Illuminati-R-Us

Though Oyazabal should have avoided it going to extra time.

Heid the Ba wrote:Do none of those manky bastards in Dingwall ever wash their hands?

Saw that. Huge rise in covid cases here, and our only hospital is overwhelmed. Doesn’t stop thousands of entitled and maskless English tourists coming up in their Gammon Wagons, of course.

Two guesses why I haven't been in the centre of Edinburgh in months?

FAZ's predictor has England as a 4:3 favourite over Denmark. Over here in our classy retreat in the Fichtel Mointains, we are rooting for the underdog, go, Danish Dynamite!

I have an archaeology meeting at 19:30 tonight, so probably won't see the match.

I have absolutely nothing important on so won't see the match.

Oh, I should have said today's TdF stage is a barnburner, twice over Mont Ventoux and riders all over southern France.

Copa America final is Brazil v Argentina. As it starts at what is 2 am on Sunday over here, I'm unlikely to see that either.

England 2 - 1 Denmark

Sadness all around, our love for Richard and his folk notwithstanding. That it came about with an almost saved penalty after an outrageous dive makes us all the madder.

Well, Arneb, there’s the World Cup next year. And while you found the dive outrageous, I was pretty pissed at the openly sad look on the Dutch ref’s face. The German ref - who I note is from Berlin - has always been scrupulously fair. But that sadness on the Dutchman’s face made us angry. Which made the outcome all the sweeter.

There is that, yes. But maybe he was just sad about having made the wrong decision...

Arneb wrote:There is that, yes. But maybe he was just sad about having made the wrong decision...

Yeah, this.

England due to be severly tutted at.

UEFA statement today wrote:Disciplinary proceedings have been opened following the UEFA EURO 2020 semi-final match between England and Denmark (2-1), played on 7 July at Wembley Stadium, London.
Charges against England :

Use of laser pointer by its supporters - Article 16(2)(d) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR)

Disturbance caused by its supporters during the national anthem - Article 16(2)(g) DR

Lighting of fireworks by its supporters - Article 16(2)(c) DR

The case will be dealt with by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) in due course.

Oh, I can almost feel their trembles of fear.

Whatever my own preferences, the win was deserved, of course. Denmark were slightly worse at preventing goals, but definitely a lot worse at even trying to create danger. Trying to tackle and free-kick your way into the penalty shootout and then may the force be with us only carries you so far, and the English team were easily a notch or two above that. So yeah, shitty penalty, below standard ref, vile England fans and really bad luck when Denmark would have needed some. But the right team in the final at the end.

My prediction is a spanking at the hands of Italy, but we have seen an upset or two in this tournament, and the seething, disease-ridden masses in the stadium will definitely be a factor.

From what I saw, they definitely had more of the ball and more chances. However, an extremely dubious win.

I am off to Brexitshire tomorrow and the one redeeming feature was that I would be on a canal boat with no tv. The Mem has just told me there is a tv . . .

Doesn’t mean you have to put the damn thing on....

I’m off to Edinburgh this weekend. Harryhausen exhibition in the national gallery.

Well now. Don’t think we’ve encountered this scenario for our tally before. Does this count?

Since we aren't counting for anything but fun, I'd sa 'green table' results can be ignored.

Agreed, let’s only count played matches. Which we’ll have less of in the league cup now, thanks to this making it much harder to progress.

Lianachan wrote:Doesn’t mean you have to put the damn thing on....

I’m off to Edinburgh this weekend. Harryhausen exhibition in the national gallery.

The Mem went to that, it is supposed to be very good.

So the English and Irish pubs seem to be opening Monday at 8 am because of the Euro final.

Which is odd, because it's on at 3 am.

Lianachan wrote:England due to be severly tutted at.

UEFA statement today wrote:Disciplinary proceedings have been opened following the UEFA EURO 2020 semi-final match between England and Denmark (2-1), played on 7 July at Wembley Stadium, London.
Charges against England :

Use of laser pointer by its supporters - Article 16(2)(d) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR)

Disturbance caused by its supporters during the national anthem - Article 16(2)(g) DR

Lighting of fireworks by its supporters - Article 16(2)(c) DR

The case will be dealt with by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) in due course.

How very dare you belittle the injustice and umiliation England has een made to suffer at the hands from the heavy-handed, partial and self-righteous UEFA disciplinary commission - a body with no jurisdiction or justification at all, as it was not instituted by the Crown! And the outrageous amount! 30 thousand Euro! In real money, that must be something like 3 Shilling Sixpence per ticket sold. And all that for nothing but good, patriotic behaviour. It used to be that NOT booing a non-British National anthem was considered beyond the pale. It used to be that NOT attacking someone from the stands who was standing in the way of English success was considered unpatriotic. It used to be that good, hard-working patriots used fireworks for a little fun and directed it towards the enemy crowd (or, for that matter, their combattants). You know nothing of good supporter behaviour, sir, absolutely nothing.

Aye, that'll learn them up right nice.

Yes, the behaviour of the English fans was despicable - no getting around it. And 30,000 euros is indeed not a lot. I'd kind of expected it to be the equivalent of about £300,000 by now, but that doesn't seem to have happened. At least England football representatives who carry respect here - not only Gareth Southgate (who could arguably have seen England disqualified and the trophy handed to Italy without even bothering with a match) but also Gary Lineker - have spoken out. I particularly liked Gareth Southgate's call not to boo the Italian anthem: "when we play away and our anthem gets booed, it makes us all the more determined". But a clear line needs to be drawn - given the amount of TV, CC and otherwise, footage of the fans, it shouldn't be too difficult to identify whoever shone a laser pen at Schmeichel. And then to give them a sharp reminder that even possession of one of those things is an offence not only under UEFA disciplinary regulations but also the criminal law.