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On July 04 2021 06:07 Pandemona wrote:
Wow! What a performance! Perfect from England, never thought i would see us playing that well in a knockout game with huge pressure back to back. Very good mindset on these players which i never thought would be a thing as well!
Wednesday we are back at Wembley, Kane and Sterling in form, lets go!
Glad you said it, BACK at Wembley. Not their fault but their run so far is being criticized because every game they had until this one was in their own backyard. It's an advantage, whether people can be honest enough to admit it is a different story.
Unfortunately for the players, even if they do end up winning the tournament (don't see them beating Italy tbh), people will call it an easy one and take away from the effort they have put in, because of all the home games.
Personally, not a single country should play a single match in their own country in tournaments whenever possible, which obviously isn't possible for a lot of tournaments unless they change the system.
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Or they could, you know, host in one country like normal
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On July 04 2021 16:32 DropBear wrote:
Or they could, you know, host in one country like normal
I think the pan-European setup was a good idea that got very badly executed. And Covid just made it even worse. Wembley getting both semifinals and the finals is patently absurd. Even when it's in a single country, the semifinals are in different places and the finals in a third different stadium. IMHO they should move the semis to München, Rome, Sevilla or Amsterdam or so. But it's far too late for that.
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Also, it's no coincidence that all 4 semi-finalists had all 3 games during the group stages at home. Aside from home support, they suffered least fatigue from travelling.
COVID or not, multiple venues is a bad idea. Either a single country or 2-3 neighbouring countries as host. We must remember that WC and Euro scheduling is really tight. It's just like clubs complaining about fixture congestion (7-8 matches in a month). Not fair for teams having to travel a lot, and puts players at risk of injuries and exhaustion with the reduced recovery time.
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UEFA are now trying to claim the Danish fan who had a rainbow flag confiscated in Baku was... drunk. It was obviously not about UEFA banning pride symbols in countries that like to discriminate against LGBT people.
I mean we all know UEFA are a bunch degenerate stooges, but it's still mind boggling how amazingly incompetent they are.
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Maybe there's so many games at Wembley because UEFA knew that its coming home...
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On July 04 2021 17:57 RKC wrote:
Also, it's no coincidence that all 4 semi-finalists had all 3 games during the group stages at home. Aside from home support, they suffered least fatigue from travelling.
COVID or not, multiple venues is a bad idea. Either a single country or 2-3 neighbouring countries as host. We must remember that WC and Euro scheduling is really tight. It's just like clubs complaining about fixture congestion (7-8 matches in a month). Not fair for teams having to travel a lot, and puts players at risk of injuries and exhaustion with the reduced recovery time.
At the world cup in Brazil and Russia traveling distances were as large as they are now. Imo the problem isn't that teams have to travel but the problem is that some have to travel much more than others. England can play almost all their matches in one stadium while others have to travel all over the continent. If travelling distances were more equal it wouldn't be a problem.
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Norway28792 Posts
Ya, travel distances have been similar for other tournaments. Host country normally has the same advantage England has now - just that this year, some other countries also have a similar but slightly smaller advantage. I don't really see the big problem - aside from thinking it'd be better if Baku had been entirely dropped.
Then again, I think my perspective of viewing the EC as a hugely entertaining set of exhibition matches, a party of football, rather than 'serious competition between the countries to establish a real hierarchy of skill', is a more sensible approach towards enjoying the tournament. 
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To be honest host nations has always had advantage, I would feel cheated as a danish person if the first time we had to host a Euro we could not support our own team, and the advantage in this tournament has been less then in a single host cup, with teams not being 1 seed.
I agree that traveling could have been better planned and some host cities could / should have been left out.
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Norway28792 Posts
On July 04 2021 01:18 gTank wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2021 00:51 plasmidghost wrote:
Hot prediction take: Czech Republic wins by 2 You still wanna go with it? Also, it was no corner kick (as seen in slow-mo) but still, defending like that is really bad.
Just bringing it up because I also thought this was a wrong call - but here we can see it was actually correct.
Saw the czech manager whining about it too.
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On July 04 2021 20:27 Liquid`Drone wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2021 01:18 gTank wrote:On July 04 2021 00:51 plasmidghost wrote:
Hot prediction take: Czech Republic wins by 2 You still wanna go with it? Also, it was no corner kick (as seen in slow-mo) but still, defending like that is really bad. Just bringing it up because I also thought this was a wrong call - but here we can see it was actually correct. https://twitter.com/i/status/1411389495174471685Saw the czech manager whining about it too.
Thanks i am tired of the Czech winning about it.
I could also argue that Denmark has cheated from about 15 fouls and we would have scored at least one goal from one of those set pieces, but we never know if that is true. Because VAR does not check all those mistakes.
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On July 04 2021 19:43 RvB wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2021 17:57 RKC wrote:
Also, it's no coincidence that all 4 semi-finalists had all 3 games during the group stages at home. Aside from home support, they suffered least fatigue from travelling.
COVID or not, multiple venues is a bad idea. Either a single country or 2-3 neighbouring countries as host. We must remember that WC and Euro scheduling is really tight. It's just like clubs complaining about fixture congestion (7-8 matches in a month). Not fair for teams having to travel a lot, and puts players at risk of injuries and exhaustion with the reduced recovery time. At the world cup in Brazil and Russia traveling distances were as large as they are now. Imo the problem isn't that teams have to travel but the problem is that some have to travel much more than others. England can play almost all their matches in one stadium while others have to travel all over the continent. If travelling distances were more equal it wouldn't be a problem.
Yeah, exactly my point. There's inequality between teams. England is the real beneficiary - even lucking out possibly the easiest knockout opposition (Ukraine) in their only 'away' game.
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On July 04 2021 20:27 Liquid`Drone wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2021 01:18 gTank wrote:On July 04 2021 00:51 plasmidghost wrote:
Hot prediction take: Czech Republic wins by 2 You still wanna go with it? Also, it was no corner kick (as seen in slow-mo) but still, defending like that is really bad. Just bringing it up because I also thought this was a wrong call - but here we can see it was actually correct. https://twitter.com/i/status/1411389495174471685Saw the czech manager whining about it too.
Holy shit, thanks that is amazing!
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On July 04 2021 20:12 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Ya, travel distances have been similar for other tournaments. Host country normally has the same advantage England has now - just that this year, some other countries also have a similar but slightly smaller advantage. I don't really see the big problem - aside from thinking it'd be better if Baku had been entirely dropped.
One thing is the travelling distances, but the fact that they put all the most important matches in a country where many away fans can't even enter (people coming from Denmark will not be able to attend the semifinals) is ridiculous. This is of course not the case with the usual single host country model.
They should have moved the matches away from Wembley but now it is obviously too late.
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On July 04 2021 20:50 sneakyfox wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2021 20:12 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Ya, travel distances have been similar for other tournaments. Host country normally has the same advantage England has now - just that this year, some other countries also have a similar but slightly smaller advantage. I don't really see the big problem - aside from thinking it'd be better if Baku had been entirely dropped.
One thing is the travelling distances, but the fact that they put all the most important matches in a country where many away fans can't even enter (people coming from Denmark will not be able to attend the semifinals) is ridiculous. This is of course not the case with the usual single host country model. They should have moved the matches away from Wembley but now it is obviously too late.
It's different because of travel restrictions. During the England v Germany match, I recall the commentators saying that there were only about 4000 German fans out of the 40000 spectators.
Also, some teams had to travel long distances between two countries during the group stages (Group C - Russia/Spain, Group A - Italy/Azerbaijan). I remember reading some Welsh player complaining having to travel back and forth (Rome-Baku-Rome) during the group games.*
So many teams are just fatigued even after the group stages. That's not a 'normal' advantage that host nations enjoy. It's a double advantage/whammy - host nation play all games at home, other teams go on a round-trip Euro tour. This doesn't happen normally at all.
* Found the source - Chris Gunter. Comes across as a little over the top drama queen rant. But still a valid point made.
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Northern Ireland26763 Posts
It’s not a good system for the situation on the ground currently. I’m unsure on the other hand what wriggle room there was to tear up the planned schedule. Then there’s travel restrictions that aren’t pan-European but vary from x country to x country.
England have got the rub of the green more that most absolutely, albeit that’s partly due to the government being more willing than others to stage such events too, be that wise or not. Unlike say, Dublin who pulled out as a venue and saw marches changed to Wembley.
Perhaps it’s more obviously apparent due to different countries being involved, there’s been pretty big travel disparities in recent World Cups and I think logistically this needs to be avoided for a better spectacle.
Nobody outside of partisans wants to do well off the back of opponents being knackered
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I know travelling isn't fun. But pretty sure the players experience is different then fans. They get on luxury bus from hotel, go to charted plane with check in. I am sure there is plenty of leg space, then out of plane to other bus to luxury hotels.
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
Adding to that, the travel is minimal unless you are going to Baku which is just crazy, but outside of that its an hour either direction normally. Players are also used to this when the Champions league or Europa League is happening.
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Northern Ireland26763 Posts
On July 04 2021 21:53 Sapaio wrote:
I know travelling isn't fun. But pretty sure the players experience is different then fans. They get on luxury bus from hotel, go to charted plane with check in. I am sure there is plenty of leg space, then out of plane to other bus to luxury hotels.
Absolutely and fans being unable to travel to some venues, be it via travel restrictions or other factors is huge too.
I don’t think the player experience would be as bad but it’s on top of a hugely congested calendar, and with less gap than is usual to the start of an international tournament to boot.
Selectively emphasising my one vague correct prediction where I thought we’d have a tournament of upsets for that exact reason.
Having squads full of elite players involved in the latter stages of the Champions League/Europa league is an advantage until it isn’t and they’re all knackered.
That said it’s partly some bracket luck in that regard too. England have had good bracket luck two tournaments running now so, if they don’t make it stick this time when will they?
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Sure, players get VIP treatment when travelling. But it's disruptive to recovery and training schedule. No serious competitor in any game or sport enjoy travelling - a direct economic class flight is preferable rather than a first-class multi-stop trip.
UEFA should've reverted to a single host when COVID struck. If this year's Champions League Final could be shifted at the last minute, why not Euro venues? With the reduction of spectators allowed in venues, it's not like host nations are being short-changed much commercially if their hosting is revoked (and their governments probably politically happier not having to risk an outbreak).
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EPT
