Probably only of real interest to us punters on this side of the Atlantic, but open to anyone who is lucky (or unlucky) to catch the European football championships on TV.

Post away.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

It was great to see Piere-Luigi Collina's throbbing, veiny, bald head in the opening match. Pity he has to retire in December.

I told a lot of people that Portugal wouldn't run away with the competition like they thought and the first match seemed to prove that. I wandered off to the toilet and didn't even realise they'd got a goal back until a bit later.

I'm looking forward to Bulgaria vs Sweden on Monday, I've got a fiver that says Bulgaria advance out of the group stages.

There's also the France game tomorrow, which will hopefully be entertaining.

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Dad was flammable

France are playing England arnt they?? Well come on france!

England's side doesnt look to strong, France's skill should easily get them the 3 points.

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Poo perhaps?

Portugal were crap. Given the number of their players who play for major clubs, the frantic Premier League style hit-a-cross-and-hope tactics employed by the coach were like making Stephen Hawking teach primary school kids adding and subtracting.

Mind you having Pauleta as their only striker didn't help. And the Greek defending was solid.

if I'd have been Luis Figo I'd have gone ballistic.

The head says England France will be either 1-1, or 2-0 or 3-0 to France tomorrow, but since every body with a pulse and everything with 4 wheels has 2 or more St. George's cross flags stuck to the side of them, I'll be keeping that between me and the bookie.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

Didn't there used to be a time when Brazil had an amazing team?

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The giant three-phallused phallus of Uzbekistan will one day squirt the cosmic jizz of revenge all over Canada.

Yes, I believe that time is now.

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I am not 16 going on not 17, I know that I'm naive.

Geography stopped Brazil from entering the European championship, not a lack of skill.

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Dad was flammable

http://www.footballbadgers.com/

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Poop.

[u]FRANCE 2 - 1 ENGLAND[/u]

What a game! France were the better team, England just got lucky with their goal. France had more posession and more shots on goal but they didnt finish them like their usual style. Henry kept himself quiet which was disapointing seeing as he is a magical player.

Gerard really made a mess at the end of the game, James should have been sent off for that tackle, what happened to the whole "FIFA Fair Play"?

Victoria's thong must have been hurting Beckham, thats what put him off when he hit the penalty.

Over all, very good game!

Thoughts on it???

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Poo perhaps?

Wow. England-France was one of the greatest matches I have ever watched, and must go down as proof of there being a god. I don't think I have ever laughed so much.

Oh aye, truly great.

Of course, James deserved getting sent off, but so did Silvestre for his tackle. And yes, Owen, Heskey, Gerrard and Beckham are all shit.

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I am not 16 going on not 17, I know that I'm naive.

Spoken like a true Englishman.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

Spoken like a true Englishman.

Moreso, a true Everton fan.

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I am not 16 going on not 17, I know that I'm naive.

I wouldn't argue that the England penalty was deserved, but it was so sweet that Beckham missed it. France's penalty should have resulted in James being red carded, Bartez received the same treatement only weeks ago.

I watched the match in my local with it's French landlord and I have never been so happy, what a match, what an ending, I love football.

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Dad was flammable

I was one of the few people in the pub who was actually trying to watch the game objectively and not singing lewd songs.

The actual drama was taken out of the game for me by the TV round the corner which was receiving terrestrial signals, so that you could see Beckham missing the penalty, if you looked round the corner,a good 3 seconds before he actually appeared to on the big screen showing it in digital. That was funny, but it spoilt the point of watching the game.

Oh, and it was good to see Kajun's mate Prso has all the qualities that he'll need to fit in at Rangers, namely being able to dive, throw fits of histrionics and miss by at least 10 feet of each post.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

I saw some poll that said 84% of Scots were supporting England. But I haven't encountered any yet. Most of them seem to be rooting for Croatia, for some reason.

What I meant to say there was that I thought the England penalty was deserved, although I don't know why I said it as no-one had claimed it wasn't...

uh, I dunno, I was drunk.

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Dad was flammable

[u] Sweeden 5 - 0 Bulgaria [/u]

Good Game.

Larson's Goals were good. Penalty at the very edge of the box, very dangerous place to put ina tackle. He hit it well though.

The defending was terrible for the 5th goal, some finish on it though.

Anyone else catch it?

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Poo perhaps?

Heeeeeenrik Laaaarsson,
Heeeeeenrik Laaaaaaaarsson,
HEEEEEEEEENRIK LARSSON IS THE KING OF KINGS!

Bit of a shame for poor ol' Stan Petrov and co, they deserved at least one consolation goal, possibly the most continuously entertaining game of the tournament so far, not a patch on the glorious France victory though.

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Dad was flammable

When you're 4-0 down and the game's in stoppage time, you tend not to care too much and just want to get off the pitch as soon as possible.

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I am not 16 going on not 17, I know that I'm naive.

When you're 4-0 down and the game's in stoppage time, you tend not to care too much and just want to get off the pitch as soon as possible.

No, if your dedicated to the game you'll fight to the bitter end.

Anyways....

[u] Czech Republic 2 - 1 Latvia [/u]

Bloody good game. Fair play to Latvia they played well, their defense were brillient. karl Porporsky played a Blinder, hats off to him.

Holland Vs Germany now, should be a good game.

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Poo perhaps?

When you're 4-0 down and the game's in stoppage time, you tend not to care too much and just want to get off the pitch as soon as possible.

No, if your dedicated to the game you'll fight to the bitter end.

Ok, so they were all at the top trying to get a consolation goal! :oP

Germany just taken the lead...

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I am not 16 going on not 17, I know that I'm naive.

Yesterday:
[list]
[*] Holland were cack until Van Hooijdonk came on. I mean, realistically, do you expect to score with one man up front and hitting wayward balls into the channels?
[*] The German number 7, the 19 year old, was frikkin' awesome. Watch out for him.
[*] Germany as a team looked mean today. rumours that this is the "worst Germman side for years" only count on paper. They worked hard and deserved to win. I reckon they could get to the semis on this form.
[*] How fricking great were Latvia?

[/list]

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Please replace the handset, and try again.

Hasn't almost every German team in the past decade been "the worst in years," and then they usually find a way to finish second or something?

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ken.kaufman@gmail.com

That's a very good point - despite not having any Beckenbauers or Klinsmanns of late, Germany still managed to get to the World Cup final in '02. Plus all the other times they nearly won major tournaments recently which I can't quite recall or look up.

However they do have this guy: Bastian Schweinsteiger He's only 19 but looks like a damn good player already.

Verdict on the Portugal-Russia game: Portugal will do well to get out of the group but some of their play yesterday was excellent - Ronaldo was excellent. Figo actually looked like a captain who could make things happen. And the players worked hard for him rather than wait for him to do everything.

4:00 pm BST - England vs Switzerland.

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Please replace the handset, and try again.