Of the teams that didn't qualify- who was the best of the lot and unlucky not to qualify

Russia

Poland

Holland

Denmark

Ireland

Croatia

Ukraine

Sweden

My vote is for Croatia.

Croatia are the only ones really. The ones who didn't qualify didn't deserve to. Russia got a lot of hype for destroying a bad Czech team, but then couldn't carry it through.

Croatia, easily.

Yes definitively Croatia, very unlucky to go out, they were very impressive against spain

Croatia and/or Denmark

Croatia, easily.

Croatia definitely. Blatant penalty turned down then concede an offside goal a minute later. So unfortunate. All of the other deserved to be eliminated.

spains goal wasnt offside though :confused:

Croatia

Russia are decent but also were in a weak group.

I don't see how he wasn't actively interfering with play on the initial ball even if he didn't receive it. Keeper clearly knew about him and therefore he affected the game.

'Knew about him' isn't really in the rule book though. Red's explanation is exactly right.

Even if that was allowed the penalty turned down would've probably given them a goal and therefore a 1-1 draw and qualification

Ireland, played fantastically well but were really unlucky and had rubbish ref decisions against them.

I'd say Croatia

I'd say Denmark as well, great comeback against Portugal only to lose out to a late winner, then probably should have had a penalty against Germany when score was still 1-1.

Could maybe make a case forr Sweden or Ukraine being a bit unlucky as well.

Ireland, played fantastically well but were really unlucky and had rubbish ref decisions against them.

yep, definitely.

special mention to sweden, they were initially leading against ukraine and they struck back twice and sweden lost. led against england and crumbled there too but had a deserved win against france. they were in a position to have won each of their games but only won one and lost the others.

Easily Croatia.

Croatia - they have a very, very nice team. Perhaps the best since 1998.

Sweden should be #2 (even though they were in the same group with Ukraine:) ).

Croatia and Sweden, though Sweden was more Ibrahimovic than anything else though.

Going to be two tough games against the Croats for Belgium in the WC qualifiers.

scotland....

Sweden

or croatia

Poland also really close.

We were easily the worst team in the tournament, Smuda wasted some great potential of four world-class players (Szczęsny and the BVB trio) and some decent ones (Wasilewski, Perquis, Polański, Dudka). We didn't manage to win a single match in the weakest group of all.

As for the topic, I'd say Croatia and Sweden.

Still can't believe Russia crashed out from such a relatively easy group. Didn't see their last match, though.

Denmark were unlucky and would have definitely deserved to advance, surely more than Portugal who "stole" the win in the deciding match and then took advantage of what was left of the Netherlands.

Croatia too... with a different schedule they'd probably have gone through. Also, along with Spain they should have known better and accepted the 2-2

Russia have only themselves to blame for throwing everything away in a very mediocre group.

Sweden were sort of unlucky but frankly when Plan A is "ball to Zlatan" and Plan B is "maybe we can score on a corner", failure is hardly a surprise.

Croatia. Good team as I expected.

And I will say Poland. They have good players but in my opinion the manager failed to do his job, especially against Greece. So passive...

I think they are better than Czech Republic, but the Czech manager could actually see what was wrong after that 1st game.

About Russia... well, they are good but... I think they are easy to nullify if you get your strategy right.

Croatia are the only ones really. The ones who didn't qualify didn't deserve to. Russia got a lot of hype for destroying a bad Czech team, but then couldn't carry it through.

what he said

We were easily the worst team in the tournament, Smuda wasted some great potential of four world-class players (Szczęsny and the BVB trio) and some decent ones (Wasilewski, Perquis, Polański, Dudka). We didn't manage to win a single match in the weakest group of all.

As for the topic, I'd say Croatia and Sweden.

I agree somewhat with your take on Poland, although I would say I thought they were far from the 'worst' team in terms of ability. The approach was wrong. Lewandowski was far too isolated most of the time, and the coach was guilty of being far too cautious.

Croatia and Sweden, though Sweden was more Ibrahimovic than anything else though.

Going to be two tough games against the Croats for Belgium in the WC qualifiers.

I honestly think the Danish team is better than Sweden's. On the other hand Denmark had a tougher group so perhaps we didn't deserve to go through.

Croatia and russia, the rule in the euros where score more goals means absolutely nothing is an absolute travesty!

Croatia and russia, the rule in the euros where score more goals means absolutely nothing is an absolute travesty!

Russia? They played arse-paralyzingly bad. BTW they didn't qualify because they lost to Greece. Why should 'score more goals' count?

Russia? They played arse-paralyzingly bad. BTW they didn't qualify because they lost to Greece. Why should 'score more goals' count?

Same points as Greece and a better goal difference, effectively turning the group stage into a knock-out stage! it doesn't encourage goalscoring and tbh goalscoring is what most watch football for!

Same points as Greece and a better goal difference, effectively turning the group stage into a knock-out stage! it doesn't encourage goalscoring and tbh goalscoring is what most watch football for!

Winning the game you should win - that's football. You score 15 goals against Moldova and lose game against team that scored only 10. Who is better?)

I honestly think the Danish team is better than Sweden's. On the other hand Denmark had a tougher group so perhaps we didn't deserve to go through.

Just a few years ago I would have disagreed quite strongly but not nowdays. Ibrahimovic is the only one of the Swedes that would be sure to get in a Danish team. Larsson could too unless you opted for a speedfreak on the right and Olsson on left back would have a slight chance but outside that you have better players on all positions, with centre midfield being the biggest difference.

Winning the game you should win - that's football. You score 15 goals against Moldova and lose game against team that scored only 10. Who is better?)

It's a league structure, it isn't about winning any one specific game it's about doing the best over all the games. I agree with Chr1s here, Russia had a better record and thus deserved to go through (even though they played spectacularly bad their last two games).