The march into the Round of 16 begins.

 

Roberto Manchini, on the touchline and rolling back the years with a magic touch as his team cruise into the Round of 16: Italia 1- Wales 0.

Andreas Christensen celebrating another Danish goal against the hapless Russians (Denmark 4-1).

Italy, Wales, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Denmark are the first to go through to the Round of 16. Yianni remains in pole position with another blistering set of scoreline predictions; the lad is on FIRE. But we now have a new contender, a player who has been quietly chipping away in his customary way; Dung, who as of today has displaced Evie, who herself made an impressive prediction with Austria, to move into second. Joining for the highest morning tally was Nico (12 points). The former Euro Archon, however, has plenty of work to catch the leaders. Many of you picked either the Netherlands score or Belgium but astonishingly had Russia beating Denmark. The Danes, who have played positive football, were unlucky against Finland and should have put away Belgium in the first half. Still, we have some F4Ms battling hard, trying to collect their first scoreline predictions for the tournament, and finally, we can say congrats to Simon and Nestor, who have now broken their dismal run of scoreline failures.

We hope you are enjoying the competition so far and that there is a buzz within your household in a typically slow, cold time of the year. Typically when the rest of the world is enjoying their summer and watching international football competitions such as the Euros or World Cup, slurping on a frappe or KEO on the beach, we endure the early dark, cold, and often lonely mornings, which include sneaking into the TV room and trying not to wake the entire household. Most often, we watch these games on our own. If lucky, with our kids, who may join us, those at least who are interested in waking up and sit with us, enduring or living in the hope of watching an exciting game; thanks Alexander for your company during the weekend fixtures, sorry that you had to watch England v Scotland. So far, the surprise packet has been our rookie Angelique, who has collected four scoreline predictions, a tally that to date is far better than some of our more seasoned veterans - including yours truly. Before each round kicks off, Angelique makes a conference call to yiayia. The two discuss tactics and possible outcomes to each fixture, reaching a mutual understanding and compromise before settling on a result and score. This is what the competition is all about; create a dialogue, interest, fun and a bit of banter; watching your favourite team progress is a bonus: Forza Italia! 

                                                            Let me know if I have missed something in your scores.