France are U19 European Champions

[Salamandastron]

Coming back from a goal down to get past the in-form Spanish side in the dying minutes, no less. This must be a great reprieve for French football, especially after their circus-show at the World Cup.

Anyone else follow football?

[shark]

The young blues ("bleuets" in French) had a brilliant route and have erased a little the failure of the old French team.
Cheer and thanks to them to give us hope.

[David]

Salamandastron wrote :
Anyone else follow football?

Yes, me.

Watched quite a lot of the World Cup, was happy to see Spain win. I follow Liverpool in the English Premier League.

[cheese101]

did the under 19's have to rely on underhanded trickery to win?
i'm irish,and henry is quite hated here,as is french football in general,because they refused a rematch or anything...

[Kingnumber]

cheese101 wrote : did the under 19's have to rely on underhanded trickery to win?
i'm irish,and henry is quite hated here,as is french football in general,because they refused a rematch or anything...

This might cheer you up xD

[Salamandastron]

@cheese101: Nah, it was a good clean game with solid performances from both sides. Spain had the edge in the first half, and France looked the more dangerous in the second. If not for commanding jobs from both goalkeepers, it would have been a much higher scoring game.

Youtube link to the highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_8X8uq_ZZY&feature=related

@David: Hey, good to hear - I support Arsenal. We shall reconvene and talk trash after tomorrow's clash.

[cheese101]

man u all de way
A beautiful reina cock up at the end of a fairly even match...almunia is looking soooo bad,u need a new goalie(try get given from man city)

[Salamandastron]

Poor Reina - he'd gone past the point of no return by the time he got his hands on the ball.

I'd love to have Given on the team, but Man City now have so much money that they can afford to bench him the whole season instead of selling him to any potential rival for the top 4. Unless they sell him with a "provided you don't play him against us!" clause in the contract, I don't see it happening. Will probably have to settle for Schwarzer, if that deal goes through. At this point, almost anything has to be better than Almunia and Fabianski.

[Kingnumber]

I believe Arsenal will sign Given because he is the type of player that will not be content with being on the bench. And if Arsenal do sign Given or even Schwarzer they have a good chance on winning the league or atleast a trophy.

P.S.
good going Blackpool on winning there first Premier league match 4-0

[cheese101]

man u v newcastle 2moro/2day...it will b a tough one but i think man u will just make it
and man city can afford to bench him financially,but can they afford poor morale? just the thought of being benched for the opening match made him complain to the papers,(because he should be the no.1 goalkeeper,he outclasses almost every other keeper in the world...) but that sort of talk would possibly make the team play worse,cause fights etc.

[Salamandastron]

Morale and squad cohesion will be the biggest hurdle for Man City if they want to have any success this year, that's true. I hope Balotelli gets regular playing time, it'd be good to see someone new light up the ground.

As for Arsenal, if we have an injury-free RVP and Rosicky, a committed Cesc, a motivated Arshavin, a competent GK and a defensive line that remembers not to wander too far off in front, then yeah, we're easily contenders.

[cheese101]

if injuries dont hit u then yes,you are contenders...same with man. u...if the backline stops fucking about getting injured(ferdinand still is ffs),and we dont have 2 full back lines out,we have a chance
also,3-0 tonight,good start,berbatov has scored 2 goals in 2 games,hell has frozen over

[Kingnumber]

Good game for Man Utd i hope that Berbatov will finally live up to his price Man Utd had to pay. Also Reina may be going to Arsenal after seeing as Liverpool have bought Ross Turnbull from Middlesbrough so you never know.

[cheese101]

ha,after reina's mistake,he wont be a big step up from almunia

[David]

Salamandastron wrote : Poor Reina - he'd gone past the point of no return by the time he got his hands on the ball.

I'd love to have Given on the team, but Man City now have so much money that they can afford to bench him the whole season instead of selling him to any potential rival for the top 4. Unless they sell him with a "provided you don't play him against us!" clause in the contract, I don't see it happening. Will probably have to settle for Schwarzer, if that deal goes through. At this point, almost anything has to be better than Almunia and Fabianski.

Reina was just unfortunate, looked like he didn't have enough time to react to the ball coming off the post.

The referee didn't have the best of games. Both red cards were pretty harsh & there was a dive by an Arsenal player very close to the ref who gave a free kick for a foul. The game was shown here in Australia on free to air tv tonight, coverage seemed to be from Arsenal.tv. Commentators didn't show much bias, which is unusual.