Remember Monaco's 3rd killer goal.
To me the irony is Italians complaining when their lions only managed to get 1 point out 6 against the Swedish and Portuguese dogs.
That is the reason they are going out and not because some viking spoke to some portugeezer.

Rucks wrote:

Second time we are sticking it to the Italians too. The Sweden v Denmark 2-2 was a beautiful game. Italian teams are our bitches. 🙂

That game was brilliant actually. One of the best euros match I have watched.

Anyone who watched the game also knows it wasn't rigged. Think I would have preferred had it been rigged though. 🙂

I don't think they entered the game with an agreement to play a 2-2 match, but they definitely ended up playing the result. The 2-2 goal was obviously Denmark letting us have an equalizer because it eliminated the prospect of facing Italy later on in the tournament. I remember an interview with some Swedish player who said a couple of the Danes were yelling at them towards the end: "C'mon then, attack for fucks sake! Attack!"

I've got no problem with it though. Italy only had themselves to blame for putting in such a weak-ass performance throughout the group stage (And I say that as someone who would have rather seen them advance to the quarter than Sweden).

Italy looked terrific against England. Maybe it was because "the lion" sturaro was out of the team having got himself sent off in the previous match.

Klaus wrote:

I don't think they entered the game with an agreement to play a 2-2 match, but they definitely ended up playing the result. The 2-2 goal was obviously Denmark letting us have an equalizer because it eliminated the prospect of facing Italy later on in the tournament. I remember an interview with some Swedish player who said a couple of the Danes were yelling at them towards the end: "C'mon then, attack for fucks sake! Attack!"

I've got no problem with it though. Italy only had themselves to blame for putting in such a weak-ass performance throughout the group stage (And I say that as someone who would have rather seen them advance to the quarter than Sweden).

I think it's a mental thing. Teams who goes into a 2nd leg looking for a draw often find themselves unable to attack if they go behind because they are not conditioned to. Similarly, if both teams can go through with a draw, more often than not they will, especially a dull goaless one. We have seen it on so many occasions but yet it's not rigged.

I think the 2-2 is a special scenario because it's against a close rival. And in that season Sweden and Denmark is in fact better than Italy. Trap was too defensive in his setup and both Sweden and Denmark plays much more attractive football. In particular Sweden should have at least made the Semis, they had a good team and Ibra was on fire.

Portugal thrashing Germany atm. Leading 4-0 with 40 minutes left.

How's Carvalho doing? People online* saying that he's been great

*reddit

He looks like a man among boys. Both in terms of his physical stature and with his authority on the pitch. Very, very impressive.

Carvalho and Bernado Silva are the two outstanding midfielders of this tournament.

Can't for the life of me understand how Sweden beat Denmark 4-1. They absolutely battered us for about 70 minutes of that game. 🙂

Oh, and Höjberg, the Danish midfielder playing for Bayern, is very, very impressive.

Sweden v Portugal in the final again. This time we should see a real match rather than the time wasting one.

Hojberg is certain very good. He didn't look out of place at the Eittihad last season.

Rucks wrote:

Can't for the life of me understand how Sweden beat Denmark 4-1. They absolutely battered us for about 70 minutes of that game. 🙂

Oh, and Höjberg, the Danish midfielder playing for Bayern, is very, very impressive.

Congrats 🙂 

We were the technically superior side but lost the game when you got ahead 2-0 and by generally making some stupid mistakes. You were cynical and effective.

Højbjerg is a great talent but he was misused in this tournament as a number 10. He's similar to Kroos in many ways, fantastic passer of the ball and can score goals but he needs to play deeper. 

mentalvortex wrote:

Carvalho and Bernado Silva are the two outstanding midfielders of this tournament.

[font=Source Sans Pro]That's exactly right. Was there wondering how can be such a big difference between the two and the others. I mean, Kimmich and the rest of them? Either they just didn't give a fuck or just can't play fucking football, 20 year old boy can't make a simple pass. The biggest disappointment of the tournament are England and Germany. Should be best, down there with the worst. [/font]

Don't like this business of having players over 21 play in and under 21 tournament

Isn't the rule something like that you are ok to play in the tournament if you were 21 or younger at the start of the qualifiers? It sort of makes sense that the players who took its nation to the tournament can actually play in the tournament.

Segway wrote:

He looks like a man among boys. Both in terms of his physical stature and with his authority on the pitch. Very, very impressive.

He's looked superb so far, totally schooled Can and the German midfield.  His positioning is superb as is his passing.  His passing really impresses me, calm under pressure and plays through the lines for fun.  Some of his passing reminds me of Busquets.  None of our midfielders play passes like that from deep.

The only problem is he isn't the most mobile and nimble, his positioning makes up for it.  tbh I'd much rather take a risk on him than sign a more safe option than Schneiderlin.  Carvalho could turn into an absolute monster of a player.  Apart from his mobility I'd say almost the exact profile of what we need there.

Carvalho isn't slow; he just doesn't feel the need to do too many sprints. He is super comfortable on the ball, and he uses his massive frame to just block opponents off most of the time instead. Check out at 3:04 in the clip v Italy. That's not a slow guy!

Here is the clip v Germany, in case someone missed it. 

Must admit I had a few doubts about his game but I was very impressed by him the other night. Particularly impressed by his body shape as he receives the ball.

I'd be up for signing him

Carvalho has been great these championships. If we can't get Vidal, I'd be happy with putting 30-37m Euros down and taking him. Carvalho and Coquelin against a Mourinho team. Hehehe

The biggest problem in this case is his agent, Jorge Mendes! I think in our current position where we have Coquelin to fall back on if this guy doesn't work I'm much more happier taking a punt on this guy. If it doesn't work out it doesn't, however if it does this guy could become one of the elite players in that position.

With his passing ability I think it would transform our game, Ozil and Ramsey would not need to come so deep to receive the ball, especially the former. We had that problem a few times with Cazorla + Coquelin against teams who sat deep.

Rucks wrote:

Carvalho isn't slow; he just doesn't feel the need to do too many sprints. He is super comfortable on the ball, and he uses his massive frame to just block opponents off most of the time instead. Check out at 3:04 in the clip v Italy. That's not a slow guy!

Remember reading One v one against a pacey tricky players I've heard he can have problems. They say due to his large frame he usually isn't able to adjust his body quick enough. However the guy also said due to his very intelligent positioning he rarely ever gets put into those positions

When is the final?

Final is today! This page should tell you at what time for your region:
http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2015/matches/round=2000411/match=2015383/prematch/background/

Was excited to watch it but its not on any channels (I have here). May have to download later.

Sweden's route to the final was insane too:

Sweden's first miracle occured in the playoff qualifications when they had to win against Turkey in their last game. A Kristoffer Olsson hattrick put the swedes 3-1 up. However, the Turks refused to give up and scored two quick goals in the 84th and 86th minutes. 5 minutes later, Hiljemark stepped up and sent the swedes through to the Playoffs where they would face off against France.
In the first leg, the Swedes lost 2-0 and things looked bleak. However, they managed to change things around in the second leg and were up by 3-0 up until the 87th minute when Kurzawa scored and began celebrating and taunting the swedes. He would regret this a couple of minutes later though as Lewicki scored a beatiful volley from a corner. Highlights can be found here Bonus pictures of the swedes doing to the french what the french did to them:
1 2 3
The summer of 2015 arrives and the Swedes are to play their first group-stage game against Italy. The Swedes are off to a horrible start as Milosevic gives away a penalty and is red carded in the 27th minute. Italy are now up 1-0. In the 56th minute no one other than John Guidetti scores the equalizer aftera nice pass from Lewicki following Khalili's corner. In the 80th minute the Swedish Mikael Ishak kicks the ball at Italy's Stefano Sturaro who is lying down, causing Sturaro to get up and punch Ishak in the face. As a result, Sturaro is sent off and both teams are now playing with 10 men. The same Ishak who got Sturaro sent off just some minutes earlier now earns Sweden a penalty, which is comfortably scored by Kiese Thelin. Highlights
The Swedes lose against England in their second group-stage game. Lingard scores a beatiful volley off of a corner in the 87th minute to give England the victory.
In the last group-stage game against Portugal, Sweden will only need a draw as long as Italy defeat England. With the Italians dominating the game and gaining a comfortable lead in the early stages of the game, the Swedish players know that they will only need to draw. Portugal will also only need a draw in this situation to still end up in first place in the group. The game wasn't too exciting up until the 82nd minute when Portugal scored. If this score were to stand, the Swedes would be knocked out. However, Tibbling was able to score in the 89th minute after a deflection off of a Portugal player, the Swedes had performed another miracle. After this, the game was completely dead, which led to a quite comical (perhaps not from an Italian viewpoint) last 3 minutes
The Swedes would now face their neighbours Denmark in the semifinals. The Danes were cocky beforehand and seemed big favourites. However, the Swedes were able to score two goals in the first half. In the second, Denmark got one back and were pushing hard for the equaliser. Luckily for Sweden, Robin Quaison came on and scored 3-1 late in the game. 4-1 came from the Captain Hiljermark in the last second of the game, after he heroically ran 80 meters to catch up with the Swedish counterattack. Highlights
That's how the far the story has gone up until now. Sweden will face Portugal in the final who beat the Germans 5-0.
I hope you guys found this post interesting, if there's anything I've missed or gotten wrong, feel free to comment or message me and I'll try to fix it as soon as possible!

Wow. That's almost as jammy as Denmark were, in 1992!
Portugal look the better team but, after reading that, i think Sweden will fluke it with a goal off Carvalho's backside.

Not a single potential top player in the Swedish team either. Olsson and Guidetti are probably the closest thing, and they'll both end up playing well below Everton level in my opinion. Olsson could have a Seb Larsson career if he's lucky. Quite a feat to get to the final with those players.

Carvalho hasn't been up to much thus far, but the Portuguese left back, Guerreiro, who we've been linked to, has looked decent.

The standard of players in this tournament is actually very low

None at the level Cesc was at a young age

Swedes doing their very best to suck all the joy out of the game. Moron would be proud of them.

Carvalho has done nothing to suggest he's a potential Arsenal player.

Guerreiro, on the other hand, looks a really good prospect. Hope there's truth to the stories linking us to a move for him.

I agree that Carvalho has been poor. In his defense, Sweden defend really low and it is clear the Portuguese want other players to have the ball. When Sweden attack, the long ball over the top is the choice 9 out of 10 times. Must be a weird game for a Portugal defensive midfielder.

Sweden creating the better chances the further the game has gone on.

Easy. Never worried. 🙂

Hope to heaven we don't sign that lumbering log

Still been arguably the best player of the tournament, if reports are to be believed.

Wasn't serious when i called it after reading Mr T's post 5 hours ago.
Memo to self: play the lottery this week!

So, who were the top 3 "stars" of the tournament?