Four La Liga-based players have been named in the Euro 2016 Team of the Tournament, but Gareth Bale is not one of them.
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Allen, alongside his Wales teammates, defied expectation as they reached the semi-final of the European Championships for the first time in their history. “I really wanted to offer them this trophy, but I couldn’t score and I’m disappointed”, the Atletico de Madrid star who scored twice against Germany in the semi-finals added.
Though he could not fire Les Bleus to glory against Portugal in the final, Griezmann had been at his influential best for much of the knockout stage. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.theeagleonline.com.ng as the source.
The Euro 2016 final is finally here.
“We’ve said to ourselves on the bus, imagine if we had won the tournament”.
So Euro 2016 is at an end (at last!) and let’s be honest, most of the 51 games we witnessed lacked intrigue, excitement and any real semblance of quality.
Portugese captain Ronaldo went off injured during the final but was selected in the team after scoring a sequence of brilliant goals throughout the tournament, including a brilliant back-heel against Hungary.
With the exclusions of many key players, not many expected Italy to even come of a group that contained Belgium, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.
Griezmann and midfield schemer Dimitri Payet were included in the Uefa team of the tournament named Monday, as was Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo, who was stretchered off injured and in tears after a crunching tackle by Payet. With a prancing horse run-up that made him the butt of online jokes, Zaza was one of four Italy players who failed to convert in the 6-5 penalty win for the world champions.
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So UEFA’s argument that the 24-team tournament gave the chance for a Cinderella story or two to emerge does not stack up.
