Yuko

Lol how was that missed? Shambles @Gizzy Championship is void

That's not how it works but suit yourself.

Fair point

Extremely difficult. I went with Scott only because I feel when the pressure is on, Paul's offense will have more trouble defeating Scott's defensive setup than the other way around

Yet others who topped their groups never had such an easy (on paper) path in this format. No one belittles the teams quality, but these aren't the teams you'd expect to play at that stage. You cannot disagree with that.

Vitinha is a boss in the midfield. Dictates tempo, does everything and runs a lot. I'd liken him to a young Modric and I think he has similar potential as well.

The Zielinski-Vitinha tandem is probably the best midfield pairing we have on the draft. Obviously the Albanian DM isn't the best possible player to lock the trio, but he has the necessary characteristics to complete them. I find Camavinga quite overrated, although he's obviously a good player. I just don't see him as leading CM material, whereas both Vitinha and Zielinski can control a game. Mitrovic is a real striker, whereas Depay and Yarmolenko require the ball played low and I'm not seeing the other team leaving you much of the ball. Then I see the full backs and that's pretty much where I cracked. It's gonna be overwhelming. Strakosha is a GK I never rated for the high level, whereas ten Stegen could have been GK of the tournament if only they let him play over a record seeking Neuer (who's obviously still top himself). The Mbappe factor is also something you cannot ignore here. I'm not saying it's an easy one, but the odds are with the "England" team here. I actually like his team and I think I voted for his side to win all KO games till this one.

Greece got through from a group with: - Portugal (finalists, one of the favorites as well) Spain (which wasn't the typical 90s choke team but the 2002 one could have reached the WC final if it wasn't for that scandal - considered a top 5 favorite iirc at the time) and Russia (exciting team actually that reached SF in the next edition of 2008) Then beat France in the KO, a game that looked more 50-50 when played than any other. Then beat Czech Republic team with Nedved (got injured early in the game), Rosicky, Cech, Koller, Poborsky, Jankulovski, Baros, Ujfalujsi, Galasek, Smicer, Grygera etc and possibly everyone's favorite team outside the standard top sides. Then beat Portugal again, who knew what Greece was made of. I don't think anyone can attribute what Greece has done to luck based on who was against them.. You can say the same for most finalists from the 1996-2012 era. A random QF in ten, or maybe a random team here or there from the group was the only outliers you could find. Unlike a path where you get to play Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland and now the Netherlands that finished 3rd and no one paid much attention to - aside from their fans. So England now plays two 3rd placed teams and one group runner up to reach the final. In the 2020 edition England faced 2 runners up and 1 third placed team (obviously not England's fault that Sweden and Italy respectively failed but it is what it is) On the contrary, in 2016 Portugal was that 3rd placed team, whereas France beat a group winner in the SF. Same with Portugal, who faced Wales in the SF, till then it was runners up. Italy faced group winners in the QF, and two runners up in 2020(1). In the 2024 edition, Spain has played Germany who are group winners, and France managed to be runners up so there goes that. Georgia was 3rd place. France gets to play with fellow runners up Belgium, then group winners Portugal, then group winners Spain. And that would make it the toughest path to a final in this new format since 2016. Which could be also be the case for the Netherlands. Group winners Romania, then runners up Turkey, then group winners England. Neutrals are probably rooting for a France vs Netherlands final, although lots of neutrals like Spain as well since they play the best football. France has a following due to the brand value of some of their key players. England on the other hand doesn't have that many neutrals, but it has a bunch of people all over the world that support them every time. Can't tell if there's more or fewer nowadays, but it's still a cult-ish following. Not referring to the English people of course, but the "neutrals", who get more of a say on whether they'll support a national team or not.

both teams are tactically sound but apart from the CB pairing, Gunman has the significant edge everywhere else.

Is it his teammates?

lol wtf are you guy on about? Hope England gets the same treatment tomorrow and see the same people scream their keyboards off after such a terrible decision

curious to see if this was relevant. I added in bracket the "seed" based on average order. So @Bliss Seeker should have still been around but iirc he also had to change 1/3 of his team, even if his talent pool was mostly from top nations, it was later picks. @Baptista_8 is the only one with more than 6 top half picks who got knocked out early, but his higher picks came at a later round, so that must count for something. @SouthCoastRed on paper is the biggest overachiever. @PaulHartman71 with @Harryseaess is another one since you have 4 top 6 picks for Paul and only 2 Top 6 picks for Harry, but Harry has less Bottom 6 picks (2) than Paul (4). And they both have as many top half picks. @GunmaN1905 is the only other with 4 or more Top 6 picks that still standing, which is curious. That's 2/7 in the last 8. Heck, if the pairs are in order, then our road to the final path on the bottom part will probably be as skewed as the real thing

England has the highest chances to reach the final but will be outsiders against any of the other 4. The other side is plain crazy, but I don't see how Spain are favorites against hosts Germany. It should be a 50-50 affair. And neither that side is going to be favorites against France. Portugal are the outsiders but apart from the CR7-has-to-score fetish, they look like the most composed team of the tournament. Whoever gets to the final from that path will probably have muscle injuries to worry about, fatigue and potential injuries. England's job is quite easy, the Slovakia game should be a boost based on how it ended rather than a warning bell based on how it went till the equalizer. Momentum for England and I think England beats Switzerland easily, something like 3-0, then Turkey might sneak into the semis who won't pose as much of a threat.

It should go back to 16 teams

Italy is the sort of team that can give you confidence vs England but honestly, I don't think they can be confident against Switzerland

tbf 2018 was not really a miracle or anything. It was just a good draw. You only had to face Colombia that was half-decent but it wasn't 2014 Colombia by any means (and that one didn't even have Falcao) and you needed penalties to get over them. So it was mostly luck, but that's how deep runs can go sometimes in these things. It may very well happen now as it seems like the r16 opponent will be weak, Italy doesn't look convincing either so maybe Switzerland in the QF is an option, and suddenly you're a Semi-Finalist with Belgium, Turkey or Austria being a possible opponent there. Finalists again, and Southgate looks like a hero. It's rather typical of England to get knocked out by the first formidable opposition they find, and in the 2020(+1) Euro, you beat Germany, even if it were at home, and everyone thought this was finally the year. But England didn't look sharp against Denmark - and got a bit of a push to reach the final iirc - and after scoring early versus Italy, basically didn't do much to capitalize on that and let Italy do their thing. I wouldn't say England played well in that World Cup. There was also pressure to succeed since the team showed in the Euro and previous World Cup that it was capable of defeating its demons (ie a PK shootout and a national team that traditionally has their number) There were a few moments vs France that it looked as if England could do damage, but honestly it felt like the whole team reverted to default settings and collapsed when it mattered. And France wasn't even playing well and I wouldn't attribute that to England's playing style. I think you're being strict as no team has looked great. Apart from Spain and maybe Portugal who manage to play their game and get the results, everyone else looks shockingly underwhelming. Germany should be doing a lot better than saving 1st spot with a 90+ minute goal. France is looking very shaky. The Dutch, the Italians, the Belgians and the Croatians have been poor.. It's too soon to say, we don't even know who's gonna play who in the Round of 16 yet due to this system and since every point matter, teams are more satisfied to play for 1 rather than potentially lose it for a chance to get 3. KO is a different animal here, but we won't see that many open games after tonight. If anything, England are probably the favorites to reach the Final as things stand. Spain has to face Germany/France/Portugal. Germany has to face Spain/France/Portugal and so on. They cancel each other's odds out. I'm not sure if the Netherlands will fall as England's R16 rival. That wouldn't make things easy of course. But if it's Slovakia/Ukraine/Romania, I think you wouldn't be calling that a tough KO game before the tournament.

For some reason the images aren't loading for me

Yeah just checked and voted @Gizzy

fyi Long weekend here and I might be offline for the most part (very bad signal)

I think this was the easiest three pairs of matches of the lot to decide on

@Gizzy noticed that I'm one of a few that don't have full names of players so I updated my squad's image: https://www.buildlineup.com/shared/6670802798153318608fa262

Austria is not going to be easy if they're like 2020(1). I recall them giving Italy all sorts of trouble and they also played well in the groups. France is a bit awkward. Everyone expects them to beat all teams by 4, eventually they'll do that to someone, but most times it won't be easy. In fairness, if there's any game you expect France to win big in this group, it's this one.

I'm not sure on that. I think Spain will just have the ball a lot more but not do much. Unless the defense brainfarts. It's all down to how Spalletti & co can handle not playing with the ball. A proper Italia team doesn't care about all that. Don't see Spain as some clinical side that Italy should fear, but it's definitely a side than can slice open most defenses.

we have more fit Slovak girls than fit Belgian girls over here*, so good result for me *probably the rule anywhere though

lol you must be fuming here