Strepared cup

France lost the home final Euro 2016. Portugal became the champion, winning in regular time only one match

The victory in the final could bring France the third title of the best team of Europe. For the first time, the French team became the strongest on the continent in 1984, when Michelle Platini played for it, one of the best players of that time. France won the second title in 2000, and two years before that for the first time in its history it became the world champion - having beaten the Brazilians. The French dreams crashed on the pragmatic game of the Portuguese national team, which at the current championship won in the main 90 minutes only one match (the semifinals of the Wales team). In the final, the Portuguese scored in the 109th minute-this made Eder, whose sudden blow caught the goalkeeper of the Frenchman Lloris.

In the second additional 15 -minute, many spectators of the eastern time zones were relieved in the second additional 15 -minute - in Russia they sympathized with France more, but the clogged ball at least saved the audience from the need to watch a penalty shootout and allowed to go to bed early:

And it all started with butterflies. Thousands of these creatures flew to the stadium a few hours before the start of the game, clutching the already assembled spectators and preventing the television operators from setting up the equipment. Ronaldo continued in a sudden injury in the 25th minute-you can scold the leader of the Portuguese team for the simulation as much as you like, but sometimes he also has injuries. The best football player in the 2013–2014 world sat on the grass and cried when one of those same butterflies sat in his eyes - this touching scene, perhaps, forced (albeit for a short time) to reconsider her attitude to the Portuguese even his most fierce critics.

Even before the final, many experts argued about whether Portugal would replenish a number of “strange” champions - such as Denmark, Greece, Czechoslovakia and, we are not afraid of this word, the USSR, which became the first owner of the European Cup of 1960. It is difficult to say why it is at the Continent Championship that the most powerful teams sometimes win. Nevertheless, this happens with a more or less noticeable regularity, while this has never happened at the world championships. There are dominated by countries whose number is determined with enviable constancy: three teams from Latin America - Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, as well as five representatives of the Old World - Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain.

At the same time, the French entered this elite club in 1998, the Spaniards in 2010, and the British, after their only success of 1966, could never repeat it. The Dutch, who managed to play three times in the finals of the World Championships (1974, 1978 and 2010) and once (in 1988), did not reach the “elite club”. The Hungarian “Wonderbing” missed her chance in 1938 and especially in 1954, and the teams of Czechoslovakia (1962) and Sweden (1958) played in the finals at one time ... But the world champion has not yet been destined, except the eight-strong prefabricated prefabricated and New Worlds.

But in continental tournaments, surprises happen. For example, in 2015, the Chili team for the first time became the champion of Latin America, which a year later confirmed its class on an extraordinary Copa America Centenario.

The victory of Portugal once again suggests that the continental championships eventually become a kind of landfill for national teams, which at different times begin to claim football leadership. Of course, this is facilitated by the general tendency to increase teams allowed to the final stage of tournaments for Europe and Latin America. In Latin America this year, 16 teams were first participated in Copa America Centenario, one of which took the fourth place in the tournament - the US team. And in Europe, the efforts of Michel Platini went on - and now almost half of all the teams of the Old World played in the tournament finals - 24! The level of competition at the tournament has significantly decreased, the emergence of such an exotic team as Albania, for example, at first looked strange, but Platini’s logic is quite understandable: the economic reasons associated with the attraction of new fans to the tournament played a role. And, of course, many national teams perceived the hit on the euro as a chance, which is unknown when it falls out for the second time.

The foregoing primarily refers to the Iceland team, which enchanted the national team of England from the 1/8 finals, and in the quarter -finals, although she suffered a major defeat from France, she still won her second half with a score of 2: 1 (it is clear that after 0: 4 in the first half the French could afford the wrong liberties).

Players and fans of the Iceland national team during this euro became real viewers' favorites

In the qualifying tournament, Iceland beat the Dutch twice, in fact, not allowing the latter into the Euro 2016 finals, which even then became a world sensation. The Icelanders, having suffered a major defeat in the ¼ finals of the European Championship, were completely deservedly met in their homeland as national heroes. The team of Wales, who was able to enter the four strongest teams of the continent, was awarded about the same honors.

The emergence of Iceland and Wales in the ranks of the elite of world or at least continental football is worth a lot

It seems that the appearance of Iceland and Wales in the ranks of the elite of the world (or at least continental) football is worth a lot - from the point of view of the development of this wonderful game and interest in it from the youth. Actually, this was one of the main tasks of Platini when expanding the number of participants in Euro 2016. In particular, we learned that with competent work, even a country with a small population and clearly does not contribute to the development of football with a climate can achieve very vivid results and, more importantly, stimulate interest in football. And if for Wales the development of football as a whole is natural, then for Iceland this is a very serious jerk. His prospects are not yet very clear, but the beginning, as they say, has been made very impressive.

Fans of the Wales national team

Well, in conclusion, we note the excellent training and skill of football Germany, which recently pretty renewed and refreshed. Let the Germans not achieve success, which many expected from them after a deafening victory at the 2014 World Cup, when Germany became the first European team in history to win the Mundial in Latin America. But Germany still remains one of the legislators of football fashion, being one of the main contenders for victory in the World Cup in 2018. The public support is guaranteed to her, as evidenced by the open letter to its fans of one of the leaders of the German team Bastian Schweinsteiger, which is published by Sports.ru . Bastian in particular writes:

"Dear fans! In a word: a pity. Our dream did not come true. We did not reach the final, so that another magical night was not followed by Rio. Unfortunately, in the match against France, we did not have something incredibly important: a little luck. Although the defeat is part of the game, even if they cause pain. Of course, we thanked our rivals for the game and sincerely congratulated the French team with the French team. by going to the final.

I am proud of what we have achieved. We remained true to our style of the game. We continued to grow as a team over the past 7 weeks, and this cohesion, which made us strong two years ago in Brazil, did the same here in France. We are one team, we are Die Mannschaft.

Our fans are also part of this. Wherever we are, in Lille, Saint-Denis, Paris, Bordeaux, or in Marseille, we thank you for the fact that there was a 12th player on our side. Your enthusiasm was heard and visible in stadiums. We also felt the support of all people in Germany. In this regard, we want to say thanks to all the fans.

We also want to say thanks to the owners of the tournament - France and the French. We felt happy, safe and felt hospitality from the very first day. We had the best conditions in Evian. There we could concentrate and train intensively in the same way as relaxing and recovering calmly. France was a great mistress for the European Championship.

I would like to take off his hat before France on behalf of my team. "

The goal of Bastian Schweinsteiger against the national team of Ukraine:

Well, Russian fans will breathe again about the gloomy prospects of their national team. The ability to step on a rake is a sport that Russians are engaged in with considerable diligence and hobby. It’s even embarrassing to repeat what mistakes Russian coaches, players and officials made in preparation for Euro 2016. Here is the combination of posts at the trainer-defitant, who had not previously had experience with the national team. Here is the lack of a sufficient reserve for the national team-and after all, personnel hunger arose due to the fact that officials do not actually monitor training and youth, and, more importantly, football teachers. Here is the lack of intelligible work with the fans, which resulted in ugly behavior - with the actual support of the president of the country, who approvedly responded about their "exploits". Here, the behavior of the national team players themselves, in particular Kokorin and Mamaev, who fell into the pages of the Yellow Press after the end of the championship in connection with their participation in a stormy party at the Cote d'Azur.

Marseille, the area of the old port, the place of the battle between the fans of the national teams of England and Russia

In Russia, it was as if they forgot that the nearest world championship will be held on home arenas in just two years. By the way, there are still few home rents, in fact, only one. But next year they should all be in service - FIFA holds a traditional Confederations Cup precisely as a general rehearsal of the coming mundial! After the Olympic problems with doping and mass disqualification of Russian athletes, it should probably be understood that decisive measures in sports are quite real. This is that the football community in some countries has not yet left the hope that Russia is selected from the World Cup.

And we did not even begin to list all the game problems of the Russian team, which took the penultimate place in Euro 2016! Perhaps the patriotic fans are slightly pleased that the national team was the latter, but the fact that Russia has acted a little better than Ukraine, does not mean anything good for the Russian team. But, apparently, the fans in Russia relate to the situation with understanding. In any case, according to Interfax , more than 600 thousand people have signed an Internet pattern on the dissolution of the Russian football team after the team’s unsuccessful performance at the 2016 European Championship. It proposes: "To disband the Russian national football team in the current composition, as not justifying hopes. To dial a new composition. To" save "to build football fields and engage in the younger generation."

Reconstruction of the Luzhniki stadium for the 2018 European Championship

This petition was sent to the Government of the Russian Federation, from where the fans received the answer : "We inform that your appeal received by the Government of the Russian Federation has been considered in accordance with Article 8 of the Federal Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-ФЗ" On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation "sent to the Ministry of Sports." That is, the petition was sent to those who are responsible for the mistakes made - I remind you that the Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko is part -time and the president of the Russian Football Union.

Vitaly Mutko

True, the Russian team is also usually completely dissolved and recruited again after each championship - and so far it is not clear that this brings the result (except for the exit to the Euro semifinals in 2008). Most likely, both the RFU and the Ministry of Sports are hardly able to solve all the problems of Russian football. But they actually have only two ways to solve them. The first is painstaking work on restoring order, where the emphasis will be placed on the preparation of youth and the education of youth coaching and pedagogical personnel. In this case, it should be recognized that the 2018 World Cup for Russia will be lost. Well, the second way is a traditional Russian emergency. Its result is also quite understandable: you don’t have to wait for anything good after such an Avaral. There are many examples in the history of Soviet and Russian football.