Euro 2016 (football/soccer)

Devastating scenes from the opening. Despite all the terror alerts and tight security measures, David Guetta somehow made it into the stadium.

France had 64% possession in that half… Just not where they wanted it.

Ah, the meaty French forehead finally comes through!

West Ham to Arsenal - 1-0 England.

Wow. Payet could have walked over and placed the ball in with his hands and not got it closer to the bar than that.

Great goal to win the opening game.

What I goal by Payet! Big game from him today.

Stunning piece by Payet. Can’t even blame the defense because he hardly had any space and time and scored nonetheless.

LOL

France deserved the win, but it’s hard to see them as the huge favorites they were made out to be before the tournament started.

I know it’s a long shot, but I have a gut feeling that Italy is going to win this championship.

Poor Romania, If they had hung on just a little longer they walk out with a draw and great chances to advance.

Wow, what a worldie from Payet. Only the start of the Euros but what a year for that man already. If you’re a West Ham fan I’d guess it’s au revoir, Dmitri at this point; that guy is going places.

It just goes to show that the French can win but only if McMaster is not in control.

Well said, Chappers. Poor Romania.

Has it been confirmed that Vardy has been dropped from the starting XI?

We probably won’t know the lineup until an hour before kick off.

I think if you’re going to play Rooney you have to drop Vardy to make way for him, because if you don’t you’re either playing 4-3-3 with Vardy consigned to a wing, or the 4-4-2 diamond with Rooney behind a front pairing and that misshapens the rest of the team.

I’m strongly in favour of playing forwards who are on form, so I’d pick Vardy, however if Roy is determined to pick Rooney then I would drop Vardy, simply because it allows Alli to sit in the freer role in midfield, where his off-the-cuff skills really work.

Dropping Vardy gives Hodgson the flexibility to play with only one up top - Kane - and then flank him with Lallana on one side and Rooney on the other. Lallana would play as an orthodox wide man, while Rooney would be asked to come inside, clearing defenders and making space for Alli’s forward runs in some sort of 4-3-3/4-5-1 combination.

I seriously think the Portugal friendly screwed up Roy’s thinking. The game was supposed to be a way to prepare to play against Gareth Bale by pitting us against Ronaldo, but when Ronaldo didn’t play and Portugal had a man sent off, they just played deep and slow and defensive. The diamond formation looked awful there and I suspect Roy’s expecting all three teams in the group to play deep and slow and defensive against England, so he’s going to mess about with the formation and go back to what he (thinks he) knows.

My worst nightmare will be that he forgets how urgent England looked with youth through the team and he instead starts Rooney, Henderson, Milner and a half-fit Wilshire behind Kane.

The good news is with only eight teams going out it’s going to be almost impossible not to qualify out of this group, but we really need to be winning the group, so that we get matched against a third place team in the first knock out phase. There’s so many flawed teams at the tournament this year that I’d really like to see England just go for it and try to take things by the throat.

My England team to start would be:

Hart, Walker, Smalling, Cahill, Rose, Dier, Lallana, Milner, Sterling, Alli and Kane

Rooney and Vardy can come on as super subs.

Albania’s gonna regret this one. Playing with 10 men, down 1-0, and they fail to score despite having 1-on-1 versus the keeper on a number of times, including right at the end.

There could have been several goals if either side was able to finish. Sadly, I think the French are going to demolish both of these sides.

Albania only scored 7 goals in qualifying. Scoring is not really their thing.

First half of England-Russia over. Same ol’ story so far for England. So much talent, yet can’t seem to finish the deal.

We do look good though, I think we will win 2-0.