As we’ve discussed players to watch and the most exciting team in the group stages of this summer’s European Championships, but who, if any, have stood out as the most disappointing side? We discussed with journalists across the UK to find out more.
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00:00And Will, just on Euro 2024 as a whole, we've discussed who to look out for, we've discussed
00:08the most exciting team so far. Let's look at the other end of that with the most disappointing
00:13team at the Euros. There's been a few, there always tends to be a few at these major tournaments.
00:18Who stood out as the most disappointing team this tournament?
00:22I think if you're saying on what we've seen, England have been disappointing both during
00:28the quarter-finals and if they were to go and win it, then people in 20, 30 years wouldn't
00:36be looking back and thinking we were terrible. People would be saying England are the crown
00:43winners. So yeah, England have been disappointing, France obviously not got going yet, didn't
00:49top the group, just haven't looked like the force that they can be, have they, with all
00:57the great attacking players that they have. So yeah, those two have been disappointing,
01:02obviously the Italians' defence of the crown has been fairly meek, but I don't think anyone
01:08really expected Italy to go a long way in the tournament. So I'd probably say the E3,
01:14I mean, I know Belgium have been getting a little bit of criticism, I think they've probably
01:19overachieved in the last few years, the size of the country that Belgium is, the talent
01:24it produces is excellent really, isn't it? So yeah, probably England and France are the
01:29two that I would say have been largely disappointing.
01:34From an England perspective, you'd say the three lions, wouldn't you, in terms of how
01:37disappointed the performances have been, how drab we've been and Gareth Southgate, his
01:42tactical decisions, not having a left-hand side, Luke Shaw not being available, why has
01:47he been selected, only just squeezing through against Slovakia, drawing against Slovenia
01:51and Denmark, squeezing through against Serbia, these are teams we should be thrashing, but
01:55the current crop, we're not. But I think Italy having won the last Euros against England,
02:00of course, to be knocked out in the round of 16 against Switzerland, that is so, so
02:04disappointing. I know the Swiss have done well and they've worked hard, they've got
02:08a good group there, but they did draw to Scotland, they did draw to Germany, which was an impressive
02:13one, but they didn't hold on for that one. They're not one of the best teams in this
02:17Euros and they made it look easy against Italy, who should be kicking on as reigning
02:21champions.
02:22I think it sort of depends on what parameters you're looking at, because, of course, a disappointment
02:27team can just be a team who hasn't just played well at all, but it could also be a team who's
02:31got a lot of star quality and who have underperformed too. So I think if we look at the former first,
02:37you can't really look past Scotland, unfortunately, because, let's be honest, it's another disappointing
02:43tournament for them. All the joy of qualifying for their second Euros in a row has been dumbfounded
02:51by some really disappointing performances. Obviously, you've got to look at Scotland
02:55just because of the way they went out with a bit of a whimper.