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With warm preemptive congratulations to Kanzlerin Baerbock :)
Your friendly bookie wholeheartedly endorses a German velvet revolution. Let's go Europe!
Day 10: Recap
Bookie’s Stats—
Spread: 8-18
Straight up: 11-10-5
How about that gentlemen? Looks like your friendly bookie knows how to set some lines and call a group after all. As always, a pleasure to take your money. Chill out. It's all coming back to you in the form of schwag packs. The tourney rolls on. The bookie gets stronger. The parcel comes to your door.
No real question as to who gets awarded the day on this occasion...or is there? You've all heard the glowing praise heaped upon Xherdan Shaqiri. Bookie never failed to remind you what a true specimen the "magical elf dwarf" is. In the event that you need another reminder:
Nothing beats those glamorous biceps. Your Bundesliga-loving bookie still wishes to call attention to the man behind the scenes. Say hello to the supplier of the assists on all three Swiss goals. Gentlemen, I give you TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt flop Steven Zuber!
Okay not quite as glamorous I admit. On top of that, thigh tattoos should probably be reserved for females. Still happy the man got his "hat trick of assists".
S.S.S. Tactical Breakdown 
Congratulations to the Welsh dragons on (as predicted) advancing despite the loss. Tonight belongs to the victors. Apart from awarding them them front picture privileges in the Day Six recap, we last took an in-depth look at the Azzuri all the way back on Day One. We're caught up with the Swiss after a Day Six tactical rant.
We'll take a quick look at the Italian 4-3-3 with the round two board. This shall serve as a nice refresher of what is to come during the Squadra's title bid.
Lineup—Italy—Match Two (4-3-3) (6/16/2021)
Just the one like-for-like swap for the round two shellacking of the Swiss. Giovanni di Lorenzo took over for Alessandro Florenzi at right fullback. No difference. This 4-3-3 hummed along just fine. This is the system. We'll see it again.
When writing up the most recent set of lines, the bookie predicted some squad rotations. So did countless others. Few expected eight fucking personnel swaps and a system change. This was something!
Lineup—Italy—Match Three (4-2-3-1) (6/20/2021)
Jorginho and Leonardo Bonnucci were the only outfielders to remain on. Many of us still don't have a great deal of respect for Rob Page's Wales. Mancini appears to have been of the same mind. His B-squad annotated the Cyd. Pessina, Belotti, and Chiesa pummeled them pretty hard early. This could have finished 3-0 too.
Certainly some food for thought here. Good Italian food too. Lots of pesto and olive oil. Expert midfield string puller Jorginho paired with the returning Marco Veratti in the double-six setup. As you can see above, I have the Brazilian working a slight stagger ahead of the PSG star. Wonder if we'll see this again?
Bernadeschi may have been the weakest of the new attackers, but he did draw a lot of coverage. He was also quite interesting on set pieces. The whole team looked strong on standards actually. The only criticism was that Mancini maybe revealed too much in a meaningless match.
Welcome to the next phase, amico intimo! You should have no problems against the Group C runner up. Might as well punch that ticket to the quarters now. That means you'll be visiting Munich. Sadly, Germany won't be there.
Onwards to the Swiss. At long last Vladimir Petkovic engineered a solid victory. Granted, it came against the totally flat Turks. Bookie remains grateful that he got to see at least some solid Swiss engineering this tournament.
Lineup—Switzerland—Match Three (3-4-3) (6/20/2021)
Much better. Bringing on Zuber counts as one of the most ingenious tactical masterstroke of the tournament. Even though this is a 3-4-3, Petkovic dispenses with the whole notion of wingbacks and brings on genuine wingers. Both Widmer and Zuber had a very good match.
It took some stones to bench Fabian Schär and allow Manuel Akanji to run pivot. After toying around with the two-striker set far too long, the Swiss trainer moved Embolo back to give Shaqiri more space. Duh. This could have been done last match.
Seferovic's early goal didn't have much of anything to do with tactics, but it enabled everyone in this constellation to play much looser. The difference in Xhaka's performance was night and day. Zuber and Embolo could have bagged braces with all the chances they got. Shaqiri narrowly missed a hat trick.
Glückwunsch, Nati. Barring something totally unforeseen, you're advancing.
Whether or not you can dance with the big boys remains to be seen. In the bookie's projections the best case scenario in the round-of-16 would be Sweden. That could be manageable if Petkovic is truly thinking straight tactically again.
S.S.S. Salute to Fallen Comrades
Turkey—"The Crescent Stars"
-3 games played
-1 goal scored
Previous Turkey Tactical Coverage:
Time to bid farewell to the German blood brothers. Once again, we hardly knew ye. Ay-Yildlilar exit their second consecutive Euros in the group phase. This time they're on track to finish dead last. Now Faith Terim has failed. Now Senol Günes has failed. Now what?
I don't know, my treasured Kumpels. I just don't know. There's not a great deal of promising talent in the pipeline. With Burak Yilmaz looking so ineffective, Cenk Tosun well past his prime, and Okay Yokuslu looking like he had no idea what the hell was going on over the course of this tournament, we need a rebuild
There's always Ahmed Kutuçu! Alright, alright. I won't tease you with that anymore.
As will be remarked many times in these goodbyes sections, the next major international is only 18 months away. We tend to forget that. Understandable. We basically pressed the collective pause button and skipped a year. Qatar 2022 comes sooner than you think. As such, many veteran players will be back.
In this case, however, the veterans rather suck. That includes the coach. Have a look.
Lineup—Turkey—Match Two (4-1-4-1) (6/16/2021)
Let's see. Hasan Calhonglu moves in, Cengiz Ünder plays left. Everyone pushes up to see if we can reach the striker. No dice. A pretty languid Welsh side cut this up. Can we come up with something different, Senol?
Lineup—Turkey—Match Three (4-1-4-1) (6/20/2021)
Apparently not. Calhonglu moves back out wide. Under switches sides. We get a new fullback in Mülldür and a new center-halve in Demiral. Really surprising to see the Ozan Kabak didn't start in this tournament. Let the Berlin buyers beware. Something may be up.
I actually liked the idea to have Kaan Ayhan take over as the main midfield flight director. It was worth a shot. They got forward in a much more spirited manner during the opening 20 minutes and tested Yann Sommer a couple times before the break.
Ifran Can's finish showed that they maintained some interest even after the issue was settled. It was nevertheless far too difficult for most of us to maintain interest in this team.
“Riffs of the Day”—Day Ten
Reader: Hahaha. Italy outfitted by Armani and Wales outfitted by whatever was at the bottom of the suitcase.
Vicey: A couple of you picked up on this brilliant line from the ESPN broadcast. Let's roll with this.
Vicey: Just for you, 5-M:
It's your year, my friend.
Reader: Xherdan Shaqiri is going to go full blown Diego Maradona with the weight struggle after retirement.
Vicey: I'm not so sure he's not going through it now, 111-M.
I mean. When you're all of 5'4'' it's a struggle to keep the brawn from turning into a "flabb-alanche". Leave the weights by the wayside for a couple of days and the meat goes to the flies.
Reader: My friend, Vicey. The self-taught football poet!
Vicey: Awwww...that's sweet 16-M. Be advised that there are draw backs to being an autodidact.
You see....reading is bisexual in your mentality!
DAY ELEVEN—PREVIEW
North Macedonia vs. Netherlands
vs. 
A nice, tasty upset special still on the board if anyone wants to take advantage.
THE LINE: North Macedonia +1 Goal (holding)
Ukraine vs. Austria
We'll close the betting here as the bookie needs to protect his wallet...and sympathies
THE LINE: Ukraine +1 Goal (holding)
Russia vs. Denmark
Slight roll here. Best of luck to everyone.
THE LINE: Denmark +1 Goal (rolling down soft from Denmark +2)
Finland vs. Belgium
I'm telling you it's gonna be a draw. Just you watch. Bookie didn't steer you wrong on England-Scotland.
THE LINE: Pick em'
