Demyanenko_square_jaw
Full Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2017
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From a performance perspective in a competitive game.... 7-1 loss against Portugal in the early 2006 World Cup Qualifiers and the 3-0 Wales loss at Euro 2016.
The first could have been avoided as there was still a good amount of talent around then, but the atmosphere around the NT in the early-mid 00s was really negative and the management often rubbish. So an inconsistent team with some poor tactics and line up choices ran into an in-form strong Portugal one and got destroyed. Portugal scored several great goals from outside the box in this game, including a Ronaldo classic. Arshavin consolation was also nice.
The Wales loss was one you could see coming. A generation that hardly produced any talent and had been playing bad football for years with an ancient defence, while having had some very mediocre efforts in qualifying against Austria, a weak Sweden and others. This set up the narrative of going into home world cup with what a lot thought would be our worst ever team and friendly losses not long after it against sides like Costa Rica and Qatar only added to that.
The first could have been avoided as there was still a good amount of talent around then, but the atmosphere around the NT in the early-mid 00s was really negative and the management often rubbish. So an inconsistent team with some poor tactics and line up choices ran into an in-form strong Portugal one and got destroyed. Portugal scored several great goals from outside the box in this game, including a Ronaldo classic. Arshavin consolation was also nice.
The Wales loss was one you could see coming. A generation that hardly produced any talent and had been playing bad football for years with an ancient defence, while having had some very mediocre efforts in qualifying against Austria, a weak Sweden and others. This set up the narrative of going into home world cup with what a lot thought would be our worst ever team and friendly losses not long after it against sides like Costa Rica and Qatar only added to that.