Group D - Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia

[Uppercut]

It's pretty hard to create shooting opportunities against opponents who camp in their own box.

They basically force you to camp in your own box though. They pass it around you into a dangerous position, at which point you have no choice but to get men behind the ball. Then they pass it back to the CBs and repeat. It's both extremely impressive and a bit dull. I'm always a bit in awe of how incredibly tight every player's technique is, but then with Barca you get that too except with a real cutting edge.

 

[Pothas]

Croatia look very good, Clattenburg less so.

 

[Pothas]

Well that was all fairly insane.

 

[Furball]

Haha wtf happened in the last half hour?

 

[Furball]

Haha Turkey.

 

[Furball]

Lovely goal.

 

[vcs]

When Spain play with a bit of cutting edge, they can be irresistible. Great display.

 

[Redbacks]

You could say that, but against teams that make more mistakes they will punish them with the same game plan that looks overly patient against compact defences. So it's often a combo of the two factors I think.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Missed the fun last night as went out at 2-0 to Croatia. They must be in serious trouble after that.

As for Spain that 3rd goal was ridiculously good.

 

[watson]

Missed the fun last night as went out at 2-0 to Croatia. They must be in serious trouble after that.

As for Spain that 3rd goal was ridiculously good.

More than ridiculously good, it was a 22 pass masterpiece that lasted 1 minute, 2 seconds.

It can be seen here in its entirety;

Euro 2016: Spain score goal of the tournament in Turkey rout

 

[Scaly piscine]

You could say that, but against teams that make more mistakes they will punish them with the same game plan that looks overly patient against compact defences. So it's often a combo of the two factors I think.

Yep. Spain struggle to create chances against teams that defend well. Could say that about most teams, but others that have a more pragmatic approach create more and also don't rely on cynical professional fouls when they lose the ball with most of the team advanced.

 

[sledger]

Spain are hardly alone in the professional fouling stakes. And I don't really see why it matters that other teams have a "more pragmatic" approach to playing defensive teams, given that Spain continue to win by playing their own way.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Spain are hardly alone in the professional fouling stakes. And I don't really see why it matters that other teams have a "more pragmatic" approach to playing defensive teams, given that Spain continue to win by playing their own way.

Because they exploit the piss poor rules that allow them to gain an unfair advantage and make the game mind-numbingly tedious.

Football badly needs a sin bin like system to deal with these infringements and stop making fouls be part of gaming the sport, like basketball.

 

[Scaly piscine]

In other news Pedro showing he's a good match for Chelsea:

Chelsea and Spain forward Pedro has played only eight minutes at Euro 2016 and it is safe to say he is not impressed.

"I had different expectations when I first came here," he said in an interview with Movistar. "It is not worth me turning up just to be part of the group."

 

[sledger]

Because they exploit the piss poor rules that allow them to gain an unfair advantage and make the game mind-numbingly tedious.

Football badly needs a sin bin like system to deal with these infringements and stop making fouls be part of gaming the sport, like basketball.

Yes, I don't disagree, but more or less every team is guilty of tactical fouling. This is not the only reason why Spain win matches. What is this "more pragmatic" (but apparently less successful) way of playing which you speak of anyway?

 

[Johnners]

Because scaly hates Spain, basically.

 

[sledger]

Haha yeah, indeed. I was just hoping to see an amusing justification for criticising a team that wins all the time for not being "pragmatic enough".

 

[Scaly piscine]

They win by exploiting the rules and winning penalty shootouts when they need to. As well as being jammy as **** when the opposition gets their chance and invariably manages not to score.

 

[sledger]

Haha, come on, even you can do better than that.

 

[Furball]

They win by exploiting the rules and winning penalty shootouts when they need to. As well as being jammy as **** when the opposition gets their chance and invariably manages not to score.

Number of competitive international games won by Spain since September 2006: 67
Number of penalty shootout wins: 3

Pretty sure being better than any other international side on the planet for the best part of a decade has had quite a large influence on things.