So guys, as for the big tournaments in 2014 and 2018 I think I open a thread to discuss the current European championship 2016 (don't know why we didn't have one in 2016 lol).

Italy vs. Turkey is a pretty interesting match for a start and one of the few games where I actually support the Italian NT

Regarding the favorites I think that France is of course the biggest one, the other big nations (England, Italy and of course us Germans) as well and the eternal "secret favorite" - Belgium (whose "Golden generation" will surely do everything to finally claim a title).
Hopefully there'll be surprises as well but tbh I can't predict who can pull of an "Island 2.0" this year

I will never understand Alaba playing as a CB...

Well that went better than I expected

I can only repeat that.
Anyway, well deserved win from our NT today, apart from some defending errors we were clearly better team. Only disappointments were Halstenberg and Rüdiger but what a performance from that man:

When I wrote that I still expected that they would show at least something against Wales and Switzerland but damn - that was really nothing, Turkey.

Bye-Bye Erdoğan.

Germany is the only team it's safe to say they'll win a tournament before it kicks in, no matter their problems. You can't say the same thing for any other team. Really glad about their performance, since they deserved more against France. Santos got what he deserved as well. He's like the person who gets comfortable with fast-food and is afraid to taste something more expensive when he can afford it.

Generally I believe we are watching an exciting tournament. The most impressive sides so far have been Italy, Germany and Netherlands imo.

Germany were of course excellent against Portugal but I thought they were awful against France, it was closer to France winning 4-0 than it was to it finishing 1-1. IMO it’s too early to say they’re contenders, they could still do a 2018 in the last game. Netherlands have been carried by Dumfries so far, they still look quite uncreative in attack, they need to start Malen instead of Weghorst, and Depay has done nothing so far. Belgium have looked better than any of them in my opinion, at least when they got De Bruyne and Hazard on the pitch, although their defence looks very shaky.

Italy have been by far the best team so far but they also haven’t played a top team yet. Wales and Switzerland are decent but neither will get past the round of 16.

Overall this has been a good tournament, and more exciting than the last World Cup where 90% of people knew France were going to win after the group stage was over.

Well, that was a rollercoaster lol.

Wales vs. Denmark is another good example why EURO was much better with 8 or 16 teams. Denmark has played four average teams, didn't even win all games and gets into quarter final, it's hilarious. Such teams wouldn't even have qualfiied in previous competitions, unfortunately it's the same loss of quality that we also saw in 2016 tournament..
Btw, how is that a red card while on the other hand a clear foul before the second goal is ignored by Siebert I mean, it's no secret that Denmark has a bonus at UEFA after Eriksen's injury but refs should try to be at least neutral..

I didn't like Italy today. Things changed with Chiesa and Pessina, so hopefully they play the next match from the beginning.
However, if Belgium beats Portugal, I don't know how many chances we'll have to beat them.

Neither Wales deserved to be there as we saw and since they qualified as one of the best thirds. Denmark are a lot confident about their chances this summer. Not one of my favourite teams but they convinced me they have some good qualities despite losing their best performer. Nevertheless you're not wrong referees might favour them.

It's part of the process. At these tournaments managers will look for a winning setup rather than entertainment. Nice drag from Pessina to open the room for Chiesa, who executed in fashion. Italy stood lucky Arnautovic was offside (VAR saved the day), the relief was actually audible.

Congratulations to Frank de Boer for the most stupid coaching decision of the tournament by taking out Wout Weghorst without a reason (at least form issues can't be the reason) and replacing him with that retard Malen
If you play with Depay upfront, you also need a proper CF with physical strength alongside him who gives space for Depay, Malen can't do that. And what was he thinking when he wanted to dribble GK there..
Anyway congrats to the Czechs, they simply were prepared well and fully deserved to win that game.

Come on Czech Republic!

Thanks Belgium for kicking out Ronaldo and his gang of butchers and divers! Horrible performance by Brych who clearly got influenced by the diving and crying of that Portuguese women on the pitch - hope that poor Bruno Fernandes didn't suffer major injuries today
I better say nothing about the behaviour of Pepe and Palhinha except for one thing: That foul against KdB had only one goal - to injure him and yet he only got a yellow card for it..