Yeah and even if you have 12 teams, don’t promote just 4 from the group stage, go with 8 and have it knockout from then on. Having 1 team progress from the group is ridiculous.
Under 21 Euros 2019
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Looking at Croatia and Serbia I can understand why they keep it so low. And even with every game being so incredibly high stakes barely anyone seems to buy tickets. In a way UEFA is kinda lucky that Italians have such experience with empty seats.
Interesting. His hold up play was really clever, and whenever one of the English CBs hesitated or made a clumsy move he closed really hard on them, showed some power and quickness over 5 yards or so.
Antolić, a complete nothing of a player? I don't think Šunjić will have a problem being better.
England qualified from the same group as Holland by 8 points, does that mean all of Holland's young players are over-hyped future flops too?
I’m not having a go at Germany's group. You mentioned that it’s hard to tell how good the teams are because you know nothing about them so I posted some history of their performances. That said, I do think it is a very favourable group but I think Germany have a great chance to win the whole thing as I‘ve seen what a great cohesive unit you are when you played England.
I do think performance in a wide range of youth tournaments over a number of years does give an indication as to if a good generation are coming through or not, its pretty obvious really. Of course there are players that come out of nowhere but by-and-large countries that perform well at senior level will have some pedigree at youth level previously.
Romania have come out of nowhere a bit granted. That said, we played them in a friendly last year and took hard fought 2-1 win. I knew that we had a tough game against them because they have their style and work it well.
I didn't take it as offensive, Serbia have been a bit of a joke and Denmark were looking like a cohesive team, but not that special individually either, so if I were to guess I'd say it's a rather easy group.
I disagree regarding the second part though. The 2009 u21 team from Germany was off the charts, with six players starting in the 2014 WC, a truly golden generation of one of the most successful football nations. Yet they didn't exactly dominate the youth tournaments in the years before.
You see u19 tournament winners/finalists where half the team are nobodies, you see tournament topscorers who don't even have a wikipedia page.
DFB created the "Fritz Walter Medal" to award outstanding youth players (who are picked by DFB officials, and people from their youth setup as well as their coaches - people who probably know these kids quite well). You can look wehre some of our finest talents ended up and who is missing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Walter_Medal
Imho youth development is extremely volatile, obviously there are kids who dominate start to finish and end up as top players, but there are also tons of players who disappear along the way or make incredible performance jumps and with them their teams.
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So Romania-France is nailed on as a draw! Ridiculous format with 12 teams. 48 team World Cup will also be a giant mess.
Youth development is extremely volatile I agree 100%. I would argue that there is a correlation between success at youth level and success at senior level though. It’s not just Germany’s 2014 winning team that won stuff at youth level, all the recent winning teams in European football had players that won titles or were involved at the sharp end of youth football tournaments.
Well they are both useless.
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kurwa Fabián!, could have been a great goal
Spain 1-0, well deserved, all over us.
This Polish team plays like a Tony Pulis team. They have few pacey players that can hurt the Spanish team but they don't even attempt to attack.
Why? They are both through.
This would be the exact same problem with a 32 or 16 team competition
Edit - on I see, they aren't through yet.
Twice Spain have hit the frame of the goal. Second goal now for Spain. Oyarzabal.
We've got them under the kosh pretty much the whole first half, but aside from a colossal chance early on for Barella we just can't create any clean chances
Spain 2-0, doesn't look good
Spain 2-0, doesn't look good
2-0 and it's ogre. Not sure what the tactics were but we're looking ultra shit. Technically every NT we have played has been superior but we've made up for it tactically. Tonight's not the case.
Just score a goal poland please
3-0 Ruiz, beauty. This is going to end bad.
He deserved that goal. 3-0.
About time Ruiz got a goal
And now we're losing the plot, of course. Typical 
At least we score now. Oh well
I am a bit lost. How many goals do we need to go to semifinals? and Poland?
Poland are out. You're through
You guys need 3, we need either a draw or a win.
Spain will be first at the moment.
Poland is out.
Italy or France/Romanio depends how they will play their game. A draw from them and Italy is out too.
So at the moment it is Spain and Italy? Just seen @NieThePiet post.
Yup, thing is, most people simply expect France and Romania to play for a draw tomorrow and Italy will be fecked.
If Poland close the gap by 1 or 2 then Italy go through right?
Afaik best second comes down to points then GD. So realistically Romania should be through. France would need a point. Italy and Denmark need to win big and hope romania-france don't go for the biscuit
Spain is through atm, though one goal from Poland would chance things
Spain is through atm, though one goal from Poland would chance things
Thank you guys
Poor Poland. Out after 2 victories...
Yup, it's what @Sarni said, the setup of this tournament is simply ridiculous.
To be fair it appears we will finish third anyway so would be going out in the 4x4 formula too.
Yeah that too.
2-0. Now need another 3
strange to see how bad belgium are
We have a lot of technical attacking players but at the end of the day our weapons are energy, pace and physicality. Spain couldn't cope with it and we crushed them. Belgium can't cope with it and we're crushing them
Polando could, and that's why we struggled so much against them
4-0 Spain and we're down to prayers
Polando could, and that's why we struggled so much against them
4-0 Spain and we're down to prayers
Depressing.