Michael

Just to clarify one more thing, the player transfer values in the Round of 16, will be based on their performances in the 3 group matches, correct?

Okay, thanks for clarifying that.

I'd say it's more risky than Kompany's appointment, even though I'm not a fan of Kompany becoming Bayern manager. Hurzeler has had a year and a half of great success at St. Pauli, culminating in them winning the 2 Bundesliga. But St. Pauli already had one of the best teams in that league and making the jump from 2 Bundesliga to the Premier League is huge. I think it's a huge gamble hiring a baby in managerial terms like him. At 31 years old, he's still got very little experience despite his success at St. Pauli. There are also many players in that Brighton team that are older than him, it will be interesting to see how he manages with that at a Premier League club.

This should be a real cracker of a game. Two of the bigger sides playing against each other in the 1st round. Spain with their attacking flair and Italy with their strong defence and rapid counter attacking ability. May the best team win.

I am hoping Croatia win today, both for the last man standing game and the fact that it would be great to see some of these golden generation Croat players do well in what will be the last international tournament for some of them. Certainly for Modric and Perisic, I can't see either of them playing in 2 years time at the World Cup, seeing as they are 38 and 35 years of age respectively. Unless they do a Portugal and they play on until they are 41 and 39 or something, just like Pepe and Ronaldo.)

@Stan, just a question about players and their transfer values changing based on their performances after matchday 3. We are all given a budget of £100m at the start. But if we say hypothetically that we have players in our team who have really played well in the group stage and by the Round of 16 our squad value is worth say £110m instead of the original £100m. Does this mean that we can say transfer a player out now worth £7m, who was originally worth £6m, for another player worth £7m? Can we also do this for example for other players in the team whose value has increased? To summarise, would we have more money to play with after the group stage, because of the increase of value of our players in this hypothetical situation?

Croatia (this is a tough one, my gut feeling initially was to go with England or Switzerland, but after over analysing things, I have gone for Croatia. I hope I don't live to regret it, lol.)

Wednesday 19th June, 2024 Group A Germany 3-1 Hungary, 17.00 Scotland 1-2 Switzerland, 20.00 Group B Croatia 2-1 Albania, 14.00 Thursday 20th June, 2024 Group B Spain 2-1 Italy, 20.00 Group C Slovenia 1-2 Serbia, 14.00 Denmark 1-2 England, 17.00 Friday 21st June, 2024 Group D Poland 1-2 Austria, 17.00 Netherlands 2-2 France, 20.00 Group E Slovenia 1-2 Ukraine, 14.00 Saturday 22nd June, 2024 Group E Belgium 2-1 Romania, 20.00 Georgia 1-2 Czech Republic, 14.00 Turkey 1-2 Portugal, 20.00

It couldn't possibly be as bad as my start could it?

No, you just misheard what they said. They said it's his competitive debut, which is true. He's only played in a friendlies for Portugal before this match. Attention to detail my friend.

My crap luck continues, I replaced Rodri with Palinha today, thinking Palinha would start for Portugal as all the media sites expected him to. But Palinha didn't play a minute of this game and sat on the bench.

I know, that aged well didn't it.

It's not his debut, but yes a crucial winning goal for Portugal.

Conceicao the young substitute scores the winner for Portugal! Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic

Jota's goal is ruled out because apparently Ronaldo was offside in the build up. That must have been a really close call.

Soucek with a shot from outside the area that goes just wide of the post!

Bernardo Silva has a powerful shot well saved by Stanek!

Portugal equalise through an own goal by Hranac! Portugal 1-1 Czech Republic

What a strike by Provod, as he shoots the ball into the corner of the net from outside the area! A lovely strike! Portugal 0-1 Czech Republic

Munich looked nice and sunny to be fair. It might just be you guys up in the north or in the Ruhr region experiencing the bad weather.

Stanek saved excellently from a shot by Ronaldo and then he saves the easier follow up as well.

Leao can't quite get to the end of that dangerous cross from Fernandes.

It looks very wet in Leipzig, not ideal playing conditions.

That's true, I've just always been a big fan of his and the manager has decided to select some very young keepers instead of him.