In short: Thank God the dour uninspiring Euro 2016 is over!
Or as the BBC chief football writer aptly put it: "Portugal were the winners best suited to Euro 2016 - unspectacular, not easy on the eye, but got the job done"
The fact is, a 24 team tournament that "rewarded 4 out of the best 3rd placed teams" (which included Portugal with 3 draws) was bound to produce many "park the bus for a draw" results & it duly did!
However, the dourness continued into most of the knockout stage matches & went all the day to the final, with very few matches in the entire tournament producing shear exciting moments.
The odd few that were great matches, e.g. Italy vs Germany & France vs Germany, were highly tactical matches more reserved for admiration of football purists than most fans.
On the positive side Iceland & Wales over achieved & produced reasonably attractive football, and many fans were vibrant & inspiring (e.g. Iceland, Irish, Welsh German & French, but not so were Russian & English fans)
It was also inspiring to see France & her people & visiting fans take on the beautiful streets of host cities & reclaim their beautiful country from the horrors of terrorism.
On the "as expected" side, a much media hyped England side once again arrived short of tactical maturity & exited in embarrassment in early stages. (somethings never change!)
And so, Ronaldo can now claim a major international trophy with Portugal to compliment the long list of his trophy cabinet in England & Spain…….and that is something that Ronaldo & his fans can brag about when they compare him to Lionel Messi, who for the third consecutive major final with Argentina failed to break the curse & win anything.
But the most critical issue from Euro 2016 must surely be the fact that many players simply looked tired after a long European season & the fact that thanks to the success of the likes of Leicester City & Atletico Madrid, the dour defensive counter attacking "anti football" tactics are back in full fashion amongst many coaches!
All we can do now is to hope the new European season can put uninspiring Euro 2016 behind it, players can be energised & coaches can bring exciting attacking football back to life once again!
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