I hope the boring Swiss come last.

Last chance for Bale in a major competition.

There was an excellent article on Italy's and Mancini's rebirth on the Athletic the other day for any one who has a subscription.

Will watch their Inter midfielder Barella with interest. Any reviews of the tournament I've seen have spoken very highly of him.

They're unbeaten in 27 matches 

I really like Italy's midfield jorginho, Barella and Veratti are all brilliant at what they do.

Barella is exceptional 

I wouldn't put it past them to do well in this group. Also, in a tight game, id like to have Bale in my team.

Italian teams haven't been really competing for Champions League for the last few years either, Juve haven't got past QF in a good few years now. 

On top of that, opening games tend to supply upsets too.

They'll qualify from the group, but can't see them making in past a QF

Spinnazola, Insigne, Immobile, Berardi superb

Agree expected more from Turkey... Saying that Italians kept them well controlled 

They completely parked the bus, maybe damage limitations and throw away this one but go for next 2 games

Good point.

They were cagey and probably would have taken a draw. I expect them to play differently from here on and I wouldn't be surprised to see them bang in a few goals before they're out. 

We often talk about rebuilding, and I think we could do worse than looking at the Welsh way.

That being said, even though Moore has had an excellent chance they are certainly not on top at the moment.

Switzerland able to keep the game, Wales trying to spring a counter attack anytime they manage to get it. Making for a tedious game, maybe like when other countries watch us play.

I imagine it'll be the same way when Scotland play "technically better teams".

Wales have decent players, especially in mid-field, so why can't they hold the ball better? How does this magic "technically better" stuff work exactly? If Wales decided not to go long every time would they be able to hold it and make Switzerland work harder?

It's likely that, thanks to us in 2017, their golden generation of Bale, Ramsay etc. will finish their careers without ever playing at a World Cup, just as the likes of Giggs, Rush and Saunders did before them. It's been a long time since 1958 for them.

The second half was watchable for a neutral. Wales had to go for a goal and they began looking for the ball.

When you stand off and play defensive / counter attack (coz I don't think they had to, I think they could have gone toe to toe with the Swiss) you're shortchanging yourselves. Good to see Bale Ramsay Allen James click into gear. They were out on their feet by the end.

Wales should be ahead by a couple. 

Wales could pay for Ramsey being a gobsh*te.  

Eventually takes one great ball by bale. 

Absolutely shocking stuff from Turkey. 

Wales certainly deserve it. 

Clever to win the penalty but what a miss! 

Kenan Karaman, Mert Müldür.

They have been terrible! Calhanoglu has been brutal in both games so far, linked with United too 

Wales certainly through to the next round. 

4pts will be more than enough

I think Wales might look beyond that after tonight. Turkey are dreadful on a number of levels, but Wales could have won that by more than two, and Ramsey and Bale really stepped up (notwithstanding the misses). 

Between tonight, and the plucky draw on Saturday, they will be looking to cap it off with another result against Italy and give themselves the best possible shout.

They might fancy their chances of going through the group unbeaten now. They're hard enough to beat.

Very disappointed in Turkey. I was suckered into them being a darkhorse too, absolute awful team

Totally agree with that, some of the attacking football was brilliant and they should have had 3 or 4 more goals.

Wales were a pleasure to watch.

They are in the 2nd round so can rest some players v Italy. 

If Italy win tonight they will do the same.

Rules are rules it hit his hand

Whether it’s accidental or not doesn’t matter as we’ve seen a lot of times over the last two years 

They’ve been calling those exact incidents as no goals since summer 2019 though, keep up.

Italy impressive here 

This aged well 

Assuming they win they play the RU in group C (Netherlands or Austria). 

Dutch haven't be great but still wouldn't consider them a soft QF. Also that QF is in Baku. Temps could be high enough and you could have ET as well. If you had the two of those you'd have the risk of them being drained come the semis and you'd also have the flight all the way to London. 

And who do the group winners play?

Runners Up in the Dutch, Austria, Ukraine, North Macedonia group

The winner of that goes on to play the winner of a potential Belgium/Portugal tie and on ward to potentially meet France 

I reckon it could be Ukraine, I fancy then against austria. 

8/1. Cmon Wales 

The winner of the group could play Belgium in the quarters whereas the runner up could play the Dutch.

The runners up path seems a much easier route to the semi. 

In fairness given the relative expectations that we had (Us to not qualify out of the group and finish 3rd at best) and the ones Turkey had (possible dark horses for the tournament and certainly to qualify out of their group)  not to mention the teams we had in our group, Turkey's overall performances were disgraceful tbh. 

Their showing was worse than ours imo. I think we were a little bit unlucky and fairly competitive in the Croatia game but no one could say Turkey deserved anything out of their 3 games against much weaker opposition. 

Erdogan will have them horse-whipped when they get back. 

Bump

I stand by most of it, their 28 game unbeaten run leading into the tournament was against second rate teams so I wasn't reading too much into it. 

They definitely upped the level in the knockouts, after riding their luck against Austria, they were very impressive beating Belgium, Spain and England. Worthy winners