Euro 2020: Matchday 2 Thoughts

Now that the 2nd round of games have finished, we are finally heading towards the business end of the tournament.  When games really matter.  This is normally the time when we can start to trim the fat, sort the men out from the boys, and identify the contenders from the pretenders.  But an awful lot of questions remain, lets go through each group:

- Group A: are Italy for real?  2 good wins against 2 mediocre opponents - difficult to say.  And have they peaked too early?  But playing well and with confidence - definitely ones to watch.  And looks like Wales will advance too - have they got another run in them like the last Euros?  (No)

- Group B: are Belgium for real?  Impressive to come through the difficult circumstances of that game against Denmark with a win.  As with most of the contenders, have some defensive failings - but I think they are the team to beat.   

- Group C: are Netherlands for real?  Now this is a really difficult one to judge.  They've won both their games, but not exactly impressively.  And I don't trust their manager one bit, whose stint as the manager of Palace was a spectacular failure.  Given all that, they'll probably go really far now.  

- Group D: are England for real?  An emphatic no.  Nuff said.

- Group E: are Spain for real?  Now this is an interesting one.  2 games, 2 draws.  It's not like they're playing badly - just lacking that finishing touch.  Which is why despite needing a result in their last group game, I think they'll get it.  But a lot of possible permutations in how this group ends up, which is what you want.

- Group F: ah, the group of death.  And by far the best group.  Are France or Germany or Portugal for real?  God knows.  I thought France might be for real, but they really screwed the pooch against Hungary.  And then Germany showed up against Portugal, leaving this group wide open.  Once again they have the best match-up in the next round of games - with France against Portugal.  Portugal are probably my least favorite team in the tournament - led by that preening diva Ronaldo - so I won't be sad if they get knocked out.