@First: Apologies to @StewieJT that I open this thread and not you, like the other groups. Hope you can forgive me.....but I can't wait anymore What I expect here? It's called (a bit too dramatic) "Group of Death". But tbh I won't die if we don't survive and don't qualify for the knockout stages (although it would be unprecedented that Germany wouldn't come out of the group stage in two consecutive tournaments). But it would be disappointing and not excusable. Especially now when even the best 4 third placed teams in a group advance: I know that actually France and Portugal are in better shape than us but on a good day we still can give every nation a loss (and on a bad day a win ) Take my following prediction of the end standings not too seriously. I'm a patriot so I have made it purely on previous merits 1: Germany: 4 World Cups, 3 Euros (1954,1972, 1974,1980,1990,1996,2014) 2: France: 2 World Cups, 2 Euros (1984,1998, 2000, 2018) 3: Portugal: 1 Euro (2016) 4: Hungary: Nothing Yeah, I know. Most likely that won't happen. But one can dream I hope Germany will qualify for the next round and then I hope we can somehow avoid England. I want to avoid them but haven't yet "studied" under which constellations we would meet England in the knockouts. Why I want to avoid them? Because actually I have this feeling that we would lose it (maybe even in a penalty shootout) and then I would get again lots of tags from the Engländer here when this happens
Looking forward to the France v Germany tonight, hoping it has goals and does not disappoint. I think you have mentioned this @Dirk but how many fans are allowed in? I think France will top the group, Germany second and Portugal 3rd and England v Germany in the last 16. Todays predictions: Portugal 2 - 0 Hungary France 2 - 2 Germany
From what I've heard it's 20% of the capacity of 70.000 (for international matches, for Bundesliga matches it is 75.000), so it will be 14.000 Would be great to get a draw against France, tbh. I mentioned it before that our last win against France was during our last "prime" in the Quarter-finals of the WC 2014. A tight 1-0 win, since then we couldn't win in the next 5 matches against them ( 2 Draws-3 Losses)
Expecting goals today. I mean Hungary know they have next to no chance of qualifying so they may as well go for it, and last time they played Portugal in a major tournament it was a cracker. Hopefully France v Germany lives up to the hype. A German win would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. COME ON FOOTBALL.
Bit of Royal Ascot before the football & expecting 2 tight matches with a narrow win for Portugal & a draw in Munich . Didn't realize the Germans play all 3 of their matches on home soil as well as England , Denmark , Italy , Holland & Spain , unfair advantage ? Surprised Paris not been chosen as a venue !
Definitely unfair. I'm struggling to get into this tournament, because it basically doesn't feel like a tournament. I wouldn't mind but they already totally screwed up the format in 2016.
Every tournament has at least one side playing all their games with home advantage. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Why's it unfair? If it was hosted by one country they would be at home every game all the way to and including the final. Hosts have an advantage, nothing new there.
The tournament has to be played somewhere. Having a host nation is somewhat different to randomly divvying out home games to multiple teams. Think it undermines it personally both as a competition and a spectacle.
There's a world of difference between one host and... lord knows how many. There's a huge imbalance in every single group - the fabric of the tournament is unrecognisable from any other that we've seen. The Czechs, for instance, are in a group with one team which has three home games, and another which has two home games, and they aren't alone. Some teams have three home games while no other team in the group has even one - so there's another level of imbalance. It's all over the place, a total farce.
It wasn't random, the host nations are playing at home. Well that's an abysmal example as the Czechs beat one of those teams with unfair advantage and currently sit top of the group ahead of the other team with unfair advantage. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
