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Euro 2012: Quarter finals


The_Rev

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Also, Ukraine are still in the competition so will be going all out for the win themselves, whereas Sweden are out and will be playing for pride alone.

This is why they use "head to head" rather than goal difference to decide the table.

If Sweden decide not to properly turn up and France get a few extra goals because of that it doesn't improve their chances of going through.

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Mandatory moan about refs: Germany and Spain go through as the result of refs somehow missing penalties against Badstuber/Busquets late on. Refereeing over the past few years has been so poor and it has no signs of getting better.

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Having the assistants behind the goal is absolutely pointless. I've seen every minute of every game so far (apart from the last group games that have been on at the same time and I've been switching between both) and in the whole tournament so far I have only ever seen one decision made by one of these assistants and it was to help give a corner against England in the Sweden game. Easy job! Getting paid to stand by the goal for 90 minutes and do absolutely **** all. I might become a ref!

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How do you know what they are or are not doing? I presume you are watching the same TV feed as the rest of us unless you have some special channel which focuses entirely on the extra assistants for 90 minutes, and even if you do it would still be difficult to see what they are doing as they communicate with the referee via electronic equipment rather than by waving a flag like the linesman does. Whether they do any good or not is another debate but your post just reads like some kind of crazy unsubstantiated rant.

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Having the assistants behind the goal is absolutely pointless. I've seen every minute of every game so far (apart from the last group games that have been on at the same time and I've been switching between both) and in the whole tournament so far I have only ever seen one decision made by one of these assistants and it was to help give a corner against England in the Sweden game. Easy job! Getting paid to stand by the goal for 90 minutes and do absolutely **** all. I might become a ref!

This is so so so wrong, and it's somethign that really annoys me that commentators and pundits, who are paid to talk about the game, don't know what they do.

They do loads. They are constantly talking to the ref via radio. You can see them make a lot of decisions during games, and I'm sure there are countless occasions when you don't notice because they don't wave anything about, they just talk in the ref's ear.

The "wand", as people wrongly call it, is just a linesman's flag without the flag bit on it. They don't hold it to wave or point at anything. They hold it because there's a button on it that either alerts the referee's attention to them, or opens the radio connection (I'm not sure which). Obviously the linesmen have these as well, the difference being they actually use theirs as flags.

Ultimately they do as much, in fact probably a whole lot more, than the current linesmen. Obviously they miss stuff as all officials do. but saying they don't do anything is so far from the truth.

As I said, it doesn't annoy me that the average person doesn't know this, but it infuriates me that people who supposedly know about the game and are paid to talk to the average person about it, spread this myth that they don't do anything because they themselves haven't bothered to do their job and learn about a new innovation in the game.

Mark Lawrenson, I'm looking at you.

[/rant]

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The ramos one? Yeah I agree that probably should have been a pen (it was inside the box)

Ramos did get the ball though to be fair. I still think it should have been a pen, it was a rash challenge with studs up, but I can kind of see why it wasn't given.

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Mandatory moan about refs: Germany and Spain go through as the result of refs somehow missing penalties against Badstuber/Busquets late on. Refereeing over the past few years has been so poor and it has no signs of getting better.

bad sign for England maybe though Greece got through in spite of the referees :D

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Ha! Funny responses to my post. Incidents happen right in front of them and the wrong decision is STILL made! I've seen incidents where a tackle has been put in literally a yard in front of the assistant, the ball has clearly came off the defender last and should be a corner but a goal kick has been given! I've seen many other incidents happen right in front of them last season in the Europa League and Champions League that were either given the other way or not given at all. I'm talking about important, game changing decisions too! Shocking! I just don't see the point in them being there. I'm not exaggerating either, infact, I might even geek it up tomorrow and make a montage of video footage to back up what I'm saying! Everyone makes mistakes but they are there to "help" and too many wrong decisions are still being made for my liking.

Oh and just to be clear, these opinions are my own and are definitely not based on what idiots like Mark Lawrenson say during commentary!

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Looking forward to Italy England....both teams are kind of inbetween generations if you like, a mix of young and old players.

Di Natale and Balo will cause the England back 4 problems but am I the only one who thinks their centre half Chellini is very overrated? For me he ball watches and struggles against the high ball frequently so looking forward to see how he does against the England strikers.

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Ha! Funny responses to my post. Incidents happen right in front of them and the wrong decision is STILL made! I've seen incidents where a tackle has been put in literally a yard in front of the assistant, the ball has clearly came off the defender last and should be a corner but a goal kick has been given! I've seen many other incidents happen right in front of them last season in the Europa League and Champions League that were either given the other way or not given at all. I'm talking about important, game changing decisions too! Shocking! I just don't see the point in them being there. I'm not exaggerating either, infact, I might even geek it up tomorrow and make a montage of video footage to back up what I'm saying! Everyone makes mistakes but they are there to "help" and too many wrong decisions are still being made for my liking.

Oh and just to be clear, these opinions are my own and are definitely not based on what idiots like Mark Lawrenson say during commentary!

I didn't say they didn't make wrong decisions. They do, as do normal refs.

But to say they don't do anything is plain wrong. You said you'd seen them only make 1 decision. You're not paying much attention if that is true and, as I said, you wouldn't notice them making most of their decisions unless you could hear what they were saying.

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in fairness I think they are afraid to make the big controversial decisions on the basis that they are standing in front of the fans for the whole game while a referee or linesman can jog about

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It's a really intriguing draw, no doubt! Funny to see the varying opinions on this and other message boards on who will beat who.

FWIW, I think:

CZE v POR - Portugal to win, fairly comfortably if Ronaldo is firing

GER v GRE - Germany will cruise this, they are just too good. Greece were valiant in the group stages but lack attacking strength

SPA v FRA - Expect a close game, I imagine a score draw and extra time, then it's a lottery from thereon

ENG v ITA - Another tight game, Italy will have more possession but if England score first I think we'll hold on

POR v SPA/FRA

GER v ENG

It's anyone's game at this point, one game, one moment...it can all change.

I've done a full preview here:

http://soccersagacity.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/euro-2012-quarter-final-preview/

Come on Eng-uurr-land!

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