Euro Vision: Do Portugal deserve to be Euro 2016 champions? Gulf News’ Sports Desk discuss strategies, best players, inspirational fans and less than memorable performances as they review the 2016 UEFA European Championship. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:00After only having won one game in 90 minutes, Portugal are our new European
00:10champions and they did it without Cristiano Ronaldo on the field. Joining me
00:14to review Euro 2016 is Golf News deputy sports editor Duncan Hair and sports
00:19supporter Ashley Hammond. So gentlemen I think we should begin with discussing
00:24the overall tournament and I think the first point is the new format. Did it
00:28work? Didn't it? Tell me. Yes and no in terms of the new format. I think it's
00:35been wonderful to see nations such as Wales and Iceland do so well in a
00:40championship that they might otherwise not have got into. On the other hand
00:45though, it's definitely affected the quality of the tournament. Or that
00:50could be that the top sides just haven't turned up. Yeah I think it really
00:53affected the quality of those group games. A lot of teams are just looking
00:57out for draws and I can't see beyond that. That was really a negative aspect
01:01to the football and it really sort of it really hindered the viewing quality of
01:06the especially early stages of the tournament. It is something they're going
01:08to continue though. UEFA themselves believe that the 2014 format is a
01:12success and with the Euro 2020 being across Europe with games all over the
01:17continent, it does seem something that they're actually going to persist. It's
01:21something that they think has been a triumph for football. Smaller
01:24nations have actually done well in the tournament. The problem is that you can't
01:30really change the actual draw format. You're always going to have that third
01:33place, something that has to get into the knockout stage. It's that conundrum isn't it?
01:38You look at the four best-placed teams that went in, you had Slovakia,
01:42Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland. Obviously
01:47Portugal went on to win it and also Northern Ireland didn't go much further
01:52did they? Slovakia? I think the problem is that it's getting that
01:58halfway house that is satisfactory for everyone. Do you go up to 32,
02:02then UEFA's point is that your bread and butter of international football, which
02:07is the qualifying, becomes affected. You're almost guaranteed to get into it in the
02:11first place. The qualifying becomes obsolete. So for better or for worse, what
02:17teams have kind of surprised you guys the most over the last four weeks? You
02:21have to go for Iceland and Wales. They're the two teams. Before the
02:24tournament I would have said Iceland and Wales. I would have written them off as
02:27bottom of the group teams and they've gone and surprised everyone really.
02:31Getting to the quarters for Iceland and getting to the semis for Wales. Can't
02:35look beyond those two. Wales even more so than Iceland. I mean to achieve what
02:39they've done getting to the semifinals is absolutely magnificent.
02:42Iceland added so much to the tournament. And on the flip side, and certainly from
02:47Duncan I think I might know the answer to this, but what teams have kind of let
02:51the side down a little bit? Who has been least impressive? Well you know at the
02:55beginning of the tournament when you asked me which team I thought was going to win, I wasn't going to remind you.
02:59England might have been the biggest disappointing factor of this
03:04tournament for me personally. I think this man probably reveled in it a bit more.
03:09Absolutely. That I agree with you a hundred percent. The reveling part. I actually
03:12disagree with you in terms of the disappointment though to an extent. I'll
03:15temper this. England obviously was I mean the biggest shock in international
03:19football England losing to Iceland. But my point is always that the expectation
03:23levels on England are far far too high. England got where they should get in a
03:27tournament. About perhaps they should get to quarterfinals. England doing
03:31exceptionally well to get to the semifinals. The expectation levels heaped
03:35upon them by the country's media and the fans is unrealistic. The biggest
03:39disappointment for me at Euro 2016 was Belgium. Belgium by far who I tipped
03:45as the winners of the tournament and who just didn't really show up as a team.
03:48They disappointed again. The talent in that squad is phenomenal and they just
03:54don't quite seem to gel. They just don't seem quite to get it. And the
03:58Wales quarterfinal when they were beaten by a team proved that completely.
04:03Again coming into the tournament we talked about Belgium and look back to
04:08the last World Cup. They only got to the quarters. They didn't really impress.
04:10They've come in heavily ranked as well. They were ranked number two in the world.
04:14Ridiculous. What have they ever achieved to get number two in the world?
04:17That's the FIFA rankings for you. And then they've got
04:21obviously pressure from that going in. So they in the same vein as England there
04:24was a lot of pressure on them. Maybe their media is not as crazy as the
04:27English press. The interesting thing now is that the Belgium FA are saying
04:30they can't afford to sack Mark Wilmots. I mean it seems obvious that someone else
04:34deserves a shot with his phenomenally talented group of footballers but they're
04:39saying his payoff would be more than a million euros and they can't actually
04:42afford to get rid of him. They need to win something to get rid of him.
04:47Now UEFA have named France's Antoine Griezmann as their player with the
04:50tournament. Do you guys agree with that? Yeah totally totally. I mean they
04:54obviously didn't win it. Didn't have the greatest final but he scored the most
04:57goals. I think he'll fit to the OptoStats. Best striker in the year. Can't look
05:01beyond him. I think it's actually very difficult to find anyone else that would
05:05I mean it really has been a necklace quote from Henny Winter of the times. I
05:10completely it's been a tournament of occasional comments rather than a galaxy
05:15of stars. The big names really didn't turn up at all. There's been very few
05:20very impressive performances from the ones that you expected before the tour
05:24and that has been a huge disappointment. In a regular tournament Griezmann might
05:27not have got the player of the tournament would he? I mean not winning the final.
05:33He was always one of those names that was going to be. I mean he did so well with
05:36Atletico Madrid's but when you look at who else can challenge? Gareth Bale.
05:41Gareth didn't even meet the UEFA's team of the tournament you know. It's been
05:45disappointing in that respect. The big teams didn't show up. The big players
05:48didn't show up. In all I'd say it's been a pretty disappointing tournament.
05:52I think we were talking about this the other day when we were looking
05:55back. Can you remember a more disappointing tournament? I can't.
06:00Not in my life. A more forgettable tournament. Particularly when you compare it to my
06:05favorite tournament which is Euro 2000 and the quality in that was
06:10unbelievable. When you look at Italy got to the semi-final. It was a brilliant team.
06:14You look at the Netherlands. Italy saw in the final. The Netherlands were
06:18sensational getting to the semi-final and you actually look at the quality like
06:21you take Griezmann okay. Take this France squad team that you have at the
06:26moment. Compare that to the World Cup 98 team and the Euro 2000 team. Who out of
06:31the current crop would actually get in that team? Griezmann maybe, maybe.
06:36Not with Thierry Henry and not with Nicolas Anelka. David Trezeguet. Zidane just
06:41behind them as well. Pogba was hugely disappointing. I mean you put Pogba ahead
06:45of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Baty, perhaps Lloris ahead of Barthez.
06:51Really disappointing tournament in terms of Germany not showing up fully. Spain sort
06:55of fading didn't they and Italy you know they're always up there but this
06:59year I really wrote them off like I wrote them off going into the tournament.
07:03I didn't think their squad, looking through their squad, it didn't look good but they
07:05really punched above their weight to get where they got. I agree. The one I disagree
07:09with Germany to an extent because I think Germany just lacked a centre
07:12forward. Even against France in the semi-final if they had taken the chances
07:16that came their way, if they had had a goal scorer, I think Germany would have...
07:20Muller, very disappointing. Very disappointing. Which nation brought the
07:24best supporters along with them to this tournament after the routine
07:27unpleasantness we saw in the first couple of games. Certainly they looked
07:31like a bit of a carnival atmosphere certainly when we got to the round of 16.
07:34For me, looking at the best fans I'd say Ireland, Iceland obviously were there,
07:38Viking clap. Wales got a good... Wales fans got a good sort of
07:45reception as well didn't they for their good spirited... And not forgetting of
07:50course Will Greggs on fire. The song of the tournament. Didn't get a game did he? Didn't get a minute on the pitch and yet he's most rememberable.
08:00We can air that if you want to sing the whole chorus. No, we're passing that. Will Greggs on fire.
08:07Now of course the biggest talking point is of course the fact that Portugal, against
08:11all the odds let's be honest, went on to win the European Championships. How on
08:15earth did they do that? Go on. No idea. I don't even think that's an incorrect answer to
08:25give. Honestly no idea. Most undeserving champions in European Championship
08:29history. Wouldn't disagree. If you look back to 04 which of course was held in
08:33Portugal and they lost to Greece in the final. Greece won matches throughout that
08:37tournament. They're a Portuguese team who have won one out of seven matches in normal
08:42time. Greece had the same pragmatic approach as Portugal or rather Portugal
08:46had the same pragmatic approach as Greece but I think that because Greece
08:50were underdogs, massive underdogs going into that tournament, people let them off
08:54the pragmatism because they understood it because they needed to be like that.
08:57Portugal, the players they've got, they should have played better than they did.
09:02Far better. Far far better. I mean as we were saying, if you'd said Portugal are
09:06going to win this as a dark horse, yeah you'd expect the top players, the
09:09Ronaldo's to be outstanding, top players to turn up. Wasn't the case at all.
09:14Their winning this underlines how disappointing the tournament was for me
09:17because if you finish third in the group you shouldn't get out of the
09:22group. Three draws, they got through and then they've not won a game in 90
09:27minutes other than the semi-final that. One out of seven. One win out of seven
09:32matches. Listen, if we were sitting here before the tournament which we were and
09:35one of us had said dark horse champions Portugal, we'd have gone yeah I can see
09:39that you know Ronaldo's there, they've got some good players but no one would
09:43have thought it would have been because you know Ronaldo had a superb tournament.
09:46Everyone's firing. Exactly. Portugal are so disappointed. They really were so
09:51disappointed. I mean bar the final, semi-final they did a job against Wales.
09:56One win out of seven matches, the manner in which they got through, the Croatia
10:01game was an offence to football, it was so bad. That's probably the worst game
10:05of the tournament. Easily the worst game of football I've ever seen in my life.
10:09You speak to Portugal fans after the Hungary draw, they drew 3-3. I was in Lyon for
10:13that game outside the stadium. They were saying we want to get, hopefully this
10:18coach gets sacked. You know we're not playing well enough to get past the last
10:2316 and I believe them, they were playing awful. In that Hungary game
10:27they actually played really well but that's because their lives depended on
10:30it and they needed to get, Hungary went ahead each time and they were just
10:33pulling it back. Ronaldo had a great game to be fair but over the course of the
10:37tournament I thought Ronaldo was pretty mediocre and it's all this stuff about
10:41oh you know the the outpouring of affection for Ronaldo after winning this,
10:46after Portugal won this, it's just been a bit confusing. I mean he played 24
10:50minutes, came off injured and then maybe okay he was a good cheerleader but
10:54after that I mean I can't really see, it's not you know, I'd have got the
10:59winning goal unless I saw a different game. I'm not sure, did he come back on?
11:04He was certainly ADN.
11:05Seriously on Ronaldo, he's not even been replayed in his correct position, he's
11:10not a centre-forward, him and Nani have not gelled properly
11:15throughout the tournament. Portugal won that in the final through their defence,
11:18Pepe was outstanding, Santos got his tactics spot on,
11:24Cavallo just right front there to stop the supply line to Griezmann.
11:28And that's what they did successfully, they didn't totally stop that supply line,
11:31Griezmann should have had, you know, he should have got some of those goals from
11:34the efforts he had, he should have scored.
11:36They had the goalkeeper in a magnificent game in the final as well.
11:38Great goalkeeping, great defence, Portugal did well to cut out the options and then
11:41they got that strike which is a moment of magic and that's what you need to look at.
11:44It was but even then, like as I say, the moment of magic has come from a referee
11:49error, I really do believe that. If Koscielny has not been booked two
11:53minutes before that for a handball that actually Eder's handled, Koscielny
11:57just goes to the back of him, he just commits a professional foul, takes a
12:01yellow card, there's a free kick to Portugal but because he's already turned
12:04him, it's in the back, I'm going to go off if I touch him and that allows Eder
12:08to actually get the turn away and get the shot in.
12:10Where do France go from here?
12:13I don't think you should be too despondent if you are Didier Deschamps or if you're
12:18a France fan. There are enough there to give you encouragement and there's enough
12:23young players in the French squads too. Umtiti came in and did well at the back,
12:29obviously Griezmann, Griezmann's very young as well, even performances from
12:33the likes of Payet who apparently West Ham are valuing £50 million now which
12:38would seem to be dead money if you want to pay £50 million for a 29-year-old but
12:42someone who perhaps hadn't proven himself or he hasn't given the opportunity to
12:46prove himself, came in and did well at different points during the tournament.
12:51I think France can look forward to 2018 in Russia with some confidence. I wouldn't
12:56think it would be beyond the realms of possibility that France could go to Russia
13:00and win that tournament.
13:01I'd be a bit negative, I think this was their chance to win it at home and they
13:03messed up and you know, either the players bounce back from that or this was their
13:09moment and they go for a bit of a dry run but yeah they're all young aren't they
13:12so they can, in their minds this will make them more sort of, you know, more resilient,
13:18more wanting to get back to winning ways but it's really...
13:21I think there's more to come from them though, Pogba obviously was one of the
13:24massive disappointments of the tournament, they have you from their side.
13:29Well thank you very much gentlemen. So no sooner have we said goodbye to Euro 2016
13:34as we look forward to the beginning of the new domestic seasons which begin
13:38all around the world over the next few weeks. As ever you can catch the latest
13:42news, views, pictures and results on golfnews.com, thank you very much for watching.