Romania 3-0 Ukraine - Monday 17th June, 2024

[Devil-Dick Willie]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

Ukraine’s best player is Zinchenko ffs, Romania’s is ????. Alway go with what you know.

Brother if the Ukranians were watching that shit they'll probably surrender today that was abysmal. 

[Michael]

6 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Get fucked @Michael You conned me into betting on Ukraine to beat these comfortably. 

I conned you?? LMFAO... I said I thought Ukraine would win, that's an opinion. It was an error of judgement, even Einstein made errors, lol. I never envisaged that Romania would camp their whole team in the penalty box for large periods and counter in numbers at that rapid pace. Those fuckers were fighting as if their lives depended on it. Their manager looks to have tactically gotten them playing to their strengths. 

PS I never told anyone to bet on anything. I hope you didn't put your mortgage on it buddy.

[Michael]

3 hours ago, Spike said:

Ukraine’s best player is Zinchenko ffs, Romania’s is ????. Alway go with what you know.

Zinchenko is Ukraine's best player my arse. He's probably one of the most off form Ukrainian players right now. He was poor yesterday at left-back and that certainly is not his best position. The sooner Mykolenko returns from injury, the better for Ukraine.

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Michael said:

I hope you didn't put your mortgage on it buddy.

I hope he did cos that'd be fucking funny  

[Devil-Dick Willie]

I put 10 bucks on it hahaha. But fuck me Michael was goin on like they were locked and loaded and going to make it out of the group, not embarrass themselves. 

[Michael]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

I hope he did cos that'd be fucking funny  

 

[Michael]

4 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

I put 10 bucks on it hahaha. But fuck me Michael was goin on like they were locked and loaded and going to make it out of the group, not embarrass themselves. 

Yeah, they probably are going to make it out of the group

[Mel81x+]

So much activity in this group not going the planned way means the next round of matches are potentially going be even crazier than this set of games. I wouldn't really hinge any knowledge of these teams on anything. I do think Belgium will get upturned by Romania in the same way they undid the Ukraine though and that would be very entertaining to watch. 

[Michael]

On 18/06/2024 at 11:36, Mel81x said:

So much activity in this group not going the planned way means the next round of matches are potentially going be even crazier than this set of games. I wouldn't really hinge any knowledge of these teams on anything. I do think Belgium will get upturned by Romania in the same way they undid the Ukraine though and that would be very entertaining to watch. 

I have to say, this Romania team looks like a really solid unit. I mean Ukraine have obviously played better games, but the likes of Mudryk and Sudakov were dribbling past 3 or 4 players at times, but there was always another Romanian covering. They'd have  like 2 or 3 players pressuring and marking 1 Ukrainian at other times as well. It was almost impossible for Ukraine to find a way through the middle of the Romanian defence and when Ukraine got down the flanks to put crosses in, the Romanian defence excellently cleared the ball. Their defence was even blocking shots, they hardly gave Ukraine any space in the final 3rd of the pitch.

Ukraine had 72% possession, 8 corners, 13 shots and a passing accuracy of 87%. But all that counted for nothing, because Romania's defence was as strong as a fortress.

Even looking at the goals, the 1st goal was caused by a poor clearance, but that finish by Stanciu was unstoppable. The 2nd goal started when the ball broke to the onrushing Razvan Marin who lined up the shot and struck the ball 1st time, hard, low and and into the corner of the net. One could say Lunin could have done better, because the ball went in under his dive in his attempt to save the ball. But that shot was struck with a lot of venom and accuracy, as well as the fact it was swerving into the corner of the net as it went in. So yeah, a top class keeper like Lunin will have wanted to save that, but it was sweetly struck. For the 3rd goal, Dennis Man went on a run into the area, skipped past Shaparenko's poor tackle effort too easily and then crossed for Dragus to tap the ball into the net. 

Romania were solid and efficient. If they replicate this formula and performance against Belgium, I agree, they could shock the Belgians as well. The pressure is on Belgium and Ukraine in their next matches, not so much Romania and Slovakia.

For Ukraine, I'd like to see Brazhko or Malinovskyi start next to Stepanenko as midfield enforcers. Or even have both start and have Stepanenko on the bench. Either way, there probably needs to be 2 strong robust ball winners behind Mudryk, Sudakov, Tsyhankov and Dovbyk. Shaparenko is best suited to a more attacking role in midfield. Both Brazhko and Malinovskyi played relatively well when they came on at different moments of the 2nd half. It would also be good to see Mykolenko back at left back, if he recovers in time from his injury for the next match. 

Edited June 22 by Michael

[Gunnersaurus]

@Michael A bit of topic but do you think there might be a bit of trouble at the Slovakia game as they voted in a pro russia president? 

[Michael]

4 hours ago, Gunnersaurus said:

@Michael A bit of topic but do you think there might be a bit of trouble at the Slovakia game as they voted in a pro russia president? 

This is a good point. Football fans usually love to get political, especially for Ukraine, with what's going on in their country with the war. However, I don't think fights will break out among the crowds, but there could definitely be some chanting about this in the stands. Slovakia went from a government that supported Ukraine, to a government that now is against helping Ukraine with military aid. The current Slovak Prime Minister even went as far as saying that Ukraine should give up its occupied territory to Russia, something that hasn't gone down well in Ukraine.