Euro 2016

Uh oh, The Mountain has issued a serious threat...

Christiano Ronaldo to have head crushed if he scores against Iceland

The Belgian side seems to have developed the unwelcome knack of being far less than the sum of its parts - something I'm very used to seeing with England. Some international teams seem to have players who find that extra little bit when they play for their country, others seem to go the other way. It's pretty sad being in the second group...

Agreed, probably the dullest, lowest-quality game in the cup so far. I can't imagine either side had a successful pass rate above 65% or so.

But I'm quite happy that Hungary managed to pull out the win in the end, Austria were really quite shocking considering the quality of some of their players. Although if Alaba's shot in the first 30 seconds had gone in instead of off the post, it would have been a different game I think. Hungary weren't great but given what a bunch of nobodies they are, they held their own quite admirably. They even had some nice combos and counters in the second half, especially their first goal.

And I can't believe they've still got Gabor Kiraly in goal! I remember him and his grey sweatpants from back when he played at Hertha Berlin in 2003-2004 - I saw him in stadium when I was about 10 or 11! I had totally forgotten about him, assumed he retired years ago - but nope, there he was at the proud age of 40 and he had a solid match, too.

all true

Once again, a team manages to defend itself to death (Slovakia) -- and by death here, I mean the death of offensive, entertaining football. But nothing to criticize in terms of attitude and willpower, and Russia wasn't terribly impressive either. So in that respect, I guess the Slovakian win was deserved.

Agreed.

I must say I cheered when France FINALLY scored on Albania yesterday (and then even got an extra bonus goal after that). It may sound strange to root for the overdog as opposed to the underdog, but I've grown so weary of defensive teams where all 11 men form a wall around the 16m, and then it's a matter of penetrating that over the course of a match. Just because a team has inferior skills doesn't mean they can't think offensive. Remember Cameroon in the WC back in the 90s? At least they played with their 'heart', not their brain and only for results.

Today is the big British Battle -- England vs. Wales! Does Ryan Giggs still play?

France has not really convinced me either. As Thor says, they've been essentially running up against walls so far, but a slightly better and more adaptable team like Switzerland (not to mention the bigger threats down the road) could pose them some serious trouble. Of course, they're basically through to the round of 16 by now so that match isn't very important to them (other than to see who gets first or second), but it will be to the Swiss. Should be a better test of just how stable that French side is.

Very excited for England v Wales (nope, no Giggs anymore, sadly, but I think Gareth Bale eclipses even him) and Germany v Poland (why is it we always end up in groups with Poland? Third time since 2006!). Less so Ukraine v Northern Ireland I guess. Nearly the entire UK is playing today (sorry, Alan)!

Phew! Deserved win for England, but that was a very close thing.

Dreadfully dull match for the most part, though, especially the first half. I went into it supporting Wales but they played so inertly (take Bale off the pitch other than the 30 seconds it took for him to take the free kick and nobody would notice) that my loyalties switched shortly after the Welsh goal (oh, English goalkeeping... ).

England weren't much better but at least they were trying to, you know, do stuff. Given their quality I'm not sure why they consistently struggle so much at tournaments, but the team is still in a bit of a transitional phase from Generation Rooney-Gerrard-Lampard to Generation Vardy-Sterling-Sturridge and they're all quite young, so while I have my doubts about how far they'll go this year, I'm expecting to see great things from England in 2018. They do need a leadership figure a la Gerrard, though, and I'm not sure who will emerge to fill that role (I don't think it's Rooney, really).

Yes - once we reach the knockout stages and the matchups are a bit more even. Honestly, put yourself in the coach's shoes: as Iceland playing against Portugal, defense is the only viable tactic (otherwise you'd open yourself up to counterattacks and even a Ronaldo in his 30s is damned hard to catch). Wales has less of an excuse with players as talented as Bale and Aaron Ramsey, though.

It's been far from the most entertaining tournament so far. Not one team has put in what I'd call a really good display of football yet - not one.

I'm disappointed too, but in Wales' performance moreso than the fact that they lost. With that effort, anything other than a loss would have been grossly undeserved.

Not sure I'd be so harsh on Hodgson, though; it was quite bold to acknowledge what wasn't working in the first half and use two subs so early on to correct that, and it paid off. I mean, Andre Schürrle was one of Germany's best at the world cup two years ago and he didn't start a single match. I kept expecting Löw to start him after he kept coming off the bench and revitalizing the team (and since neither Özil or Götze were playing consistently well). But since he was so effective as a joker (and we did win the damn thing in the end ), perhaps it was all for the best.

And of course, now the same thing is happening -- again! -- with Poland being the 'wall' and Germany trying to break it down. There's a Berlin wall joke in there somewhere.

Pretty poor performance from Germany. That wasn't really like the other "attack vs defence" games because Germany were generally so unthreatening, and the best chances all fell to Poland.

At least our defense is solid.

The overarching theme at this Euro so far seems to be a lack of inspiration. There's the teams that play pure defense, sure, but even those teams that dominate the game and go on the offense like Belgium, France, Germany, England...nobody seems to have any ideas or creativity or ingenuity. It's all just pass, pass, pass, pass around the back until someone gets frustrated and either hits a long ball or takes an inevitably poor/blocked shot from distance. Germany's most creative players - Özil, Götze, Müller - have all been very weak and ineffective so far.

Finally, a few games worth watching. Belgium got their shit together in the second half vs. Ireland and the Portugal-Austria game was quite open and entertaining despite being goalless. Some players simply can't seem to find their club form when playing for their country, and Cristiano Ronaldo is practically the poster child for that at this point.