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?

Sweden played the perfect Mourinho game. That's how you should play when you have individually lesser players, which Sweden has had in both games I have watched, but harder to understand when you have some of the best players in the world like Moron.

Kudos to the players and the Sweden manager; players fought their hearts out and compensated for lesser technical level with unbelievable work ethic, fighting spirit, and defensive organisation.

It's surprising to see those tactics implemented at a youth level though.

It's been the Swedish way for yonks. Unfortunately, too much emphasis in the education of players in Sweden is put on organisation, tackling, positioning, team work and running like a maniac. That's why Sweden seems unable to produce top players.

When I watched the semi against Denmark, the difference in individual ability between the Danish and the Swedish players was astonishing. Denmark has roughly half the population of Sweden, but individually their young players are on a different level.

Ironically, Zlatan faced problems all through his younger years just because he refused to fall in line with that philosophy. Best player Sweden has ever produced.

Irish gunner wrote:

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

Didn't watch enough games to speak with any kind of authority, but Berardi looked like a class above anyone else I saw.

Fucking brilliant 😆 Kurzawa you absolute cunt 😆

Context:

Doing it immediately after scoring in the qualifier and in the dressing room is understandable, a year later and after actually winning the tournament is just embarrassing, especially the manager and the elderly guy on the far left 😆

The French guy was, probably, reacting to the Swedish number 3 who saluted after they scored the third goal.
(02:09 in the video below).

As for the celebration you cannot deny how funny it is, as karma for the French guy.

It was definitely funny the first time, I can recall laughing at it although even then Kurzawa apologised after the match. Repeating it a year later after winning a historic title for your country is as small time as it gets though, especially with the supposed adults participating in it.

Kurzawa will survive it I guess, he's the only one involved with a career going somewhere and probably already earns as much as the whole Sweden setup combined.

It's a funny little thing that brings the team together. Little things like that can build solidarity in a group hat hardly plays together

jones wrote:

Kurzawa will survive it I guess, he's the only one involved with a career going somewhere and probably already earns as much as the whole Sweden setup combined.

But that attitude is exactly what made Kurzawa do it to begin with. The idea that they weren't good enough to be in the tournament because they were low-earning nobodies overstepping their boundary.

I've got very little time for Swedish football, but they have every right to give it back to those cocky French players when they end up winning the whole thing. Kurzawa is a torrid piece of work. This is a great lesson in humility for him.

The comment about his salary was tongue in cheek of course.

The initial response during the actual match was a great lesson in humility. A manager that's old enough to be his grandfather because of a celebration he did in the heat of the moment (who knows what was said on the pitch before) taking the piss out of him isn't in my opinion.

Dont find this amusing at all. Its the sort of stuff that just comes off as needy. Spurs or Liverpool level tbf.

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