itsbeautifuloutside

12th June - (Paris) 2pm

Turkey 0

Croatia 1

• Modric, 41'

Referee : Jonas Eriksson

Attendance : 43,842

Match Report

IBO Reporter : sotonian

The game kicked off at a frantic pace, I find opening games for these tournaments frustrating to watch as the fear of losing seems to overshadow anything, plenty of skilful players on the pitch but they were soon fouled at any attempt to create anything, however after 30 minutes of constant fouls and stoppages, a football match threatened to break out, Turkey had a great chance, the Croatian keeper made a great save to keep out a fine header from Tufan. However we soon went back to a series of fouls, finally the ref booked someone but only after Toson had left a Croatian defender with blood pouring from his head after a challenge, Just before halftime the breakthrough came, a Croatia cross was cleared to outside the box, it fell to Modric, who on the volley hit a quite amazing shot into the corner of the goal,

Half time Turkey 0 Croatia 1

Second half started, Turkey started strongly and had a couple of half chances, but the Croatia keeper was not troubled, then after a series of fouls we finally had another booking,

Croatia who have been the better side started to gain total control of the game, they hit the crossbar a couple of times and missed a series of relatively simple chances. Oh and there were plenty more fouls and a couple more bookings.

I was quite impressed with Croatia, who with better finishing could have scored at least 5 more goals, but we ended with a final score that really flattered Turkey

Teams :

13th June - (Toulouse) 2pm

Spain 1

• Piqué, 87'

Czech Republic 0

Referee : Szymon Marciniak

Attendance : 29,400

Match Report

IBO Reporter : Spot51

It had rained before kick-off leaving a slick surface for the Euro Champions to begin the defence of their title. The Czecks were in white and Spain, for whom David Silva was winning his 100th cap, were in their traditional red and blue.

The Czecks won 2 early corners and a free kick when Pique fouled Necid. Nothing came from them. Spain eased themselves into the game with Juanfran overlapping effectively down the right. On 8 minutes Morata was flagged offside. Moments later, disguised as an attempt to control the ball, he took out the offending linesman with a two-footed tackle.

It looked a decent contest early on with the Czecks regularly recovering possession but Spain gradually began to dominate and play was mostly carrying on in the Czeck half. On 16 minutes they created a clear cut chance. Silva set up Morata but his shot was close to Cech who held it. Silva again found Morata with a corner 2 minutes later but the striker headed over.

With Spain camped in the Czeck half, they won a number of corners. From one, Silva found Pique unmarked but his header was off target and grabbed by Cech. By the half hour, Spain were enjoying 68% possession but, apart from Morata’s turn and shot which Cech turned round the post, they had little to show for it. Czecks defended well in numbers and when Spain got to the bye-line the huge figure of Cech was there to claim the crosses.

Spain seemed to be getting frustrated and began shooting from distance without troubling their opponents. It was rather like watching Arsenal at times. Then, on 40 minutes, Spain worked 2 good openings – first Cech blocked a shot from Alba then, moments later, he dived bravely at the feet of Silva to stop him.

Spain were neat, patient but largely ineffective and might even have gone it a goal down had De Gea not got everything behind Necid’s 45th minute strike. HT = 0-0.

The second half began with another Spanish attack which saw Sivec hit his own post with Cech beaten. Spain then won 4 corners in a row before Rosicky brought the ball out. Rain and wind were beginning to effect play when Alba broke into the box and drove in a peach of a cross that no-one met.

On 57, Krejci took a free kick from the right. It was met by the outstretched leg of Hubnik forcing a diving save from De Gea. On 61 a first yellow card appeared, shown to Limbersky for a foul on Silva. The first substitution followed with Aduriz replacing the misfiring Morata.

The Czecks provided a reminder they were still in the contest on 65 minutes. A right sided corner was headed back in by Sivoc. It cleared De Gea but Fabregas was on hand to clear from under his crossbar.

Fabregas was replaced by Thiago after 69 minutes by which time Spain were back on top again. The Cazecks kept defending well and when Iniesta finally set up Silva he blasted horribly wide.

Lafata replaced Necid on 75m. A minute later Aduriz tried an overhead kick – but was flagged offside. Moments later a corner reached Ramos wide right – his lovely cross found Aduriz whose weak header missed the back post.

The deadlock appeared to be broken on 80 minutes as Thiago drove goalwards. He was halted by a quite brilliant tackle by Krejci. Then Pedro replaced Nolito and Spain kept pressing. Rosicky was obliged to clear over his own bar. The Czecks then brought on Sural for Gebre Selassie.

On 87 minutes, the Czeck barricades were finally breached. Pedro cut the ball back for Iniesta whose delicious cross found Pique who headed home: 1-0 Spain. The Czecks immediately brought on Pavelka for their captain.

Spain were content to keep the ball without pressing forward but nearly came unstuck in added time. After much huffing and puffing they at last created a decent chance but Darida’s powerful strike was well saved by De Gea. That was that. Spain had won their opening tie.

Teams :

17th June - (Saint-Etienne) 5pm

Czech Republic 2

• Skoda, 75'
• Necid, 89' (pen)

Croatia 2

• Perisic, 37'
• Rakitic, 59'

Referee : Mark Clattenburg

Attendance : 38,376

Match Report

IBO Reporter : THE BEAST

I started watching this game thinking about beer, however, I persevered and did not drink during the first half which mostly consisted of the itches trying to score against the Czechs.

Rackets And Modr were clearly the best of the itches but the Czechs were trying, mostly unsuccessfully to do something about that.

Shortly after that I received a phone call from a friend whose birthday it was today, so caring more about them than I do about you virtual bastards, we trotted off up the road to the barbecue, with children in tow.

Last thing I saw it was 0-0 (about 35 minutes in) but by the end of the first half it was apparently 1-0 to the itches.

Somewhere during the barbecue the 12-year-old son of my friend came and told me that it was 2-0 to the itches and the Perry and the rackets itches had scored.

This was pretty much what I had thought they would do from watching what I did of the first half.

Shortly after this the same nipper came up and told me that the game had ended 2-2 and I opened another beer and ate some roast lamb in honour of a game I had missed but had turned out to be a lot better than the first half (thank goodness for that)

That's pretty much all I've got for this game except apparently there was a reasonable amount of trouble and from what I saw and heard about this game after I got home, I have no idea how Croatia managed to lose it (although they did spend a lot of time rolling around on the ground pretending they are hurt when they clearly weren't)

Shame it was marred by violence and flares but shows that it's not just an English disease this hooliganism business. Someone should really tell these arseholes that it's just fecking football.

So, all in all, the beer won tonight, both for me and sadly it seems, for the crowd.

(Clearly some matches are more interesting than others. This didn't even rate that highly! - channonite)

17th June - (Nice) 8pm

Spain 3

• Morata, 34', 48'
• Agudo Durán, 37'

Turkey 0

Referee : Milorad Mazic

Attendance : 33,409

Match Report

IBO Reporter : THE BEAST

This, it turned out was a complete cakewalk for the Spanish.

I was still at the barbecue, the game kicks off, quite frankly I didn't give a shit but dutifully I kept up-to-date by running teams of children in and out of the house to catch me up on the score.

The beer wasn't as good as I'd wished, however, being Spanish, it still seemed to be better than anything else I was offered.

A good mate of mine I hadn't seen since the "Jeffrey" incident from my birthday party, this time he wasn't packing which I guess was lucky for me because I would (again) have been suckered.

So, I think this is roughly how the game went.

Instead of the hideously patchy game that Turkey first played in these championships trying to destroy everyone else's football by kicking anything in front of them up into the air, the Spanish got to completely destroy them by actually playing football and occasionally dodging hopelessly up against it opposition players.

And, Spain, finally chose a settled line-up… Surprise surprise… Totally destroyed their opponents by passing, moving and being relatively cutting edge in front of goal.

Turkey seemed to only bother trying to break ineffectually and occasionally try long distance shots from Calhanoglu which weren't really bothering anyone. (I will need to confirm this by watching the highlights tomorrow)

All in all, I can say I had an excellent night with friends, drinking beer and occasionally catching up on the game, which is more than you can say about Turkey, who are, quite frankly one of the worst teams in the Euros albeit that their fans still don't think they are (I don't know why?).

As for Spain, well, a bit like Germany, they look massively impressive in front of inferior opposition, it will be very interesting to see them up against somebody who has an outside chance of scoring against them.

And all I can say is "When the world slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall."

21st June - (Bordeaux) 8pm

Croatia 2

• Kalinic 45'
• Perisic 87'

Spain 1

• Morata 7'

Referee : Björn Kuipers

Attendance : 37,245

Match Report

IBO Reporter : THE BEAST

First half was interesting but very Spanish dominated, Croatia seem to find ways through them though and that was helped by Spanish mistakes which nearly cost (but didn't).

The 2 goals were Spain at the beginning of the half and Croatia at the end, both excellent goals and very good examples of what England didn't do (although admittedly they tried).

2nd half was a completely different story, Croatia seem to come out with a renewed sense of purpose and got at Spain right from the outset.

The particularly good players for them were Peresic and Rakitic.

The 2nd half got really interesting when Spain were awarded a penalty and Sergio Ramos couldn't put it away with the goalkeeper saving for Croatia.

And then right at the death that man Peresic popped up with a deserved winner for Croatia.

It's going to be Spain against Italy after this, that's going to be good.

21st June - (Lens) 8pm

Czech Republic 0

Turkey 2

• Yilmaz, 10'
• Tufan, 65'

Referee : William Collum

Attendance : 32,836

Match Report

IBO Reporter : Simmo70

Right the creative director dumps a load of silliness on my lap, late doors, as he has a presentation tomorrow, Southern Trains are a bunch of 'you know whats' and I’ve only just got in for flips sake, look at the time! The TV is paused on 4 mins 6 seconds and its still 0-0 thank goodness. The Czech Republic seem to have Gebre Selassie in their side and I thought he was a Kenyan distance runner, Turkey have a keeper called Volkan Babacan which sounds like a low alcohol beer big Lawrie Mac would approve of. Czech Republic will be without captain Tomas Rosicky having suffered tournament-ending thigh twang. Turkey will probably make changes after the last outing which, Spain not withstanding, was a bit of a fiasco, but probably not as many as uncle Roy made to such great effect yesterday…Henderson and Wilshire anyone jeeezus!

Anyway, enough of that, permutations ahoy!

Czech Republic will take second place if they win and Croatia lose - and the margin of victory in either game is greater than one and the first goal scorer is vegetarian. If he is also left handed Croatia need to score with a header…or something. Regardless of whether they overtake Croatia, victory will give the Czechs four points - which is very likely to take them through (at least as one of the best third-placed teams, who'll have an It’s a Knockout style competition I believe, where they will dress up as Penguins and throw water at the Belgians). Turkey must win and hope they go through as one of the best third-placed teams. Fail to win and they're out. Out I tell yer, Brexit the Euros losers!

I’m about to eat now so I’ll get to this in a bit…. That was nice…omelette and salad.

Good atmosphere in the ground, Turkey playing some nice stuff early doors…Cech still wearing that cap then, have we ever had a player called ‘England’?

GOAL…and a bloody great one. Lovely move out from the back and down the right flank, Emre Mor looks up and puts in a great ball and Yilmaz wraps his boot round it, past Cech and his silly cap at the near post.

Turkey unsurprisingly on top now and Czech Republic a bit ragged, but they do have a good break, Sivok hits the post from the resulting corner. Czechs all of a sudden looking lively and getting back in the game, things settling down a bit, both teams probing with a few lively challenges about the place. Turkey concise and moving the ball around well with good movement up front, breaking quickly and a decent effort goes narrowly wide.

Czech Republic go close, their No.2 fails to connect at the back post from a header across goal. Turkey do look vulnerable at the back and their socks look like they left their proper ones at home and had to borrow some from another team. Yellow card, Turkey have had one in every international for 16 years or something so thats not a massive surprise. Mor (18) looks tidy. Good one two by two Chech republic types and the keeper is tested from a long range effort from Plasil, nothing comes of the resulting corner. Tackles flying in and two Czech players booked in quick succession who will now have to watch themselves with plenty of the game to go. Not a bad first half, lots of intent, and no lack of skill, second half might be interesting, Turkey just about deserve to be ahead I guess but Czech Republic have gone close themselves.

Second half starts and it’s as you were, and I’m tired. Blimey three down and claret everywhere OUCH! Silliness in the box some WWF style heads clash or elbow smash, don’t fancy that at all, Gonul looks to have come off worse.

I’m very tired...

Both sides playing tidy stuff but they are cancelling each other out a bit, corner for Czech Republic and I expect Gonul isn’t looking forward to this. Emre Mor breaks quickly though but blazes over. End to enders as Barbican is then called into action at his near post. Things are getting stretched and the ball is moving back to front quicker and slightly more direct than earlier in the game. Hour gone and it feels like there is goals in this.

GOAL! Turkey…Ball launched into the box from a free kick and after being held up is laid off to Tufan who dispatches it into the roof of the net like a rocket, Cech no chance. Not against the run of play as such but Czech Republic had chances to level things. Turkey fans making a right din, Emre Mor goes off which is a surprise as he would probably revel in the space that’s going to be presenting itself as the match continues.

Czech Republic not quite clinical enough in the final third…blimey still about 20mins to go…I’m struggling, match paused while I organise an Espresso. Final push...

Turkey keeping their shape and hitting Czech republic on the break, who in turn are doing a passing impression of England. Czech Republic can’t quite get the goal they need and are getting frustrated, Turkey just about in control of things. It’s going to be in the mixer time for Czech Republic soon as the tackles continue to fly in and the rather camp looking Turkey keeper forced into another flamboyant save. 5 mins added on…everyone looks knackered, it’s all getting a bit messy and my Espresso hasn’t really helped, I’ll probably wake up the second I get into bed.

2-0 it ends and Turkey deserved this, and looked tidy with a bit of an edge to them, Czech Republic were nearly there but couldn’t quite take their chances to put Turkey under any sort of pressure. Not sure it will be enough to get Turkey through but we’ll see.