Okay, I'll admit it, being Scottish I know nothing about football but apparently there's a kick=around starting on Friday called Euro 2012



Any bets on who's going to win?

My money is on Scotla......oh, wait!

Oh, okay then, it has be Wales surely?

Well regrettably it wont be England either

My money (as most i suspect) will be firmly on Spain, and boy they could do with some

Apparently Spain have been told not to win; the celebrations would cost so much (£3.50) it would bankrupt the country!

Spain v Greece in the final - draw after football, 40 - 40 after penalties, go to toss a coin but can't find one, so they decide to share the trophy and have a joint victory parade in Berlin...........

.....and then invade Poland?


Too soon? Oh okay,

My money is on Holland. Literally. I got them in the works sweepstake.

Going back to the 1986 world cup, the same group of friends have been going to the same pub and watching England either go out on penalties or play sh*te and deserve to be sent home.
For the first time in 26 years I am not going to be there. I will be in america.

I can gaurantee England will win the Euros.

I'm doing a Euro's dreamteam at work. Does anybody have any tips for who I can put in my team. Obviously, I don't want to put any England players in because we're bobbins.

Which league are you playing Dan - all depends on the player values - and are you allowed transfers at any stage?

The secret's in the value. Not sure what price Russian striker Kerzhakov is but he's a steal in some of them. They should get out of their group, which looks the weakest, so he could be a good bet to be overall top scorer at 33s.

Picking him and other eye-catching/goalscoring defenders in the same group such as Perquis, Gebre Selassie and Zhirkov would free up some cash for you to load up with key men in midfield and up front (take your pick from Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Van Persie, Ribery, Benzema and the usual Spaniards).

Gomez is bookies' favourite to finish top scorer but their gaffer likes Klose and he's been brilliant for them in big tournaments in the past so I'd leave Germany's strikers alone until you know who his first choice is.

HTH.

I'm doing the Sun dreamteam.

It's to late to do any transfers now but it opens agains after each team has played 2 games and i have £1.5m im carrying over.

Here's my team.

Anyone else trying to watch the football at the moment?

Now I must admit I can't recall a major tournament match ever being suspended due to a thunderstorm?

Having said that, it is one hell of a thunderstorm.......oh no, hang on, it's exactly the same as we're getting up here in Cumbria at the moment, although I wouldn't be out playing football in it either!

I wish the Ireland match last night had to be called off due to a thunder storm ,earthquake or alien invasion . 93 minutes of hell ?

Totally agree Rob, it was painful to watch, in fact so painful, I turned over after the 3rd goal

If the rumours are true, I hope that Andy Carroll has brought his Big banjo tonight and the cow (the Swedish goal) does not move its ar*e....

Hope springs eternal

Come on England! Any Swedish Coupe owners? Great crime dramas but rubbish football!

Can I wind anyone else up? Why is Lennon not in the squad? Why is Harry not the manager (because Roy is better..?).

Anyone interested?

Bloody hell; the banjo worked! Come on England.... and substitute Milner asap.... where is Aaron Lennon? On holiday

mmm, tight game.

maybe not that tight.

nope tight again

England arent playing too badly considering it 10 v 11 (i dont count wellbeck, he could be off having a cup of tea right now and it wouldnt make a difference)

haha typical

What was that truff?

With Wellbeck, Walcott, Wooney And Cawoll…it can't possibly go Wong. Yep, we're definitely going to win the tournament.

So... this thread isn't to discuss Merkel and Hollande's attempts to federalise the Euro, then?

Well, ...

it could be...

The good thing is thatEngland have already exceeded expectations. Before kick off int he first game, the great and the good of football pundits were predicting one or 2 points, and no chance of getting out of the group stage.

Last night's game wasn't perfect, the first half was cagey, but one great cross and one great header it was all a bit same-old. Second half, a 15 minute meltdown, followed by half an hour of spirit, fight, and above all, Entertainment! Something that has been sadly lacking for years and years.

Time to bin yet more of the old guard though, no tears would be shed when old man Terry finally hangs up his boots. He'll presumably get another game for B wing against the screws though.....

I thought terry had an excellent game. Ok yes he was shown to be woefully lacking in pace, but there was only 1 incident in which this was a problem. Every other time, his vision and technical ability meant he was always in the right place at the right time.

For me the poor players of the night were Milner and Wellback, and it's obvious that Hodgson thought the same as he brought Milner off and was about to bring off Wellbeck before he scored.

Both players were just absent for a huge portion of the game. Milner was slow and unprodctive, Wellbeck was just AWOL, trotting round neither going back to help out or forward to counter. I counted a full 20 minute spell in the second half (shortly before he scored) where his only only participation was to knock it back to the player who had passed it to him.

James Milner - what do all these managers see in him , completely baffles me !!

Ashley Young also had a poor game last night - lost the ball often and was far too weak physically.

Agree with that Sean, the one difference is that Young sometmes contributes to the team and can be inventive and is a goalscorer too. Milner seems to offer none of those things and when Walcott was introduced we looked a completely different team going forward.....still not good, but better