In their first European Championships ever, and 30 years after the last appearance in a World Cup, Michael O’Neill’s lads come to France as one of the great surprises of the competition after winning Group F, ahead of higher ranked team as Romania, Hungary or Greece (perhaps the biggest disappointment of the qualifying stage, finishing …
Tag Archives: Scouting
Team Preview — Poland
Poland qualified for the Euros for the third time in its history (and third consecutive) after a second place in Group D, just a point off a very strong Germany, now reunited in the competition group stage, having beaten Joachim Löw’s squad at home by 2–0. If they achieve the widely expected 2nd place in …
Team Preview — Ukraine
Ukraine will make only its second UEFA European Championship appearance and after a very difficult qualifying in which they finished 3rd in group C, behind Spain and Slovakia, with Mykhailo Fomenko’s side only booking their tickets to France in a play-off matchup against Slovenia. The focus on a defensive stance was evident during qualifying, with …
Team Preview — Germany
Gary Lineker once said that “football is 11 against 11, and in the end Germany wins” and German history seems to support this idea. The current world champions, were the semi-finals in 13 of the 18 World Cups played, and in 8 out of 11 Euro semi-finals. In fact, the biggest surprise may well be …
Team Preview — Slovakia
The Slovak team is considered the least favorite of the group B to move to the knockout phase, but their performance in World Cup 2014 should not be ignored, even if this group can be considered more difficult than the one they faced in Brazil. In the past two years, the Slovaks only lost two …
Team Preview — Wales
Appearing for the first time in a European Championship, and 58 years after its sole participation in a World Cup, Chris Coleman’s team arrives in France sitting on a 2nd place on Group B, only 2 points behind Belgium and leaving behind the higher ranked Bosnia & Herzegovina. In an Euro2016 where, besides the first …
Team Preview — Russia
After three disastrous years, shadowed by the extremely costly Italian coach and successive disputes with several players, and in danger of failing to qualify after a home defeat to Austria (who would win the group), Fabio Capello was replaced in office by Leonid Slutsky, that accumulated the position with the CSKA coaching job. Since then, …
Team Preview — England
Despite a perfect qualification (10j, 10v, 31GM, 3 GS) and always being identified as one of the teams to go far in any competition it enters, the truth is that since 1968, England has only once reached the semi-finals of a European Championship. If we combine this with the fact that only once in its …
Team Preview — Switzerland
After missing all international competitions between 1966 and 1994, the swiss national team has been present in the last 3 World Cups and 5 out of 7 Euros (one as a host). Since replacing Ottmar Hitzfeld, after an elimination in the 2016 World Cup Round of 16 by Argentina, Vladimir Petkovic’s path has not been …
Team Preview — Albania
Albania debuts in the final stages of international competitions, after a 2nd place in Portugal’s qualifying group, ahead of several more experienced teams like Serbia and Denmark, a journey clearly marked by the geopolitical episode in the match in Serbia, with an administrative win by 3–0, and the surprising victory against Portugal 1–0 in the …
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