Spain v France, Quarter Final, Build up and Match Thread

[Duty281]

First topic message reminder :

Spain v France (Saturday 23rd June, 19:45 KO, ITV 1)

The holders Spain topped Group C with 7 points with two victories over Croatia and Ireland and a draw against Italy. Once again, Spain have kept a tight defence and have conceded the lowest amount of goals in the tournament so far and have also scored the most. Their reward is a game against the French who have been quite inconsistent - a decent display against England saw them get a 1-1 draw, they then stepped it up for Ukraine and beat them 2-0 before being brought down to earth by losing 2-0 to Sweden. For the neutral, this is probably the best tie of the round. Winners will play Czech Republic/Portugal.

My prediction: Spain 1-1 France AET (France to win on pens)

[The Special Juan]

Definitely the end for Puyol IMO. If they had him in the team would they be playing any better?

[mystiroakey]

nasri only just coming on!!!

[Leff]

Double switch - Nasri and Debuchy in. France has played a bit above my expectations. They need to push a notch higher now.

[Crimey]

Debuchy has been on all game...

[Leff]

Torres getting a little time.

[Leff]

Debuchy has been on all game...

Sorry, I meant Menez for Debuchy.

[mystiroakey]

spain playing normal football the last 5 mins and actually having atempted shots or balls in the box!! also brought on a centre forward- whats going on????

[Leff]

Casillas competent as always.

[The Special Juan]

They were boring themselves?

[Leff]

Clichy has looked good for France.

[monty junior]

Anyone that impressed by M'Villa? i have seen him 5 or times now and never really noticed him. He was even anonymous against Celtic in the Europa league which says something.

[Leff]

What on earth is this French strategy of keeping the ball in the midfield and not making an effort to charge forward? Do they not realise they get eliminated if they don't score an equaliser?

[mystiroakey]

Worst game of the tourny by far.

ribbery has been trying to get forward alot to be fair to him


........that is supposed to be a penalty is it lol

[Duty281]

Game over. Spain were decent, France poor. Portugal-Spain Semi should be good. If I were a betting man, I'd be betting on a Portugal-England final.

[Leff]

Second goal for Xavi Alonso. Surprised Torres didn't take it.

Why wasn't it a penalty? It was a hard tackle.

So, most of us got this right 2-0 final score.

[JamesLincs]

when does the game kick off?

[Leff]

France was awful. Spain was never really tested here. It was kid's play for Ramos to stop Ribery and Benzema.

[lorus59]

How many times do I see people here saying that football is all about results. Chelsea park the bus and win against Barca and Bayern and are praised highly for it. Then Spain score, take control of the game their way and now they get slaughtered for it. If England win a boring game 1-0 tomorrow, they will all be heroes to most here. As a neutral, I would love to see a Germany/Spain final to see if the Germans have improved enough to take the title from Spain.

[mystiroakey]

Who is slaughtering spain?

what is it you dont get lorus?

[lorus59]

They are being called BORING by a lot here.

[mystiroakey]

correct - gold star for lorus. many find games they are involved in very boring- including myself, we are being honest and using a forum to post our opinions.

whats your point?

[lorus59]

My point is if England are boring tomorrow yet win, will it matter? I don't think so somehow.

[mystiroakey]

why would it matter to an english fan. why does me finding spain boring to watch important to a spainish fan or you?

what the heck are you talking about?

[Leff]

One seldom perceives one's team as boring.

[lorus59]

If watching England win tomorrow in a way that is less entertaining than watching paint dry, will this forum be full of people saying "I really was bored to death watching England win."? What do you think?

[mystiroakey]

a true fan cant find there teams games boring- we follow the play in a completley different way. However we are all allowed to post our opinions on what we find interetsing and what we dont!!!

lorus is acting as if people dont say that englands way of playing is boring!! lol

more do than dont- i can accept that. Many also find spains game boring- why the heck cant he deal with it.

I AM NOT SAYING SPAIN ARE RUBBISH- Do you understand

[Jennifer1984]

How many times do I see people here saying that football is all about results. Chelsea park the bus and win against Barca and Bayern and are praised highly for it. Then Spain score, take control of the game their way and now they get slaughtered for it. If England win a boring game 1-0 tomorrow, they will all be heroes to most here. As a neutral, I would love to see a Germany/Spain final to see if the Germans have improved enough to take the title from Spain.

It was not an exciting game, for sure, but as I said previously, for Spain it was about winning the tie, getting the job done with minimum fuss and bother. Job done, nobody injured, nobody getting red carded and minimal energy expended meaning nobody is drained by the match and they will recover in time to start their semi final with no aching legs.

They played in a very conservative manner but they're in the semi final now. If England chase around like "roaring lions" tomorrow night, and play with "passion" (the most overused, nonsense cliche in football), but lose, then who are the mugs..?

I personally would like to see more entertaining football... of course I would... but I can see where Spain are coming from and this pragmatic approach will be entirely justified if there are yellow and red ribbons hanging off the Henri Delaunay trophy for another four years.

If Spain win the tournament, do you think, anyone in Madrid will say "Well, we were boring in the Quarter Final... we really didn't deserve to win it".

I don't think so.


.

[Small Time]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder peeps. I personally love the way Spain play, to me it is the way the game should be played.........but it's fine if others find it boring....after all we have been brought up with the 100 mph of the premiership.

So far this has been a great competition, lets hope England and Italy serve up classic tomorrow night.

[Leff]

Job done, nobody injured, nobody getting red carded and minimal energy expended meaning nobody is drained by the match and they will recover in time to start their semi final with no aching legs.

You post the most thoughtful and insightful comments on this forum, Jenn. In a way, you give us the expert commentary.

[mystiroakey]

sorry leff but i gotta laugh

[Crimey]

My point is if England are boring tomorrow yet win, will it matter? I don't think so somehow.

It's completely different though. The way you watch a game as a neutral is completely different.

[azania]

SO much for my predictions so far. I think I'm 0 out of 3. Consistent anyway. For my next much anticipated prediction I'm going for Italy to beat England by a first half goal and hand on for dear life against England's long ball industrial type attacks.

Kiss of death there. Probably a second half goal for England followed by a series of cultured attacks by Italy that gets blocked by last ditch defending.

[Leff]

Both teams have painful memories of penalties in tournaments. Hope it will not come to that.

[lorus59]

I wonder which team the Germans would prefer to win.

[mystiroakey]

I wonder which team the Germans would prefer to win.

and that matters to you ? why?

[Thomond]

Spain are a joy to watch at times, the way the hold on to posession and show such patience is just amazing. They played reasonably well, France were dire but Spain did what they had to.

[Crimey]

I wonder which team the Germans would prefer to win.

and that matters to you ? why?

It'd be interesting to know whether the Germans would prefer to play us than Italy.

[Leff]

I wonder which team the Germans would prefer to win.

Good point for discussion.

Men's A matches

England vs Germany:
Wins - England 12, Germany 11
Drawn - 5
Goals - England 48, Germany 38

Italy vs Germany:
Wins - Italy 14, Germany 7
Drawn - 9
Goals - Italy 45, Germany 34

Both teams have a winning record over Germany.

[Crimey]

I think Germany would rather face England to be honest. They have a psychological edge over them after the World Cup, and Italy proved to extremely hard to break down against Spain where as England did show holes against Sweden.

[Leff]

Crimey, I was present in Dortmund when Italy stunned Germany with 2 goals in a span of two minutes in the second extra time. In the stands, we were so confident that the match would go to penalties and Germany would win, given Italy's poor record in penalties. That was the first international that Germany lost in Dortmund.

[azania]

I wonder which team the Germans would prefer to win.

Good point for discussion.

Men's A matches

England vs Germany:
Wins - England 12, Germany 11
Drawn - 5
Goals - England 48, Germany 38

Italy vs Germany:
Wins - Italy 14, Germany 7
Drawn - 9
Goals - Italy 45, Germany 34

Both teams have a winning record over Germany.

Post 1970 Germany has a winning record over England. More importantly Germany are the better team that England and have better individual players who play a more intelligent version of the beautiful game. I reckon they would prefer to play against England.

[GG]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder peeps. I personally love the way Spain play, to me it is the way the game should be played

[Guest]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder peeps. I personally love the way Spain play, to me it is the way the game should be played

How anyone can label Spain boring is beyond me.

[mystiroakey]

If your trying to say that game wasnt boring.. I'd be very surprised

[Crimey]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder peeps. I personally love the way Spain play, to me it is the way the game should be played

How anyone can label Spain boring is beyond me.

It's technically good, but there is very rarely excitement in Spanish games. I prefer goal to goal action, if that is at the detriment to the technical quality on display I am willing to accept that.

[Leff]

The game was not boring.

[mystiroakey]

Each to there own. That was dire for me. Glad to see you enjoy football. Who do u support leff?

[Leff]

Mysti, I am English. Not surprisingly, I support England. But, I do find the Spanish style of football entertaining; I think that's the way the game is meant to played. Until 2006, Brasil was my favourite team to watch (don't confuse that with support).

[Leff]

I also like the way Portugal is playing right now. Portugal vs Spain should be a cracker.

[mystiroakey]

I was just surprised by the fact you couldn't remember any of our knock out wins that's all.

I am also surprised that you enjoy the Spanish style so much yet also love the penetrating styles of Brazil and Portugal.. I really appreciate Spain's skill. But as I said that game last night wasn't the best entertainment for me..that's all

[Sponsored content]