The height myth. More so that Ryan's replacement shave been taller and have always failed to reach to the extent the coach desired Ryan to reach. Plenty of tall keepers get beaten where the ball is within reach and then I wonder why the height is even bothered with. Robert Enke wasn't overly tall but had the spring and leap to cover the gap.

Switzerland wrap it up after a dogged Hungry fightback. Good game. Hope Croatia Spain is a cracker despite my fears it'll be a goalless tactical stalemate. 

Shows how well they fit their club systems but I'll say this. A lot of payers are embellished by the players around them. Centre back or keeper at Bayern? Don't worry, most opponents are scared of you and won't attack. Dante was garbage but made to look good while at Bayern. You look at the Scottish EPL players and they looked terrible last night. They couldn't do anything together and as a team they had no connection whatsoever. 

Interesting is Ralston, an experienced professional with Euro competition experience, was so out of his depth but then Risdon fared excellently in 2018 against Griezmann and others.

Holger did get us to an Asian Cup final we should have won and qualified automatically but the selections and manner were horrible late mid 2012 onwards.

My beef with Arnold is he still isn't devising ways to get past the tricky Asian opponents nor benching players who didn't play well in a previous tournament game. The Asian Cups have been very disappointing and the cracks late in qualifying showed too. More so he deflects a lot on these weird tangents like covid, local issues, Saudi being a great football nation. His personality changes under stress to a very irrational type but when he's healthy and happy his planning and passion is on point.

pretty slow start to the match so far

Croatia so asleep at the back. 2:0 Spain after half an hour. 

the skill involved with that second goal....

spain could be seriously underrated this tournament

Do that again. Top jinx. 

Kitromilides is the Optus Spain expert and he said Spain fans won't be surprised if they crash out in the group stage or win it. That's how tricky the gauge has been on Spain. 

3:0 Spain in last second of the half. They make it look easy. Croatia have gone close once or twice. Seemingly a bit rushed by Croatia leading to errors and really blind at the back for all 3 goals. 

3rd goal though, nobody stops those when a player sticks their foot out like that and hits the ball flush. Problem is earlier. 3rd minute of 2 minutes of ET, you'd think you can hold them out farkn

was a bit concerned with the spanish defence a couple of times

croatia have been kind in attack though

my close mate is a Spaniard and he had a pretty surprised expression in last week's pub talk when I said Spain could win it. That said, I wasn't exactly rating them, but I think this is one of the more wide open looking tournaments in a while.

Let's see how Czech does on Tuesday. They overdue to tear up another Euro for no apparent reason again

Was so hyped post Japan in 06 that I stated up for Czech USA next and was blown away and the it all unravelled so quickly. The Czechs have a good all round team so as a unit I hope they become a tough nut to crack. 

FFS Croatia have to score there! 

Still waiting for VAR to call out the dive

Was there even contact? Was it the hand in the back? There was no kick into the leg and the Croatian foot drag to fall is just cynical. 

While the video doesn't suggest contact. Rodri's body language is that of a kid whose been caught with the cookie jar so there must have been something.

Should be red as it's a DOGSO. 

He glanced the leg. Detecting the contact, the "go down" instinct kicked in with the typical lag. Spanish defender felt guilty because he glanced the leg. Basically, he got just as conned into it as the ref.

The VAR though? Jesus fucking christ. 

Will need to see, but if it’s been given a penalty, won’t be a red if it’s a standard tackle

Incresibly, croatia finish with a higher xg! Bit unlucky to lose so heavily

Amazing. Albania score after 22 seconds due to an Italian throw and indecision in the box. Smashed the old record of 67 seconds for fastest ever goal. 

I don’t know why that first Albania goal kick had to be retaken… the striker was outside the box, and the ball is live once it moves


But fuck me what a hopeless start for the Italians..

Oliver must have said he saw contact and VAR agreed that there was the slightest touch. They saw more angles than we saw on TV but I'm still baffled. Kinda balanced out in the end anyway. 

Macron have done a great job with the Albania kit. 

Heard Albania fans were snapping spaghetti in half in front of Italian fans. That's worse than a brass knuckle brawl with knives in Italian eyes.

Italy moving forward with ease. They'll score eventually. 

And there it is. 1:1 on 11. What a day of football it's been. 

Macron do some great kits. I believe they have the deal with UEFA to provide the kit assistance

Interesting with that offside called at around 9 mins: basically that scenario that… was it RIMB had envisioned a week or so ago, about being offside from off the field of play? It came to fruition, as he was offside (and off the field of play) but was called offside by the AR while challenging for the ball on the defender in the corner (noticeably the ball hadn’t been cleared towards halfway yet)

Just don’t throw it on the wall hahahaha

Had a glance this morning to confirm and Euro 2016 was really dull the first few days with lower scores and seemingly conservative football. Furious start to this tournament.

It's been interesting to see: Croatia playing in Berlin where they opened in 06. Germany with shades of 06 opener last night. Italy playing in Dortmund where they broke German hearts. England start in Gelsenkirchen where it ended in 06. Switzerland losing on pens to Ukraine in 06 has always made me think they had unfinished business on this soil at least.