UEFA Euro 2021 But Yet Somehow Still Euro 2020 Finals

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It's absolutely not that simple.

To give you an extreme example, a player standing 30 yards offside standing directly in front of the goalkeeper so that the keeper cannot see would be offside, whether they made any move towards the ball or not. This is covered in the "interfering with play" portion of the offside rules.

Here's IFAB's guidance - pay close attention to the "on becoming involved in active play" portion:


I've not watched a second of Euro 2020 so far, but I've dug out the Ronaldo goal against Germany...

It looks like Ronaldo is in an offside position when the first ball is played, as he is nearer the goal line than the second-last opponent - which is not an offence.

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It looks like Ronaldo is again in offside position when the second ball is played, as part of his head/body/feet (his knee) is nearer the goal line than the second-last opponent, though he is behind the ball - and it is immaterial in any case due to the first offside position.

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It looks like Neuer gets a touch on the ball with his left foot, which both is rebounding from an opponent and a deliberate save of a ball near a goal, though it is actually immaterial whether he does or not due to the above offside position:

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And then Ronaldo, who is no longer in an offside position, plays the ball:

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Let's refer back to the rules again:

Check.

Check.

And if Neuer did touch it:

It's pretty much a slam dunk of an offside offence.

And yes, so was Germany's third goal - but not Gnabry. Gnabry was in an offside position but didn't commit an offside offence. Havertz, who scored the goal, was so far offside he'd still be offside now and committed the offside offence when he subsequently played the ball to score:

View attachment 1062524

I also checked out the Portugal/France game and, yep, France's penalty was absolute nonsense. Lloris was also very unlucky - he did just clip the ball before punching the Portuguese player in the head.

It seems the officiating in that group has been pretty substandard, despite VAR. I can't speak for the rest of the tournament however.
Apologies for dragging this up again but I've just read it.

I think your interpretation of the law is not how FIFA implement it, although it is a valid interpretation of the wording of the law. I'll try to explain what I mean using the Portugal goal in your post.

Offside offence
A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:
  • interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate
Ronaldo is only off side if he touches or attempts to play the ball passed by Silva. Once it goes to Jota it is a new phase. The teammate referred to in the text is Silva in this case. This law means it is no longer an automatic offence to be in an offside position when a teammate plays the ball. The player must also be active, and as Ronaldo didn't attempt to play Silva's pass he is deemed to be inactive. He can get involved in the play immediately after Jota touches the ball.

This part of the law also addresses a situation where the ball is played towards Ronaldo. If he doesn't attempt to play the ball, or prevent an opponent from playing the ball, he is also deemed to be inactive. If an onside teammate collects Silva's pass Ronaldo is permitted to get involved in the play immediately, if he has gotten himself into an onside position.

Everything that happens after Jota collects the ball is moot since Ronaldo is onside when Jota passes.
 
Sensational play from Sterling... creates the opportunity, (brilliantly) checks back to stay onside and then scores the goal...

In such a tightly matched game, it needed a stroke of brilliance to make the difference....
 
I wasn't going to post anything until those two very close Offside decisions were checked but...

KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEE
 
Pickford's epic save at the beginning of the second half was just as vital as Sterling's goal.
Indeed... even in slow motion that was an impressive save... real-time, it was staggeringly good.

Kane did what he needed to do, but was still very unimpressive. Grealish surely must start from now, but Sterling... wow... absolutely superb.

A well deserved win for England, even if the game was bit disappointing - albeit only because of the tension involved. Germany just don't have the standout player(s) required... England, fortunately, do.
 
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England 2-0 Germany.

Sterling and Kane with assists from Shaw and Grealish, quite an even game but England did enough in the second half, Pickford made a great save and Muller missed a sitter, Grealish made a big difference when he came on, Saka was good too and so were Philips, Shaw and Sterling.

All three big teams from that group of death fall at the last 16 stage!
 
Given the ridiculously dumb behaviour of Scotland fans in England, Group D is probably the real group of death... or should that be Group Delta 🥵
 
Germany against England/Germany against Portugal
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Deserved win for England, although terrible game by Germany. Gnabry came in just to give away the ball for the second goal, other than that, atleast Werner was doing something.

I wonder if the teams frome the group of death are falling apart due to, not only dhaving less time to rest between the group stage and last 16, but also the way that group was comprised of high intensity games until the end, where literally no team had an easy game, compared to the other groups.

Anyways, although I'm still angry for losing to Belgium, these Euro is getting interesting, with more than half the main contenders out already, and the rest of the big teams going through not very convincingly. Denmark might win it all, right now I wouldn't be surprised at all.
 
The game was so boring that I spent 10 minutes trying to remember Maguire's first name.....

Every time I see the Swedish lineup I cringe. Ukraine will not be easy at all.
 
I wonder if the teams frome the group of death are falling apart due to, not only dhaving less time to rest between the group stage and last 16, but also the way that group was comprised of high intensity games until the end, where literally no team had an easy game, compared to the other groups.

Anyways, although I'm still angry for losing to Belgium, these Euro is getting interesting, with more than half the main contenders out already, and the rest of the big teams going through not very convincingly. Denmark might win it all, right now I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Funnily enough, Jermaine Jenas (the co-commentator for the game on the BBC) was harping on a few days ago about exactly that... only his opinion was that the teams coming out of that group would've "warmed up" because of the intensity, so to speak.

A bigger factor would be the condensed league season, there's been a few players out there looking very leggy right from the off.

E: And yes, with France sliding out I can't call a clear favourite out of the QF's.
 
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This law means it is no longer an automatic offence to be in an offside position when a teammate plays the ball. The player must also be active, and as Ronaldo didn't attempt to play Silva's pass he is deemed to be inactive.
Agreed, this is how I recall the offside rule as well, but wasn't quite sure.

Good to see England win over Germany!
 
Funnily enough, Jermaine Jenas (the co-commentator for the game on the BBC) was harping on a few days ago about exactly that... only his opinion was that the teams coming out of that group would've "warmed up" because of the intensity, so to speak.

A bigger factor would be the condensed league season, there's been a few players out there looking very leggy right from the off.

E: And yes, with France sliding out I can't call a clear favourite out of the QF's.
Are these teams going to go play in the Olympics also?
 
Funnily enough, Jermaine Jenas (the co-commentator for the game on the BBC) was harping on a few days ago about exactly that... only his opinion was that the teams coming out of that group would've "warmed up" because of the intensity, so to speak.

A bigger factor would be the condensed league season, there's been a few players out there looking very leggy right from the off.

E: And yes, with France sliding out I can't call a clear favourite out of the QF's.
Yeah, I also heard that France would "up his game" once they got out of the group, and yet it didn't happened. Out of that group, the only team that appeared to be improving was precisely Portugal, which was superior to Belgium, the number 1 ranked team in the world. It may make sense in a way, that on national level, these players would get better the more games they play together. The problem is that it is at the end of a though season, even though players might get better chemistry between them, and get "warmed up", some will eventually get tired. With France, they might have been thinking the game would be easy against Switzerland, weren't focused enough, and in the end they lost.

I also wonder which team is now the favourite. Italy maybe, although they weren't that good against Austria, or Belgium, which were bad but got past a higher ranked team, compared to Austria, Spain has been meh, but they could take advantage of how bad the rest of the big teams have been, England on the other side of the table has a fairly clear path to the final, although any surprise could happen, while Denmark is the dark horse.
 
How is Besedin not on the fastest stretcher to hospital. The slowmo made that tackle look like his leg snapped just below the knee. That was an awful tackle, yet he was helped to hobble off! Ukrainian bones are made of strong stuff it seems.
 
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