Euro 2021

mauf

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The official tournament name is still Euro 2020. Some media outlets are calling it Euro 2021, which I think is much less confusing, hence the thread title. Whatever it’s called, the tournament is scheduled to begin on June 11 and end on July 11. Group stage and early-round knockouts are scheduled in 12 venues across Europe; Wembley Stadium in London will host the final

Here is a full schedule.

Groups are as follows:

Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Wales
Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Finland
Group C: Ukraine, Netherlands, Austria, North Macedonia
Group D: England, Croatia, Czech Republic, Scotland
Group E: Spain, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia
Group F: Germany, France, Portugal, Hungary

16 teams make the knockout round — top 2 in each group plus the 4 best 3rd-place finishers.

Here are the latest odds.

England +500 5/1
France +550 11/2
Belgium +600 6/1
Spain +700 7/1
Germany +800 8/1
Portugal +850 17/2
Italy +900 1091
Netherlands +900 9/1
Denmark +2800 28/1
Croatia +3300 33/1
Turkey +5000 50/1
Switzerland +8000 80/1
Poland +8000 80/1
Russia +8000 80/1
Ukraine +8000 80/1
Austria +10000 100/1
Sweden +10000 100/1
Wales +10000 100/1
Czech Republic +15000 150/1
Scotland +15000 150/1
Finland +20000 200/1
Slovakia +20000 200/1
North Macedonia +20000 200/1

Notwithstanding the tough group draw (which matters less with four third-place teams advancing), I’m surprised France is not a more clear-cut favorite. I’m all over them at 11-2.
 

mikeford

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Can Scotland reach the Knockout Stage of an international tournament for the first time in its history? They're still not very good...but they're in a group that certainly gives them a half-decent chance.
Eh, them and the Czechs are demonstrably worse than England or Croatia, I don't see any chance either of them would advance over the other 2.
 

CodPiece XL

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Can Scotland reach the Knockout Stage of an international tournament for the first time in its history? They're still not very good...but they're in a group that certainly gives them a half-decent chance.
My short answer is No. But as always I live in hope. Not withstanding the lack of talent, too much reliance on the midfield for goals, more recently McGinn and Christie. I'm pleased to see Gilmour and Turnbull make the squad, that should bring a bit more youthful energy to the midfield. But again, they lack talented stikers. Thankfully, McBurnie never made it. I was hoping that Griffiths would get his head out of his arse, fitness and attitude were sadly lacking but you can say that about most of the Celtic players this season. The first Scotland game is on my birthday, I was hoping to have a few beers, but it's a 9 am kickoff over here. I'm too old for that shit...but I'll be making a game time decision on the beers.

It looks like almost all the games are on ESPN 1& 2 over here, a handful on ABC. Who is carrying the games over in the UK? I may watch them on these channels.... depending. I'll be going with Denmark as my second choice, I hope they can win it all, that's my "Dark Horse" team. And of course.....in true Scottish tradition, "anyone but England".
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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England are the favorites? Home field advantage I suppose, but the further they go the greater the weight of media hype and past failures will be.

I was in London before the World Cup in 2008. There was a very pre-2004 Red Sox feel of "This could be the year!" mixed with "We're cursed. We'll never win!"
 

fletcherpost

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Can Scotland reach the Knockout Stage of an international tournament for the first time in its history? They're still not very good...but they're in a group that certainly gives them a half-decent chance.
Scotland has some really good players, and some good players and then a bang average central defense. But, as is always the case with Scotland, they are always less than the sum of their parts - even when they had Dalglish and Souness. The coaches always over egg the underdog cake. things like "we know we're not favourites but we feel like we can give anyone a game on our day" "we don't mind being underdogs" - i hate all that crap. Coaches tend to play the pragamatist card in interviews off and on the pitch. I say to hell with that and give the lads some confidence. Cos we do have some really good players. Adams, Tierney, Robertson, McGinn and McTominay - these are players that play at a high level week in week out in the EPL. I like Gilmour and I hope he gets some game time. The Celtic trio of McGregor, Forrest and Christie didn't have the greatest of seasons, but they're good players.

But the problem is we'll play conservative football. We'll try to be hard to beat. We won't be brave in our tactics. We won't be confident. And if you had all that up you get 'not that good' when really a more adventurous and skilled manager could get a decent tune out of this squad.

I lived long enough to see Wales, Eire and Northern Ireland do well (some might say over achieve) at the big tournies. I think back to Jack Charlton's post match comments when they beat Italy in the World Cup, when asked what he said to the players, he said I told them they were good enough to win. Scotland can never be an arrogant team, but i'd like them to be a confident team. But Clarke is as dour as the next beardie jock so my expectations are low. But, I do think we have the players to do a job...if we're set up right and the players are physically and mentally well prepared.
 

Senator Donut

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Apr 21, 2010
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I absolutely hate the format. 16 of 24 sides advance to the knockout rounds, which just completely sucks the drama out of group stage. I probably won’t tune in until the final match days of the group stage, but once the knockouts start, it should be fun.

16 or 32 nations with half advancing to the knockout tournament would be my ideal format.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
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Agreed completely. This format blows. Watered down and useless group stages are boring as hell. 16 teams is correct.
 

Kliq

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France are the favorites and I'm surprised England have better odds. A loaded side with talent and experience at every position. They'd be my pick to win it.

England have real talent. The young players that reached the WC semi final have mostly matured and they have an overflow of talent at certain positions, especially FB. CB has been a weakness for the team in recent years, but John Stones having a very good season at City will help. Foden and Sancho would be the two players who were not a part of the 2018 team that have emerged as world class players.

Overall I'm down on Europe relative to other years. Spain and Germany don't have as much talent as you probably think they do, although they are both still capable sides. Italy and Netherlands are better than their dark period a few years ago but still on their way back up. Belgium are older and don't seem to be on the path to following their golden generation with another set. Ditto for Croatia.

Portugal has a lot more talent than they had in 2016 and would be my dark horse pick. A real long shot would be Turkey, who have a lot of talent and have played very well in WCQ.
 
Eh, them and the Czechs are demonstrably worse than England or Croatia, I don't see any chance either of them would advance over the other 2.
They don't have to finish in the Top 2 to advance - remember, 16 of the 24 teams advance, just like was the case in the World Cup from 1982 to 1994. A draw against England or Croatia and a win over the Czechs would do.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Christ, I'm looking at the groups for the first time....Hungary got drawn into a group with France, Germany, and Portugal? Good luck Magyars.

That is arguably three of the top five sides in the tournament in one group.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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France are the favorites and I'm surprised England have better odds. A loaded side with talent and experience at every position. They'd be my pick to win it.

England have real talent. The young players that reached the WC semi final have mostly matured and they have an overflow of talent at certain positions, especially FB. CB has been a weakness for the team in recent years, but John Stones having a very good season at City will help. Foden and Sancho would be the two players who were not a part of the 2018 team that have emerged as world class players.

Overall I'm down on Europe relative to other years. Spain and Germany don't have as much talent as you probably think they do, although they are both still capable sides. Italy and Netherlands are better than their dark period a few years ago but still on their way back up. Belgium are older and don't seem to be on the path to following their golden generation with another set. Ditto for Croatia.

Portugal has a lot more talent than they had in 2016 and would be my dark horse pick. A real long shot would be Turkey, who have a lot of talent and have played very well in WCQ.
I don't see any teams other than France and maybe England with more talent to be honest.

------------------Andre Silva------------------------
Ronaldo------Bruno----------Bernardo Silva
--------Paulinha---Renato Sanches-------
---Guerreiro--Dias--Pepe----Cancelo-----
--------------------Lopes-------------------------------

The midfield selections might end up differing and there are other options in attack as well. But that team can beat anybody in the world IMO.
 

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
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I think the odds for the three in the group of death are lower because there is at least a chance one of them doesn’t go through. If not paired together you’d have to think France and Portugal would have better odds
 

the1andonly3003

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Jul 15, 2005
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Chicago
My short answer is No. But as always I live in hope. Not withstanding the lack of talent, too much reliance on the midfield for goals, more recently McGinn and Christie. I'm pleased to see Gilmour and Turnbull make the squad, that should bring a bit more youthful energy to the midfield. But again, they lack talented stikers. Thankfully, McBurnie never made it. I was hoping that Griffiths would get his head out of his arse, fitness and attitude were sadly lacking but you can say that about most of the Celtic players this season. The first Scotland game is on my birthday, I was hoping to have a few beers, but it's a 9 am kickoff over here. I'm too old for that shit...but I'll be making a game time decision on the beers.

It looks like almost all the games are on ESPN 1& 2 over here, a handful on ABC. Who is carrying the games over in the UK? I may watch them on these channels.... depending. I'll be going with Denmark as my second choice, I hope they can win it all, that's my "Dark Horse" team. And of course.....in true Scottish tradition, "anyone but England".
ITV is carrying 27 matches of the Euros in the UK ITV announces stellar Euro 2020 squad | ITV Football

Rest on BBC BBC's Euro 2020 pundit and commentary line ups confirmed including Henry and Fabregas (msn.com)

on radio, it'll be split between BBC5 and TalkSport
 

Nick Kaufman

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If most people can't travel, travel makes it more dangerous for the teams and attendance is limited to some percentage of a stadium's capacity, then why on earth are they holding the tournament around Europe and not change it just one country?

This is literally the worst imaginable time to hold the tourney across the continent.
 

candylandriots

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If most people can't travel, travel makes it more dangerous for the teams and attendance is limited to some percentage of a stadium's capacity, then why on earth are they holding the tournament around Europe and not change it just one country?

This is literally the worst imaginable time to hold the tourney across the continent.
My wife and I had tickets to a game in Baku. We were on the fence about going, and I got email about six weeks ago explaining that the stadium would be at 50% capacity and that Azerbaijan would be suspending their Corona regulations for visitors with tickets. On the one hand, it makes sense for them to do it, because nobody is going to come to Azerbaijan and quarantine for two weeks to watch Switzerland-Wales. On the other hand, that seems like a good way to get a lot of people sick.

We got the refund on our tickets a couple weeks ago.
 

mauf

Anderson Cooper × Mr. Rogers
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But the problem is we'll play conservative football. We'll try to be hard to beat. We won't be brave in our tactics. We won't be confident. And if you had all that up you get 'not that good' when really a more adventurous and skilled manager could get a decent tune out of this squad.
Not sure “conservative football” is a bad strategy if the goal is to make knockouts. With four of six third-place teams advancing, 4 points is basically automatic, and 3 points with a minus-1 goal difference probably gets it done.

They absolutely must take 3 points from the Czechs. I have no idea how good their chances of doing that are, or what the right tactics are to give the Scots their best chance to accomplish that. You might be right about encouraging your best players to open up and take risks.

Beyond that, however, playing stout D and making the opponent work for every little thing (i.e., conservative football) seems like their best chance to steal a point from Croatia or (less likely) England, or at least keeping the final score respectable.
 
Beyond that, however, playing stout D and making the opponent work for every little thing (i.e., conservative football) seems like their best chance to steal a point from Croatia or (less likely) England, or at least keeping the final score respectable.
FWIW, I think Scotland is more likely to steal a point from England than Croatia, to be honest - not because Croatia is better than England, but because England-Scotland is a derby and anything can happen in a derby, especially when the two sides haven't played a meaningful match since 1996. (Their match in Euro 96 itself fit this pattern, you may recall - that easily could have finished 1-1 if David Seaman hadn't saved a certain penalty and Gazza scored one of the goals of his life at the other end almost immediately thereafter.)
 

mauf

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FWIW, I think Scotland is more likely to steal a point from England than Croatia, to be honest - not because Croatia is better than England, but because England-Scotland is a derby and anything can happen in a derby, especially when the two sides haven't played a meaningful match since 1996. (Their match in Euro 96 itself fit this pattern, you may recall - that easily could have finished 1-1 if David Seaman hadn't saved a certain penalty and Gazza scored one of the goals of his life at the other end almost immediately thereafter.)
Scotland definitely has a better chance against England than they would against, say, France. But Croatia is not all that good; that’s still the better shot imo.

Between the two, I like the Scots’ chances of stealing a point. Which is why it all comes down to that Czech Republic game.
 

Ale Xander

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Tangled Up In Red

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Not sure if it worked ( joining the group) but made a team
I don't see you yet. Hit the "join a league" button and enter that code. Ought to do it.

Adding to actual Euro discussion, TAA not making the final ENgland roster (not official yet) was today's big drama...
Oh, and France took Moussa Sissoko and let Tanguy Ndombele stay home (weeks old news). Wow.
 

Ale Xander

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I don't see you yet. Hit the "join a league" button and enter that code. Ought to do it.

Adding to actual Euro discussion, TAA not making the final ENgland roster (not official yet) was today's big drama...
Oh, and France took Moussa Sissoko and let Tanguy Ndombele stay home (weeks old news). Wow.
Can't find join for the life of me

I think I have to make a team again

And IN
 
Last edited:

fletcherpost

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Not sure “conservative football” is a bad strategy if the goal is to make knockouts. With four of six third-place teams advancing, 4 points is basically automatic, and 3 points with a minus-1 goal difference probably gets it done.

They absolutely must take 3 points from the Czechs. I have no idea how good their chances of doing that are, or what the right tactics are to give the Scots their best chance to accomplish that. You might be right about encouraging your best players to open up and take risks.

Beyond that, however, playing stout D and making the opponent work for every little thing (i.e., conservative football) seems like their best chance to steal a point from Croatia or (less likely) England, or at least keeping the final score respectable.
As i said in the previous post we have some decent players and our best players are forward thinking. Our worst players are our central defenders. (There's a good chance McTominay will play in central defense. He can play in central defense but with his engine he's much better in his natural position.

We don't score a lot of goals. But i think with the players we have we could create more chances and get more goals. I'd like the opposition to at least have a modicum of fear when they played us. I want us set up to get the best out of our best players, which is why I'd take a chance on playing Gilmour. I'd love to see Gilmour and McGinn in the same line up. They are two of the most technically gifted players we've had in decades. Clarke often plays McGinn in midfield, then moves him forward when we go behind and need a goal. I prefer him to start in the more attacking role, just behind the striker(s). But for that we need to replace his quality in midfield, Gilmour gives you that.

I'd love to see Nathan Patterson the Rangers right back get some game time. He came in for Tavernier, the Rangers captain and top scorer, when he got injured. Gerrard was raving about him, he was Rangers young player of the year. We have have pace on the right and the left, we could ask questions of the opposition going forwards. We could get behind them. I need to believe we have goals in the team. That we can hurt the opposition. It's horrible watching Scotland and not thinking we have goals in the team.

Setting up, primarily, to be hard to beat, in my experience of watching Scotland, has not resulted in making us hard to beat. So i say, to hell with it, why not give it a go and play to our strengths. We're gonna lose anyway. At least give me some hope and some joy. I have skin in this game mate. It's horrible watching Scotland play football. I don't know if you really know how bad it is, I pray you don't. It's like everything that is wrong with Scotland, distilled into a football team and a football match. It's existential torture mate.

But it's a brave new world. Let's embrace youth, embrace creativity, embrace pace and poise and fearlessness. We can always revert back to type.
 

Nick Kaufman

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The important thing to remember is that teams suck until the day they don't.

In the meantime, fans build narratives about curses, fate, bad dnas etc etc. That poppycock. You just need luck in having a good generational assembly of talent and luck to carry you through the knockout matches.
 

Zososoxfan

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Just did my first dive into Euro 2020. The field looks stronger than I remember in years past. Although I looked up 4 sides to see if I knew any of their players: Hungary; Slovakia; North Macedonia (!??!?); and Finland.

Hungary
Gulacsi
Orban (maybe)

Slovakia
Chara
Hossa
Bondra

Skriniar
Hamsik

N Macedonia
Didn't realize this was a separate country from Macedonia...
Pandev (maybe)

Finland
Pukki! Real shame he only has one 'u' so we can't use the 2 U's 2 K's...
 

Titans Bastard

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N Macedonia
Didn't realize this was a separate country from Macedonia...
Pandev (maybe)
It's not. Macedonia changed its name to North Macedonia in 2019 to finally resolve one of the world's most tedious diplomatic kerfuffles.

Greece is mad that Macedonians call themselves Macedonians because modern-day Macedonians are of Slavic origin unlike the ancient Macedonians such as Alexander the Great. North Macedonia is the great compromise. Since then, Greece stopped blocking North Macedonia from joining NATO. It also removes a huge barrier for North Macedonia to eventually join the EU.

In the past, Macedonia has also at times and in certain organizations like the UN been referred to as FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) to satisfy Greek concerns.
 

Titans Bastard

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Well then, thanks for the history lesson! So does that make Alexander the Great a Slav?!?
Slavs moved into that area of the Balkans many centuries after his time. That didn't stop the (modern day) Macedonians from naming the Skopje airport after him, much to the chagrin of the Greeks.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Group F looks fun
Hungary winning the playoff is rough for Portugal and France. Both end up having to play Germany in Munich and Hungary in Budapest. Then they play each other in Budapest on the final matchday. Even if you assume that Hungary loses to Germany in Munich it's going to be very tough for both France and Portugal to go through even with some third place teams going through.

I actually think that group would have been more fun with Iceland. I'm fine with there being multiple venues but having the teams that qualified from the countries that have a venue automatically getting 2 or 3 home games is lame. I guess for atmosphere purposes it will be good to see Hungary play in Budapest but I'm a little disappointed in it all around given that Hungary actually had to play behind closed doors in qualification due to racial abuse and now they get rewarded with getting home games in the tournament to Portugal and France.
 

pedro1918

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Map Ref. 41°N 93°W
After an enormous amount of drama, TAA did make the England squad (as he should have):

View: https://twitter.com/England/status/1399758152384589826?s=20
Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out of Euro 2020 and will depart England’s camp on Thursday night.

A medical assessment earlier in the day revealed that the Liverpool defender, 22, had suffered a grade two quad tear during England’s 1-0 friendly win over Austria.

The scan confirmed the devastated defender’s worst fears and he will now withdraw from England’s squad for the tournament. He faces a recovery period of between four to six weeks.
https://theathletic.com/news/trent-alexander-arnold-injury-england-euro-2020/0pNzOjBULKXb
 

Kliq

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Yeah its a tough break. I'm very interested in the England squad and will be rooting for them and Sweden in the tournament this year. They have such a strange team with so many FBs, they played Saka at midfield yesterday and put Trippier behind him, then had TAA and Lingard on the other side, with Grealish playing as the CAM. There was a fascinating bit of play in yesterday's game where Trippier had the ball near midfield and passed it to Kane, who was way out of his typical position as he was at midfield all the way on the left flank. He then picked out a beautiful cross-field pass to TAA, who had sprinted up and was in acres of space and should have scored but he skied the ball. It's just a really weird team.
 

dirtynine

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Dec 17, 2002
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That's a nice little site! I probably went too fast, but here's my wheel.

41740

edit - looking more at this, it doesn't really represent all the choices you make (like who the third place finishers who make the knockouts are). Anyway, still pretty tidy.
 

candylandriots

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Does anyone have a good idea for a pool style format for betting, where owners are picking teams insteady players?).
I know a rather large, but private one that I could probably get some people in if they were interested. He skims some off the top, but it goes to the Canadian Cancer Society. Send me a PM if interested (anybody here, not just @Doug Beerabelli )