Brief overlook at the Euro 2016 performances

The month long, European football festival came to a close with the final match pitting a resilient Portugal and the host nation France. While the French maintained their classic attacking football, the Portuguese maintain a disciplined tactical and defensive play while maximizing on counter attacks. This gave them a goal in the extra-time making them the reigning champions of Europe.

This week Sports Legal looks at the tournament; what were the high moments, the low moments, the classic times and the new revelations in the tournament, a little glance at the history of the tournament.

The UEFA Euro championship was founded in 1960 as the continental football championship. The tournament has been held after every four years in the even numbered years and was designed to have 16 teams. The host teams having automatic qualification while the remaining 15 battle through rounds of qualifications. This year’s championship was however different courtesy of the new FIFA administration.

 The tournament had 24 teams in 6 groups making way for 8 more teams. This no doubt made the championship more colorful and competitive.  Yet it is the one thing that pundits may look at as taking the edge  out of the game as Portugal, the champions qualified as best losers  and may be criticized for depending on penalty shoot outs to win most of their matches, well we can only wait for the jury on that one.

What are the classical moments? Many fans will remember the matches between Belgium and Italy, England and Wales, Germany and France, Belgium and Wales, Spain and Italy to mention but a few. These bought to life the European football, characterized by properly organized teams, clear football philosophies and cultures coupled with the hard work and passion from both the players and their coaches.

The Spaniards did not disappoint as they came with the slick passing and the tic-tac touches of the ball, the Belgians, English and the Welsh came with the typical English speed game that often metamorphosis into counter attacks while the Italians came with the defensive master class with the long passes. Lastly, the Germans would not miss a chance of showcasing their prowess by playing the different styles depending on the opponent. All these are nice recipes of European soccer.

 What about the goals? The tournament witnessed a couple of classics from Radja Nainggolan, Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud, Romelu Lukaku, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann going with the golden boots. Eden Hazard, Cristiano Ronaldo and Aaron Ramsey will be accredited for having the highest number of assists in the tournament

On the flip side Euro 2016 will go down in history as the tournament that did not have many players sent off, though the games were many times highly tense with a lot of tackles flying through. Most teams demonstrated a very high level of defensive discipline that was admirable. The surprise team is definitely Iceland. They proved to be united, demonstrated hard work and surprised many in the World. What are the revelations? Well Renato Sanchez’ prowess in the midfield has led him to Bayern Munich and of course the dazzling Antoine Griezmann. As the clubs prepare to start the season, they will surely mine from the talent showcased in the Euro 2016.

The low moments of the tournament will be the cases of violence between the English and Russians fans. For sure violence should never be part of the beautiful game. The fans should only be there to spice up the game.

In Conclusion, with the twists and turns, the tournament has been a success and has brought light to many people. History will surely record it in good light. Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Portugal.