ponsaelius

Burak filling the Janko role.

Turkey are a mystery. They barely conceded a goal in qualifying yet look absolutely dreadful at the back.

It was the European Games, which is basically Olympics for Europe and organised by the European Olympic Committee. Was on when I was there in 2015.

FFS that's ridic, no way he's gaining an advantage there man.

Changes for Russia bringing in 22 year old keeper and 21 year old CB. Also playing both Golovin and Miranchuk from the start.

Yeah the train trip was super easy too when I went. Really smooth passport checks while you're on board.

France are not quite Spain 2010 in their dullness but there's a really frustrating thing about them that they never quite click fully a lot of the time. And then the games just end up 1-0. With the quality they have they should be running up some brutal victories.

Genuinely don't think he was particularly off there. Looked level with the guy in the middle, Hummels?

Boring. Bring back offside goals.

In theory yes. But again this is the other fundamental flaw with VAR, because football is so fluid. A foul or offside or foul throw etc that happened minutes ago can ultimately lead to a goal - but they won't pull it back. So you're only intervening based on arbitrary periods of time and phases.

The alternative is that the ref flags when somebody is onside and stops the goal happening. You can't go back and fix it as the attack has been stopped, rendering VAR pointless. I hate VAR, and would rather it be gone forever, but if you're going to have it that is the only way VAR will work for offsides.

I'm pretty sure that's what they're supposed to do if it's close.

The irony of this

Hungary lack that bit of quality to give Portugal something to worry about. A real shame Szobozlai is injured.

Well at least they knew it before they played the play-offs. It's such a brilliant group. The stars totally aligned with the draw. Ukraine winning their qualifying group meant Portugal just dropped into pot 3 as not being one of the best runners up. France managing to somehow not be one of the best 6 group winners so just dropped into pot 2. Then it was terrible luck that they'd be put together with Germany from pot 1. Even Hungary coming through the play-offs from pot 4 added to it as they are a host nation.

Full stadium tonight for the Magyars. Viktor Orban - a great lad.

Freaking my nut out that Lubo Satka is starting the tourney alongside Skriniar. At Lech Poznan as well. Taking the old Tamas Kadar route to career rebuilding.

Was that some bews there?

That is pure Scotland man

A lot of it is quite easy tbf. The clues are massive giveaways for most while two of the rounds are basically identical. I got one of the footballs wrong by a tournament, and stupidly didn't get one of the scorers in 1992.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57188304 123/125.

Yeah the schedule is extremely restrictive. I honestly think the only options were to play it then or the next morning, or to end the game as a draw.

Good shouts. Although I think Arshavin was already in the sights of a lot of clubs after Zenit that season. Pavlyuchenko definitely though - he only started that tournament because Pogrebnyak got injured.

This is why I hated Spain 2008-2012 by the way. Despite the fact I loved that Barca side. Because they were basically the most well coached club side of all time dropping in and playing international football. It was unfair on everybody else to the point of being utterly boring. Holland breaking them in 2014 with those 5 goals out of nowhere, and Casillas having a total meltdown, was one of my all time favourite matches.