Euro 2016 - The big guns have failed to live up to the expectations so far

“Euro 2016 has seen some stunning goals, from Luka Modric’s volley against Turkey to Dimitri Payet’s curler in France’s opening game. But the standard of play has been consistently disappointing. In 44 matches before the quarterfinals, only 88 goals were scored. The ratio is the lowest since 1980, when 14 matches featuring eight teams produced just 27 goals”.

I fully agree with this statement. Euro and FIFA World Cup are such tournaments which unleashes some of the finest teams in the history of the game. If I talk about this year’s Euro, then, so far, none of the teams have lived up to the expectations of being great. They were just good, whereas, time and again, this tournament has gifted us majestic units like Germany in 1974, France in 1984, Holland in 1988, Portugal in 2000 and of course Spain in 2008 and 2012. But sadly, we have hardly seen any team to catch the imagination of the fans and critics.

The matches in the group stages were mostly dull affairs and the same can be said about the round of 16 games. Only Belgium seems to have been able to provide us the joy, but still, we can’t come to the conclusion that they can be as great as France 1984 or Holland 1988.

The way, Iceland are progressing and mediocre performers are laughing the last smile, I fear, of a frustrating end to this tournament. The best team might not lift the trophy. At times, such sort of ending of the mega events is quite unacceptable.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar