Group B Discussion - Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal
 

9 June 2012
Netherlands v Denmark
Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv

9 June 2012
Germany v Portugal
Arena Lviv, Lviv

13 June 2012
Denmark v Portugal
Arena Lviv, Lviv

13 June 2012
Netherlands v Germany
Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv

17 June 2012
Portugal v Netherlands
Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv

17 June 2012
Denmark v Germany
Arena Lviv, Lviv

A group of desperately boring matches thanks to Netherlands', Denmark's and Portugal's anti-football.

Netherlands are capable of giving some good matches, tbf.

Probably the toughest group in terms of quality.

Is a strange world when Germany are the bastion of good football out of these sides.

Have decided (out of hope) that this tournament is going to be a lot more attacking than the World Cup was. It normaly takes a couple of years for international football to catch up and club football been pretty attacking at the top level for a while now.

Can't wait for this group, just a shame that it involves the team I'm backing for this tournament along with the 2 countries I always support (Netherlands and Denmark.)

You did watch the World Cup final?

Van Bommel and de Jong in midfield...*shudder*

Yeah I just don't consider them a real Dutch team at all.

Van Persie bound to be affected by the "best domestic player having a crap international tournament" rule as well.

They had to do that against Spain, tbf and it nearly worked too. Germany were foolish to play open and less physical in the Semi's actually.

They have opened up their style in general more since then too, and comfortably had the best goal difference + most number of goals of all the groups in qualifying IIRC. May not be a traditional dutch team, but certainly not in the Portugal/Denmark category.

It nearly worked because Howard Webb completely abdicated his responsibilities.

Also they'll have to play pretty much the same way against Germany because they have some insane skillz too.

Might not go down that route tbf. Still early enough in the tournament for them to try and play properly, provided they win their first game anyway.

Hmm, I think the opposite. There's developing a bit of a consensus that the way to win international tournaments is to be functional, with Uruguay taking the Copa America and Zambia taking the ACON. At club level the Mourinho-era blanket defences are struggling to deal with fluid modern attacks but international teams can't develop the kind of understanding that club teams can. Especially since the overwhelming public pressure is usually to pick the best player in each "position" with no real consideration of how they'll combine.

Only really Germany have managed to get past that and get a core group of players playing together for a decent length of time at international level- an English manager could never get away with consistently leaving out Mario Gomez, for instance. Spain have benefited from a lot of their players playing together at club level, but even their attack is so, so much worse than it is on paper. Everyone else just throws their four or five best attacking players at the opposition and hopes for the best. It's so easy for teams to just sit back and pick them off.

At what time the matches start...GMT will do

Most matches are 4 P.M and 6.45 P.M, i think.