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Summer Footy. Confederations Cup & Euro U-21


sne

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With no proper competitions this summer, FIFA and UEFA are offering us who are suffering from footy withdrawal the Confederations Cup and the Euro U-21 tournaments. Kicking off this weekend in Russia and Poland respectively.

The Confederations Cup or "World Cup prelude" contains hosts Russia, along with Portugal and Mexico in group A

And World Champions Germany along with Australia, Cameroon and Chile in group B.

It's a cute nothing competition used to check the state of the stadiums and organizations ahead of the big WC and is mostly remembered for the Roberto Carlos free kick back in 97 ahead of the France WC

Bildresultat för roberto carlos free kick gif

Still, it's football.

 

The Euro U-21's is played in Poland, and since UEFA likes to change thing around and make things complicated it has 3 groups containing 4 teams each.

Group A has raining champs Sweden :hooray:, host Poland, Slovakia and England.

Group B has Portugal, Spain, Serbia and Macedonia 

Group C has Germany, Denmark, Italy and the Czech Republic.

 

The opening game is played as I type, between Sweden and England and our own Jack Grealish is on the bench.

Sweden shocked everyone and won the tournament last time out, but won't repeat it this time (bar a miracle) since we've had almost 40 :blink: players turning down the chance to defend the gold due to various reasons. 4-5 players in the squad can be considered regulars at this level.

The England squad looks pretty good on paper, as does losing finalists Portugal.

Italy, Germany and Spain all have amazing squads on paper and must be considered favorites IMO.

 

The 2015 tournament is probably the most fun I've had watching football in a very long time, obviously in large part down to Sweden winning it in the end and the great yellow wall of Swedish fans who traveled down to Czechia.

Bildresultat för euro u21 2015 sweden

 

 

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I like the tournament its an enjoyable affair and with 8 teams doesnt take too much time or effort, though reputation wise this is probably one of the weaker tournaments the Confederations Cup has had. Except Germany and maybe Portugal with Ronaldo its a weak field for reputation 

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I think it will be interesting to see what kind of team and performance Mother Russia puts out since they are not playing qualifications football.

Always tricky just playing friendlies.

From what I remember Brazil mostly played minnows for cash before their home tournament, and I think they suffered for it in the WC.

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3 minutes ago, sne said:

I think it will be interesting to see what kind of team and performance Mother Russia puts out since they are not playing qualifications football.

Always tricky just playing friendlies.

From what I remember Brazil mostly played minnows for cash before their home tournament, and I think they suffered for it in the WC.

they arent bringing in Kokorin or Dzuyba and looks like a very young squad they are bringing

cant be worse than team they fielded in the Euros

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12 hours ago, Zatman said:

I like the tournament its an enjoyable affair and with 8 teams doesnt take too much time or effort, though reputation wise this is probably one of the weaker tournaments the Confederations Cup has had. Except Germany and maybe Portugal with Ronaldo its a weak field for reputation 

Isn't the Chile team full strength? Plenty of quality in there and Mexico are playing very well atm also.

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3 minutes ago, Zatman said:

they arent bringing in Kokorin or Dzuyba and looks like a very young squad they are bringing

cant be worse than team they fielded in the Euros

Yep had a look at their squad and they've finally stopped calling up the over 30s that seemed to be half their squad at the last euros bar the captain and a defender I think.

Interesting the two strikers have fallen out of favour as they were both highly rated a year ago so goals might be an issue for them.

Russia will probably be round 16 as host nation is always pot 1 and gets easy group as a result.

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2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Isn't the Chile team full strength? Plenty of quality in there and Mexico are playing very well atm also.

I was thinking more a marketable way as last few tournaments had Spain, Italy and Brazil involved

I fancy MExico to win it for some reason :)

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The Sweden England game in the U-21 Euros was a pretty even affair.

Sweden came closest to winning but missed a penalty due to a pitiful Rabona flop by RB Wahlqvist.

England was surprisingly poor. Fast on the wings and good on set pieces but no real tactic. They looked tired and lethargic.

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27 minutes ago, sne said:

The Sweden England game in the U-21 Euros was a pretty even affair.

Sweden came closest to winning but missed a penalty due to a pitiful Rabona flop by RB Wahlqvist.

England was surprisingly poor. Fast on the wings and good on set pieces but no real tactic. They looked tired and lethargic.

It is what happens when you put Aidy Boothroyd, manager of the one of the most negative, dire, long ball teams in English football history and put him in charge of the Nation's young hopes.

It is an utter disgrace. They are going to learn nothing from this Gary Megson wannabe.

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