{"id":5857,"date":"2016-06-18T21:24:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T01:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=5857"},"modified":"2016-06-19T11:26:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T15:26:46","slug":"5857","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=5857","title":{"rendered":"Euro Cup &#8211; Day 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Romania v. Albania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first of our final group stage games here, as Group A will wrap things up with the only two games of the day, both at 3 PM. \u00a0Are these two eastern European countries under-rated, or are France and Switzerland over-rated? \u00a0We won&#8217;t find out until the knock-out round, I guess, but although these teams come into this with 1 point combined, they&#8217;ve both been impressive. \u00a0They both took mighty France to the brink, with a tie game until the very late stages in each. \u00a0And they both played right with Switzerland, as well.<\/p>\n<p>There was a lot of talk coming into this tournament about how some third-place teams being able to advance would effect the tournament. \u00a0As far as I can tell (which might not be totally right), 4 points basically guarantees an advance to the knock-out stage. \u00a0Even with just three points and 0 goal differential, you&#8217;re probably getting through. \u00a0So, for this game? \u00a0A Romania win should advance them through. \u00a0Albania is probably done no matter what, with 0 points and a -3 differential, but it tells you something that they&#8217;re not eliminated already. \u00a0They both know they&#8217;re going home with a draw, which tends to make for some exciting games.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0<\/em>Romania 1, Albania 1<\/p>\n<p><strong>France v. Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was an interesting line-up switch by French coach Didier Deschamps to put two of his top-rated players, Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann, on the bench to start their game vs. Albania. \u00a0Of course, when your midfield is as loaded as theirs, there&#8217;s always going to be some top players left out of the starting line-up. \u00a0But it seems like he was trying to send a message to Pogba about how he wants him to play, and Griezmann was most likely left out because he&#8217;s pretty fatigued from a long season at Atletico Madrid that just ended in the Champions League final on Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, it will be interesting to see if they&#8217;re back in against Switzerland. \u00a0Even though Griezmann came on and scored the game-winner vs. Albania, I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see him on the bench to start again, because if you want to get him rest this is a good time, as they&#8217;ve already clinched a spot in the knock-out stage. \u00a0Whether or not Pogba is back in there is probably more interesting, because if he&#8217;s not that might mean Deschamps has decided to go away from him for the remainder of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Switzerland has all but locked up a spot in the knock-out stage, as well, with four points through their first two matches. \u00a0But both of these teams have failed to impress thus far and could grab some momentum with a strong performance here.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0<\/em>France 2, Switzerland 0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romania v. Albania The first of our final group stage games here, as Group A will wrap things up with the only two games of the day, both at 3 PM. \u00a0Are these two eastern European countries under-rated, or are &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=5857\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5858,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}