France loses to an unexpected side, like what happened in 2020
There is no real dark-horse that reaches the final 4
Belgium reaches the semis
Germany advances from the Groups but gets eliminated in the Round of 16
Portugal and Italy in the same group. Italy is eliminated in the Groups. Portugal loses to Spain in the knockouts
England beats Scotland in the knockouts
England v Spain is the final. England wins
Very entertaining match! jesus. Fairs to Sporting for sticking with their guns even with 10, think still had more possession at the 70 minute mark. Respect to Inácio for taking the red card as it is
Joao Neves was great, António Silva pushing him over after the equalizer is the kind of spirit this team needs more, instead of droping their tools, specially in European games…
These awards are historically full of wholes and are created off journalists voting appeal. And in todays media, you have football pages that fiercely push for PR of X players, like Fabrizio Romano and such. Its a joke really, even some of the players yesterday probably couldnt wait to leave that event given their attitude
Some other examples:
Deco lost in 2004, after winning the CL, the Portuguese League and being the best player in the tournaments. Reached the Euros final. Shevchenko won because of Serie A and G/A
Ronaldinho lost in 2006, after winning the CL and being the best player in the tournment, aswell with better G/A. Cannavaro won because of the World Cup
Ribery lost in 2013, after winning the treble. Ronaldo won it because of G/A and his performances against Sweden in the play-offs because FIFA was worried about their image after Blatter comments on Cristiano days previously to that
Both Messi and Ronaldo had way better G/A than Modric in 2018. Ronaldo won the Champions League, being the best player in the tournament and had a better World Cup perfomance than Messi. Modric didnt even scored his way in the knock-outs, only 1 assist, and won the damn award because he was a finalist lol
Its not that he isnt a saint for me, its the fact if this was Ronaldo in these exact 2 picture, social media reaction would be totally different. ESPN would probably have a video by now with the clowns of the studio talking about it and everything