Nobody would say Euro 2016 is the pinnacle. Wasn't as good as a couple of recent tournaments like 2000 and 2012. But I've heard it been called the worst tournament since Italia '90. For me, not a chance. Not when tournaments like 2002 and 2010 exist. But that was also a point about Euro '96. Never gets called up, in the English speaking media, as the average tournament it was. Probably because a certain team made it to the Semi-finals...N5 1BH wrote:Can’t see the relevance of Euro 96 to this thread or even how that article is gushing about it. However if you really need to compare, I can still remember a fair bit of 96 can anyone remember anything from the comp a couple of weeks ago.
Euro 96 included Bergkamp, Hagi, Stoichkov, Zidane, Shearer, Gascoine, Zola, Del piero, Sukor , Klinsman,the Laudrops, Bergkamp and many more. The extra time nil –nils were down to the golden goal experiment but the 90 minute games were mostly quality.
Apart from an under par Ronaldo Euro 2016 included Giroud, Hal Robson, Eeyore, Dobbin etc. The games were generally dull, low quality played on low quality pitches by low quality players. 200 quid to see NI v Wales, wait a few weeks and you could pay 30 to watch Blackburn v Forest what’s the difference? You would need your head read to think Euro 2016 reached the pinnacle of football experiences.
1996 has the lowest goal average since expanding to 16 teams. You can bet if this tournament lowered that, it would be a black mark on its name. But I will agree that golden goal was a rubbish rule that only made teams scared. Not that 1996 was the only tournament to have the rule. Games being dull is subjective. I don't think there were that many, but yes the Wales v NI game was one of them.
No point in just naming names from 1996 (and Bergkamp twice
). If I named Pogba, it would be ridiculed for his 'awful tournament'. So why name Del Piero, who played 45 minutes in England? Zidane hadn't hit his groove. They are names remembered for their overall career who happened to play in the tournament, not those who left a huge impression on it. Not to say others in the list didn't perform or that it didn't have great players, but we don't tend to remember individual performances of yesteryear or critique as we would with Pogba and the rest. And you are selling 2016 without mentioning the likes of Griezmann, Iniesta, Ramsey, Renato Sanches, etc.
