Group E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine

[Drico]

UEFA will be delighted. All of their cash cows are safely through to the "round of 16" second round. They won't be changing this format - except to make it even bigger.

 

[Gilbert..]

I guess i'm still under impression of that first half where our coward in charge decided to play without striker in must win game and we barely fired a shot.
Entire country sent millions of curses at his side during that 1st half.

Was the feeling over petkovic or another one? I did find it weird you had a few forwards on the bench.

 

[stipe]

Was the feeling over petkovic or another one? I did find it weird you had a few forwards on the bench.

Any striker (Budimir who scored 20 in La Liga for Osasuna this season was on bench).

Basically we started with Kramaric nominally in forward position despite him not playing at that position for 10 years now (he plays as offensive midfielder in Bundesliga for his club.) So naturally during that 1st half he was coming to midfield to take the ball and playing anywhere but striker position. Finally at half time our "genius" decided to send in real striker (Budimir).
So must win game and we wasted entire half with completely missed tactic.

 

[BainesontoastNEW]

The more I think about it, the more that performance from Belgium was shocking. I mean, they knew BEFORE kick-off they needed a win to avoid France. And that's all they could serve up? Ridiculous.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

UEFA will be delighted. All of their cash cows are safely through to the "round of 16" second round. They won't be changing this format - except to make it even bigger.

Yeah, don't forget the advertising revenue. More markets and more sponsorships

 

[Kev The Rat]

At least the Ukros are out

 

[Hinchcliffe's Corner]

At least the Ukros are out

Why do you want them out Kev?

 

[DualityNSNO]

Going to Romania-Slovakia today. My first ever tournament game live. Buzzing.

How was it then?

 

[DualityNSNO]

Why do you want them out Kev?

Because he hates them as everything is a reptilian conspiracy orchestrated by the evil west and zionists.

Keep your third eyes open, sheeple

 

[Billy Dean]

How was it then?

It was great fun. Match was nothing special but great atmosphere. It was like a home game for Romania. They made up what looked like around 75% of the crowd

 

[DualityNSNO]

It was great fun. Match was nothing special but great atmosphere. It was like a home game for Romania. They made up what looked like around 75% of the crowd

Glad you had fun mate.

Really was the best of the Balkan countries to watch as there's no non-football detractors.

 

[Billy Dean]

Glad you had fun mate.

Really was the best of the Balkan countries to watch as there's no non-football detractors.

Cheers mate!

How do you mean, like there is no nationalist stuff going on with them?

 

[DualityNSNO]

Cheers mate!

How do you mean, like there is no nationalist stuff going on with them?

Yeah, Romania doesn't have any mentalists as opponents this time around so all the nonsense isn't present and it's just/mostly football.

 

[Billy Dean]

Yeah, Romania doesn't have any mentalists as opponents this time around so all the nonsense isn't present and it's just/mostly football.

Would be curious to see what it would be like with other Balkan fans but the Romanians seemed pretty chilled out about things. Very friendly with the Slovak fans ( who were also great despite being in lesser numbers)

 

[DualityNSNO]

Would be curious to see what it would be like with other Balkan fans but the Romanians seemed pretty chilled out about things. Very friendly with the Slovak fans ( who were also great despite being in lesser numbers)

Well @Daveysgingerlovechild can correct me here, but from our point of view there's not gonna be a lot of the animosity if we were to play Romania, doubt anyone has any problems with other nations other than Turkey and Serbia, really. Maybe Moldova vs Romania?

If we were to play Macedonia at a bigger tournament there's probably a fight breaking out tho - Levski Sofia played Shkupi Skopje last summer for one of the European club tournaments and when we went there there were people attacked and sent to hospitals and all, which surprisingly didn't happen when they came around to ours. Doubt it'd be much different if it's national teams - '22 saw a return fixture of that and it was a bit iffy at times. They proper hate us whereas we aren't really that bothered anymore, "we know we're s***" and all