Euro 2020

[EJG1980]

The tournament is underway tonight, a mere year late

Twenty minutes into Turkey vs Italy. It’s been a good watch so far, Italy playing some very nice stuff. They’ve really built a good side over the past few years after the low of not qualifying for the 2018 WC.

Really good win for Italy, on top the whole way through and played some lovely football. Looks like they have a good chance of going all the way on this showing.

[EJG1980]

Bloody hell these are scary scenes with Christian Eriksen, it’s awful. Please be alright

[Mayhem]

Yeah not seen this since Mwamba, really hope he pulls through.

[teddymeow]

****ing hell. I was watching this with Harry.

The minute they showed Eriksen on the ground, non-responsive with open eyes we switched over.

Terrifying and heartbreaking for his family.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yeah not seen this since Mwamba, really hope he pulls through.

Looking more like Marc-Vivien Foé at the 2003 Confederations Cup to me, and I desperately hope I'm wrong about that.

BBC Sport should be ashamed at not pulling away from that coverage much sooner.

[EJG1980]

Thank ****, some positive sounding news:

Embedded Tweet

Not out of the woods yet but hearing he's been stabilised is a HUGE relief.

Yeah not seen this since Mwamba, really hope he pulls through.

My brother and I were there that night, one of the most horrible things we've experienced. Fabrice managed to pull through so hopefully Christian can do the same.

Terrifying and heartbreaking for his family.

Couldn't believe the TV cameras showed his wife crying. This is the worst moment of her life, cut away and have some respect ffs.

[teddymeow]

Yeah, BBC can't control angles or camera shots but they could have gone back to the studio and not shown what they did during teatime TV when young kids are watching.

[EJG1980]

The Danish FA have tweeted that he's conscious and awaiting further tests in hospital, so that's sounding positive too. Fingers well and truly crossed, come on Christian.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The Danish FA have tweeted that he's conscious and awaiting further tests in hospital, so that's sounding positive too. Fingers well and truly crossed, come on Christian.

I'm hearing that the hospital he is in contains some of the world's leading experts on cardiology. He's in good hands if true.

Fingers crossed for him.

[EJG1980]

Match has restarted, surprisingly, but German TV were reporting that Eriksen spoke with his teammates from his hospital bed and asked them to continue the match, which was confirmed by Peter Møller from the Danish FA.

Great news that he’s well enough to be speaking to his teammates like that, and hopefully the fact that they’re playing the match means they must be pretty confident that he’s out of the woods. Still keeping my fingers crossed but it’s looking positive at the moment.

[prinnysquad]

Yeah, BBC can't control angles or camera shots but they could have gone back to the studio and not shown what they did during teatime TV when young kids are watching.

ESPN did the same. Piss poor.

[Mayhem]

Undiagnosed congenital heart condition, could well be, we shall see. Glad to see he’s on the mend.

[EJG1980]

So relieved that it looks like Christian's going to be okay, wonderful news for his family and friends.

Good start for England today. Nothing too amazing, good first 25 minutes and then a bit meh match after that, but Croatia never really got going and we deserved the win. Kalvin Phillips was really good.

Austria vs North Macedonia and (especially) Netherlands vs Ukraine were both really good matches, hopefully the tournament carries on in the same vein.

—————

Incredible goal by Patrik Schick from the Czech against Scotland. Early goal of the tournament contender and it’ll be tough to better.

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Great win for Wales against Turkey, and another impressive performance from Italy against the Swiss. What's the only thing that could stop Wales going through now, a big loss against Italy + a big win for the Swiss against Turkey?

[Nu-Eclipse]

Aside from the fact that more mediocre teams who normally wouldn't be good enough to qualify for the Euros now get through, Group C is a clear example of why the 24-team format doesn't work. Assuming Holland win this, Austria and Ukraine will know that if they draw in the final game they're both virtually guaranteed to go through, regardless of what North Macedonia do against Holland. So you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll just play out a draw and both games will be really dull. If only two teams went through, it would be a straight shoot-out between the two and the game would be worth watching.

Basically, UEFA should've either left the Euros as a tight 16-team tournament where everybody involved had a genuine chance of winning it and every game meant something (my personal preference), or they should've expanded it properly to be 32 teams like the World Cup.

Expanding to 24 teams is a poor cop-out at best.

[EJG1980]

Yup, it's not an ideal format. I think a lot of the individual matches have been good to watch so far, but the fact that only six teams are eliminated at the conclusion of the group stage, after all those matches, is a bit silly.

Added to your points above, it also makes "groups of death" like Group F less exciting than they should be. Normally you know that at least one of Germany, France or Portugal would be going home early, but with four of the best third place finishers going through, all three will probably end up in the next round anyway.