pass and theres no movement from the other players or the one getting the ball? Like whats going on this tournament? Is this modern football?