This year's Euros were a bit of a disappointment for me. I don't know if this is just the way modern football is, or if it was just really, really humid and that doesn't come across on the tv, but most matches looked like practice matches. Two teams mostly standing still.
None of the big guns showed up - France, Holland, Italy, Germany, England, Portugal, Belgium - all mediocre. Spain won playing on autopilot at 70% capacity.
Bearing in mind that I did not watch every game and didn't see a whole Austria match, the two "best" teams for me were Georgia and Albania. Both understood their limitations, set-up to play ultra defensively but did so to an extremely high standard, and both tried to go for it on the break and late in games. For Albania to hold Italy and Spain to single-goal margins (and very nearly drew both games with late chances) is exceptional. If they'd had an easier group - England's group, say - they'd have made the knockouts. Georgia played the same way but were braver in attack and were rewarded with progress from the group stage. The counter-attacking moments from both these sides were among the most exciting moments of the entire tournament.
You all know how much I love attacking football and generally dislike defensive football, but when the teams stacked with attacking talent don't show up, I'm happy to watch excellent defending instead. I just want to see something done well, and there was so little done well by the so-called European elite in this competition. Look at those bizarre goal-scoring figures - six players share the golden boot with 3 goals apiece, and 10 own goals in the tournament.
Mbappe and Dembele are "worth" €315 million, but if you weren't a football fan and didn't know who they were you'd not have singled either out as being any better than anyone else. Lamine Yamal was a high point, but even then mostly because it's remarkable such a young player is operating at that level. There was one bit of skill from Kai Havertz where he controlled a long pass in stride which was incredible (I could watch it all day), and Bellingham's overhead kick would have been all the better if he didn't take most of the shine off with that arrogant celebration.
I'm not sure if it's just me being a bit disillusioned with modern football, or if the contest really was quite poor overall. It could also be that the first major football tournament I remember was Mexico 86 and no player has ever come close to dominating a tournament so completely as Maradona did that year. I miss excellence. There's so much more money in the game these days, but what's it worth if money creates mediocrity?
What do you lot think? Was this actually a good tournament and I'm too jaded?
