What a strike! Goals galore this tournament.

my mate got tickets near the Albania end. He’s gone from beer all over him to dead silence hahaha

Do I understand correctly that if Italy had started playing forward then the flag wouldn't have gone up? I noticed that too. I thought immediately 'you can't do that surely.'

2:1 Italy on 17. They've made it look easy in a way. Albania way overheated from that start. Switched off twice there. 

Yes, until the ball is played forward, the offside player is out of play. 

On another kit nerd moment: I love the way the stripe on the Adidas / Italian shorts blends into the shirt

Got to find the internet meme where Roy Keane last night had a screen in front of him with Scotland and Germany flags looking like his trouser legs. 

Oh no! The UEFA patch on Calafiori’s sleeve has come loose!

4 Italians protesting to ref after foul there. Where are the cards? 

Did he give the signal? I think the instructions for this new rule call for the referee first needing to do some lame signal to shoo the players away before they can issue the card

Albania keeper playing well since the two goals

For reference : here’s the lame signal/procedure for “only the captain”

Is Asllani a common surname? Just find it interesting given Swedish Asllani (of Kosovan descent), given the tight links between Kosovo and Albania

He avoided eye contact more and the captain then removed his players. 

Given the way European football is - Bastoni very lucky not to give away a penalty there 

Yeah sounds about right. Essentially, the way IFAB has written this trial, the referee needs to let the players come the them, then tell them to piss off, and then if they don’t go, they get the yellow card

hell of a start to the Euro's just so hard to pick who can win it seems all the big boys have a chance, Croatia had some chances last night too I don't think they are done yet. 

This is the tournament of world football, and it's delivering so far.

Yep totally agree !
Been an epic start this one.
Christ I’m flabbergasted by the Cro defense that 1st half glad they regrouped the 2nd.
Yes they are not done yet no way.
Switz really surprised actually - thought Hungary looked way better through the 1st I really thought they’d equalise.
Good game to watch.
Christ that record goal against Azzuri eh NCB.
What a hostile atmosphere 80% Albanians at least I actually give credit to the Italians getting composed and pulling it back and lead.
As Donnadorra mentioned playing them is a banana slip - Spain Cro won’t run over them as well I expect damn hectic hard group.
Been bliss watching football full on luving it.

Spain won but they played a different style to what we know from them, more counter attacking and took their chances well but Croatia were also wasteful.

Italy were impressive maybe the best outside of Germany so maybe they could go far again, the problem is I don’t know if they have a proven goal scorer.

Talk about goal scorers Morata got injured so Spain don’t want to lose him, Lamal for a 16 year old looks to be a very special talent.
To think he will only turn 22 by the time 2030 comes around! 

yeah awesome 

Cro group is tough as. Be happy to see anyone go through in that group except Albania 😂😅

Can anyone recommend any youtube channel showing extended highlights, that's accessible from Australia?

Maybe Johns can send a link he seems pretty good at that.

Extended night be tricky. YouTube search and maybe someone has uploaded 10mins.

Something like 19 of Albania’s squad were not even born in Albania. What a joke. 

It is interesting comparing 2nd teir nations like poland, croatia, albania scotland and the netherlands to the sides 10 or 20 years ago. Every 2nd teir team looks weaker on paper

The competition for spots in the big 5 leagues has gone insane

Right lads who we predicting for this match? 

I'm thinking it'll be 1-1 draw 

Going for poland. Family is from prussia so germany and poland are my teams haha

I'll say 3:1 Netherlands. Tournament really warming up now due to games spreading across cities. Aesthetically for me Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne are some of the best to watch games on TV. Personally hate Berlin with the running track. Leipzig is kinda domey. Nürnberg, not in tournament but a top city, is atrocious however you watch football there. 

Won't happen as we have gold as the light colour for home but imagine if we got the Dutch away kit pattern in white with shades of green? Something different at least.

We have navy and turquoise now. Could easy copy the orange bits in turquoise for Australia here. Really liked the Navy and gold for 2014 Q and tournament proper. Interestingly we had an era of navy gold then went to greens back to navy. 

Back then you mean? We faced a fairly poor Croatia in 06. Poland were infamous for crashing out and kind of still are. 

Italian and French clubs like Polish players and Italy have a Balkan festish while for Germany it's Japan.