Day 8 - Group E: Italy v. Sweden
posted by The Blue Devil @ 8:44 AM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Friday, June 17, 2016
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Contributors
Previous Posts
- Day 7 - Group C: Germany v. Poland
- Day 7 - Group B: England v. Wales!
- Day 6 - Group A: France v. Albania
- Day 6 - Group B: Russia v. Slovakia
- France 2016 Predictions Game - Group Stage Update #1
- Day 5 - Group F: Portugal v. Iceland
- Day 4 - Group E: Italy v. Belgium
- Day 4: Group D: Spain v. Czech Republic
- Day 3 - Group C: Germany v. Ukraine
- Day 3 - Group C: Northern Ireland v. Poland
20 Comments:
The teams warming up in Toulouse this morning:
Italy (3-5-2) Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Florenzi, Parolo, De Rossi, Giaccherini, Candreva; Pelle, Eder.
Sweden (4-4-2) Isaksson; E Johansson, Lindelof, Granqvist, M Olsson; S Larsson, Ekdal, Kallstrom, Forsberg; Guidetti, Ibrahimovic.
Referee Viktor Kassal (Hungary)
As usual, I've stepped in and out of a refreshing shower during the opening of this match and I've missed absolutely nothing at all during the first 15 minutes.
Honestly, apart from England's games, this tournament has been the football equivalent of Sominex.
A clever dummy from Zlatan allows the ball to run through to Guidetti. After five seconds of huffing and puffing and scrambling, Guidetti is penalised for fouling Barzagli a fraction before Barzagli fouls Ibrahimovic in the box. It was a clumsy, zestful challenge from Guidetti, though I’m not certain it was a foul.
20 minutes gone now and the only action has been the grass growing in Toulouse.
Useless game so far. No intensity, no risk taking. No wonder this tournament has a goal ration of 1.89 per game.
This tournament has been so poor that it may force footie authorities to come up with new cockamamy ways of injecting excitement into the sport.
Forsberg tries to run Candreva, who defends excellently and draws the foul. Forsberg looked terrific in the pre-tournament friendly against Wales, but has done the square root of bugger all so far.
De Rossi is late on Ibrahimovic, the type of sliding foul that used to warrant a yellow card in the bad old days before this tournament. Kallstrom’s inswinging free-kick from a narrow position is headed over by the leaping Ibrahimovic, who was offside anyway. (snooze)
I do believe that the Swedish fans are singing "Already boring" to the tune "E donna mobile" - nice one, lads!
Bloody hell, every time I think that this match can't get any more ponderous, it does.
A few minutes of possession for Sweden, albeit to no effect whatsoever. This first half has been one for the tacticians.
I'm still waiting for Derek Rae to say the obvious - this match has been beyond tedious.
Rob Smyth on the Guardian blog is lamenting the lack of good strikers in Europe. That's not the problem. It's that they've been neutered by the tacticians in the game who would rather hang on to possession rather than take any risks.
We're back on at Toulouse.
Others on the Guardian blog are blaming the tournament format but that's a distraction as well. We've been seeing this same phenomenon in the domestic leagues and in the Champions League too.
Delle with a shot in anger!
Well over the bar.
Nearly an hour gone now - still 0-0.
Pelle's day is over - Simone Zaza is on for him.
Kallstrom on for Sweden as well.
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