Sport

Words of wis-doom: Dodgy predictions, lousy farewells and nasty homecomings

Eamon Dunphy at half-time in the England v Sweden game (England led 1-0): “No, there’s no goal in it for Sweden

Mon Jul 02 2012 - 01:00

Eamon Dunphy at half-time in the England v Sweden game (England led 1-0): “No, there’s no goal in it for Sweden. I don’t think there’s another goal in the game, I’d say switch your telly off and go out to the pub.” Full-time: England 3 Sweden 2.

John Giles before the Italy v Germany semi-final: “I don’t trust Balotelli, or the likes of Balotelli” (his inclusion in the Italian line-up prompting him to tip Germany). Full-time: Italy 2 (Balotelli 2) Germany 1.

EARLY EXITS

“I don’t give a s**t who wins it now. I’m going on holiday. Hopefully in Sweden, but if the weather’s bad I’ve got an aeroplane ready.” – Armed with his bucket and spade, Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic saying a cheery adieu to Euro 2012.

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“The fact that we have not met your expectations is not our problem. It’s your problem. When I’m sitting in the State Duma, I’ll be held accountable before you.” – Andrei Arshavin having a heart-to-heart with Russian supporters in Warsaw after the team was sent packing by Greece.

NO PRESSURE

Roy Hodgson (June 18th): “If you look back through the years, if you take Pele for example, he was capable of producing his very best football when it really mattered to help Brazil win World Cups. Let’s hope that Wayne Rooney can start to do that for us and then, if we win, who knows?”

Roy Hodgson (June 25th): “Do we put too much expectation on Rooney? Well we do.”

WELL DONE LADS

“Kim Jong-il would send such idiot football traitors to the rice fields. What stops us sending ours to construction sites?” – Russian politician Sergey Malinkovich doffing his cap to the team’s Euro 2012 efforts.

“I’m disgusted and down. We’ve had our ****ing fill of these players.” Montpellier president Louis Nicollin with a dose of Les Bleus.

€100,000 and a one-match ban: Nicklas Bendtner's fine from Uefa for revealing the name of a bookmaker on his underpants while celebrating his goal against Portugal in a Group B match.

€80,000: The Croatian federation's fine for racist chanting by some of their supporters towards Mario Balotelli in their group game.

€30,000: Another fine for the Croatian federation, this time after racist banners were displayed by supporters during the Spanish game.