Best tournament in over 20 years?

Davie2021 said:
Mexico 86 for me for different reasons . I think what has made this tournament a great watch so far is that nearly every team has gone in with a positive , can-do attitude , with the exception of Scotland . We’ve had countries similar in population and stature to Scotland like Denmark , Hungary , Switzerland , Sweden even Wales go for it and do themselves proud . We’ve also seen a more attack minded Italy , a fragile but still stubborn Germany , and Jekyll and Hyde Spain . It’s still anyone’s tournament . Superb .
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Mexico 86 is nostalgic for me too mate and Italia 90. I guess the tournaments that were on when you were at school take you back with fond memories.

I agree with your observations about this one. The so called lesser countries have had a go, but Mr Charisma decided not to play his strongest side in the game that had the best chance of gleaning maximum points before a ball was kicked, to buck the trend.

I hope today’s games live up to yesterday’s thrillers, especially so for Swe v Ukr as I luckily managed to score a brief for it from a fella on FF this morning. The tournament itself has went some way to making things feel more normal again for me, and it’s probably a big reason why the world loves football.
 
Without a shadow of a doubt the best tournament I have watched. Thoroughly enjoyable. I'm a man that loves my goals, 14 last night. Incredible.

For me the Euros is far better than the world cup!
 
Yesterday’s two games were exceptional. The two “big” sides looking home and hosed at 3-1 up going into the last ten minutes.

One thing this tournament has shown is Scotland are miles behind the smaller unfancied Nations never mind the big boys.
 
cooprfc said:
2006 was still better. As was Euro 2000 if we stretch it slightly beyond the 20 years.

Yesterday was the greatest single day in tournament history imo though.
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You are going to have to do more to convince me on 2006. I have said earlier that the Italy v Germany was the greatest tournament game I’ve seen - but what else was there?

I looked through the results on wiki again there and very little jumps out. 4th place Portugal we’re horrible to watch, Q-Fs England and Ukraine were ‘functional’ at best.

Admittedly the only part I saw of the final was the penalties - they showed them in the slam tent. But no one has stated that I missed a classic.
 
The football has been generally good, and while the styles of individual countries have stopped being so prevalent as the top players all play with & against each other so regularly, we are seeing far more of the smaller teams really challenging, even eliminating the established top teams.

I think it’s good for the sport to see Switzerland, Czech Republic and Denmark in the latter stages of the competition. If they are good enough to challenge the established favourites then fair play.. otherwise we just have a procession to France or Germany winning.

Hungary had an awful draw but really made the group competitive and on a knife-edge into the closing 10 minutes of the matches. Proper tournament football for the spectators.
 
Been a superb tournament so far. Really enjoyed it.

Scotland have probably been the worst and most negative team at this tournament.
 
It’s been excellent but it’s yet another dagger in the heart of actual good defending.

It’s becoming a lost art.
 
sonofbunk said:
You are going to have to do more to convince me on 2006. I have said earlier that the Italy v Germany was the greatest tournament game I’ve seen - but what else was there?

I looked through the results on wiki again there and very little jumps out. 4th place Portugal we’re horrible to watch, Q-Fs England and Ukraine were ‘functional’ at best.

Admittedly the only part I saw of the final was the penalties - they showed them in the slam tent. But no one has stated that I missed a classic.
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There was the opening game, Cambiasso goal for Argentina, the Ronaldo wink v England, the drama of Croatia's three yellow cards, Italy finally breaking Australian hearts at a moment where you could've cut the tension with a knife, the end of Ronaldo's Brazil at the hands of a Zidane who was dragging his country to the final at Maradona levels, the dramatic sending off of Zidane in the final to end his career which was defined by two world cup finals. There was Fabio Cannavaro. And, as mentioned, there was THAT semi final.

And, through no fault of the tournaments, there was brilliant, full stadia. And it does make a difference.

And all this is just off the top of my head.
 
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sonofbunk said:
Tempting fate here as a tournament is normally only as good as it’s knockout games (Brazil 2014 turned to shit after a good group stage), but this is possibly the best tournament in over 20 years.

It’s not been high scoring, but that’s more a reflection on teams being evenly matched. There have been lots of interesting games, some cracking goals and possibly because of the last 18 months, it’s been great seeing crowds again.

I was so bored by 2016 I stopped watching the games - I’m hopeful this will be different.
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I know what you mean mate. Some of the goals the last couple games have been genuine jump off the sofa good, not following a team either just enjoying the spectacle on show.
 
I prefer the Euros to the World Cup. The WC used to be good because you would see such different styles. Now there is such a sameness in how all the countries play. So may as well see the best (Europeans) do it.
 
govan86 said:
If only Brazil had a goal keeper and a centre forward..... but Italy were brilliant from the second round on in that tournament.
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Brazil did have a centre forward, two actually - Reinaldo, who Zico considered the best player he’d ever seen after Pele, and Careca, who would go on to be their top scorer four years later in Mexico, but both got injured on the eve of the finals and had to withdraw leaving third choice Serginho as their main man up front.

A case of what might have been.
 
HandsomeHead said:
Brazil did have a centre forward, two actually - Reinaldo, who Zico considered the best player he’d ever seen after Pele, and Careca, who would go on to be their top scorer four years later in Mexico, but both got injured on the eve of the finals and had to withdraw leaving third choice Serginho as their main man up front.

A case of what might have been.
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Aye that’s what I should have said. Reinaldo had long term knee problems IIRC and when Careca was injured they were left with Serginho. I thought Paulo Isadora would have been a better bet than him up front in 82. You would have thought there had to a better option open to them than Serginho and likewise Peres in goal. But as you say a case of what might have been. The last “true” Brazilian side for me ended up empty handed.
 
sonofbunk said:
Tempting fate here as a tournament is normally only as good as it’s knockout games (Brazil 2014 turned to shit after a good group stage), but this is possibly the best tournament in over 20 years.

It’s not been high scoring, but that’s more a reflection on teams being evenly matched. There have been lots of interesting games, some cracking goals and possibly because of the last 18 months, it’s been great seeing crowds again.

I was so bored by 2016 I stopped watching the games - I’m hopeful this will be different.
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Its been brilliant so far most games have been entertaining and as for last nights games they took it to another level
 
JorgAlbertz said:
They playing again?
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Little bit of reverse psychology going on in that post.

Logic was "I'm English, England only cause me pain at Euro's, they cannot win knockout games against big teams, therefore we will %^*& it up somehow"

To be fair, that Sterling pass and subsequent chance for Muller made my heart skip a beat.
 
Like a lot of things I think age plays a big part in what people think was the best. Euro 96 was a great tournament for me looking back. I was an apprentice at the time. The buzz around it and going to the pub after work to watch the matches was a great time. 2004 is the only time I’ve sat and watched a tournament with my dad who is no longer here so it has special memories although I don’t remember much about the football. I’ve really enjoyed most of the matches I’ve watched so far. If the knockout matches keep up with what we’ve seen so far it’ll be remembered as a great tournament.
 
dt17 said:
I thought Russia was a brilliant tournament tbh. World Cup 2006 was excellent as well, so many cracking goals scored.

There's been some proper dull games in this tournament.
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The opening game of 2006 had two absolute worldies in it. Phillip Lahm for the opener and Torsten Frings at the end of the game B-D.
 
Positives: Lots of entertaining games generally, and some great goals. Third place qualifiers kept group stage interesting right to the end. Very few teams who just failed to compete. Good refereeing and sensible use of VAR in general. I like seeing a few underdogs reach the quarters, and we've certainly got that. Seeing stadiums approaching capacity is a bonus for the feel-good factor, though that's obviously unique to this tournament.

Negatives: Ongoing issue across tournaments for the past 10 years, maybe more, but it feels like more often than not the WC and Euros have increasingly served up decent, competitive games and frequent upsets, but with fewer genuine standout teams, players and performances. The great players often look knackered or subdued, and some of the "bigger" nations have stumbled. It feels like there's been a shift where the drama at these tournaments tends to center less around the top teams and players and more on the mid-ranking teams and underdogs. As I said above, I like the unexpected success stories, but there's something special about an exceptional team, a heroic individual performance by a great player, or a dramatic head to head battle between genuine legends. The dominance of club football seems to have meant we see less of all that in the international tournaments now. We'll see what happens with the quarters and onward though, still time.

Overall, 7/10 so far. Not yet the best tournament of the past 20 years, but has a decent amount going for it. For me, the best would probably be 2000, 2006 and 2018, though I really have trouble picking one above the others. Probably 2000 because I liked that French side and loved Zidane, and that was really his tournament.
 
Monday nights back to back games will take some topping, if its not The Rangers playing i usually dip in and out of tv games if at all but that had me square eyed all night.
 
It's been excellent so far, I've enjoyed it, some cracking games and lots of goals - I hope it continues like that.
 
What do we think now it’s all over?

I still stand by it being the best since Euro 2000. Gave us one of the best days of knockout football, no 0-0 knockout games and a worthy winner.

The final wasn’t great, but then it wasn’t terrible either so can’t complain too much.
 
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Pretty much every international final is pretty poor.

As for the overall tournament? I think overall it was pretty good but you could argue a lot of the big hitters underperformed.

Germany 06 is still my favourite international tournament but I think a lot of that is sentimentality considering I had just turned 18 and was able to watch every game whilst drinking a crate of beer every day with no cares in the world :D
 
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