Only the two games in Day five, no 2pm game today. I am in consultation with my legal team, as I am sure you all are, on where to report this international war crime to.
our first game saw Hungary taking on Portugal in Budapest with a 60,000 strong crowd cheering on the home side. Listen, you can say what you want about Viktor Orbán. He might be an evil, homophobic, autocratic dictator but the boy sure knows how to fill a stadium. Kind of a requisite for dictators now I think about it.
if we can for a second ignore everything else about Hungary it was bloody good to see a football stadium full again. I was watching this one while working and almost went to turn the sound down the noise of the crowd was that impressive. I then thought: “No, I’ve missed this noise. On you go lads deafen me!” Okay, so the blood running out of my ears might have scared my wee girl but she needs to learn.
Speaking of things that make your ears bleed, John Hartson was back on co-comms for this one. It was okay though, if we could get through this we had Ally and Clive for France vs Germany later on.
To the match itself, Hungary showed a lot of grit and passion while clearly being buoyed by a loud home crowd. Not a lot of quality however but they were unlucky with a late goal ruled out for offside. Portugal got over the line with a deflected goal and Cristiano Ronaldo penalty late on as he became the EUROs highest ever scorer
I was ready to be all snarcy about his over the top celebration after scoring a penalty, that was clutching at straws as it was, then the bastard had to go and score a worldie right after it. That’s just selfish.
To the main event of the evening, France vs Germany a true heavyweight contest of European football. Easily the most anticipated game in the first round of fixtures. A curious one too, as we all knew the French would be good but would the Germans be able to hang with them?
Overall, I’d say…not really. It was only 1-0, although France were unlucky to have two incredible goals ruled out for offside, but France felt comfortable and if they needed to go up another gear then they had it in them. Germany just felt a level below the world champions.
A nod of the head to the poor sod at STV who leaned on the wrong button and cut of the feed for the game. It’s ok mate, I’m sure nobody noticed, you probably got away with it.
Just like the Greenpeace idiot who didn’t take into account the different camera set ups that are utilised at a major football tournament and nearly killed himself and Dider Deschamps. Apparently, it was some protest against Volkswagen, I dunno lads, the wee motor managed to get on the pitch without making a prick of itself.
Tomorrow starts the second round of group games where qualifications and eliminations start to be confirmed. The good news for Scotland fans is we only need to wait until Friday for the inevitable.
