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Player Of The Tournament: Dani Olmo Expect I’ll be the only one to pick him, but in each game that he came on he made an obvious and big improvement to his side, and really was fantastic. Scored a couple of quality goals too. Most Disappointing Team: Italy Italy edge this for me as with not following football outside of the PL at all these days I was probably foolishly expecting them to at least look half decent, but they were so poor for the most part and were no match for the Swiss. Surprise Package/Over Achievers: Switzerland Shoutouts to Austria,Turkey and Georgia for their efforts also, but Switzerland really did look like such a solidly formed side. Best Individual Team Performance: Switzerland vs Italy (L16) By far he better team in this game and honestly never looked in too much bother at any point. Admittedly Italy contributed to this, but they really impressed me in this game. Match Of The Tournament: Austria 3-2 Netherlands Thoroughly enjoyed this game more than any other. Really was just a cracking watch as a neutral. Goal Of The Tournament: Lemine Yamal (Spa vs Fra) Shoutout to Stanciu for Romania vs Ukraine as it was a superb goal that needed incredible technique, but the difference between that in your sides first group game and Yamal’s goal to open the scoring vs France in the semis is a major factor. Team/Squad Of The Tournament: GK: Giorgi Mamardashvili (Geo) RB: Jules Kounde (Fra) CB: William Saliba (Fra) CB: Marc Guehi (Eng) LB: Marc Cucurella (Spa) CM: Rodri (Spa) CM: Dani Olmo (Spa) CM: Fabian Ruiz (Spa) RF: Lemine Yamal (Spa) ST: Jamal Musiala (Ger) LF: Nico Williams (Spa) Subs: GK: Jordan Pickford (Eng) DEF: Antonio Rudiger (Ger) DEF: Manuel Akanji (Swi) MID: Toni Kroos (Ger) MID: Jude Bellingham (Eng) FW: Arda Guler (Tur) FW: Bukayo Saka (Eng) Shoutouts to a few other players here. Mainoo had a really good tournament for England, Dembele played well for France, Nuno Mendes looked really good for Portugal, Sabitzer was a driving force for Austria, and Gakpo did well for the Dutch.

Euro 2024 is over, and despite the disappointment for many of us at the end, hopefully we’ve all enjoyed the tournament. Much like 11 months ago at the Women’s World Cup, Spain beat England in the final and the general consensus seems to be that, just like then, the best team ended up winning the whole thing. But which players does OTF think make up the best XI over the course of the tournament? I’d like you all to pick an 18 man squad of the tournament, consisting of a starting XI and seven subs, and once everyone has had a chance to vote, I’ll compile the results to compose OTF’s Team of the Tournament, made up to a full squad of 23 players (26 is too much). Thats the main point of this, but we will also have some other things to vote on. Speaking of which, here are the categories. Player Of The Tournament: You can, if you wish, pick joint winners for this. Most Disappointing Team: Which team was the most disappointing during the tournament, failing to live up to even their lowest expectations? Surprise Package/Over Achievers: Which team far surpassed your expectations? Best Individual Team Performance: Which single game performance was the best? Was it a small side earning a draw or even victory against a top side, or one big team destroying another? Match Of The Tournament: Which game did you enjoy the most? Goal Of The Tournament: Did Stanciu’s opener for Romania against Ukraine get you out of your seat? Perhaps it was Guler scoring against Georgia that produced your mightiest shriek. Or maybe it was Bellingham's overhead kick to keep England in the tournament as we looked set to bow out to Slovakia that caught your eye the most. These were just a few of the delightful goals scored at the Euros. Here’s a BBC highlight video of the best goals scored at the competition. Maybe your favourite isn’t even on there, but this is sure to help you decide. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/videos/c51ylewnge7o Team/Squad Of The Tournament: Please pick a sensible formation such as 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1 etc as that’s what these are usually done as, and similarly for the seven subs, please try to make it 1 GK, and then no more than 3, but at least 1 for each position of D, M and F. Please show your squad in the following format (changing positions depending on formation): GK: RB: CB: CB: LB: CM: CM: CM: RF: ST: LF: Subs: GK: DEF: DEF: MID: MID: FW: FW: Commentary along with your answers is encouraged as to why you picked who you did over other options, but any response is welcome. Get voting!

Mute it whichever channel you watch on, and play this instead. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-E6ljLSOkbY&pp=ygUXdnV2dXplbGEgc291bmQgZXh0ZW5kZWQ%3D

If you were hoping for anything more exciting than 'I usually go to bed around 830 so I watch the late games the following morning' then I'm afraid you need to prepare for disappointment

Cheers

I'll be watching how I've watched all 8pm kickoffs so far, the following morning.

Mainoo also showed that great bit of play to set up Foden for the shot cleared off the line, and made a couple of really important contributions getting back to cut out dangerous balls. He was everywhere last night. He's obviously got improvements to make in certain areas of his game but he's likely to make them if his trajectory so far continues.

I've started the day by watching the game this morning as I usually go to bed at roughly 830, so wasn't hard to avoid the result. Really good game to watch, by far our best performance, and Mainoo was brilliant. Everyone played their part but he was superb. Wonderful winner from Watkins. Not a bad way to start my birthday \o/

Fixed.

There’s no one I want to win less than Portugal because Pepe is a terrible thug, and Ronaldo is a raging bellend and sex pest. Obvious answer is England, but after that my preference would be: Switzerland Netherlands Turkey France/Spain/Germany Portugal Swiss and Turkey only sides not to win before (England aside), but considering the Turkish fans history of attacking and even killing rival fans at club level (see Leeds fans in 2000), plus the violence that seems to happen regularly in their home league including the recent events of an official being attacked by a club chairman it’s hard to want to get behind them too much, though the team itself has been fun to watch. Still, would be more fun them winning than Spain or Germany for a fourth time, or France a third.

Not even bothering to show Georgia’s road through the group stage. Such disrespect.

I’ve just caught up watching the Portugal vs Georgia game with Czech vs Turkey on the iPad at the same time. Ive mostly been watching whilst looking at stuff on the iPad at the same time, half an eye on the football sort of thing, but I’ve had every game on so far, and I’ve enjoyed it well enough. Chuffed to see Georgia get through, Austria top a group involving France and the Netherlands, and England top the group of bored to death. Gutted to see Ukraine go out mind, especially on 4pts despite being 0pts behind the group winners.

Netherlands vs Austria probably the game that’s grabbed my attention the most in the group stages. Cracking game with the added bonus of the underdog team getting the win and progressing through the group, and as group winners too. France vs Belgium, and Romania vs Netherlands in the Last 16 could both be real crackers and I’m really looking forward to them, but weirdly I’m probably looking forward to Austria vs Turkey just as much because it should in theory be the most closely contested game and it could be quite a frenetic and feisty game. Sadly, I think Georgia will be plucky but ultimately get beaten quite easily by Spain, and I’d expect Germany to get last Denmark pretty comfortably too, but Italy, Portugal, and England will all be tested more by the Swiss, Slovenia, and Slovakia respectively.

Just catching up on the Spain vs Croatia game, and that rule on the penalty is so awful. It makes no sense at all that it was a yellow and not a red. It makes it a no brainer for the defensive player, if you can foul to prevent a literally unmissable goal and turn it into a penalty where there’s a fair chance it doesn’t get scored and all you take for it is a yellow, to make the foul. It’s just such a woefully thought out rule that makes no sense. That has to be a red every single time. It’s no wonder I can’t be ****ed with football these days.

Made me think of Santiago Canizares missing the 2002 World Cup after dropping a bottle of aftershave and severing a tendon in his big toe.