Under 21 Euro Championship

[FarmHoop]

Portugal 0-0 Italy, extra time, good match

[JoeSemi]

Watched most of the tournament and felt it was tough on England going out in that manner. What annoyed me as much as anything watching the penalties was how inept Carson was at even guessing the right way! Surely if he had stayed on his feet for a split second to see where each penalty was going he'd have given himself a fighting chance of stopping a few more. Its a real blood boiler of mine watching keepers in shootouts trying to guess. Anything down the middle or badly hit should be saved if you wait to see what direction the ball goes. Anyway.....got that off my chest

All in all a few players have stood out; mostly those who few had heard of or seen prior to the tournament, namely Drenthe, Veloso, Mirallas and Chiellini. Refs were too whistle happy and really ruined some games. UEFA have a lot to blame for of late and need to get their act together on this score aswell as the racism which marred the England-Serbia game.

Final Saturday and pray to the high heavens the Dutch come away with a victory for the sake of football.

[Hibs4Ever]

Watched most of the tournament and felt it was tough on England going out in that manner. What annoyed me as much as anything watching the penalties was how inept Carson was at even guessing the right way! Surely if he had stayed on his feet for a split second to see where each penalty was going he'd have given himself a fighting chance of stopping a few more. Its a real blood boiler of mine watching keepers in shootouts trying to guess. Anything down the middle or badly hit should be saved if you wait to see what direction the ball goes. Anyway.....got that off my chest

All in all a few players have stood out; mostly those who few had heard of or seen prior to the tournament, namely Drenthe, Veloso, Mirallas and Chiellini. Refs were too whistle happy and really ruined some games. UEFA have a lot to blame for of late and need to get their act together on this score aswell as the racism which marred the England-Serbia game.

Final Saturday and pray to the high heavens the Dutch come away with a victory for the sake of football.

Serbia are best team in it, I reckon they'll win

[Stuttgart88]

Another Brian Marwood comment that p1ssed me off was when Nugent was booked for a lunging challenge from behind on a Dutch defender in what was a 50/50 situation.

He ranted "You can't book him for that, he had every right to go for that ball, every right".

True, but the Dutch guy got there first and would have had possession in clear space to develop play.

Nugent went for the ball honestly, missed it by a fair bit, took the man down and to his team's advantage. Why is that NOT a yellow card?

[CollegeTillIDie]

There are some things you can rely on in life a) It always rains in Ireland b) England always lose penalty shoot-outs. Not sure why that is reckon it's a mental issue. They don't have the same mental toughness as other nations.
That's what being really ''hard'' is in sports terms not cracking under pressure.

Anyway if Serbia do win the Under 21's, and from what I gather, they are on football terms at least deservedly in the final ,the best course of action on the Racism front would be to Ban them from next year's championship. Banning the champions would send a real message to the nutty racist element in their support

[DaveyCakes]

why would you give them credit for losing on penalties.... again!

i think it further goes to show that english teams lack the mental strength that other teams possess.

loosing a lead in the last minutes and then getting knocked out on penalties... nothing to be proud of there methinks.... wouldn't happen to the italians or germans. should dispel the myth that english football is up there with the best. the premiership is one of the top leagues alright but the english national teams are still well behind.

Holland are probably the only team that an England side could have any hope of beating on penalties, but they lost again. Their "Penalties are a lottery" mentality is a big part of it.