itsbeautifuloutside

Group F Preview

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: The Beast

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Türkiye

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Group D winners P8 W5 D2 L1 F14 A7

Turkey made it into the euros pretty easily, although they were only playing Armenia, Latvia & Wales (none of whom are particularly strong opponents). Although they did score against Croatia, a much stronger opponent and one of the better teams in the Championships.

I can't say I followed them very strongly through the qualifying, but having looked at their goals highlight reel, they are capable of scoring some very nice goals; they seem quite strong in the air and have some good wingers and midfielders capable of some excellent passing.

They will be strong contenders for getting out of the group

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Georgia

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Fourth in Group A Play-off semi-final: Georgia 2-0 Luxembourg Play-off final: Georgia 0-0 Greece (aet; 4-2 on penalties)

Willy Sagnol's charges finished fourth in a strong five-team Group A, picking up results against Scotland, Norway and Cyprus but also losing 7-1 at home to Spain. However, Georgia made history in the playoffs, defeating Luxembourg and Greece, the latter on penalties, to reach a first-ever major final as an independent nation.*

I'd be amazed if they made it out of the group.

*This section is cribbed entirely from UEFA.com, as I know next to nothing about Georgia.

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Portugal

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Group J winners P10 W10 D0 L0 F36 A2

Portugal, coached by Roberto Martinez, qualified quite comfortably from Group J. They were the only team to finish qualifying with a 100% record. If he gets there, Cristiano Ronaldo will make his 6 Euro finals appearance in Germany; he holds the record for the most goals (14) and appearances (25) at the Euros tournaments.

Considering their strength in depth and some of their key players I can't see them failing to get out of the group. Probably one of the outside favourites for the whole tournament.

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Czechia

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Group E runners-up P8 W4 D3 L1 F12 A6

The Czechs traditionally do quite well at the euros; they have good players, some of whom are not very well known outside of the league they play in. However, they always seem to make the step up to international football quite well.

The opposition in the group wasn't strong, and they've got to be hoping to at least get out of the group as one of the strongest 3rd places, if not make a surprise showing to displace either Turkey or Portugal in the top 2.

One thing's for sure: if history in the tournament is any guide, you can never rule them out.

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*Facts and figures from UEFA.com.

Highlight reels of qualifying group goals for all teams can be seen at www.uefa.com/euro2024/news/0288-1999c0933e22-7eccd2251aa6-1000--uefa-euro-2024-group-f-turkiye-georgia-portugal-czechia/

Group F fixtures

18/06: Türkiye vs Georgia (Dortmund, 18:00) 18/06: Portugal vs Czechia (Leipzig, 21:00) 22/06: Georgia vs Czechia (Hamburg, 15:00) 22/06: Türkiye vs Portugal (Dortmund, 18:00) 26/06: Czechia vs Türkiye (Hamburg, 21:00) 26/06: Georgia vs Portugal (Gelsenkirchen, 21:00)

*All times CET, -1 hour for the UK

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Turkey 3 Georgia 1

18th June. BVB Stadion Dortmund

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: The Beast

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This game should be called "The Game Of Roars"

It started off with roaring rain, biblical rain, there were bits of the stadium you couldn't even sit in because the rain was coming off the roof with such ferocity that it was underwater in the seating areas in places.

In the ground itself, there was a real danger that the game would have to be cancelled because there was so much water.

Somehow, good old German efficiency, I expect (mixed with a bit of good plumbing), exerted some influence, and miraculously, the game was on. And, somewhat bewilderingly, the pitch looked pretty well drained and didn't cut up much. It was a triumph of the groundsman's art.

The next roar came when the Turkish team left the changing rooms and went on to the pitch; the yellow wall is now the red wall; just about everyone who could beg, borrow or steal a ticket (who was Turkish) seemed to be there; it was truly deafening. And in true Turkish style, they even tried to whistle out the national anthem of Georgia as it was being played, although I think they gave that up after a while but it was a pretty good attempt at completely obliterating the tune.

To be fair to Georgia and its fans, and thanks to the Georgian government-subsidised flights to see the match, their support was pretty noisy themselves.

The teams were body-dependent on stars; Georgia had one (and a goalkeeper), and Turkey had at least 3 new ones and a few established ones as well.

This is where I come a cropper, though. I cannot spell names, not really of either team, and my keyboard doesn't have the right keystrokes to show you the right letters for the Turkish players. to be honest, I find it quite difficult to differentiate between some of their names anyway (both teams).

So you are going to get what you are going to get; I will try to use numbers because that's just easier.

The first half started brightly; Turkey was all over Georgia; although there were interesting vignettes of opportunity for Georgia, they were looking vulnerable at the back (if doggedly defending), but going forward, despite their apparent reliance on one player (the guy who plays for Napoli (number 7) … Who is incidentally, a hell of a player).

Anyway, Turkey started off everywhere, the crowd was deafening, Georgia looked like they were folding and then didn't… There were a few chances, but Georgia started to look okay; there were a few exploratory attempts at attacking from them, which were actually pretty effective and showed that Turkey would be vulnerable to better teams. Everything seemed to settle down, and all of a sudden, there came a rocket from the Turkish right back (18), definitely a contender for goal of the tournament (so far), a sweet, sweet right foot volley. Pretty unstoppable, to be honest, even by the impressive-looking Georgian goalkeeper (25).

Shortly after this, Turkey scored again… It looked like Georgia was folding like a house of cards, but this goal turned out to be offside, and shortly after that, the game changed…

… It changed from another one of those little interesting attacks by Georgia, all of a sudden (6) isolated one of the Turkish young stars (19) and turned him, momentarily, inside out, put a lovely through ball into the box and then the Georgian striker (22), a player I would like to see play for Saints, did just about the only thing he could have done to score, intelligently finding himself a yard of space and then cleverly directing the pass into the bottom corner straight under the goalkeeper's hand.

After that, it was game on, Georgia looking stronger and cleverer and trying more things, Turkey kind of having the wind knocked out of them.

Anyway, it ended 1-1 at half-time

The next half started with chances for Turkey and then a beautiful chance for (22), who extremely well blocked by the Turkish defenders (14) & (4), putting their bodies on the line and really blocking a brilliant chance for Georgia.

After this, Turkey dominated again, but again with flashes from Georgia, which means you wouldn't be surprised if they scored… And then from nowhere, one of the young Turks (sorry, I couldn’t resist it), number (8), I think he’s the one that plays for Real Madrid if he can get in the team! Just smashes a brilliant goal curling right round from right outside the far post) into the corner, the giant Georgian goalkeeper could do nothing about it.

That's it; it looks like Turkey has won the game… Or does it?

A flurry of substitutions starts, Turkey desperately trying to slow the game down, Georgia desperately trying to get fresh legs and fresh inspiration on.

It gets a bit patchy, but you don’t think Turkey has won it yet; they should have, on paper, they really should have, but somehow Georgia is still in this, and they don't look like they can't come back.

There are a couple of chances towards the end for Georgia, one of them a dead-on goal, but somehow they managed to fluff it.

Of course, Georgia threw everyone forward at the end, and with their giant goalkeeper up for another corner or freekick, Turkey broke and scored their 3rd goal with (7) shooting into an empty net.

Turkey won the game 3-1; they will pretty much go through with that result, so now they can coast… I think Portugal vs Turkey will be a good match, maybe even against the Czechs; I'll have a better idea about that after I see the Portugal game tonight.

In the end, Turkey deserved it. They were too strong on paper, and really, they were too strong on the pitch as well. There are new stars for the Turkey team, and certainly, 2 of them showed something of what they could do tonight. It will be interesting to see if they can step up or if the slight mental fragility they showed after Georgia scored rears its head against better teams.

But… Georgia was stronger than I thought they would be; they have some really nice intricate attacking play and, enough of the time anyway, they can put together some really intricate, interesting play that will trouble some teams.

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Portugal 2 Czech Republic 1

18/06/24, Leipzig Stadium

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: The Beast

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This was one of those tournament games; whilst Portugal had a lot of recognisable names, including Ronaldo, they toiled and toiled and toiled without much reward for a long time.

They were clearly superior to the Czech Republic, who looked stoic but offered next to nothing going forward unless it was a set piece.

But there's a big problem with this Portugal team, and it's a problem of their own making. It's Ronaldo.

He's still got the footballing brain; you can see the clever flicks, and you know he knows where to be and what to do.

The thing is, in the first 20 minutes, Portugal put in about 4 balls right diagonally across the box, looking for the striker that should be there, Ronaldo. In fact, where was Ronaldo?... Well, he was about 30 yards away in the middle of the pitch, looking to make something with the ball instead of being in the only place he could really do any good anymore.

In the box, he's still got it, or he might have when he gets up to speed with proper football instead of that shit you get paid a lot of money for.

But being on the end of a run when you've got brilliant wingers and crossers of the ball, well, that’s not his thing any more, apparently…

Anyway, Portugal got lucky; they went behind to a sweet goal in the 2nd half at 62 minutes; number 14 hit yet another rasper in this tournament, a brilliant diagonal shot across the goal that was pretty unstoppable after it left his boot. Up to this point, however, the Czech Republic had shown nearly nothing.

Shortly after this, somehow, Portugal got back in the game, thanks to the Czech Republic and a goalkeeping brain fart of colossal proportions. The goalkeeper, for reasons only known to himself, decided to push out a ball that was catchable, and he pushed it out right where a Portugal player would be, except that he pushed it right onto his defender’s legs, which then bounced straight past him into the goal. Comical… Horrible… Completely unnecessary.

If this hadn't happened, I'm not sure if Portugal would have got back into this.

As it is, Martinez, the manager, finally made some good changes, and after about 2 minutes on the pitch, number 26 scored a simple tap-in from a great position; this was right at the end of the match.

It used to be that we used to think of Portugal as a really talented but still slightly dark horse. This team have some really talented players… They just need to let them play and let Ronaldo have cameos or go out to pasture.

Because with him there, he is ruining the flow of everyone else, and they've got some serious talent in number 17, number 10, number 8, and number 21; honestly, I could list a lot more players. The one defining factor with the influence of all of these players on the game, though, is the fact that they couldn't have one as they were all busy deferring to Ronaldo… Who could not step up from Arabian football… At least not in this match.

Let's see if he's bloody-minded enough to drag himself up by the bootlaces for one last tournament and show us he's still got it… At the moment, he's a problem.

I realise I haven't said much about the Czech Republic, they are a bunch of big lads, all of whom can play a bit actually. We recognise number 5 and number 22 from playing in England, a lot of their players play in Italy and they all look, apart from possibly the attack, very capable.

It will be interesting to see if they can step up as well, they need to do more than they did, they need to be able to attack and create opportunities not just wonder goals.

In the end of this I think Portugal did enough to deserve the win, but only just.

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Georgia 1 Czech Republic 1

22/06/24, Volksparkstadion, Hamburg

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: TheBeast

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I have to start by saying that I missed most of this match due to some unforeseen ongoing issues around intestinal distress… We will just leave further explanation there…

The match I did see, and as I understand it from the highlight show, basically was the lowest-ranked team in the whole tournament (Georgia) going against the group 3rd place qualifiers (likely).

In the end, they could have actually beaten the Czech Republic; they didn’t have large parts of this match; they scored through a (very undeserved and weirdly awarded) penalty in the first half and then basically dug in and tried to tough it out while the Czech Republic started to grind them down.

As I understand the first half till I came in at around 50 minutes, basically this process seemed to start after about the half-hour mark (thereabouts) and went on for the next 60 minutes.

The Czech Republic toiled; they looked better and more competent than Georgia in possession, and they started to continually & take the ball away from Georgia whenever they tried to do something with it.

But until a slightly unlucky corner, and let's be honest, everything I saw pointed to the fact that the Czech Republic were likely to score through a set piece, seem to be what they were set up to do. Or maybe it was just that that is the level in this tournament that they can get to?

Anyway, this corner, like many before, was won by the Czech Republic, as was the resulting scrimmage from the ball in, but this time, it bounced back off the post straight onto the chest of a Czech player who basically couldn't do anything but score with that.

That made the score even

Most of the rest of it passed in half chances and unimpressive toiling from both sides until right at the end, and I mean right at the end, the Czechs were pushing, and someone shot from outside the area, thinking would be the last opportunity for them to nick a win, but the ball bounced out straight to a Georgian player and the break was on… 3 against one… It looked for all the world like Georgia was going to take it at the death, a lovely pass to the man on the right side triumvirate of attackers and a swinging leg… And the ball went over

It ended square

Georgia earned their first-ever tournament point in euros, and the Czech Republic stayed on course to 3rd place, although I’m not sure they’ve got the beating of Turkey in them, which they really need to try and do to make sure.

As it is, Georgia has to beat Portugal, I can't see it, but stranger things have happened.

I thought this would be a terrible game; the bits I saw were actually okay; in fact, I got more bored watching England and France vs the Netherlands than I did watching this, so it was good in entertainment terms, at least as long as you watch the highlight show… That will probably show this match up to its best

Sorry, I couldn’t differentiate between the players’ names/numbers this match; I’m just not feeling up to it.

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Turkey 0 Portugal 3

22/06/24, BVB Stadion Dortmund

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: TheBeast

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Or is it should be known as “The Turkish Capitulation"

I thought this would be a good close game… It was anything but.

Turkey were just overawed by Portugal right from the beginning; they didn’t play their wonder kid from Real Madrid at the start; they should have, but would have at least given Portugal something to think about.

As it was, the Portuguese started scoring a nice, well-worked goal, and then the best of the comedy goals of the tournament (so far) when Ronaldo, again, couldn't make the run and was haranguing his own team for not giving him the ball 30 yards out, one of the Turkish defenders calmly passed the ball back to the goalkeeper… Except the goalkeeper wasn't anywhere near where he passed it, and it gently trickled into the net.

After that, Turkey were done.

I mean, they genuinely didn't raise much of a fightback. You thought the 2nd half would be better, but whilst they did raise their game, Portugal were, for the large part, in control and always able to break.

The game ended with a comfortable win for Portugal, all the pundits going on about how they were not dark horses and they were so brilliant… Was really the story was that Turkey just turned over and gave up.

Don't get me wrong, Portugal are good; they have some excellent players, and even the bench is strong.

But are they better than France or Spain… I wouldn't think so… Even England might be able to beat them if they have one of those very rare good days.

Nevertheless, it was easy for them, and they went marching into the next round.

BTW, a footnote is Pepe, another dinosaur, forgotten about because of Ronaldo, but he actually showed how you can do it as an older player; he was so good even the Turkish fans applauded him when he went off.

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Georgia 2 Portugal 0

26th June, Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen

Czech Republic 1-2 Turkey

26th June, Volksparkstadion, Hamburg

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⚽️ IBO Reporter: TheBeast

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Got to be honest here, I didn't actually watch the Czech Republic v Turkey game, I was only partially aware of what was going on in the Georgia vs Portugal game, and I looked up just in time to see Georgia's Star player that plays for Napoli, and I still can't spell, slot home a cracking goal about one and 1/2 minutes into the game which completely screwed/flustered Portugal.

After that, it was just scenes of Ronaldo getting more and more uptight and angry and gesticulating everyone and blaming everyone else for the fact that, he's not quite up to this standard of football anymore.

There, I've said it. He was brilliant; his brain is a brilliant football brain, but he’s 39, and I don’t care what you say; 39-year-olds can’t play international-grade tournament football anymore. He's probably going to read this himself and become the top scorer in the tournament, as Portugal wins the whole thing… In which case I will pat myself on the back for a good job of motivation.

But he's not

Martinez decided to rest quite a few of his players, and although the replacements were in no way rubbish, they just weren’t quite the same, and it didn't just click.

Saying that, Georgia were playing out of their skins. Several of their players, none of whom I can pronounce or spell so I'm not going to bother, were simply outstanding. Certainly, it seems to be an area of the world that we need to focus our scouting on because there were some players there who could definitely do a job in the Premier League and won’t be getting offers from anyone other than Saints-level clubs.

At the end of this game, Georgia more than deserved this win; they advanced out of the group stages for the first time in their history and suffered some kind of collective ecstasy… Which looked fabulous, to be honest.

Portugal still advanced, they were already qualified, and I'm sure they will go on further depending on who they get next (which I can't be bothered to look up). They are still a good team, one of the strongest in the tournament; if they just played CR as a bit part player, they would have a good chance of going all the way.

In the other game, I caught some highlights. Turkey played much better, but still nearly got caught napping by the Czech Republic, though, and the big lump from West Ham's midfield scored for them, pretty much like his goals for West Ham. But this one actually went according to the rulebook. Turkey are really much better than the Czech Republic, and they did win the game, although they left it late.

So in this group, Portugal, Turkey & Georgia go through, the Czech Republic go out, and I suspect nobody leaving this group will win the whole thing. Portugal has a chance if somebody takes out some other big players and gives them a good run.