Euro 2012: Croatia 1-1 Italy
A good result, this for Croatia. Italy’s midfield trio of Pirlo, Purlo and Pairlo, combined with the rugged centre-back pairing of Chiellini and Collini, would have presented a challenge to...
Category "European Championships"
Euro 2012: Denmark 2-3 Portugal
What a strange game of football this was. Jamie Carragher in the ITV studio called it the tournament’s best to date. But Clyde Tyldesley in the ITV commentary box was...
Euro 2012: Germany 2-1 Netherlands
There are some football matches which transcend mere rivalry and tap into something more deep-seated, as if they tickle a synapse that we may even think that we have evolved...
New Century, Old Tensions: Russian & Polish Supporters Clash In Warsaw
For those amongst us of a certain age, the scenes from the streets of Warsaw yesterday afternoon and evening had a wearyingly familiar look to them – streets of mostly...
Euro 2012: Poland 1-1 Russia
Some matches have a backdrop that is more than just about football, and with more than a dozen military conflicts between the two nations over the last millennia, feelings run...
Magical Flag Moments From Euro 2012
Liverpool-based artist Dave Williams has designed sixteen magic moments for this years European Championships – one for each competing country – based upon the flags of this summers competing nations....
For The King, The Empire And John Terry: The Wing Commander Writes On England Vs France
Regular – or indeed occasional – readers of the When Saturday Comes magazine forum will probably already be aware of the writings of the Wing Commander, the last living remnant...
Euro 2012: Ukraine 2-1 Sweden
So when did Kiev host the Olympics? I always thought that an Olympic Stadium had to have at least held one. Not that it matters, of course, as the stadium...
Euro 2012: England 1-1 France
For thirty-five minutes in Donetsk earlier this evening, England confounded our expectations. We knew that tonights performance was unlikely to be the prettiest in the world and that manager Roy...
The Calm Before The England Storm
If this summers European Championships have felt a little unusual so far, with the rain and the old school hooliganism and all – Fighting stewards inside a ground! How quaint!...
Euro 2012: Croatia 3-1 Republic Of Ireland
If only Robbie Keane’s singing voice had been the low point of the evening. The lyricism of the Irish language is not exactly enhanced by the Dublin accent. When you...
Euro 2012: Italy 1-1 Spain
Two of the grand masters of European football cancelled each other out this evening in Gdansk in other match which gave away almost entirely nothing about where the Henri Delaunay...
Come On You Boys In Green! A Second-Generation Irishmans Euro 2012 Perspective
It’s a difficult choice. Are Italian boss Giovanni Trapattoni’s “well-drilled” Ireland team more difficult to beat, or to watch? Such is the quality of Ireland’s Group C opponents in Euro...
Euro 2012: Germany 1-0 Portugal
It is a reflection of the curve ball that was thrown into Group B of this summers European Championships that, whilst Portugal may have left the pitch at the end...
Euro 2012: Denmark 1-0 Netherlands
Luck, we could posit, is more complex than simply being a matter of black and white. Whilst the Netherlands have a right to feel a little aggrieved that a couple...
Euro 2012: Russia 4-1 Czech Republic
There is a school of thought which suggests that part of the reason behind the global success of football lays in its occasionally ruthless depiction of the fallibility of humanity....
Euro 2012: Greece 1-1 Poland
Euro 2012 kicked off with a bang as the opening game served up something for everyone. Two goals from comedy goalkeeping errors, a controversial sending off, a cast-iron sending off,...
Euro 2012: The Runners & Riders – England
Perfidious Albion. The pantomime villains of international football. The team that everybody loves to hate. This year, however, it had been starting to look as if England might have had...
What Not To Wear, European Special – The Kits Of Euro 2012
Football kits are very much in the news in recent days, since Cardiff City’s decision to switch from their traditional blue jerseys to a red shirt depicting Owain Glyndwr sat...
Euro Moments: England
This mornings Euro Moment comes from England, and features midfielder Stewart Downing standing in a glass box. It may just be for the best that he stays in there. This...