Just four teams are left in Euro 2016, with the semi-finals due to take place on Wednesday and Thursday. Portugal, Wales, Germany and hosts France have everything to play for as the tournament enters its final week. Since beginning on June 10, the tournament has had its fair share of action, excitement and drama. Here are the main talking points.
A clunky, bloated tournament
The 24-team format was bemoaned before the tournament began as a major faux pas by the former president of Uefa, Michel Platini. It has been just so, with a strange format leading to just eight teams being eliminated a fortnight into the tournament. Four lucky losers, which were the four best third-place finishers, made it to the round of 16. There was little incentive to play attacking football, and rendered some of the final group games unfairly stacked for the third-placed teams, which played their fixtures first.
Moreover, an extended group stage and a silly yellow card rule (see below for extended griping) made it more difficult for the smaller teams which reached the knockout stage. With lesser depth in quality in their squad, they can barely rotate their top players or afford them any rest.
A larger tournament enabled teams such as the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine to qualify, but many other smaller nations such as Wales, Iceland and Austria did so on merit, with creditable performances in the qualifying stage. A smaller tournament didn’t stop Denmark in 1992 and Greece in 2004 from winning the entire tournament either.
Quality refereeing
They say the best referees are the ones you don’t remember after the game. By that logic, Euro 2016 has had a succession of nameless, faceless masters of their craft. Excellent refereeing all through the tournament has led to some free-flowing, exciting games, with the diving, whining and cheating incidents few and far between, and dealt with firmly.
Yellow, yellow, banned fellow
Two yellows in any of five matches, and you’re banned. An offshoot of an extended tournament, and an extra game, saw an astounding 45 players in danger of missing a potential semi-final. It’s a tricky subject, but perhaps Uefa could well explore the possibility of cleaning the players’ slates in the knockout stages.
How much football is too much football?
Belgium, Spain and England were sent packing by opponents who seemed fitter, more organised and more in sync. These big teams came into this tournament with players who had already played almost 54-55 matches this season already. Mesut Ozil played 55 for Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas had played 54 for Chelsea, Sevilla had some players who played as many as 58 matches. Toby Alderweireld of Belgium stopped short of saying that exhaustion could be the prime reason for the players’ sluggish play.
"We are working day by day for a year. When the other leagues take a winter break, we just gear up. That creeps into your clothes and translates into the elimination of England," said Alderweireld. He had made 49 Premier League, Cup and European appearances for Tottenham Hotspurs in 2015-'16. "Keeping mental freshness is sometimes difficult...but it is easier when you win," he added.
While there are reasons aplenty for their poor showing, the stars of the modern game have a lot of football stuffed into their season, with a marketing–led, hectic pre-season, usually in far flung countries. League, Cup and European fixtures can pile up, with leagues such as the Premier League choosing to not have a winter break. The steady stream of international fixtures further add to the stress. It’s a problem that is manifesting itself now for the bigger teams, with the smaller nations taking full advantage of their lethargic showing.
A period of transition for European football’s stardust. Or is it?
In a world where every decent flick, goal or pass is repeated endlessly, as is every mistake, it’s easier than ever to become a star and a villain. Decent to average players are often heralded and showcased, while decent to average players are also maligned, tarred and feathered. There are, of course, inevitable comparisons to the legends of yesteryear.
True class has shone through in France and quality players such as Antoine Griezmann, Dimitri Payet, Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale have shown that they thrive at this stage. They force games to bend to the force of their will, producing moments of genius to decide matters. There is a school of thought, however, that wonders if these players are genuine superstars or just the best of an evolving group of players at the European level.
It would be interesting to see how a social media-led world would react in real time to stars of the ilk of a Zinedine Zidane, an Alessandro del Piero and a Marco van Basten. Perhaps Zidane would be #inconsistent, del Piero #overrated and van Basten a #fancydan.
The Italians were more English than the English; the Spaniards are bored of winning
Any stereotype of the typical English coach or commentator would refer to the player’s desire, "getting at" the opposition, lumping it forward for the target man to hold up, utilising pacy wingers to cross the ball in, defenders maintaining their positions and not trying anything fancy.
Chances are, the Italians got hold of this script and their coach Antonio Conte made them follow it zealously and enthusiastically. The Italians were disciplined, organised and more English than the English have been in the recent past. They fell at last to the Germans on penalties, another English trait, having surprised many with a run to the quarters.
On the other hand Spain, former World Champions, defending European champions, had just tiny, limp bursts of zeal, passion or any defining quality in their play. They looked like they were going through the motions and paid the price against the determined Italians.
The Germans still look like they’re coming to terms with playing with each other, while the French juggernaut will look at blowing them away when they face them in the semi-final.
Wales are the surprise package, having built and utilised their strengths effectively. Portugal are the last minute crammers making it to the elite group at the top of the pyramid. They’re yet to win a game in normal time (see above for extended tournament format griping).
Goons, fans, celebrations and war-cries
In what will go down as a bigger boost to their tourism than a Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol song, Iceland’s mighty blond mites brought a refreshing spirit and resilience with them to a tournament in danger of major group-stage tedium.
They also brought with them their fiercely passionate supporters, who displayed a crowd and player interaction not seen since Ronnie Irani led the Australian supporter’s warm-up routine at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Iceland and Wales’s underdog stories dominated headlines, vines, tweets and posts, and rightly so.
As The Guardian's Barney Ronay noted in his France-Iceland match review, “Ten minutes into a soft-pedalled second half the Icelandic fans began singing Eg Er Kominn Heim, a gentle, haunting Hungarian song lifted from a 1970s film and adopted as a travelling anthem.” It was an apt song to highlight the richness and openness of the country’s cultural education, and the supporters were true ambassadors for their country and for football.
In a tournament that was marred initially by hooliganism and poor behavior by select groups of supporters, their story of positivity and unity helps restore some balance in a world looking for any excuse to divide and ostracise.
